Update

Hi friends! I decided to do a review of the goals I posted for the year, just to see how I'm doing with them...and beg for accountability!

First up: My Writing Goals! I have both positive and negative things to report on how this is going. First, I'm loving my novel. I'm having fun writing it - even after all these months. I said that I was hoping to finish by May. While I got really close to the word count I was expecting during the first five months of the year, the book turned out to me MUCH longer than I was anticipating. I've had to do some major plot adjustments (hear, CUTTING several large chunks out of what I had planned - yes, I planned SOME) and I'm now over 120K words. However, (the good news) I am finally reaching the 'endgame' portion of the novel. I'm hoping it will go faster because this is the only portion of the book I have thought through at all. That said, I want to finish the first draft (hear, write THE END) by the end of October. My monitoring has gotten worse and better, or worse then better. I stopped keeping up with the Wrimodemon app and keeping track in Word was cumbersome. Anyway, while I dropped those accountability options, I signed up for WriteTrack, which I REALLY love! It keeps all your information, it lets you post goals, and it tells you how much you need to write each day. And it's free! Yay! That said, I'm still on track to finishing the novel this year (I want it done by November so I can take that month off and work on a new one for NaNo!).

Next: My Family Goals! This has been up and down as well. We've done really well with family night, the kids love it and look forward to our time. We've done parks together, swimming, board games (cooperative ones for small children), pizza and a movie, etc. We've had a lot of fun and we've done it almost every Saturday this year! Yay! Date night has been more hit and miss, but we usually get a couple in a month, so that's good, but needs to be better. Discipline has been really hard for me. I'm struggling. I'm thinking of doing something different because this system doesn't work for me. I've thought of going to a 'green, yellow, red' thing like they do in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade at Anna's school. It's visual and simple. I need simple. If anyone has any ideas that work for them PLEASE let me know! And I haven't done the mommy-child half hour time with my kids. I still want to, but it has yet to be implemented. :(

Finally: My Personal Goals! These have been more down that up, I'm afraid. :(  First, the positive: I have exercised regularly at the YMCA for most of the year. And I've gotten my make-up put on most of the time too. The gratitude thing has been up and down - the month of June went really well. However, I need to put this back up on my priority list. My specified prayer time and my stretching time was never implemented (I did find the papers for my stretches two days ago though!). And that's just sad. Oh, and I talked with my friend about knitting once. :)

Bonus: I started a garden this year! It wasn't in my goals for the year, but I loved it and although it wasn't extraordinarily successful, I had a lot of fun and am excited to continue it again. (I planted a fall garden...we'll see! :)

MOVING ON! Okay, so that's where I've gotten so far and where I wanted to be...But where do I want to be now? (We don't have to wait for January 1st to do this, right?)

My writing goal stays the same: Finish my current Work In Progress (WIP as we writers like to say) by the end of the year. I've added one: Complete one to two flash fiction pieces per week and post to my blog. These keep me excited and get my creative juices flowing - and help me to know that I CAN finish something!

Exercise: Continue workouts at the Y and add in some home workouts to supplement on other days. I'm thinking about a Couch to 5K thing. I'm nervous about that though (I've always hated running!). It would be early in the morning... DO THE STRETCHES! Can I yell at myself? I just did, so I guess the question is moot. :) Yeah. I'm going to put that in. :)

Family: Continue family night and date night (with more regularity) and try the new discipline thing. We'll see. I do still want to implement the mommy play time, so I will try to get that going. I'm going to ADD organizing the kid's toys and purging some of them before Christmas! It's a mess and I'm tired of my house being one! :)

Gratitude and Prayer: I want to make these a priority. I think I will have to write in my gratitude journal at least before bed every night and try the dedicated, specific prayer time during stretches in the morning. I know I've said that before, but... :)

Well, I guess that's it! I've got four months (less, but that's okay) to finish this year off right! It's going to be great! How about you?