Goodbye 2012!!

That dead zone between Christmas and New Year's always depresses me; it's after the holidays so when you look at the Christmas decorations all you think is "damn, I have to take those down" but you're too full from all the Christmas junk food (and pending New Year's) to do so.  I do love the holidays, though.  I basically revert back into a 12 year old when the tree goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving.  That's where I've been the past month, by the way.  Baking.  And wrapping.  And decorating.  And when I wasn't doing one of those things I was asleep in a heap.  Or fixing my leaking roof (but that's another story for another time).




So what did I accomplish in 2012?  Let's have a look:

I learned how to budget.  Since my husband and I both used to work (and don't have any kids), we fell into that comfortable (but not necessarily smart) area of "we can pretty much buy anything we want and don't have to worry about debt".  That changed when I made the decision to leave my job in May, which basically halved our income.  We had to adjust, fast.  Part of that was learning how to coupon (thanks largely in part to sites like The Coupon Project, which does most of the hard work for me), but it was also learning how to organize myself and my shopping trips, and keeping track of our spending (it definitely wasn't pretty the first few months!) 

I lost 30 pounds and more importantly, have kept it off (mostly!  I'll be honest; there's some fluctuation there).  Dieters will tell you it's not too hard to lose the weight, the hard part is not finding it again.  That is probably the most honest statement I have ever heard.  Losing the weight happens easily, almost without effort once you really get into your groove.  It's when you stumble out of your groove and find yourself staring down a box of chocolate covered chocolates (okay maybe that's just my fantasy?) that you have to make a decision: swallow hard, clench your fists and walk away... or dive face first into that box of chocolates, sucking them up like a runaway mini hoover then immediately regret it (and regret it even more when you get on the scale the next morning).  PS. I've done both, and while the second plan seems like a good idea at the time, the first is definitely the better option!  Learn from my fail, people.

On a semi-related note, I would just like to say right now that maybe the best feeling in the world is looking at your driver license and discovering that you weigh less than what you told the DMV you weigh.  Victory!


I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time and won!  This was a personal goal I've been batting around for years but never took seriously in because I was too , but the truth is I was really just afraid because what if I failed?  Or figured out I wasn't a writer?  Fortunately, Jeff Goins came to my rescue in the form of You Are a Writer: So Start Acting Like One, which basically says sit down, shut up, and start writing (but in a much nicer way, of course).  And you know what?  It's all true.  If you write, even if you write horrible babbly nonsense (read: what I write on almost a daily basis), you are a writer.


I started this blog.  Again, a personal dream of mine has always been to have a blog where I can connect to people (am I nerding out too much for you here?).  This is nice because it folds neatly into some of my other goals (write a book, market, etc). This blog has been an interesting endeavor: if you go far enough back, you'll find the first post where I said I wanted to post every day (that lasted for about a week, by the way).  I've talked about writing, illustrations, budgeting, tried out new recipes, babbled on about our house (and the improvements we've tried to impart upon it), our dogs and almost everything in between.  And you know what?  I love it.  I love writing, even when I have nothing useful to say (okay, that's most of the time).

I think the big lesson this blog has taught me is it's okay to set a goal, and it's okay if you don't make it.  Sometimes that means you have to reassess your goal, because your first goal wasn't exactly... realistic (ahem.  ME!).  I think a much more reasonable goal for me is to say I'm going to post three times a week; the truth is sometimes I don't do anything but clean and write, and how interesting is that to talk about, honestly?  So there need to be off days.  But there should definitely be a schedule.

I survived 12/21/2012!  Here's a badge to prove it:

(I didn't say it was a good badge...)

More importantly, what do I want to do in 2013?

-- I want to reach a realistic balance between my budgeting and healthy eating.  It's a hard balancing act (at least for me); trying to stay under budget while still avoiding things like frozen pizzas and pork rinds.  We've definitely improved 100% since even a year ago, but I still think we have a little way to go - we've toyed around with meatless meals a few times but have never really committed to them much beyond once a week. What if we upped vegetarian meals to twice a week?  I also want to continue to improve with coupons - sites like The Coupon Project will take me 85% of the way, but it's up to me to finish the last 15%.  One of my favorite memories of 2012 was standing outside of Safeway, holding a receipt that said I spent $8.40 and saved... wait for it... $17.85.  Coupon success!

