10 for 10 Recap

I had an awesome day yesterday. :)  It started with a walk through the Botanic Gardens with my mum. We both took our cameras and wandered around snapping away.

We finally stopped for a coffee and relaxed in the shade watching the ducks.

From there we stopped in at Cathy's house to pick up a gorgeous gemstone necklace and earrings that she has made for my Greatest Shave raffle. I will post a pic when I take one, but I tell you, it is stunning, :)

We spent the afternoon just hanging out at Mums trying to stay cool. It was really nice.

From there I made my way back to the city to meet Megan for a coffee. And by "coffee" I do not mean Gelati and Iced Chocolate... :)  I got there a little late and when I got there Megan was NOT playing Smurfs on her iPhone... LOL

We talked, and talked, and talked. Then got up to leave and talked, and talked, and talked... LOL It was such a fun night!

Today has been pretty restful. Quick trip to Spotlight this morning but other than that, I have done pretty much nothing.

I thought I had better do a round up of my 10 for 10 challenge. I have been avoiding it as I thought I had pretty much failed, but having a look I did okay.

1) Run/walk the Mothers Day Classic in May
Done. Ran the 4km in 38 minutes

2) Ride at least 3000kms
Nope. I stopped counting around the 1200 mark because it came so late in the year and I was injured so I knew I wouldn’t get there.

3) Finish the knitted blankets
Done. I finished in September.

4) Lose 30 kilos
I only lost 2.…


5) Be in a financial position to sponsor a World Vision child
Done - we have a 3 year old sponsor child from India.


6) Send at least one childrens story to a publisher
Actually I sent 2 off, one of them to 2 publishers. Both rejected, but at least I was brave enough to send them.

7) Run/walk the 12 km at the City-Bay in September
Nope - I was injured


8) Start my novel
Well and truly started. I am up to about chapter 8.


9) Go on an overnight hike (first stage of Heyson if funds permit)
Cancelled as I was injured. Tentatively re-booked for May 2011


10) Keep in touch with my interstate friends in the old fashioned way - by writing actual letters with pen and paper.
Sent a couple of letters. 

Not a bad effort.  Next week I will be posting my 11 goals for 2011. :)

100 Days of Gratitude


Day 44
Yesterday I was grateful for a great day. Everythig was brilliant and I was just generally grateful.


Day 45
Today I am grateful for chocolate. No particulr reason other than I love it and feel grateful it was invented. LOL


xox

Novel

So yesterday when I did my 10 for 10 update I mentioned I had written the first sentence of my novel.  After I blogged I wrote another sentence, then another, then another.  The result?  By last night the first draft of the first chapter was done!  This morning I started chapter 2.

Now this may not seem like a lot to many.  But you need to understand I have been working on the concept for this novel for over a year.  By September last year I had the concept nutted out, the main plot, several subplots, all plotted out and planned.  The characters were written, the relationships straight in my head.  Yet I just couldn't seem to write it. 

All of a sudden it just started coming out.  The weird thing is that I have not looked at my notes since the end of last year.  In fact, they are in storage.  So right now I am winging it.  But maybe that is what I needed to do.  Get some distance from the planning stage so I was free to create.  While I am going strong I am not going to get my notes from storage.  I will write as much as I can then refer to the notes when I get stuck.  It seems to be working so far.  I know I have already changed some of the characters names and slightly changed some of the relationships, and even dropped one character.  But for now it seems to be working, and these are things I can always change back down the track.

I am feeling very motivated right now, so will go with the flow for as long as I can.  If I can write one chapter a week, the first draft will be finished by the end of the year.  Fingers crossed!

xox

EDIT TO ADD:
I forgot to say this the other day.  I heard back from the Publisher I sent my children's picture book to and they have not accepted the manuscript.  I will now put it all together again and send it to another publisher.  I have another couple in mind to send it to so I will keep going until I run out!

10 for 10 Update

Well, not too much progress has happened here....  Let's see.

