Progress on my 13 Autumn Goals

    Tomorrow is the first day of Winter.  So I'd like to take a moment to look back at my 13 autumn goals and talk about how I've been doing on them.

Decorate for Autumn 

     Not as much as I would have liked to but we did it and we had fun.   We being my roommates and I.   We bought some little gourds, a cornucopia, a cinnamon broom, and I made a little autumn themed  bouquet.   It was fun.

Visit a Pumpkin Patch with my Family 

     This was also a goal for my roommate.   We wanted to take my nephew with us; those would have been some darling pictures.   Unfortunately  sickness.   So we just sort of missed out on that one.   Maybe next year.

Bake Cookies Shaped Like Leaves 

     This one I didn't get to do partly because of being sick and partly economical.   I wanted to get some new cookie disks for my Good Grips cookie press.  I could never quite set aside the money for them though.   I still have my eye on those cookie  disks.   Maybe I'll get them next year in time for Thanksgiving and autumn.  On a side note for those who bake, I do recommend this cookie press.  Especially if you want to get more disks without having to buy a whole other press.

Host a Tea Party 

     This is another one that had to be put off because I was too sick too often and then just work trouble.   Those two reasons seem to be a big factor in a lot of what happened this season.   but I spent a relatively long time ill  and that makes it really hard to make money at work.  But there's always time for tea parties.  So perhaps I will have one in the near future just for the sake of having one.

Cook with Tofu 

     On this one I just really haven't put in the time or the research.   I need to.  I'm sure all of us have things that we want to do that we just haven't gotten around to yet.   hopefully I can remedy that soon.   On the plus side I have been doing some new recipes.   Especially with the bread machine that we have gotten out of storage.

Learn to Make a Harvest broom or a Fall Wreath 

     This one I just didn't have time for.  

Raise Awareness during Asexual Awareness Week 

     This one I did do.   I did far less than I wanted to, but that's because I think that was the week I started getting sick.    In fact, I'm pretty sure that was the week I got really sick.  Anyway, asexuals exist.  We are real.

Donate to Mothers for Justice United 

     As I mentioned above economics has been an issue this  season.    I would still love to donate to this organization in the future though.  And if you need an organization to donate to I have a suggestion.  Check them out there doing some great work.

Study to my Heart’s Content 

    I have to say I think I'm doing this one.   I haven't studied nearly as much as I'd like to.  But the purpose of this one was that all of the ‘study such and such for 60 days’, ‘ watch all of such and such,’ ‘learn to do such and such’  goals really weren't working for me.   I love learning.   I love learning a lot and pretty much every day.  However, there were many times in the past where I would have a goal to study a certain thing and I would have this urge to study something else.  I would talk myself out of it with, “you know I have this goal and I need to set that aside and wait to do it later.”   That was not serving me and I think this particular goal has been a good practice in allowing myself to just study and learn more by my passion and not by strict goals.  I think this gets a real big check and I hope to continue it mostly as a life practice.   Remember everyone there's no reason to stop learning.  

This cliche moments brought to you by  plushie octopi.  

Put my Home in Order (KonMari) 

     Okay I've had some progress on this one.   I’m by no means done.   I still have quite a few things to go through.   As I said above I've spent a lot of time sick.   (If you were worried though I am better.)   I would however like to talk more about KonMari in another post.  Hopefully I'll get that done soon.   If you haven't heard about KonMari  and you have trouble tidying up & keeping things in order go look up KonMari.  It's great

NaNoWriMo 

     Now I took some time to talk about this on my personal Facebook page just to my friends and family, but I'll let you know what happened here.   I achieved my goal.   I did not cross the 50,000 word finish line.   However I wrote all the content that I had outlined.   In the last week of November  I was spending time with my best friends so that we could enjoy Thanksgiving and because she's super supportive of my writing and let's face it we're best friends we like hanging out.   Well I reach this point where I had completed everything I knew how to do.   For everything else I needed to outline a little bit more make sure I knew what was going on before it went into the scene.   Otherwise I would just be bullshiting it.   And absolutely if you're trying to cross that 50,000 word finish line bullshiting it will get you there.   And speaking from experience you can also bring out some really great ideas that you wouldn't have otherwise.   But I already know where the story is going right now and it's more of making sure everything happens in the right order and the right way.  Plus,  I'm on the second draft this isn't a first draft anymore.   Bullshiting it doesn't cut it for me in this situation.   Again, not that bull shiting is bad.   However i sat and thought to myself about what I had achieved.  What did I need to do next in the writing, which was to outline.  Outlining for me takes time.  I also considered the fact that I had this time with my best friend.  I decided then in essence I had achieved my goal.   I had in essence won.  And now it was time to spend quality undisturbed time with my BFF.  So that's what I did.

Finish Reading Two Books 

     I've got one book down.   And because I'm a reading weirdo who doesn't read one book at a time I've got several that I'm reading.  I got half the goal done and if you count all the different parts of other books I read you could say I got two done.

Blog More 

     Alright as for this one I don't know.   I need to look back and see if I actually blogged more.   I don't feel like I've blogged as much as I'd like to have.  I do feel like I'm doing more and more writing and that makes me happy.


    So the thing I need to do today is think about what I want to achieve in the next 13 weeks.  I no longer have the day job that was draining so much of my time and energy so I can devote more time to studying and art.  In fact I have successfully started to sell some of my crafts, so I may put more focus in those areas and here.

    If you’d like to give the 13 Seasonal Goals a try check it out.  And let me know if you are going to make a list.  I’d love to know what you’re doing or trying to do.  Best of luck and as always have fun.

 Tata,
 Lilian