I want to finish a book and have it ready for editing.  This is going to be a hard one for me since I tend to falter halfway through a project then just kind of... taper off... but I've already committed myself to this project by quitting my job.  So now it's time to either write that book or start sending out applications to nearby companies.  Sink or swim time!

I want to get in shape and lose a little more weight.  Those are two separate things in my mind - you can be in shape without having to lose weight.  Right now I'm at what's considered a healthy weight, but I'm in terrible shape (seriously, it's sad).   I'd like to strengthen my core muscles and perhaps start a walking routine (then maybe someday.... in the far future... graduate to running.  That feels like a million years away, though!)  I'd like to lose a few more pounds as well, and I'm on track to do that.  Almost there!

I'm definitely excited to get started on 2013!  What are your goals?

NaNo Wrap Up

Actually it was 19 days and 50070 words!

I just wanted to share with you this momentous occasion: I finally won NaNoWriMo.  This is something I've always wanted to do (for years and years!) but always backed away from the last second because "November is buuuusy :'(", or "I work too much, I don't wanna come home and write a novel >:(" or .  It's not that hard to start something but it's incredibly hard to see it through to completion (the three dozen stories I've started and promptly abandoned will attest to that).  I'm always completely gung ho, guns blazing the first week then by the third week I'm procrastinating by playing solitaire, arguing on the internet and watching documentaries on Netflix with names like "The Fascinating Sheep of New Zealand".
 
I am exhausted.  But if NaNo is something you've ever thought of doing, even just in the back of your head, I highly encourage it.  I cannot encourage it enough, actually.  There's just something that makes you feel all warm and glowy inside when you sit back and look at that final word on the last page and go "I did all that".  It's a lot of work and you're going to be inconvenienced and there will be days you will absolutely think to yourself "who cares if I write, nobody will ever see this anyway", but if you push through all that and persist in staying true to your goal you'll find the end result is well worth it.

I just hit 50,000 words earlier this morning, after pushing myself and pushing myself (and the sad part is, I didn't even finish my story.  There's still way more to tell and wrap up.)  But that's okay!  Right now, it's time to celebrate the fact that I did in 19 days (I took off weekends, Thanksgiving and Black Friday) what many people never do in their entire lives.  Yes, the novel is a big steaming pile of crap.  Yes it might possibly be the worst thing ever written.  But the point is, it was written at all.  Woohoo!  I can now officially cross something off my bucket list.  Now all that's left is to revise, edit, revise edit, revise edit and edit some more.

Wait, did I mention editing?

Wrapping up NaNoWriMo and Coming Attractions

November is coming to an end, which means that like it or not, NaNoWriMo is slowly but surely wrapping itself up.  I looked at my calendar today and was shocked to find that we'll be in December this Saturday.  Why do you always do this to me, time?!  In a lot of ways, NaNo has been a hassle: I've had to carve out time to write, had to devote more time and research to my subject (a ghost story), had to actually... you know, come up with approximately 2773 words a day (that's 50,000 words divided by about 23 days, which was what I was working with once we took out weekends, Thanksgiving and Black Friday). 

In more ways, though, it's been a blessing: I've been pushed and bullied and harassed (all by myself, the people at NaNo are nothing but kindness and light) but I've found that when push comes to shove, I am capable of writing a lot more than I previously thought possible (either due to fear, laziness or a combination of the two).  There is something inherently satisfying about hitting your daily count, sitting  back in your chair and looking at all those gleaming words on the page.  Words you summoned and arranged and sometimes had huge fights with.

With NaNo wrapping up I plan to return to posting weekly, I've been looking through my photos (that's usually how I keep track of what I've been up to in my life) and despite being locked at a computer for several hours a day, I've still managed to complete a few projects.

