Dogs, Blogs and Logs…Ten Things of Thankful

Vinny.

I haven’t mentioned him in awhile. But he’s the most crotchety dog I’ve ever loved.

He doesn’t like strangers. He doesn’t like kids. He doesn’t like other dogs.

He likes his air-conditioned house. He likes his soft bed. And he has a toy platypus he only plays with when husby and I are both home. He’ll leave it for days and days, in fact, if one of us goes out of town. But as soon as we’re both home? He gets it out and squeaks it.

Funny story about Vinny. We can’t ever take him to the beach again. He was miserable and if he could have spoken to us this is what he would have said,

“You turds! You bring me here to camp at this hot beach? The water is terrible to drink, there are bugs everywhere, campfires stink, the tent is uncomfortable, I don’t like the other campers, the sun bakes my fur, the ocean water is too dirty and too loud. You call this fun!? And to say nothing of…what do you call them? Palmetto Bugs? I will run every time! Do not ever, EVER get me near those blasted cockroaches AGAIN! And if you ever take me to the beach again, we’d better be staying in an air conditioned beach house, and you’d better bring my soft doggie bed, you dolts, or I’ll blow chunks!”

 

Yes, that’s our boy. He made it loud and clear that he does not approve of beach camping. Or swimming at the beach, for that matter. Or the ocean. Just forget it. Stay in the mountains.

Just keep Vinny in the mountains. He’s always up for a hike.

The Wakefield Doctrine.

I’m thankful I found Clark and all his clarkety thoughts. Plus there’s Almira and the other novel. Glad I’ve known Clark and Denise for years. I always look forward to their posts. And just wanted to give a warm shoutout to them.

 

Morning breakfasts made by the husby.

The mornings are a time where, before work, I like to get all my creative work done. So there’s writing, exercise, journaling, meditating and tea making.

I generally just can’t fathom “cooking” breakfast. Dinner? Fine. I’ll cook up a storm. Breakfast? Eh…if I’m left to my own devices, I’ll just grab a piece of toast knowing that it wouldn’t be enough and then I’d have a low blood sugar crash mid-morning.

I know breakfast is my most important meal of the day. If I don’t have some kind of protein, it’s awful. Even if I have the best of intentions, without someone else to cook, I’ll grab whatever I can find and run out the door, though. I just run out of time or don’t think about it.

So, Husby has taken it upon himself to make sure we eat to start the day right. I don’t think I’ve told him enough how much it means to me.

 

My job.

It’s demanding. There are days where I wonder what the hell I’m doing, but I’m grateful to work in a beautiful place with an awesome office, surrounded by dedicated people.

I know that I’m fulfilling a need to help folks who all need help with resources and language learning. I’m interacting with many people, and I know I’m affecting lives. It’s a little intimidating, sometimes, in fact.

Here’s a little story. I was at a conference and I was at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. You know, the office that interacts with the State Legislature and Governor.

I was looking for a bathroom and stumbled into the State Superintendent’s office. I decided not to ask her where the bathroom was. But still…I was marveling at how I ended up there. And I’d just heard her give a speech to a delegation of coordinators and directors of programs across the state.

Sometimes I really wonder how I got here and…it wasn’t really intentional. Between that and having the superintendent of the county schools where I work help me change my car tire a couple months ago, I think to myself, “well, I’ll be! We’re all just humans in this race and we all really do pull our pants up the same way, don’t we?”

A recent photo of the university campus where I work.

Writing. Novels. Articles. Blog posts. Journal entries.

After writing so much in the past few months, and sort of living in these worlds of ghosts and goblins, of harrowing hauntings and such, it’s time to come up for a breather and soak up the sunshine.

I’m just about finished with the last draft of the second novel before I send it off to my “free” editors. (Haha.) But, I think it’s time to take a hiatus and…perhaps get back into drawing.

It seems I cycle through these things with the seasons. Summer for writing. Fall for drawing. Winter for writing. Spring for drawing.

 

Yoga.

I’ve discovered that I like it so much that I am thinking – just thinking – about getting good enough to become a certified yoga instructor.

I’ve been watching these YouTube videos with Adriene.

I’ve taken to getting up in the mornings and meditating, then doing some yoga, and then spending time either journaling, working on the novel, or writing on something else.

My hardy jade plant.

My jade plant.

Back in 2012 when I left my teaching job for a self-imposed sabbatical, a parent brought me a jade plant.

I had no idea that she’d done that and it sat in my former office for THREE MONTHS, in the dark, and survived. I found it when I was giving my replacement a run-down of everything before the new school year started.

Yesterday, my cat accidentally knocked it off the wall of the porch and it dropped five feet to the ground.

It survived, intact, with only one or two of the little pods (I’m not sure what they’re called; they’re not leaves) breaking off. Husby added more dirt and nursed it a bit, but otherwise it’s none the worse for wear.

That plant is a survivor and really, is teaching me some lessons about life.

 

iCloud.

So…I have a work computer, a work laptop, a work iPad, a home laptop and an iPhone. I just LOVE that when I do something on my phone – like write something in my notes, it shows up on my work computer.

Or when I need to take my work laptop to a meeting, all my notes and calendar events also show up on my desktop.

Now, I realize this can also be a real drag having all this crossover between work and home, BUT it’s not actually too bad keeping everything separate.

I have separate folders for everything and have notifications set for specific times and events. I do really believe in work/life balance and make a conscious effort to be mindful of when I’m doing either.

 

Amazon Prime.

So…I’ve had Prime for a few years, but I had not taken full advantage of all it had to offer until recently. Mostly I loved the 2-day free shipping.

BUT, I’ve discovered a really interesting series called Man in the High Castle (it’s a thought-provoking show about what might have happened if the Nazis did win World War II) and I’ve discovered all these great curated playlists that you can download to listen to in the car or offline.

I especially love the Zen at Work and the Piano Guys playlists for soothing background music.

Podcasts…hmm…maybe I should make some of my own or something.

Podcasts.

So, anyone who follows my writing knows I’m a huge fan of personal development. I’d love to do seminars about personal development and spirituality sometime.

(And, oh, if you have an idea, I’d *love* to hear it. Would you ever want a webinar? You know…like do a Google Hangout and chat about life…?)

Anyways, I’ve discovered a feature on my new phone where you can download podcasts and listen to them anywhere.

