What I focused on in January

1. Working on my new book, so eloquently referred to as TCKnovel
2. Delightful family time as the world outside was wrapped up in snow and ice
3. Getting into the rhythm of a new year and working on my goals

Reading Update

Fiction: 7
Nonfiction: 3
Audiobooks: 2
Books for Review: 5

Traveling

Nights Gone: 2
New Places: 0

Goals

1. Decide for sure on my year-long Goals – YES
2. Write plot and character sketches for TCK – YES
3. Blog 16 times – YES
4. Walk 30 miles – YES
5. Decide about Vlogs – YES
6. Look into Sunday School curriculum – YES
7. Track hours/money made – YES
8. Track all money spent – YES
9. Print pages or draw graph for yearly goals – YES
10. Send thank you cards – YES
11. Clean bathroom – YES
12. Read two nonfiction books – YES
13. Talk with Aubrey about goals – YES
14. Mat or water and quiet time thought every day – YES
15. To bed by 10:30 ten times – YES
16. 8 Bookstagram pictures – YES
17. Plus 3 more personal goals – YES

And I had (all together) 58 weekly goals, and I accomplished 45 of them.

What I’ve Been Learning

Goodness. My brain feels full from this month.

A friend recommended I read the book Anthropological Insights for Missionaries so I bought it and have been reading it for the last couple weeks. It’s been eye-opening and really interesting. It takes me a while to process everything I’m reading so I’m crawling through it but really enjoying it. It talks about how and why we view the world, and how a lot of the time we don’t even realize how different our culture is from other cultures and so we try and relate to them through our worldview and mindset and there’s a huge disconnect. I’ve learned a lot about other cultures and a ton about myself (and those around me) as I read.

Another book I read was Historical Fiction and it took place in Hawaii. Reading about the culture there while reading about how different people think and why they do what they do was exceedingly interesting.

I began working on a book about TCKs – third culture kids – which goes right along with the above information. Trying to imagine the world through their perspective has been good for me and has shown me how much I try and project my normality on others.

My book has a mystery in it, so I’ve been learning about mysteries this month. I’ve read plot charts, listened to mysteries, gleaned wisdom from blog posts, Pinterest, and Googling. It’s a fun, stretching experience.

This month I learned how to go to a coffee shop and sit down and focus on writing. This sounds silly, but it’s really something I had to work on learning because I’m far too ready to jump from task to task.

Another thing I’ve been working on learning is what to say yes to and what to say no to. I’m far too ready to push myself to accomplish a goal to simply check it off then I should be, so learning to reassess on a regular basis and decide what I really want to and should be focusing on is important. Also, my identity isn’t based on checkmarks. But that’s (so far) a life-long thing I’m working on learning.

Planning ahead and cooking healthy is something I did a lot this month. I’m working at filling my body with healthy things and the best way for me to do that is to have a ready supply of pre-made meals I can just grab. This was good on some levels, and I also learned that not all meals freeze well. (I’m looking at you, Napa cabbage.) Also, the app, Mealime is pretty cool and y’all should check it out.

Money. Folks, I sometimes wonder where all my money goes so I decided to start tracking all of it. I use a nifty little app that’s aptly named Spending and it was eye-opening to not only see how much money I spend but also where it all goes.

Other 

Snow tires cost a lot, y’all. But being able to actually make it home instead of literally having your car stop in the middle of the road with no traction whatsoever? Well, it’s kinda worth the money. Also, having brothers who will take care of figuring all the details out for you? Priceless.

Speaking of snow tires… Ohio makes my heart happy, and January is one of my favorite months of the year. I will say though, having church be canceled so much can be a huge bummer. A lot of people who go to our church (including us) live very rurally, so if there’s a lot of snow or ice then they sometimes have to cancel, and this month they canceled Sunday morning church twice and Wednesday evening once.

January was filled with words. I got back into the habit of reading for review and read five books for review this month, plus I worked a lot on writing. Goodness did it ever feel great to be surrounded by words again.

For the last half of 2018 I kinda let my health slide which obviously isn’t good, especially for someone who’s still working at getting their body back into a fully healthy condition after dealing with health issues (aka Lyme disease) for a long time. So, I got some things figured out with my thyroid (which included having it go hyper instead of hypo for a week or so which was horrible). And, I started back on Paleo, began tracking how much water I drink, worked on walking more (quite often while blogging), and getting to bed at a more reasonable time. It’s been good.

January was a fantastic month despite the week or so that I wasn’t feeling well, and I’m so thankful for all I was able to learn, do, experience, and focus on.

What was one of your highlights in January?