Hi everyone. I know it’s been months since you heard from me. My health has been doing funky things, both physically and mentally. It’s made it hard to concentrate on anything and it’s made me very forgetful. 😦
I decided to stop doing Blog Tours for a little while because even though they were on my calendar, because I’m in the midst of a medicine change for ADD, I’d forget them. I’d have them right there on my calendar that I look at every day and I’d still forget them.
I’m still here and would like to get back to blogging but it’s lower on the priority list right now.
Greetings!! We’re about a month into 2019. I’ve been trying to figure out goals for the year. Not resolutions because let’s face it, those get broken quickly; rather goals that I can work on throughout the whole year. Â I’m making note of them here to help kind of keep myself accountable.
Goal One: Post More on my Blog
Right now, my goal is to get at least two posts a week up. I used to do a lot of blogging at work because I’m a librarian and book blogging is work-related. About a year and a half ago, my job changed and the time I had for blogging at work disappeared like any chocolate that is near me.
I’m not shooting for specific days right now, though I’m going to try to do Mondays and Thursdays, but I’m NOT being strict with myself on the days. I’ll just be happy if I get two posts up per week. There may be weeks that I get more up because of blog tours or whatever, but goodness knows I have plenty of books that I’ve read that I have not written reviews for, so here’s hoping that I can get more of those up and update this blog more consistently.
Goal Two: Keep Using “Thrive” To Help Me Be My Best Self
A few weeks ago, I received a sample of the “Thrive” wellness program from a friend. It’s mostly vitamins and minerals with a little natural caffeine but not enough to make you jittery. I was interested in it because it touts a claim of providing more energy. Since I have so many mental health issues, energy is always at a premium for me. I never seem to have enough of it.
The three day sample I had was wonderful. I wasn’t overly jittery or anything of that nature. I simply had more energy to do things. Before I would have to choose between cleaning my bathroom and helping my dad with snow removal. I was able to do both in one day while I was on my sample. I’m ordering my first order this weekend when I get paid and I’m looking forward to just having more energy to do things.
Some people use the program to lose weight and get in shape. Perhaps sometime down the road that will be a goal, but right now, my goal is just using it to give me more energy so I can get things done around the house on my days off work. I want to also be able to do more things with my Tribute Rosie sisters and I’m hoping this will help.
Goal Three: Get My Finances in Order
I know this is often a goal for people, but I’m really going to work hard at this this year. I want to be able to start leaving the deposits I make into my savings account IN my savings account.
I’m working with my therapist to take care of some anxiety issues with riding the city bus to and from work most days. This would save me almost $200 a month in parking fees. Right now, my anxiety is too high to be able to really do it, but my therapist and I are working on that. I’m maybe pushing myself harder than I should on it, but I really want to start saving that money each month!
I’ve had some overdrafts in the last year from forgetting about automatic withdrawls so I want to get better at accounting for those right when I get my paycheck so I don’t have the overdraft fees.
Finally, I want to better balance saving and buying things I want. Sometimes I go on impulse shopping sprees which is not good. Thankfully it’s not often, but it can really mess things up and cause overdrafts too. I need to balance that impulse with my actual budget so I know what I can and cannot spend.
Goal Four: Go Through My Boxes in the Basement and Downsize
I have way too many boxes in our basement right now. There’s a lot of stuff that I’m potentially never going to use again that I can give to Salvation Army or another resale shop in the area. Â There are papers that need to be shredded. And who knows what treasures I’ll find down there.
This is one of the things that I’m really hoping having extra energy from Thrive will help me get done. I’ve been wanting to do this for a few years, but the constant drain of energy just left me unable to do it. Â I’m certainly not going to get rid of everything, but I’ve got cookware, books, games, knick-knacks, and other things that I just don’t need now and won’t need for the foreseeable future.
What are your current goals (if you feel like sharing, of course! No pressure!)? Are you trying to get something specific done or are your goals more long-term? These are just the four large goals I have for the year. We’ll see how they all go!
Over the next week or so, I’m going to try really hard to get some of my backlogged book reviews up. I have several cozies that I’ve read over the last couple of months that I just didn’t get a review up at the time for whatever reason. Since some of these have been NetGalley reads, I’m going to really try to get them written in the next week or two, so that I can mark them as read on NetGalley and get my feedback rating up!
I used to have down time during the day when I could write a quick post or a review of something. That doesn’t happen much now. I’m always busy busy busy, so I’ve gotten behind on reviewing. I’m hoping to remedy that over the next week or two. Consequently, you may have a barrage of posts one day and then nothing for a day or two or three.
I appreciate those of you who have hung in with me even tho’ my posting frequency has dropped! It means a lot!
I know I haven’t posted a lot lately, and I’m sorry for that. Life has been… well, life. Here’s what’s been going on in the last month or so.
I took some vacation time over the holidays. I’m usually not online much during my vacation, whether I go away or stay home. I might flip through Facebook once a day on my phone, but that’s about it. My best friend was supposed to come for New Year’s but car problems prevented that from happening. I spent the time working on what is seemingly the never-ending room project.