I’m sure this feature has been available for quite some time, but I had a relic for a phone before with virtually no memory storage, so I missed out on these things…

But still. I have a commute that takes an hour and ten minutes out of my day. Podcasts are a way of furthering my own education and development.

 

And Then She Spurted a Second Novel…

I’m glad to be back, though I’ve been back for a week and two days.

I haven’t stopped by at my own blog much.

Well, that would be for several (good!) reasons.

It’s Been a Life Changing Summer

The stress of my job in this last year had prompted me to really do something I hadn’t done before: delve into travel as much as possible this summer.

I did it to relax. I did it to get in touch with my more spiritual side. I also did it to explore: new places, new stories, new adventures.

Here I am now, writing before I set off on one last little journey before returning to work in August: the beach.

We’d planned these trips in April. Last summer, in 2015, we spent it moving, and the summer before that I was taking classes and working as an administrator for a school. The summer before that? More classes.

I figured it was time to get back into living down some adventures.

 

Traveling Gives You Great Perspective

I don’t know what great soul recommended “going someplace once a year where you’ve never been,” but I can’t recommend that highly enough.

While on the meditation retreat in June, I finished the second draft of my first novel.

And while on the road trip, I blazed through the fourth draft. Husby started editing. He’s still working on it, but he’s also working a lot and has maybe has an hour or two here and there to work on editing my novel, let alone do the things he has to do in his own life.

That’s fine. Because…while he’s doing that, I cranked out the entire first draft of my second ghost story novel.

That’s where I was this last week. I was putting in hours and hours each day to finish before heading to the beach over the weekend and back to work the week after that.

I wanted to establish a strong routine of getting up early and working for a couple hours before starting my day.

These travel journeys have completely reignited my love of writing. Not that it ever went away. But I had to just be happy with journaling whlist finishing classes and working full time. There just wasn’t enough time or energy to do much else.

On the meditation retreat, I’ll share that the Buddhist monk who led it encouraged me to give into writing. I told her how, now that I’m finished with my master’s and working back in education, that I don’t know if I’m really cut out for that world. All I want to do is write.

She encouraged me to cultivate that love, that often we don’t know exactly what we want until it beats us over the head. And well, very often the third time is the charm (Anthropology and Spanish being the first two attempts at finding my calling).

I intend to finish out this grant-funded position (assuming we have monies after August…I still don’t know, actually) and come next June, I will take steps to indulge my writing while being smart about my income. (That’s an echo from the first time I tried, which was an honest failure. But it was a “good” kind of failure: one in which I learned a lot about myself, and what to do and not to do when it comes to quitting my job, how to have more focus, etc., etc.)

 

Next Steps to Publishing

The next steps will be twofold:

Get a cover made for the first book and publish under a pseudonym. Then finish the subsequent drafts of the second novel.

I honestly don’t expect much with this first book. It is the first book.

I know for a fact that most authors don’t get their first works published the first time around. Sometimes they do, but many times they don’t.

It’s because the mastery of the craft just isn’t there, yet. That’s not to say that some amazing, fine writers ARE masters by the time they publish their first novels. In fact, I think I know of few of those kinds of folks personally.

But, even Shakespeare’s early plays aren’t well known. It wasn’t until he’d cranked out a number of plays that his really great ones became known for what they were. Shakespeare had finally achieved mastery of his craft and we all only associate him with intricate Elizabethan writing, coining scores of new words for the English lexicon.

And so it is with novel writing. I expect to sell um…7 copies. 🙂 And that’s fine. I probably don’t want to be known for this first novel.

Don’t get me wrong: I gave it my best shot. But my best the first time around is going to look very different than the second time, to say nothing of the twentieth.

This first novel is about a Latino college kid who stumbles back to his college campus, cuts through a graveyard and upsets the gravestone of Marina Oliver. It was an accident, but that doesn’t matter: it unleashes an angry ghost who attaches to Jorge and drags him and his friends into a years old mystery. Their only chance of getting Marina to “cross over” is a bit of luck and resolve before time runs out and Marina drives them to their deaths.

(I hadn’t yet written out the “blurb” for my novel, but that up there doesn’t sound half bad, me thinks!)

The Second Ghost Story Novel

This second novel, I’ll have two editors. And I might spend a little more on creating the cover.

I don’t want to share what the plot is just yet because it’s only the first draft. With a few more iterations, things could change.

But something interesting happened on this second round of writing. The words came a little easier. The sentences were a little prettier, and my oral language has taken on a different layer of expression than how I spoke prior to cranking out over 120,000 words in a month and a half.

My sister in law and I were having dinner the other night and I was telling her about our recent road trip. I included descriptions of the environment: the parched trees, the pigmented sandstone rocks, the effervescent spring waters, etc., etc.

This image is one of many I snapped while on our road trip. It’s a photo of Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis, WY. And one that would be awesome if I had to write up a graphic description of some place beautiful but parched, despite the hot springs.

She blinked at me several times before saying anything. I asked her what was wrong.

She laughed and said that she’d never heard such a vivid description of a simple little story before. Most of her friends will say something, hope it’s witty enough to crack up a bit, and then be done with it.

Of course, I knew exactly why that happened, and relayed it to her.

In any case, I have much work to do before this second novel is complete.

Watching the iterations will be fun, too.

When I finished the first novel, it was right about 50,000 words. But after four more drafts, it expanded to 73,000.

For this second novel, it stands about 43,000 words. I know that will swell. There are side things I thought of while I was writing and descriptions I know I’ll need to flesh out.

This second novel is different in that I used a technique called “Deep Point of View.” I wrote it all in first person, from the perspective of one character. I decided to try that to “up” the scary factor.

I do love a good, solid scary book.

As a side note, I’m reading the non-fiction book, “The Haunted” by Ed and Lorraine Warren. It’s scary, but honestly, after watching lots of scary movies, seeing lots of ghost shows, visiting so-called haunted places, it takes a lot to ruffle me.

I’ll have to compile a list sometime of some really awesome scary reads that I’ve read in the past year (in addition to everything else I’ve read; I do have a voracious literary appetite).

Achieving Goals

But I cannot fathom how, at the end of May, all I wanted to do was finish a novel.

I’ve completed one, save for the edits that I’ll need to do once husby has finished the first one.

I’ve completed the first draft of the second one.

I already have ideas for a third and fourth one.