10 For 10

1) Run/walk the Mothers Day Classic in May - done!
2) Ride at least 3000kms - up to nearly 900 so slowly making headway.  Of course, I should be up to 1500 by now...
3) Finish the knitted blankets - got nothing done on these this month
4) Lose 30 kilos - I have lost about 8.5 this year so it is something
5) Be in a financial position to sponsor a World Vision child - nope, not there yet
6) Send at least one childrens story to a publisher - done!
7) Run/walk the 12 km at the City-Bay in September - am thinking I may only be doing the 6km the way I am going, but we will see.
8) Start my novel - been thinking about this more and more which is something.  I have the first sentence down, does that count? ;o)
9) Go on an overnight hike (first stage of Heyson if funds permit) - scheduled for October
10) Keep in touch with my interstate friends in the old fashioned way - by writing actual letters with pen and paper. - none written this month, although I have done 1 this year, I need to do a few more to mark this off

Thanks for all the comments yesterday.  I had a better night sleep last night.  Grandad only got up once and Ross was awake so he got up to him which was nice for me.  I do believe I will get used to it, but we are hoping to get him placed in care once his assessment has been done.

Nothing else happening here.  Had another freezing ride in to work this morning.  It was 3.5 degrees when I left home.  Thankfully it wasn't raining.  :o)  I am off to the library tonight to grab some more books, as long as it isn't raining as walking through the library dripping wet is not pleasant.  Then last day of work for the week tomorrow - YAY!  Of course, Ross is working all weekend, but that's life.

Happy Thursday everyone!

xox

Monthly Recap

10 For 10
1) Run/walk the Mothers Day Classic in May - done!
2) Ride at least 3000kms - have added a bit to this but not sure exactly how much.  Am over the 700kms mark, but obviously need to do a lot more.  It hasn't helped that I have been without my bike for the last week and a half, but I should have it back tomorrow.
3) Finish the knitted blankets - finished about another 4 or 5 squares.  It is currently on hold while I knit myself some legwarmers though. :o)
6) Send at least one childrens story to a publisher - done! I posted Becky's Smile off last week.  Now starts the 4 month wait for a response....

Day Zero Project
Marked off 3 more items
1)  Make Chocolate Crackles
2)  Hold a cancer Council biggest Morning Tea
3)  Do a Tarot Class
And have made progress on several of the bigger ones.

Not a bad effort for the month I think

xox

10 for 10 Monthly Update

Happy Veggie-versary to me!

Yes, today is my 6 month Veggie-versary.  I can not believe that I have not had meat for 6 whole months.  I do miss it sometimes.  Like when I am watching Masterchef and they are making all these amazing dishes with meat as the feature.  Or when I am starving and just want a hot dog.  But on the whole it has been a great experience and something I will continue with.  For now. :o)

I can't believe we have already gone through 4 months of this year.  In some ways it has flown by but in others it seems to have taken forever.  The older I get the quicker the years seem to pass me by.  So, how did I go in April?

10 For 10 - April


1) Run/walk the Mothers Day Classic in May
I run this in 10 days.  I have done the training and I am ready!

2) Ride at least 3000kms
I rode another 253.58kms which brings me to a grand total of 566.21kms for the year.  Not quite where I should be, but a significant improvement on last month.

3) Finish the knitted blankets
I finished another 11 squares which takes me to a total of 70.  Only 26 more to go then I can start putting these together!

4) Lose 30 kilos
I have not weighed in so I have no idea where I am at with this.  My shape has definitely changed with all the running, but I am not sure that this has reflected on the scales.  I'll weigh in next month!

6) Send at least one children's story to a publisher
The story is almost complete and I have chosen the Publisher.  This will happen within the next 6 weeks.  I am terrified, but excited all at the same time.

I am also 25 days into my Day Zero Project.  The scariest thing about this project, is that I know that in 976 days I will be 40 years old.  It is making my age seem very real to me!  LOL  I really need to complete between 2 and 4 things each month for this to work.  This month I have completed 2 - I went to a Comedy Club, and I joined a Running Club (or am in the process of).  However I have a lot of things that are 'in progress' so I am definitely moving forward with it.

That's it for me today.  Tomorrow Ross & I are having a Date Day instead of a Date Night and are going to the Medieval Fair in Gumeracha.  Thankfully there are buses out there so we can get there since our car is still basically a garage ornament.  We went 2 years ago and loved it.  We were meant to go last year as well, but today is the day, 1 year ago, that Ross's lung collapsed, so we weren't able to make it.  Thankfully he is completely healed and we are looking forward to a great day tomorrow.

Have a great weekend everyone!

xox

We are Moved

Just a quick one today.

