New story "Under Contract" is complete!

Sometimes it takes forever to pull an idea out of my mind and put it onto paper. Fortunately, this was not one of those times!

A couple of weeks ago, I had the kernel of a story bouncing around in me head. Okay, it was less of a "kernel" and more of a "single event" that would occur within a story, but the idea prompted me to sit down and see what I could flesh out. Ten days later and the story is complete. I'll probably let it sit for a week and then do another edit, but I don't expect it to change much. Very pleased with the end result. It isn't science fiction or fantasy, so it was good to stretch a bit and write something outside my normal playground.

I wish all stories flowed out of my brain that quickly!

Journal that chronicles my son's life

I've just about completed volume three of the set of journals I've been writing that detail my son's life. As I wrote about in a recent Facebook post, I've spent a large part of the past six months catching up on my journal entries, fleshing out short entries and adding photos to the completed ones. I know the eventual audience for these books is small (perhaps just him and a few family members), but after seeing how happy the first two books made him, I knew I wanted to keep going with the project. It's incredibly fun to sit with him and read a printed book that details major (and/or funny) points in his life.

Gifts from G

Every year, my son and I go to Toys R Us, buy a bunch of toys, and then drop them into the Toys For Tots bin. This year, though, we took the toys and donated them to "Gifts from G". Gifts from G was created by a family in our neighborhood who lost their 8 year old son, Gavin, last December. Gavin spent many holidays at Duke University Medical Center, so all the toys the family collects for "Gifts from G" will be donated to the medical center. If you are interested in donating as well, you can find out more here: http://giftsfromg.blogspot.com/

This one is for the Lord of the Rings fans

You have to love Google's sense of humor. If you want to know what I'm talking about, go to Google Maps and click the "Get Directions" button. Switch to walking directions, and then enter "The Shire" as your starting destination and "Mordor" as your final destination. Then read the message highlighted in yellow below your destinations. :-)

Time Management

Lately I've struggled to find time for all my hobbies.

This is mostly my own fault. I made the decision to run longer distances each day, I made the decision to start working out, and I made the decision to go on some amazing trips. (Oh, and I made the decision to purchase that pesky time-suck that is known as an iPad.)

When you combine all these decisions with the other things in my life I enjoy, such as parenting and writing and keeping up with my friends and family, and then when you throw a full-time job into the mix, well...the minutes disappear quickly.

This has led me to think about how I allocate my time, and to think - to really think - about what I’m doing with the precious minutes I have available to me each day. Some things are non-negotiable and won’t be changing. These include the time I spend with my son, and the time I spend with friends and family. If anything, I think my life would be more fulfilling if I increased the time I spend with those people important in my life.

I’m not going to stop writing either. I haven’t had that many great writing days over the past couple of months, but that’s starting to change as I allocate more time to my writing. And there is nothing that compares to the feeling I get when I have an awesome writing session. When the words are flowing, and when the verbs are popping out as fast as my fingers can type them, it doesn’t matter if I only write one paragraph or twenty pages. Life is good, and I can float on the good feeling from a strong writing session for several days.

But if I’m spending more time writing, what have I thrown out the window?

I’m still running and working out, although the humidity is shortening my runs. But according to my bank account, it’ll be awhile before I can take another trip. That means no weekends without a computer, which means I’m able to fit more writing in the nooks and crannies that make up a long unplanned weekend.

The biggest change, however, has been with my iPad. I’ve limited how much I use it over the past five days as an experiment, and it’s amazing how much more time I have. I had no idea those ios board games were eating away so much of my time! Word with Friends. Hero Academy. Ascension. I was losing bucketfuls of those precious minutes of each day keeping up with all the games I was playing. It was fun, but it also demanded a lot of my time, time I am no longer willing to give up so freely.

So I’ve scaled back my gameplaying on my iPad, and I’ve started limiting how much I use it. Which is probably why I had time to write this blog post.  :-)

Do you ever think about the ways you spend the minutes of each day? At the end of the day, do you feel satisfied with what you did?