I’m cranking them out fast. It’s taken years to figure out, but if I don’t blaze through that first draft quickly, I won’t get through it at all. It wasn’t until I got the idea from that book, 5,000 Words an Hour, which just emphasizes getting through that first draft.

Now that I figured myself out – at least as it relates to writing – I feel like I’m in “crank ’em out” mode.

And yes…I’m going for the mass market paperback segment. This is why pseudonyms are good. If I want to channel the esoteric Barbara Kingsolver, another pseudonym will suffice.

It’s been an incredible summer, full of personal growth, and many, many realizations. These include wanting to write at HubPages more, wanting to include photography here again, wanting to spend quality time on my writing.

 

Ten Things of Thankful – Before the Voyage

Looking back on the past week and a half, I have so much to be thankful for. Writing about my gratitude will tie together – quite nicely – all the different things going on in my life at the moment.

The Meditation Retreat

I continue to feel the effects of so many days of meditation. Being with 28 other folks who were from all walks of life and had all sorts of different beliefs, this validated for me how we can all coexist peacefully – if we but just understand that all we need is to love and have compassion for each other.

The quad area at the retreat center. Incredibly restful and peaceful.

The Last Day of Work

I finished the school year. It’s been stressful and tiring and, you know, sometimes I wondered if I was cut out for working in the academic world. Still, working with so many people – from elementary students to superintendents, to parents and church leaders – the experience has made me grow in ways that I can’t even describe. I have a level of confidence I had not known was possible in my existence. I can read and understand people on a different level now. Furthermore, I have a much deeper understanding of the idea of “the boss.” Where I used to question the decisions former principals and directors made, I now have utter sympathy for those in charge having to make unpopular decisions. You never really know what’s going on behind closed doors.

The Novel

This morning, I finished the final “content” edit. I’m going to do one more read-through to try to catch typos and other such errors, but otherwise, I’m going to send it to my editor – my ever-supportive husby – in the coming week. This being a first novel, I’m not looking for any high dollar investments as far as editors and book cover artists. I will publish on Kindle and we’ll just see how all this goes.

The Possibility of Publishing the Novel

I have now gotten further than I ever have on any novel I’ve worked on. Littering various hard drives and thumb drives, I have an assortment of unfinished novels in different genres. I figured out somewhere along the way that I love to write about scary things – ghosts, the unexplained, supernatural phenomena, and even superhero-type characters – and the possibility of FINALLY publishing has me really giddy. Honestly, I don’t expect much with this first one: the goal was to get over the hurdle of publishing. I’m still not there, but I see the hurdle itself coming up along the racetrack and I have the confidence to jump and clear it. So many times that hurdle came up on my running sprints and I stopped when I saw it. I’ve been training hard to focus on the success of not only jumping it, but briefly looking back to marvel at what I just did.

Discovering Chris Fox’s Books

These have helped me churn out a novel really quickly. Here’s what I’ve read while I’ve been working on my novel (these are affiliate links):

1. 5,000 Words Per Hour
2. Lifelong Writing Habit
3. Write to Market
4. Launch to Market

As a side note, I didn’t discover some of these books until this 3rd content edit, so some of the tips he talks about won’t apply until the next novel I start – which will be immediately, actually. But still. I can churn out 2,000+ words in half an hour if I don’t let myself edit and I have a clear plan of what I’m doing. I even emailed him to get clarification on something in one of his books and he emailed right back!

The Upcoming Epic Road Trip

So, school’s out and I have five weeks to have some fun. To be sure, I’ll continue writing while I’m on the road, but we’re planning on doing a road trip through Kentucky, Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming and then to Colorado. See, at least once, if not twice a year, I head out to Colorado to see family (starting out in North Carolina). But we often drive out there and then drive straight back and don’t have a lot of time to see other things. This year, starting in January, we started saving for an epic journey. We leave on Monday morning. We’ll check out the Badlands, Deadwood (remember the TV show?), The Devil’s Tower, Bighorn Medicine Wheel, Thermopolis (for the mineral waters) and then head on down to Colorado.

Close College Friends

There are people who have lots of acquaintances and then there are people who have a handful of lifelong close friends. The latter would be me. I made three friends – that I managed to not run off – from my days at Colorado College. At the risk of dating myself, I graduated in 2001. We live all over the US now but our friendship has transcended distance and time. We joke that we’ll be the scourge of some nursing home one day, throwing Oreos at staff and having wheelchair races. Hopefully those days are far, far off into the future.

Close Friends Who Graduate

So…out of the group of us college buddies, all of us have completed our Master’s degrees. One even completed her PhD. We run the gamut of people studying different things: I have my Master’s in Spanish. One has hers in Divinity. Another has hers in Psychology. The last just completed hers in Education at our alma mater, Colorado College. While I’m in visiting family and friends in Colorado, we’re also going to celebrate her graduation and accomplishments.

Age and Wisdom

My mom runs an assisted living center out of the house I grew up in. While it is unusual – I just love the look on people’s faces when I tell them I grew up in a nursing home – there are some really neat things about it. One of them is this patient who is turning 106. Yes, you read that right. She’s still pretty sharp and completely fluent in Spanish and English and my mom now takes care of her 85 year-old son. But, to celebrate 106 years of earthly living, my mom’s going to bring in a mariachi band to serenade her. We already have word that various news outlets will be there to witness this incredible milestone. Doctors told her she’d never live past 95. Just look at that miracle!

The Library

For our road trip, we have an assortment of books and CDs to keep us entertained. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been to Iowa and my perception of it is that it’ll be flat with no radio stations. It’s always good to be prepared but open to the possibility that there might be hills and pretty things there, and maybe even a good radio station or two as we pass through. And hopefully no dustbowls!

This has been part of the Ten Things of Thankful Blog Hop.

Going on a Retreat and a Writing Update

Before I tell you what’s going on, I just have to remark that it’s fun to be back on my blog fairly regularly. It involves a lot of 5am days and writing before going to work, then writing in the evenings after work, but I’m just having a lot of fun right now.

The Retreat

Back when I was doing a lot of those posts on meditating, I signed up for a meditation retreat. At the time, I was really thrilled about going on a little adventure like that: getting away, having undisturbed meditation time, and truly having no access to technology.

Here’s the part where I admit where I’m utterly human and have changed my mind.

