Setting Goals for 2013

Here are my New Year's Resolutions for 2013

This year I chose things I know I will get better at, because they are important to me, and because I am already making progress on them, I have written 3 1/2 books, and I have lost 40 pounds and given up soda and started adding in lots of random acts of fitness thanks to Jonathan Roche and The No Excuses Workouts.

I do live in a beautiful place where getting outside is a Joy

I do Treasure my Family but the miles between us makes it a bit more effort to keep those connections alive now. 

Balance, Well, sometimes, but not so much in my bank balance, so that is the focus this year.

 Do I love New Year's and the Resolutions to do things differently and better?  Well, yes and no.  Rather than going out to a party, I love going inside with my journal and reading notes and essays and lists from previous years. But I see that a lot of the things stay the same from year to year without change.  That is good and bad.  It means I hold the same values but also that I have the same problems. A couple of times I have followed the suggestion I saw years ago in a "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine that suggests not writing what you want to do, but making a list of 100 things you tolerate, small things that sap your time and energy if you don't deal with them.  That has worked well for me, I can always go back and check off several that I did deal with and feel empowered even as I move some to the new list.  I have gotten rid of a lot of the specific piles of clutter I've written about and done some of the maintenance tasks on house and car and marriage, because, yep, even after 30 years together, there needs to be time and effort in maintaining that closeness, especially as out role changes from family with children, to couple with grown adults who sometimes visit.

 Last year I chose only one thing to focus on, one small three letter word that I wanted to have be at the heart of the first and last thoughts in my mind every day. JOY!  That was a wonderful change in attitude for me because I often tended to walk around with a cloud of worries and anger.  Now i habitually find the good before The bad thoughts even start. If I panic over the money, I start to breath and tell myself, "for today, you have everything you need, yesterday you did too, trust that you will Tomorrow as well."

 So I have found Joy and beauty all around me, even in the worn and abandoned house down the street.  It is lovely in a strange, mysterious way I think.

 This year I am looking with Wonder on the giant stumps on the former Redwood logging camp land where I live, and thinking of how things change over time, but how those changes can let in the sun and bring wonder and growth too.

I see my blind dog trusting that he is safe if one of us is near and realize that we are a lot like that dog, we don't see all the things that are in out world, but if we can trust that we will be Ok, we usually will be.

So a year of Joy, Wonder, Balance and Storytelling for me. Blessings to you,


Love,

 Dixie

On Books, Kindles, And Writing for NaNoWriMo

 NaNoWriMo Challenge day 23, and I am still doing ok in my life, Mt. Washmore has not taken over the house thanks to my Flylady routines and I even took a day to drive down the coast with my family and enjoy such lovely views as this lagoon.

After the rain, the school garden roses were lit by a beam that also created a rainbow.

clipping from Del Norte Triplicate

Teaching as a substitute is an off and on position, and I have been pretty busy this month at the schools but I have managed to luck into being there for some of the most wonderful activities,  as you can see in the newspaper clipping from the Del Norte triplicate, the middle school kids lay down or knelt on the grass in assigned colors of clothing and the photographer went up to the top of the fire truck ladder to create a living mosaic of an elk and to teach the kids about how sometimes you need distance to see the big picture and realize how important each person is in the long run.

And I was at the grade school when the Native American drumming, flute and hoop dancing assembly held the children enthralled.   I, as the teacher was equally fascinated by this display of talent from Minneapolis.

 I had never realized how much energy and playfulness and imagination went into the hoop dancing.


Along with writing, teaching, being a wife and Mom (and I am not even going to go into the energy needed to parent a 17 year old high school senior and an 18 year old with 2 dogs and a live in girlfriend)

I also worked on compiling a sampler of book snippets and blog posts and cover art from 15 authors, hoping that we could sell it on kindle and capture some attention for our individual writings while also raising a bit of money for the NaNoWriMo Young Writer's Project.

Book Snippets and Cover Art

www.amazon.com

The contents of this collection are a group of book snippets, cover art and a couple blog posts, shared in the hopes that you will find books and stories that catch your eye and encourage you to try the longer books or other work by the same authors. Many of us share our writing

The weather has been stormy and the wind and rain at least have made me OK about spending every minute I can, at the keyboard, writing a book that the world may not know it needs, but does!

 and I have seen my books  on the new Kindle Fire now, which is really fun and thrilling and I am hoping some of you will agree and want to upload them to your own new toy, or your old Kindle is fine, I'm not picky that way.  :)

http://www.amazon.com/Duffy-Barkley-Tales-Uhrlin-ebook/dp/B004478F5M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1322065271&sr=1-1 Duffy Barkley has #cerebralpalsy and needs crutches but don't tell him "No" he can't do something

In book 2, Duffy goes to Guatemala to help a child, but gets pulled back into Uhrlin to seek a friend http://www.amazon.com/Duffy-Barkley-Tales-Uhrlin-ebook/dp/B005CQ5Z8E/ref=pd_sim_sbs_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2