Ross & I spent the weekend moving.  Packing boxes, shifting furniture, unpacking, arranging, re-arranging...  The list is endless.  We gave it 3 full days then took a break yesterday.  There is still stuff to do at the old place, but we will deal with that next weekend.  I am surprisingly not as sore as I expected to be, but yesterday I was overwhelmingly fatigued.  Thankfully I feel ok today though.

March 10 for 10 Review

2) Ride at least 3000kms
I added only about 100 kms to the tally.  Definitely not enough.  But I am still working on it.

4) Lose 30 kilos
Lost another 1.2.  At least it is something

6) Send at least one childrens story to a publisher
Have done a class and have 2 stories that I am working on.

Not a lot of progress this month, but progress all the same.  I am sure April will be better.

xox

PS - I have changed comments to have to be approved by me as I keep getting weird ones that I am concerned link to viruses or weird stuff.  I am sorry about this but I should approved them fairly quickly though. 

Writing for Childrens Picture Books Class

Last night was my Writing Class.  It was a 4 hour class, which after a 9 hour day at work is a loooooong time to be sitting scribbling notes.  But I tell you what - it went by fast.

The Teacher is Sally Heinrich who has been writing and illustrating childrens books for over 20 years.  She was lovely.  So real and so easy to talk to.  I have done many writing classes in the last few years, and I have to say, a lot of the Teachers are amazingly full of themselves.  But Sally was lovely. 

We did some exercises and she gave us great tips for getting the creative juices flowing.  Talked a lot about structure, different kinds of Childrens books and lots of other interesting things.  We had to read out some of the exercises we did, which was incredibly scary because I don't usually share my writing.  But it was also good because if I am going to be brave enough to share my writing with a Publisher I need to be brave enough to share it with others first.

One thing she said was that for the next 3 weeks while the class is running (and also continuing on after if we are interested in pursuing writing further) we need to take at least 15 minutes a day for writing.  Any type of writing.  As long as words are coming out.  My first thought was - "Crap, where am I going to find the time for that?"  Then I realise, I write most days anyway.  Here.  So I am already doing this.  What I now need to do is make time several days a week to do some focussed childrens writing.  Be it exercises, working on new stories, or polishing existing ones. 

Here is the thing.  One of my 10 for 10 goals is to send a Childrens story to a Publisher by the end of the year.  I have moved that forward to by the end of June.  By the end of June I want at least one (although maybe more) stories ready to go out into the world.  Which means by the end of the year I will start getting feedback from Publishers.

This is scary.  But that is what change is.  Scary.  And if I don't do it now, I will probably never do it.

xox

EDIT:  Forgot my Daily Goals.

1)  Take some time to write
2)  Go to the library and pay my overdue fine
3)  Drink my water
4)  Have a healthy lunch & dinner
5)  Clean the kitchen up

10 for 10 - Feb Recap

1) Run/walk the Mothers Day Classic in May
I registered!!!!!  I am now officially set to do this.  I have run a couple of times, best time is 3.5 minutes.  I am working on it and looking forward to doing this in just 2 months! 

2) Ride at least 3000kms
Didn't add a huge amount to this total this month.  In fact it was an embarrassingly small amount of only 72.87kms.  Which brings me to a grand total of 202.88kms for the year.  I should be at 500 by now so I have some serious catching up to do...

3) Finish the knitted blankets
I have made good progress and am now up to 62 squares.  Only 34 more and I can put them together.

4) Lose 30 kilos
I finally got started on this goal.  When I revised this goal after last month I had to lose 3 kilos a month to get there, and I lost 3.6, so that is dead on target.

9) Go on an overnight hike (first stage of Heyson if funds permit)
This is planned.  We are going in the 2nd week of October.  We have everything we need except for our oil skin hats.  The packs are ready, the tent is attached, we have out sleeping mats and sleeping bags.  Now I just need to get fitter!  :o)

xox

Updates: Vegetarian Trial, 10 for 10 & C25K

So after just over 3 months of eating as a vegetarian, it is time to make some decisions.  I have really enjoyed eating meat-free.  I have loved experimenting with the different recipes and discovering new flavours and food textures.  There have been some bombs in there too, but that's okay it's all part of it.  Physically I have been feeling fantastic.  The symptoms of IBS are all but gone.  I have felt strong and in control.

My weight has gone up a bit, however Xmas was in there, birthdays, & holidays.  Plus I have just discovered another possible reason for that which I am dealing with.  Besides, ice ceam and biscuits are vegetarian...