Okay, I pride myself on not being *that* addicted to technology. I don’t like having my phone with me all the time, and I make sure to not have any technology in my room at night, save for the alarm…which, unfortunately, is my phone. But, I make a point to not look at it until I’m ready to wake up, with is usually right before the alarm.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand waking up to the noise of an alarm and it doesn’t matter how soothing the sounds might be. However, I’m scared to not set it and sleep way too late, but I usually wake up right before it goes off. Anyways….

I think I am addicted to technology, though: I check email at least several times a day. I check Facebook too much – sometimes once a day, but sometimes more. A lot more. There’s Twitter and Kindle and Google and…and…

My life is too encased in my computer. I use it for not only work, but for leisure, too.

It gets hard to separate the two.

That’s one of the reasons I signed up for the retreat. I told myself that I will pull away from it all, get back in touch with nature and have a “reset.”

But now, I admit I’m not so excited about going on this retreat later today through the afternoon on Sunday.

I get the feeling that it’s pretty rigid in terms of schedule. I’m not a big meat eater (avian and fish foods make up the biggest part of my meat-eating habits, even then, most of my meals during the week are vegetarian). All the meals are vegan at the retreat center. And there are mandatory silent hours.

I love to write and create, and I do my share of talking. In fact, people tell me that I tell way too many stories sometimes. Yes, I share too much and love to think out loud. Yup. This girl right here. They could very well kick me out.

I would rather stay home the next few days and write and watch movies. I may end up having to get up at 4am and spend hours on a meditation cushion. I have no idea; I don’t know the schedule. I’ve always wanted to try meditation for 8 hours or longer in a day, but I’m not sure I want today or tomorrow to be that day.

But that’s what I always default to: staying home and writing. I write all the time…and I wish I had more to show for that writing, but…that’s neither here nor there.

The Book

Which brings me to “the book.” The ghost story.

At the time I booked the retreat, cranking out a novel in a month’s time (that’s what I intend to do, anyways) wasn’t on my radar. I was in the height of stress at my day job. (I often wonder how much it’s worth it to be under so much stress, even if it isn’t year-round.) I needed meditation just to make it through the day.

I make it sound like an addiction. At least it’s an enlightening one. Ommmmmm….

But, as I’ve gotten back into feverish writing, I’ve slacked off in my practice. I tend to think of writing as quite meditative. If you’re writing a novel, you don’t think about the rest of what’s going on in your life:

You enter a different world where there are all these characters you’ve invented and you’re sculpting them into 3-D figures who are totally believable.

I know I’m not there, yet. I’ve finished the first edit – it was a content edit and took about a week to do. It went fast, but I’m doing that on purpose: if you go through quickly, you can spot the broader plot problems more easily.

Which is exactly what happened. I corrected a lot of things as I went through the first draft.

I’m halfway through the second edit. This edit is more of a read-through. It’s another look at the plot and character development, but not many additional words or corrections. As of right now, though, I have about 147 different notes I’ve added.

Draft three will be addressing all the problems I’ve spotted. It’ll be more like a content edit.

Draft four will be a final read-through.

And then it will be off to alpha readers. (Or are they called beta readers?)

Except it’s killing me that I won’t be looking at a computer for 4 days.

True, that’s a complaint. I really have nothing to complain about. It’s just that I feel like I’m on literary fire and I don’t want the flames to die out and my words to get drenched.

I have entertained the thought, however, that this could be perfect timing. That stepping away for a few days will help my mind subconsciously process everything so I come back with the best third draft ever.

If you need me, I’ll guess I’ll see you on Sunday. I’ll be headed off into the deep recesses of the jungle, where few people have ever tread in that undisturbed wilderness…

Just kidding. It’s in the mountains near my old stomping grounds, where I used to live. Ironically, it’s not far from there. But it IS isolated, and it is in the wilderness. I’ll be in my own tent. Wish me luck.

Working at the Office

It’s the end of the school year and after a week of cleaning, moving furniture and cabinets to store everything for the summer, a CPR class, and starting the process of aggregating data, I am enjoying the “slow down” from the frenetic pace of the year.

Now that the pace has slowed down a bit, I’m devoting at least a couple hours a day of my time each day to finishing the first edit of my ghost story novel. I’m psyched: I’m farther than I’ve ever gotten before. I’m determined to publish to Kindle. And then start another.

I’ll write another post this week about that, but for now….

I had the lovely Sandra Hayward contact me for a guest post. She’s a newer writer and I like to help a person out when they’re starting out. She’s written some sound advice that I would tell a first-time manager…like myself! She doesn’t have a website, yet, per se, but writes for Edubirdie.com (link below).

She saw the content on the blog here and asked if she could share some of her expertise. I can say after my first year of managing staff, I hoped I did all the things she mentions below. But still, being a leader of a crew of folks is time-consuming and requires a lot of energy and professionalism.

And now, let me turn the stage over to Sandra.

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Tips for Managers: How to Improve Work at the Office

By Ashrafhage (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Current studies are not as uplifting for the US managers as it may seem at first sight. Their employees consider 40% of them as inefficient and bad bosses.

Whenever you think your relationships with your staff are running smoothly, consider and evaluate several key factors that enable the most efficient communication and feedback.

According to a Gallup Poll “one in two U.S. adults said they left their job to get away from their manager”.

Managers find their backs against the wall when good employees leave. Compensation is not always a good solution to the problem as efficient communication is vital.

Considering the fact that the current marketplace offers comparatively equal salaries in particular segments, other factors appear to be of main priority for the staff. Here are some useful “seeds” to plant, letting managers keep employees to showcase growing productivity and development.

Efficient Retention Strategies

Implementation of efficient retention strategies is useful for both reducing costs and keeping employees engaged, featuring a creative and motivated approach to every responsibility they are assigned.

• Engagement. Managers should provide maximum tools and chances letting employees develop their skills as well as pick up some new abilities that are beneficiary in their work.
• Praise them when necessary. Giving a praise will hardly lead to high costs. At the same time, it will mean a lot to your staff, recognition of a well-done job is obligatory.
• Track the needs. Keep in mind that your every employee comes with changing needs that you need to track and meet; it helps to build a loyal approach letting them know that managers do care. We all call for a piece of stability in our lives, don’t we?
• Let people do their best. The idea is to create an appropriate environment letting employees express their innovative ideas and solutions; don’t limit them in actions and encourage for development.
• Let employees trust you. Your staff will be much happier in case it can fully trust you; it means that you are a reliable leader.
• Get rid of weak employees. Whenever you detect a weak spot in your team you should eliminate it at once; all your co-workers are supposed to be of the same proficiency and expertise level.

