What I focused on in November:
1. My book release
2. Busyness at the private retreat where I work
3. Thanksgiving/Family time
4. A trip to Nebraska
Birthday Challenge and Dream List Update:
Birthday List:
1. Read 23 Non-fiction books – Read 2 in November
15. No texting for 23 days (not in a row) – Did four of the days
22. Make 5 blankets for a pregnancy center – Started one
Dream List:
Have a girly movie night with my sisters/friends Haha, I we had one in NE but I ended up sleeping through most of it….
Write and publish children’s chapter books that teach them to grow and set goals, have good habits, be leaders, etc… I published my Action Kids book in November!
Reading Update
Books read in November: 15
While anticipating the release of my book I was rather stressed out and so I’d lay in bed at night and read.
And read. And read.
I read ten books in the first nine days of the month. Yeah… It was crazy.
Fiction: 13
Non-Fiction: 2
Only three non-fiction books in two months? Ugg. I’m going to have to work on that one.
I think I’ll try for four or five of them in December…
I also signed up with two new book review sites and ordered four books to review. Fun times.
Traveling:
This month I was gone for nine days, from the 21st-29th. My sister and I drove to Nebraska with some friends (18 hours and four states away) and then flew home. It was an amazing trip that I still need to blog about.
New States I was in: Missouri and Nebraska
I was only about 20 minutes away from Kansas. I really wanted to go there and check another state off the list. Oh well. At least now I’ve been to half the states, so that’s pretty cool.
Nebraska is flat and windy, people. It was amazing.
What I’ve been Learning this Month:
This month wasn’t really my cup of tea. I had a lot of expectations when it came to my book release and they all pretty much fell flat. It was discouraging and hard for me to deal with at times. I had some really good, long talks with three of my friends who are also artists and they all helped me keep on track.
*Being a writer is a process. It’s long, difficult and can be discouraging, but in the end, it will be worth it
*It’s ok to step back and just enjoy life for a happy interlude and not feel guilty about getting behind with writing
*Non-artists aren’t going to understand what I’m going through at times, but they’ll think they do understand and that’s ok. They’re trying to help
*There will be intense times of feeling alone. The best thing is to use those times to learn to grow
*I’m a human that writes, not a writer that’s human
*The amount of sales that I do or don’t make, the amount of pageviews I get and comments that are left do not define my worth as a person. I need to have my identity in Christ, not in being a writer
*Trust is hard
*Trust is an essential part of being a balanced human so even when I’m hurt I need to learn to trust again
*Having good friends who you can talk over deep things with is non-compareable
Other Things:
* Medallion, our guard dog up at the goat barn, had puppies. We’ve got cute little half mutt, half purebred pups stumbling around now. Anndddd… I think that the ‘half-mutt’ part of the equation makes them full-blooded mutts.
*My cell phone broke the rest of the way. It came apart back in August and I’ve had it taped together and discovered a wide variety of tricks to make it still function part way, but it’s all gone now. *Sniff, sniff.* I hope to get another one this week.
*I got to do a book signing in a mall in Nebraska! I haven’t blogged about that yet, but it will be coming up soon.
* * *
Now it’s your turn! I’d be delighted to hear about some stuff that you got to do/learn/see this month!
Noveltea 
Fell behind. Sorry life is a lil crazy sometimes. I can rip through fiction books all day long. Non fiction books slow me up a bit as i figure they are more for learning and less entertainment. Sorry about your phone 😦 but hey a new phone to play with, that'll be fun 🙂
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Oh and yes, i have driven a bit out of my way just to be able to check another state off my list 😀
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