Jaci Dawn

The first day of a new year and a new plan for getting ahead.

I only have a couple of resolutions this year:

1. to do three art shows this spring/summer/fall.
2. to submit my novel to an editor (I’m in the last 20 pages of re-writing).
3. to go hiking with my husband and my camera (I haven’t been out in the woods with either one for about 3 years).
4. get my website fully functioning.

There are some plans for the future: family reunion on the maternal side (the Scots side). This year: South Dakota. The family is either in Wisconsin or on the West Coast, so every three years we try to meet somewhere in the middle. I missed the reunion in Colorado three years ago, and the one before that was here in Oregon. This year’s reunion will be a little sadder: both Uncle Bob and Aunt Phyl passed away in 2017.

I have a continuation of last year’s resolutions (and probably the year before): the really de-clutter the house. I started today, by deciding which Christmas decorations stay and which go. We went from 9 boxes of Christmas stuff down to 7 boxes. I also sorted through some of my mother’s sewing stuff, but not much actually got thrown away.

Resolutions need to come with A Plan (how am I going to achieve?), and I do have a plan. Unfortunately, I also get side tracked on occasion: garden catalogs come in the mail; I look at my unfinished art projects and wander off on a tangent; the furnace dies and we have to finance a new one; the refrigerator kicks the bucket; I get depressed and everything falls apart.

1. My mentor and girlfriend is coming over next Saturday to talk about my plans for my art this summer: this is good. I have an accountability partner.
2. NaNoWriMo is offering an editor through the month of January for those of us who reached 50,000 words. I have a deadline to redeem something free.
3. My husband is my incentive. He needs to lose 30 pounds, we made resolutions together, and he promises to have the engine in the 1971 VW van by summer. All I need to do is bring my camera.
4. I am working on a new gallery on the website (fairy houses and elves). I need to go back through my galleries and update the SEO, ass inventory numbers to items for sale, and mark other items as SOLD. This is boring work: I’d rather be painting new paintings. Therefore, I start new paintings that I just have to finish.

I think I’m going to go look through old encyclopedias for interesting animals to paint. Time to procrastinate some more!