Clear Deadlines and Priorities

Establishing clear deadlines is vital unless you want your employees to flounder. They will never know about the priorities on a given project are unless you inform them; these easy tips will let you set accurate deadlines and increase productivity.

• Specify the exact date and time. Try to be as specific as possible because whenever you set a “next week” deadline, do not complain if the task is completed on Friday, not on Tuesday. Indicate the very date and time you need the job done.
• Set the priorities. Your employees must be aware of assignments that are of main priority, so try to steer clear of old-fashioned “ASAP” formulations.
• Always set true terms; avoid establishing false deadlines as it will result in more problems.
• Regularly update the schedule. An updated schedule is vital especially when you deal with long-term projects; always create a clear vision of every process.

Note that every change deals with loss for every employee. Some of them are more likely to resist those changes even if they come with obvious improvements. Managers should make intelligent and accurate decisions letting their staff cope with all new introductions.

The same thing with confrontation poor performance of your team. The latest KEY Group survey revealed that only 31% employees think their managers are consistent with their expectations.

To be sure, efficient workers don’t like working with people who aren’t. An accurate balance is necessary. That will eventually come with eliminating all your weak spots and establishing an efficient team with high productivity potential.

 

Sandra J. Hayward is a Miami Dade college MBA graduate that is interested in academic research and writing but does not want to depend on the rigorous schedule. That is why she has been collaborating with http://edubirdie.com for a while time as a freelance writer and enjoys her flextime.

 

A Little Side Project

I’d started off strong with blogging in April and through a chunk of May, but I “slacked off.”

Well, there are several reasons for this.

The Work Situation

First, is the day job. Last March (2015) when I started this job, I had “two years” to start an after school program, grow it to 50 students (at least) and fulfill all the goals set in the grant process.

I didn’t write the original grant for this job. But I did become the coordinator.

I found out in October that the state considered 2015-16 our second year of funding, even though I’d only been there about six months. When I officially launched our after school in May of 2015, the state called that our “first year.” One year of funding smashed into four weeks? Only the bureaucratic state is good enough to invent something as logical as that. When we got our “second year of funds,” the state let us know that all the accounts for the program would have to be closed out in June 2016.

So, for ten months, I’ve been ordering supplies, hiring (and even firing) tutors, finding volunteers, recruiting students who fit the criteria to be serviced by the grant, helped create the curriculum, planned field trips, managed daily operations, conducted staff meetings and trainings, conducted parent meetings, planned employee schedules, did inventories, met with county officials, met with state officials, worked with the church where our after school site is located, met with school officials, worked with parents and met with them each day as the need arose for their child, and more.

It’s been a good year. We fulfilled those goals. But I’m dog-tired. Tired in a way that I’m sure anyone who’s ever worked in education would understand. My brain needed another task to do to not only release the stress of this year, but for other reasons, which I will touch upon in a moment.

I do not yet know about continued funding for our program. That could mean that as soon as July we’ll know something, but it’s also very contingent upon our state legislature, who, last year, did not release budgets for educational programs until October 2015. So, it could be as late as that before I find out anything.

I have a salary through August. But, that’s it – for now. And October is a long time to wait if you don’t have a salary.

The Explanation for the Side Project

You may know I’m a highly sensitive person. While I have enjoyed the day job, the stress and energy drain have created the need to meditate a lot, to exercise more by walking or mountain biking, and to write. A lot.

You would have thought with working 50, sometimes even 60 hours a week (that was early on), that I would have no energy left for creative endeavors.

Honestly, that’s why I didn’t blog a lot in the past year. I really was that drained. But, I always continued to write in some form: whether it was journaling or writing daily bulletins for staff, I always had several thousand words under my belt every day.

It’s not the same as writing articles or books, but at least the typing-thinking-writing muscle was still going strong.

You may remember in my last post that I mentioned how I wanted to do something with my writing. Not just a blog post. Not just an article. A book. With my name as the author.

The Side Project

Right after my last blog post, I started investigating writing a book and exercising my fiction muscle. I discovered a Kindle book called, 5,000 Words per Hour by Chris Fox (not an affiliate link).

And in two weeks, it has changed my life. It’s not the personal development type of book I’ve talked about in previous posts, but another kind of personal development that will help me fulfill a dream.

Well, on May 31 I took the book’s advice and began writing, using the steps the author suggested. I now wish I had this tool when I started my first NaNoWriMo adventure back in 2012.

I’ve written, as of this morning, 45, 147 words towards a new ghost story (7 days). I’m nearly finished with the first draft. I have gotten farther than any other first draft I’ve done, and we’re talking five of them – all in various stages of compilations of words – 22K here, 57K there…all rotting in virtual trash. I don’t want to even look at them.

I’ve finished the climax and denouement in this new story. I want to add a couple scenes that became necessary as I was writing, and I will finish those today.

I now know what it was with those first drafts of the other books that prevented me from finishing: they went too slowly. I don’t have the patience to take a year to write a book. The whole process gets too overwhelming to me.

I have been teaching myself not to edit. I’m a recovering perfectionist and not ever hitting the “backspace” key is still somewhat of a challenge as I barrel through a draft, but I’m getting better at it. Not as fast as I would like, but better.

Still…45,147 words in a week. It usually happened for 30 minutes in the morning and maybe in two other 30-minute sprints over the course of an hour and a half in the afternoons. It’s not a crazy-miracle sort of thing: anyone can do this. (I can’t stand it when I sound like a car salesperson on something I get really excited about – just so you know.) You hammer out words and intentionally create a bad first draft.

The first draft, I will tell you, is atrocious. But if you go into it knowing you’re going to edit 4 or 5 drafts down the line, it takes the pressure off to think of a perfect word that first time around. Besides, when you think about it, it’s a waste of time: you’ll probably change that word or phrase out in the editing phase, anyways.

I’m learning to accept the shitty first draft.

Before, the presure was too great. I used to think the first draft had to be as near perfect as possible, with subsequent drafts improving upon that. And the process taking a year or more.

You chart and graph your progress and have accountability buddies (thanks, Melanie! and thanks to the husby, my Juanito.). I learned that while writing first thing in the morning is one of my favorite times to write – because of the silence, not letting the day interfere with my thought processes, etc. – I am not at my most productive. I produce nearly 1,000 LESS words per hour in the morning, than I do in the afternoons. Which is crazy to me after a long day of work, but still.