Have I missed meat?  The ONLY times I have missed it has been when I have been hungry and busy, and KFC or Maccas would make life easier.  But not having those as options is a good thing for me.

So, what have I decided to do?  Well, at this stage I have no desire to eat meat.  I am not a 'never again' person.  I don't know what tomorrow will bring.  But for now, I am happy with this way of eating.  I feel good and strong, so this is what is right for me right now.  I am sticking with it!

10 for 10 - January 2010 Update

2) Ride at least 3000kms
Rode 130.01 kms for the month. I should be riding 250kms each month to reach my goal, so I am behind. But I am sure I can make this one up as the weather cools down. Plus when I move in a couple of months I will be further from work so I will automatically be riding more.

3) Finish the knitted blankets
I have knitted 51 squares.  I need 96 and I did not make much progress ths month so I will have to stop playing random computer games and get back into it.

4) Lose 30 kilos
I actually gained 1 kg according to my WW weigh in. So that puts me behind the 8 ball. My goal of 30 kilos (now 31) still stands, but I now need to lose 3 kgs a month instead of 2.5 in order to reach that goal. Hopefully Weight Watchers will help me get there.  I do have a medical issue I am dealing with right now that could be hindering this as well, but I will hopefully have some resolution on that soon.

5) Be in a financial position to sponsor a World Vision child
Not there yet, but have made plans to move in with family soon so we will start getting on top of things soon.

6) Send at least one childrens story to a publisher
Working on the next story and have enrolled for a course on writing for children.

10) Keep in touch with my interstate friends in the old fashioned way - by writing actual letters with pen and paper.
One letter sent by snail mail so far.

The other day I mentioned I was planning on starting C25K this week.  A medical issue has now come up that means I need to delay this for a little while.  I am not sure how long for, but hopefully it will be resolved soon.  It also means I may not post as much as normal in the coming weeks, but I will be around and normal programming should resume shortly.

xox

10 For 10

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope everyone's New Years Celebrations were fun, and safe, and that you saw in the new year with those you loved.  We had a quiet one at home.  Just the 2 of us.  It was lovely. 

So, now that 2010 is upon us it is time for the goals for the year.  Ten Goals for 2010.  Before I started writing this goal list I decided to review my goals for 2009.  Of course, first I had to find them.  It took quite a while, but I did find them.  Did I achieve any of them?  No.  Why not?  Because after January 1 I never looked at them again. 

So this year I will be coming back to them each month to track my progress.  Because I plan on making 2010 not only happy, but successful as well.

So here it is.  My....
10 for 10

1) Run/walk the Mothers Day Classic in May
This is a 4km charity walk/run. I want to be able to run as much of it as possible.

2) Ride at least 3000kms
In 2009 I got to nearly 2000kms, and that was with several months of hardly any riding. So I am determined to get to the 3000 mark this year

3) Finish the knitted blankets
I started making knitted lap rugs for me and Ross when he got sick in May. I am only about half way through, but plan on getting them done in time to use this winter.  I need to knit 96 squares, then put them together.  So far I have done 44 squares.

4) Lose 30 kilos
This is around what I gained back this year. Thankfully it is not all that I lost, but it is way too much. By 2011 it needs to be gone.

5) Be in a financial position to sponsor a World Vision child
I have always wanted to do this. And this is the year I WILL be able to.

6) Send at least one childrens story to a publisher
I have a few, but none quite ready to go. This year, one will go, no matter how scary it is to put myself in a position where my work will be rejected…

7) Run/walk the 12 km at the City-Bay in September
But hopefully run most of it.

8) Start my novel
I have done so much planning for the novel, so it is time to start the actual writing part.

9) Go on an overnight hike (first stage of Heyson if funds permit)
Ross & I really want to walk the Heyson Trail. We figure we can do it in stages of about 5-6 days and although it will take years to complete, one day we will have done the whole the thing. Hopefully this year we can do the first stage of Blinman to Hawker. If not, we will just do a one night hike somewhere local.

10) Keep in touch with my interstate friends in the old fashioned way - by writing actual letters with pen and paper.
I used to love writing letters. I had so many penpals. But electronic media has stopped this. This year I am going back to the pen and paper.  Why?  Because it is personal and because I can.

So there you have it.  My 10 for 10.  What are your goals for 2010???

xox