Some updates to come include:

- New appliances and fun with the in-laws
- New garage shelving and stockpiling
- Couponing success!  And Safeway customer service knowledge failure
- More attempts at more recipes
- How to sell a car and weirdos on Craigslist
- And more!

NaNoWriMo: Round 2 and Ode to an Oven

So you may have been wondering where I've been... the answer is: writing.  Writing like a crazy person fox.  NaNoWriMo has been something I've always wanted to do, and since I'm no longer working there was no reason not to partake this year.  What I'm always surprised by (still, after writing for years and years) is how fast characters will just take flight and go in directions you'd never think of/expect.  What started as a ghost story has become more of an exploration of how one life -and death- affects everything around it.  It's told from multiple perspectives - the person who died, the mother, the landlord, the new tenant.  Not at all what I was expecting to write when I sat down November 1st.  That's always the best part of writing in my opinion; just seeing where your characters take you.  It's kind of like having kids, except without the diapers and having to feed them.  But oh my goodness it is hard.  It is the hardest thing ever to turn off that inner editor and just write and write and write.  I've caught myself countless times going back trying to edit things only to realize, hey, you only get 20 days to write 50,000 words... are you really going to worry about editing right now?  "Difficult but worth it" is how I would sum up NaNoWriMo.  (But really, aren't all things worth doing kind of difficult?)



Also, our new range was just installed and I am so so thrilled.  There are seriously not enough exclamation points in the world to convey how happy I am to get a working oven (especially in time for the holidays, and especially because DM's parents will be visiting!)  For a comparison, here is our old stove:

To be fair, this was not a bad stove.  It was a Kenmore and came with the house (can't complain about free), but the oven stopped working about 6 months ago and refused to heat up.  And while I can't prove anything, I highly suspect the front burners were crapping out on it as well because they took forever and a day to heat up.  Also, plastic knobs.  And years and years of caked on... I assume it's food... that was here before we moved in.  Yeah.  Kinda icky.

The new one is a really nice convection oven (which I've never had but I've always wanted to try), it's stainless steel and has (for unknown reasons) a button for pizza and chicken nuggets.  Did you just read my mind, Frigidaire?  Oh yes you did.

 

I have been laboring over what to bake first - if you know me, you know our oven has been broken for about 6 months now which was pretty much a death sentence for me because I'm a baker - cookies, cupcakes, cakes, brownies...mmm... I can actually feel my waist expanding just by thinking of all the stuff I can do now.

We are going to spend many happy hours together, new oven.

NaNoWriMo!

Oh my goodness November is 2 days away.  How did that happen.  Next month is going to be a busy one: Thanksgiving, buckling down for winter and preparing for the holidays (we just bought our first Christmas gift this weekend!!), visiting in-laws and, oh yeah, NaNoWriMo.  Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days (November 1 - 30th).  Sure, no problem.  I crank 50,000 words out on a regular basis.  I could probably do that in my sleep.

I am lying.  I am scared.

In preparation, I've been writing up characters and trying my hand at a new method: writing out a short summary of what I want to accomplish in each chapter.  So far this is working wonderfully for me, as I'm the type of person nobody ever wants to proofread because I write all over - I'll write some of the beginning, then I'll skip to chapter 3, then you'll just get cozy in chapter 3 and suddenly you're reading the very end of the book and WHY DOES SHE WRITE LIKE THAT (I don't know, the only reason I've been able to come up with is my brain kinda short circuits when writing, hence the jumping all over like a hyperactive flea).  I've also been realizing the way to a good story is not to start with a moral or lesson, instead, simply create your characters and then turn them loose.  And see what they do.  This is a strange concept for me, since I usually like things planned out well in advance (case in point: we're going down to Portland this weekend and I've been watching gas prices like a hawk so I know whether we should fill up now or wait until Saturday morning) but my writing is the absolute opposite: do everything at the last second, and edit it the second after the last second.  I'm excited to see where this goes, or at the very least what it will teach me (about writing, about my work ethic, about the benefits of caffeine).

Hey this is supposed to be fun, right?  I'll have fun with this if it kills me which it might.