I’m the first to tell you that my mind is like a fleeting dragonfly. I never know where it will be from one moment to the next. I just don’t have the attention span (I’m not ADHD – I’m just a quixotic creative who changes her mind a lot) to wait that long. And that was killing me.

I know I’m a writer. I know I can write great things. I’m not being arrogant. I’m making a statement that, if it’s not true this moment, I am using a visualization technique to make it my reality. But I now know that if I take too long on a project, my energy for it will fizzle out before it’s finished.

It’s partly because of the energy demands of my day job. I have to be very careful where I expend the precious reserves of energy I have left to indulge my creative beckonings.

The other motivation I have is retirement. I don’t know about you, but I’ve tried the frugal route and it sapped much of the joy out of life. I’m sure I was doing it wrong. But always scrimping and saving for a point in the distant future that may never come seemed increasingly pointless to me. Yes, I still save. Yes, I try to avoid debt. I just do it differently now.

These days, I let myself get a green tea frappuccino, we go out to eat once or twice a month and I work on my giving. I could stand to give more than I already do, but that’s a process.

And I can’t see another route to passive income than writing. It’s what I’m good at. Forget stocks (what the hell is the Dow Jones Industrials report anyways?). Forget trying to buy rental houses (Did you listen to David Sedaris’ tale of his father and the quadplex?). Forget creating a site to make internet millions (The chances of that happening are probably like the lottery AND creating some sort of product to sell is outside the scope of my introverted personality).

So there you have it. My side project. The goal is just to publish ONE freaking book. THEN I will look at the process and my options.

Stay tuned. At this rate I may need alpha readers in a week.

37 + TTOT

It’s been a busy week and I’ve actually been trying to do more than just one post a week. This week that didn’t happen. Ah, well…life.

It sometimes has other plans for us, no?

But today is a day that really makes me count my blessings.

1. I am thankful for another trip around the sun. 37 is my number. It’s hard to believe, and at the same time, I can believe it: all my experiences, all my family and friends that have grown (and multiplied) over the years, all my jobs, all my travels…they add up, you know? It makes for an amazing commentary of a life.
2. I’m thankful for Melanie, Janine, Bill, Clark, Denise, Sue, Lizzi, Brad, Aquileana, Christy and all my blogging friends. You all have touched my life in such a way that I often find myself giving thanks for the friendships I have forged in the wee hours of the morning, when I make it a point to get up and “be thankful” for ten things.
3. I’m thankful for the rain. We had plans to go camping this weekend. But, the Universe had other ideas. I love that life can do its own thing without my intervention and things often turn out better than if I had orchestrated and planned everything.
4. I’m thankful for the blue moon. Yes, today is a rare blue moon. Kinda makes a girl feel special when a rare celestial event happens on her birthday.
5. I’m thankful for the day off I had yesterday. I still had to do some work at home, but all in all, I spent most of the day in my PJ’s. I didn’t do much, either. Just when I thought, “uh, you’re not being productive,” I silenced my inner critic and enjoyed another cup of tea.
6. I’m thankful for Lake Junaluska. We’ll probably walk there later today. It’s one of my favorite things to do: walking in nature.

   

   Lake Junaluska on a cloudy day.

7. I’m thankful for walks with my dog. I’ll be honest: he’s a mess. He doesn’t do well around other dogs or kids, and is really sensitive. You can’t say “bad dog” without getting this look of utter despair from him. So, I try to make sure I say way more “good boys” than anything else. He gets a spring in his step that way.
8. I’m thankful for writing, in general. I would like to “do something” with my writing sometime. Publish a book? Make an ebook? Something. At the very least, I hope to inspire others with shenanigans of adventure.
9. I’m thankful for living in town. I used to think I wanted to be a lot more secluded. I lived in the country – at least 10 miles from the nearest grocery store, 22 miles from work, 7 miles from a library and post office, and only forest and mountains between. It was serene, tranquil, and beautiful. For a long time, it was my sanctuary. But I grew tired of always having to drive and plan a whole day around errands – because it was insanity to just run one errand, go back home and then go back out. Now that I live in town – it’s not a large town, maybe 10,000 people – I can walk everywhere, ride my bike, take my dog to the park, play tennis, and the grocery store is a two-minute bike ride away. I love being able to walk downtown within five minutes, but in ten minutes, I can drive to the refuge of the mountains and go hiking, biking, camping and even boating (but I have to drive like forty minutes for that).
10. I’m thankful for morning breakfast downtown. After days of rain, the sun boldly came out, I enjoyed my chai and veggie sandwich. I’d been wanting to get breakfast at this place since we moved here…but had never gotten around to it. Today, we finally did!

    

    Breakfast in downtown Waynesville

    This is part of the Ten Things of Thankful Blog Hop.

Going on a Journey…To the Center of My Mind

A Journey of Mindfulness and the Challenge of the Gap

It could be an interesting journey.

But I want to take you with me.

You see, I’m learning to navigate the intricacies of being mindful, releasing stress in healthy ways, and continuing a journey that I have been on for a few years…except I haven’t entirely taken anyone else on this journey.

Sure, I’ve shared a few things and you’ve seen the creative side of me. I’ve even remarked here and there on recent posts about using gratitude and abundance to improve upon life’s challenges.

But now…I’m going deeper. And well, honestly, I haven’t written much in the past couple years – not here, anyways. My journal, however, has absorbed the bulk of my sanguine thoughts and aspirations…and it’s partly because there are two things I can’t or won’t share much about: my day job and my husby. (The day job…well,  you never know when the boss is reading and I want to keep husby’s life private. Unless, of course, he starts his own blog. Then it’s all fair game.)

More than that, it’s been an issue of time. Sure, there are 168 hours in the week and I work roughly 50 of them. I sleep around another 56 of them. So…that leaves about 60 hours to work with, right? That still has to include cooking, eating, transitions (like getting ready for work), getting groceries, paying bills, cleaning, getting exercise, spending time with husby and/or family, and just plain ol’ down time.

If I’m completely honest, my day job isn’t exactly conducive to having the energy to run a marathon in the evenings, either. Me being an introvert and all.

But, I still want to commit to writing here more.

