…Aaaaand we’re back!
Welcome back. Thanks for your patience.
My wonderful Information Technology advisor (aka my husband, David) has gotten the site resettled, and we’re good to go!
Pardon the interruption…
We are changing some behind-the-scenes, technical stuff with this site. It’s possible that it may be down for a few days. Never fear; we’ll be back soon!
Pause, Part III
Hello again. It’s now a tradition of mine to post this each January. I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Which is your favorite month of the year? Of course, January is everyone’s best-loved month, right?
Okay, probably not.
Ten or 15 years ago January was last on my list. Back then I didn’t like cold weather, and January just seemed like a bleak, blustery, colorless month that had to be endured. I wondered if a person could get in on the bears’ hibernation deal.
What changed? Maybe it was when I got married in a January wedding. Suddenly there was a permanent bright spot on the calendar that time every year. Also around that time I launched into my transition from a hot-weather loving/cold-weather shunning girl into quite the opposite.
Whatever the reason, I now really like the first month of the year. While not my absolute favorite, it does have its charms. Yes, after Christmas and New Year’s, life resumes with the hustle and bustle of daily routines. …But overall, there seems to be a quiet simplicity that hushes the land. A brisk stillness that can be seen in bare tree branches and blankets of snow. It’s as if nature has paused for a moment.
It’s a welcome chance for me to pause as well, reminiscing with a smile about the holidays, being grateful for countless blessings, and feeling hopeful about the time ahead. Maybe that’s also why I’m drinking hot chocolate more often–it’s a chance to warm up and take a moment to stop and just think…often a rarity in our busy days.
(At least that’s the reason I tell myself as I take another sip.) =)
A November Moment
A few things I noticed while running around town today. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Sunny showers of falling leaves
–nature’s confetti dancing on the breeze,
celebrating the ripe, old year
that’s not quite ready to surrender
NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo. No, that’s not Mork that you’re hearing.
It stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every November 1-30, novelists wanting a push to crank out first drafts gather at NaNoWriMo.org, register, and set a personal goal to wrestle into existence at least 50,000 words of a novel. The idea is to simply generate quantity, not quality, so that by the end of the month there’s raw material to shape and improve.
Of course, I’ve had no problem getting out my first draft of my novel. (Those of you who know me well are stepping back, waiting lightning to strike me.) Sigh. Alas, I’ve been slower than Christmas writing this novel.
I need deadlines. So…I’m going to dive in to NaNoWriMo this year. I can think of a million reasons why this is a horrible month to challenge myself with a goal like this, but when is there a good time? The last few weeks I’ve missed concerted writing, and this is a great way to jump start me.
Will I meet the goal? Who knows? But this girl’s sure gonna give it her best shot.
Cheer me on or heckle me for lagging: soon I’ll try to add a widget on this blog so you can see how far I’m getting.