What I Focused on in January: 

1. Querying for an agent for When Life Hands You Lymes 

2. Busy, busy, busy times with my non-writing job

3. Starting 2017 off on a strong note – getting caught up with life, etc….

Birthday Challenge Update 

• Buy 25 Books – 2
• Request 25 Books for Review – 4
• Vlog 25 Times – 1
• Dance, Skip, or swing in the rain 25 times – 2
• Watch the sunrise or sunset 25 times – 7
• Read to, or cook with, children 25 times – 2
• Have less than 5 emails in my inbox Saturday night 25 weeks (not in a row) – 4
• Go to bed by 10:30 sixty times (not in a row) – 5
• Blog by 9:30 a hundred times – 10
• Go to Wednesday night church 20 times – 3
• Drink coffee or tea while reading or journaling 25 times – 6

Reading Update

Non-Fiction: 1

Fiction: 5

Reviews: 4

Traveling

Nights gone: 14

New States or Countries: None

January  Goals 

1. Send query letters for WLHYL to 40 Agents – NO. Haha, that was a cute goal. 😉 I sent it out to 12 agents
2. HIS Hours – YES. I think, this was actually a weird month with tracking, so I’m not sure.
3. Work on growing Noveltea and learning about WordPress 12 hours – NO.
4. Read and Review 2 nonfiction books, 4 books altogether – NO. Only 1 nonfic, but I did get 4 reviews in.
5. Run (not walk) 5 times – at least a mile each time – NO. Only once.
6. Memorize the first 30 verses of Psalm 119 – NO. I did get a good amount of the first 15ish verses worked on though.
7. Vlog twice – NO. Only once.

 What I’ve Been Learning

Goodness. January was one of those months where I learned so crazy much, but how do I put it into words? So much of what I learned was a winding thread through life, and those types of threads can be tricky to try and wordify.

One of the big things I learned this month relates to goals. As you can see from the above, I only accomplished one out of seven goals. And that’s a horrible percentage. Yet, in reality I’m really thankful and happy with how the month turned out, because I feel like I did the most important stuff that needed done in January. And, even though I didn’t accomplish all my goals, I did work on all of them, and most of them a lot. So, January was a good month for learning to let go and readjust. Am I disappointed that I didn’t get a second vlog in or more runs? Yes. But February is a new month, so yay for that!

January taught me that querying for an agent is way more time consuming than I had imagined. I thought I’d be able to send out the query letters at a reasonable pace after I finally nailed the letter down. In reality, it takes hours of research, checking sources, reading bios, guidelines, and scrolling through twitter to find out the information I’m looking for. It’s enjoyable, but looonnnggggg. I’m looking forward to (Lord willing) sending out more query letters in February.

In January I learned more about myself, about my friends, my family, and how everything combines to make up this life. I have several friends who joined me with praying for some pretty big stuff, and I’ve been incredibly encouraged to see answers to those prayers. I’m still amazed at how I’ve been blessed with such wonderful friends.

Other

Life. The beginning of 2017 didn’t start out the way I had imagined, but it’s been fantastic so far. I was only home for a little over half the month, and I had some kind of virus for about half of that time, but I still got a reasonable amount accomplished. It was also fun to get to visit with some friends who I hadn’t seen for a couple of years.

During the time I wasn’t at home I was able to visit with my adopted parents for a few days, meet my newest niece, hang out with my grandparents, and then do lots of setting up and cooking and baking with my non-writing job. Like, last week I spent two days making 192 dozen cookies. Which kinda happens to be a lot.

Life. It’s been busy, happy, and exciting. I’ve immensely enjoyed watching the sunrises and sunsets. Listening to music with my sister travel-buddy. Dancing in the rain, walking in the snow, and gazing at the stars.

Life. I’m thankful for January, and looking forward to February.

How was your January? I’d be delighted to hear about it!