For those of you who are newer to my blog, I’ve been working on deep cleaning/throwing stuff out/donating stuff/decluttering/reorganizing my room for months now. To say it’s never-ending is a bit of a misnomer, I know, because I really am so close to the end. I’m down to two tubs and a pile to get thru plus a few other things that need to get put away. It’s really not much. However, since I’ve been working on this since JUNE (on the weekends mostly), it seems like it’s never-ending! My mom keeps reminding me tho’ that it took me 2+ years to get it to the level of disaster that it was so, 7 1/2 months really isn’t bad since I can only work on it on the weekends and sometimes that just doesn’t happen due to mental health, physical health or prior plans.
 On top of the seemingly never-ending room project, things have been quite crazy at work. Over New Year’s weekend, we migrated to a new software system for our library. If you’ve ever migrated to a completely different software system at work, you know it’s not precisely easy. Nor does it usually go off without a few hitches. We had to switch. Our old software was being discontinued by the manufactured. However, our new software is drastically different from the old and it’s really taking some getting used to. Not only do I have to figure out cataloging of regular items to do my main job in acquisitions, but I also have to figure out the cataloging of Inter-library Loan items since I’m a part of the ILL team and the only ILL team member with cataloging knowledge. It’s been challenging to say the least and by the time I come home at night, I’m pretty dead tired.
I was also sick the week that I went back to work, so that didn’t help my trying to get used to the new software. I had no patience for things that didn’t work like I wanted them to!
Finally, this winter is actually getting to me and wreaking havoc on my depression. Usually I do okay in winter. I even like winter most years. But this year we’ve had weeks and weeks of single digit temperatures with wind chills below freezing. It’s the kind of cold that just zaps your strength if you’re out in it at all. Supposedly the rest of January is supposed to warm up and be better. I hope it is. Maybe it’ll help me get out of this funk I’m feeling lately. It’s definitely warmer today so it’s a good start. 🙂
Hopefully the warmer weather will help me get back to feeling more human and less like a popsicle. I have reviews I want to write, I just haven’t had the momentum/energy to do them recently. Thanks for hanging in there with me!
This is my 250th post as a blogger! Wow! I can’t believe I’ve made that many posts and that people actually read them!
I’ve had a couple of people asking me to post some of my artwork, so I thought it’d be a great way to celebrate 250 posts! When I make art, sometimes I simply color adult coloring book pages. Sometimes, I make crazy shapes, color them in, and as I’m making these shapes, the artwork just speaks to me on what it should be so then I choose colors accordingly. Sometimes I do decoupage or paint ceramics. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of my decoupage or my ceramics, but I do of my coloring/drawing.
Here’s a couple of my recent coloring pages:
Both of these coloring pages are artworks by Selina Fenech, an Australian artist whom I absolutely love. The one on the left is titled Within the Coffin and is from Selina’s Gothic coloring book. The one on the right is called Her Special Place and is from Selina’s Magical Minis coloring book. Selina has many coloring books available including one that’s just ponds and flowers which I really enjoy.
I’ve also found a coloring book group to be a part of on Facebook. Joanna Campbell Slan, an author I like, set it up and it can be found here. Below are two of the pictures I’ve done from there.
I’m actually in the process of coloring a few more of the “Breathe” picture so I can give them to important people in my life who need the reminder to “breathe” from time to time.
Now to share some of my “original” artwork. I’ve never been real good at drawing. If I practice for hours and hours a day, I’d get to the point where I was good, but never great. So, instead, for probably 20 years or more, I’ve made my own type of abstract art. Sometimes, I have a set palette of colors in mind when I start; a set concept for what I want it to represent. Sometimes I don’t know until I get started with it and then I will get a sense and tailor my color choices around that sense. All of these, I already had the concept in my head for what I wanted it to represent. Even still, the shape of the various shapes and the colors aren’t chosen ahead of time. That all happens in the moment.
This first one is all about anger and rage. This one I did as I was processing my feelings from our annual Staff Day. We had a speaker from the police department and at he was talking about gun laws and things like the open-carry laws in Michigan and how libraries aren’t considered protected spaces like schools are. I was doing okay with all that. Then all of a sudden he switched over to active shooters, including videos. There was a complete lack of warning about content of videos. I made it out of the room and didn’t see any of them, but I didn’t make it to the lounge quick enough and I heard the whole first video. I was livid that no warnings had been given about it. There was no “if you don’t feel comfortable, you don’t have to sit here” warning like there was the first time we had active shooter training. It seriously triggered me (and I later learned that it also triggered some others with PTSD). This artwork came out of processing those feelings and triggers.
The blue is due to the fact that often when I’m angry and raging, I cry. Messy, ugly crying. Thank god for great co-workers and friends. Also, thankfully, the speaker AFTER the police department was incredibly funny and that help break up some of the tension that was still there after all the ugly crying and breathing to stay grounded.
The first of the following two I did at Staff Day as well. I had actually started it before the active shooter surprise. It’s simply supposed to represent fall and all the brilliant colors we see in fall. The second one I decided to do after fall. It’s winter, but I’m not that pleased with how it turned out so I’ll probably do another one soon.
The white I have currently isn’t real great. I need a new Prismacolor white. A few months ago, for one of my programs at work, I used my white pencils to trace shapes on black paper. Most of my white pencils were pretty much obliterated during that, including my Prismacolor white.
Thanks for joining me a special 250th post! I’ve got a couple of reviews coming up this week for you and other stops on blog tours as well.
Valerie's Musings 