Reading a Book a Week

I recently read somewhere that if you read a book a week on your chosen subject, that you’ll read anywhere from 52-60 books per year (depending on how fast you read). And that if you keep that up for seven years, you will then become an expert in that subject.

Well…I can say that I have been drawn to positive psychology, personal development, success, and otherwise books known as “self-help” for a long, long time. I have no idea how many I’ve read, but the number is probably in the hundreds.

Everyone from Tolle to Chopra, Dyer to Maxwell, Pavlina to the Dalai Lama – and many, many, between – has occupied space in my brain from their words.

Their wisdom, their ideas, and their thoughs have indelibly imprinted their essence in my head. And coupled with my own life experience and my own perspective, I feel like, well…that I know a few things.

And I feel that now it’s time to share.

It’s an evolving process for sure. And I will continue to read. Continue to learn.

Getting Into the Gap

The above is a phrase for when you actually succeed in silencing the chatter of your inner mind. It’s otherwise known as meditation.

If you talked to me in October or November, I would have told you that I meditate for 15-20 minutes per day.

And I did. I really did.

In January or February, I increased that to 30 minutes. Partly to cope with the stress of my daily life and partly to cultivate something that just seems to work really well for me.

Recently, however, I’ve increased that time again to 45 minutes in the mornings.

Sure, it would be good to meditate again in the evenings, but…unless I want to fall asleep each time, it has to be in the mornings for now.

I want to share (in a future post) what’s happening with that. What I’m experiencing as a result of deciding to do that.

And well, I do want to build up to 8 hours. Not all the time. But maybe once or twice a month. Eight hours sitting on my tush? Yes, I can see your face right now. But you don’t have to do it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Partly to see what will happen (other than a backside that fell asleep and got numb). Partly because I think I experience some serious happy energy from that process. And partly to see how my mind will evolve.

It’s interesting, too. While meditation is not this “miracle” thing, I can totally see why this practice has persisted for millennia. Since ancient times.

I think our ancestors were really on to something. They had a connection to their roots and beginnings that is not so easy to know now. With the advent of modern civilization, for all our conveniences (and I like my conveniences for sure), we’ve lost something. A connection with the energy field that is nature? A connection to self?

But, I already know it’s possible to reestablish that connection: through meditation, observation of silence, and spending time in nature, among other things.

So…here I am. Ready to share. And it’s going to be an interesting ride in what’s probably a beat-up car, clunckily rolling through the axions and dendrites of the neurons of my brain. If you’d like to come along and don’t mind the occasional sputtering and ear-splitting backfire, come along then and help me shift into second gear. I can’t promise the clutch will last the whole way, but coasting is allowed.

 

Learning to Just Be and #10Thankful

 

Be free. Be as you are.

Personal Development Books on CD

I spend a lot of time in the car.

Therefore, I listen to a lot of radio. But not just any kind of radio…

I often find myself at the town library on Saturday mornings, stocking up on personal development CDs to listen to during the week. Because right now, my commute is one hour, ten minutes round-trip. Five days per week.

I listen to everything from Earl Nightingale to Wayne Dyer to Deepak Chopra to Karen Armstrong. I get so inspired to  be my best and I actually derive so much energy from listening to these people.

And well, maybe I don’t believe everything they say. But really, they want to make the world a better place as much as I do.

So, I listen to like-minded people to propel myself forward.

And that’s the thing.

Propelling myself forward.

Because I listen to personal development stuff for hours and hours each week, I think it’s literally changing my brain make-up or something. I get so many ideas and things I want to do and things I want to try….

But more recently, I was listening to a conversation between Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra. There was a strong message about acceptance: of the way things are and of who you are.

Which led me to thoughts of “just being.”

Your “To Be” List

Chopra reminded me that we’re human “beings,” not human “doings.”

A few years ago, a friend shared a book with me called, “Your To Be List.” (No affiliate link there.) I remember thinking, I have zillions of “to do” lists, but I never thought of a “to be” list.

And it stuck. I vowed to become more contemplative, more mindful.

Be mindful.

That has a certain ring to it.

And honestly, I am looking at how I revamped my blog a few months ago. All the categories here now fall into:

• be a leader
• be aware
• be creative
• be divine
• be grateful
• be knowledgeable
• be motivated
• be spiritual
• be the change
• be your light

I had unwittingly created my own “to be” list. I smiled that I already have been working on just being. For that, I am grateful.

But most of all, and one that I didn’t include was “be me.” To be as I am. Flaws, perfections, mess of thoughts and smiles and all.

Be me.

There’s a certain peace that comes with acceptance of the self. That we really don’t have to be better than exactly who we are.

Coaching Others

Which brings me to another item of “grateful.” Because I listen and get so inspired by personal development-type stuff, I feel this need to share it. To share in this special knowledge that I’ve acquired that has changed my life. Especially more recently.

I’m grateful I’ve discovered free life coach courses online that I want to take. I’m not sure when: my day job takes a lot of time and energy at the moment. But I hope to do these soon.

I’ll have to hit up all my blogging friends for free life coaching sessions to hone my skills. But I want to look into being a spiritual/personal development coach. I keep thinking and thinking about this.

Will I quit my day job? Only if it’s meant to be: I am working on accepting life as it is. And I accept (and rather like) my day job…though I’d prefer a little more free time…like most of us, anyways.

But coaching feels right: I can incorporate all sides of myself: the creative side, the mindful side, the listening side, the desire to make a difference…

Spiritual Development

And I’m grateful for the spiritual journey I’m on. It’s a trip, really.

I’ve started meditating every single day. I’m no pro at it: my thoughts swirl like marbled ice cream, but the act of sitting but trying to be consciously quiet, well…it really does change you. Slowly. Over a long period of time.

I feel it. I feel it in the way I respond to stressful situations now. I feel it in all my interactions with others. I feel it in the way that I listen to my own instincts. And it engenders compassion.

And no matter what walk of life we have: religious, spiritual, or no affiliation with anything, compassion is at the core of every major doctrine and it’s wired into our brains.

If the whole world cultivated more of it, we’d know peace.

12 Steps to a Compassionate Life

I’m grateful for the very interesting and very compelling Karen Armstrong recorded book I’m listening to called, “Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life.” Wow. What a powerful piece she’s written. And so poignantly relevant in today’s polarized world.

