time to declare my goals for this round - or not

I still don’t know what I want my goals to be for this the third Round of ROW80 2016. Maybe I should start at the bottom of my usual list and work up, ruminating as I go.

Personal –

1) Physical – a) Lose ten pounds. Even though my BMI says I am overweight, if anyone has ever looked at the BMI chart, only anorexic people are the ideal weight. I do not want to be anorexic. But I do have a magical number which I refuse to go above and when I weighed myself this morning, I was within a half a pound. When I think about people who are really overweight, I think to myself, “that didn’t happen overnight, that weight crept up on you.” And I can’t let that weight creep up on me. Sooo, I have got to get serious. How?

                        b) Stop eating junk food and stop snacking between meals

                        c) Work out more faithfully, exercise four mornings a week and lift weights and/or run four nights a week.

            2) Spiritual – Return to reading my Bible every night. I had been doing pretty good on that over the winter, but somehow just got out of the habit. A few weeks ago I also started reading a devotion each night, but already quit that, so I need to get back to that too.

NONPROFIT –

1)      We need to seriously start planning our next trip. Anybody want to go to Kenya with us for two weeks in late February or early March of next year? We are talking about building rabbit hutches and starting a rabbit production at the school where we started chickens in April. The cost should be around $2000, a little bit more if you want to go on safari or do other site-seeing one or two days.

REACHING –

1)      Update my website once a month. I revamped my website a month or so ago and really like the look of it, but I should post updates at least once a month.

2)      Once a week post something on all of my social media. And the rest of the time, stay off of Facebook – what a drain of my time that is!

Reading –

1)      Finish reading three books. I’ve just started “Little Bee” and will read “More Than a Story” after that.

2)      Though I didn’t sign up to be a ROW sponsor this time, I should read three blog posts twice a week, I think, sounds reasonable.

Writing – and the big one

1)      My novel is starting to give me birth pains. Seeing as I started writing it on January 17, 2011, five and a half years of being pregnant with it is probably long enough.

a)      I think I will go through it again and this time write up an outline as I go. I have post it notes on a big board, but I think they need to find their way into my laptop.

b)      Start work on that stuff which agents and publishers want – I am drawing a complete blank of what that’s called – but you know what I mean.

c)      Decide on a title. These are the titles that I came up with so far:

The Way Home

Finding the Way Home

Family Matters Most

When Family Happens

Returning Home

A Mother Like That

Just Like That

Where the Sky Meets the Sand

                        I came up with the last one just recently and like it the best. The main character, Jenny, lives in Chicago, but travels to Kenya three times during the course of the story. When I describe the open plain of Africa, I always talking about the wide expanse of ground and seeing to the very end of where the blue sky meets the tan sand.

2)      Of course, in addition to the novel, I will blog here twice a week and on my other blog, the Dino Chronicles, three times a week. 

Umm, so, okay, I guess I ruminated enough and came up with some goals. Let’s see what really happens. 

Saw this plaque when I was out of town last weekend. A reminder to never give up.