Morning Yoga

I’m grateful to Melanie for introducing me to Yoga With Adrienne. I don’t do yoga every day, but when I have the extra energy in the morning, Adrienne has a few yoga morning sequences. After meditating, I do a session of yoga and feel completely and incredibly energized and ready to start my day.

Actually, it would be good to do this every single day, but that’s not always practical…

But still…learning to stretch and breathe and be kind to myself…ahh, yes.

The whole breathing thing that goes with yoga and meditation…I really am embracing it.

Daily Meditation

I usually do about 30 minutes of focused meditation per day.

But I have this wish to try it for 8 hours sometime.

30 minutes can be hard, to say nothing of 8 hours or more.

I read about people going on meditation retreats and that’s all they do for 10 days straight – or longer.

I think about that with hesitation. First because meditation seems to be such a personal thing and doing that with others around does sort of freak me out a bit. But second, my legs fall asleep after not too long…I’d need a meditation bench or something.

But I read story after story about how people emerge from long meditation sessions and they literally see the world differently and their level of compassion is at a maximum. I really want to try this sometime and then write about it.

Perhaps I should next week when I have a couple days off….it would be so interesting.

I have no idea how many gratefuls I talked about in this post. But I can say it’s so much fun being part of Ten Things of Thankful. 

Higher Consciousness and Ten Things of Thankful

Gratitude Is Changing My Life

Yesterday, I was making a “Ten Things I’m Grateful For” list (not related to the Ten Things of Thankful Blog Hop). I started this practice back in October where I either write out ten things I’m thankful for first thing in the morning (well…after some meditation) or mentally catalogue ten things for which I’m grateful.

The Magic

I started doing this because I make it a point to work on my own personal development. This involves reading inspirational books, listening and watching uplifting/inspirational material, and watching my thoughts. One such book – I’ve mentioned it before – is called The Magic, by Rhoda Byrne.

This book is not like The Secret. I actually didn’t buy into a lot of what The Secret says, so I was hesitant to give The Magic a try.

I’m glad I did. Between the gratitude I practice now each day, meditation, and doing activities to increase my mindfulness, my life is changing. Bad days aren’t as bad as they used to be. Stressful events aren’t as stressful as they used to be. My mind is calmer and other things are happening.

Life will always have its ups and downs, but more and more I see the “downs” as a time to reflect, give more thanks, and take away important lessons that can guide me back to the “ups.”

Life Is Happening Now

Every experience we have really does have the potential to teach us something: from how we handled that encounter with the colleague at work, to the way we spend our free time. It all matters. Because life is happening now.

[Tweet “Every experience matters and has the potential to teach us something. Life is happening now.”]

So, I’m glad for the lessons, the ups, the downs and gratitude.

I’m glad for what it’s doing. Let me share an experience of awareness I had yesterday:

I was at work, and I was feeling particularly grateful. I was giving thanks for the beautiful snowflakes I could see outside my office window. I was giving thanks for the good working relationships I had. I was giving thanks for the abundance of funding that I have right now for my after school program – it is grant-funded and is set to run out in June (more on that later).

Responding to Positive Energy

It seemed like during the entire day, people were responding to me. Maybe it was the energy I was putting out – the positive energy of gratitude. But things were happening.

I was at the central office for the public schools where I work. The assistant superintendent’s grand-baby was there. I was going about my business when I wandered into a room and there he was. For what seemed like five minutes, that baby wouldn’t stop smiling at me and held my gaze. It was at once so powerful and humbling. This little creature was adorable and calm, and wouldn’t stop looking in my direction.

I’m not saying that I’m the prettiest thing since Marilyn Monroe – far from it. But I am saying that I swear the energy I was putting forth as a result of the gratitude I felt for having met the little guy was causing this wonderful reaction.

From Crotchety to Positive

Next down the line was how a friend and colleague responded to my presence. She’s normally kind of crotchety. She’s a bit of a negative person, so I do consciously limit my contact with her – I need positive energy in my life as much as possible. But, I found myself giving thanks for our working relationship as well as how she really wants to learn Spanish. I gave her some suggestions for websites and she went out of her way to help me out on a project and was even nice when she returned to doing paperwork that she did not find amusing.

Still, I was offered some extra food at lunchtime for someone’s birthday party and back in my office on the university campus, my group colleagues enjoyed the rest of our lunches over casual conversation – which hadn’t happened much before – we’re usually always buzzing around with lots of things to do.

It was just one of those days when it felt like there was a positive charge of energy everywhere I went. And I’ve been aware of this energy growing.

A couple days ago we had a parent night and did a survey of parents’ satisfaction in the program. I make sure to run my program with so much love and kindness and instill in all my employees that we All Are One and we need to treat each other like it.

There was not a single complaint about the program – and we have 54 kids in the program! Parents came up to me, as well as the students we teach, to hug me, to hug each other and share in love and camaraderie. The employees I have under me all know I love them and that they matter.

You’re a Life Coach

Last evening I met up with a another friend. We were sharing stories about work and life and all its offerings – both good and bad.

The conversation meandered to spiritualism and talk of energy – this has been on my mind so much lately.

I mentioned how I want to make a difference on a wider scale than just a small organization. Granted, the experience I’m gaining is priceless, but still…I find myself wanting to affect people in a way that really makes the world a better place.

She just said to me, “you know, I have an acquaintance who decided to become a life coach and all I could think was why?” She was telling me how she wasn’t sure he had the personality and even the mental practice in place to claim such a position.

But then she turned and looked at me and said, “Cyndi, you’re not a life coach by name, but it’s in your DNA. You’re here to make a difference and be part of something bigger than you even know. You’re supposed to teach and bring light to others. And I think you’d be a great life coach!”

I could only look at her in that moment while my mind entertained the possibility, and simultaneously gave thanks for such a beautiful compliment. She asked if I would ever write a book on how to help people be the best version of themselves through mindfulness and creativity. I told her, “well, not yet.” 

But, I’d like to. Sometime.

 

Not Nervous About the Future

Furthermore, I remember seeing the awe on another colleague’s face when we were talking about funding for our program. She asked me, “don’t you get nervous not knowing if you’ll have a job in a few months?”

I smiled and looked at her and said the following: “I’m in the business of helping people. I came into this job knowing it was grant-funded and it was a risk I was willing to take: to get the experience, to work with this particular population and I know that I work to help people. Therefore, no matter what happens, it’s going to be all right.”

This post is part of the Ten Things of Thankful Blog Hop.