I Need Your HELP! A NaNoWriMo Plea

November is NaNoWriMo. It is where crazed writers try to churn out fifty thousand words in the hope of one day calling it a novel. A challenge that not all can accomplish but well worth it for those who do. The satisfaction of so many words is indescribable. A feeling I really want come November 30.

Source

As I sit here and write I am feeling beyond cool. My arse is firmly planted on a chair while Miss Two happily runs around the air conditioned indoor playground as I sip a rather delicious cappuccino. According to the man on the radio this morning today is bound to shape up as a stinker so I thought I would retreat indoors before I had the chance to discover whether or not they were right.

Really life couldn't be better.

Well supposedly.

The cold hard truth of reality is that on many levels life could be a helluva lot better. But it could also be a lot worse so I am happy to stick with the it's all rosie notion. Because that's what looking for the silver lining and I am always on the look out for that.

Plus most of the areas where there are room for improvement are a direct result of my attitude and how I deal with the situation. Which kinda means that unless I am prepared to change said attitude there is little to no point complaining about it all.

To say I have been grouchy, grumbly and just generally in a bad way of late is possibly an understatement. A bear with a sore paw would make less fuss than what I have lately. In my defense though I do seem to be fighting off a tooth infection. Sigh. No I am not going to a dentist.

Moving along.

One of the first world issues that is getting me down is the lack of readers I feel I have. Or rather the lack of reach I have. Stupid I know. But there you have it. Keeping it all locked inside isn't working so best I spit it out.

You know how it goes, more numbers, more opportunities, more free stuff, just more. Everyone wants their fifteen minutes in the sun. What ego doesn't like being stroked from time to time? In many ways it is only natural. Especially when you can see so many others getting a piece of cake.

Thankfully for me my sensibilities kick in. I know all the hard work that I am sure other bloggers put in. Or rather I know how little effort I put in at times. That is what needs to change before anything else.

Once I try my best then all will work out for the best. That's how it works isn't it?

So with that in mind I am off to instill some discipline within these here fingertips of mine and I calling on you to help me.

In a bid to not be overwhelmed with writing one whole long story over thirty days I am going to write 30 short stories over 30 days which is where you come in. To help me come up with story lines I am asking readers to give me a few prompts to get me started.

So think of a location, object and a genre and hit me with it. Each day I will select one suggest and turn it into a 1800 word masterpiece. Suggestions can be left here in the comments or on my Facebook page. All stories will be published over at Fly By Fiction. Feel free to head over the now and sign up to a feed so you don't miss out on seeing any of the great yarns that I am sure will be told.

Flogging with Grace

Things I (don't) Know About People and Life

Blogging this week has taken a bit of a back seat. To what I am not exactly sure I just know that I have not been able to get much (anything) out. I even failed to get something up for IBOT which regular A Parenting Life readers will know does not happen very often.

A week that sees me also forgo Thankful Thursday is also a bit of a rarity. It was not because I am lacking in thanks either. More so a case of motivation I think. I am on the verge of being a little overwhelmed by how much I actually have to do. This is always a sure fire sign that motivation is about to walk our the door.

Next Friday we are meant to be on the road to Cairns. However it now appears that Miss Eleven may have a hockey grand final to play on the Saturday so we could be slightly delayed. The following Friday my baby sister is getting married. No wonder my head is spinning circles.

I can still remember the day she was born. It was on my seventh birthday and even now I can recall how amazed and incredibly blessed I felt. Sitting on the swing in the front garden after my party, waiting to go and meet her. All so surreal I was sure that I must have been dreaming. She was a dream come true and to this day the best present I have ever been given.

But alas I digress. I am meant to be sharing some things I know.

I know that judging people is not always advisable. Nor is thinking ill of them.

The grumpy sales assistant at Spotlight, the one I will wait to be served by someone else rather than him, turns out to be not so grumpy when not at work. The other week at the Kenny Rogers concert, when we had squashed into a tiny empty space next to his rather large, yet empty blanket, he actually offered us some of his spare blanket. I now know I was wrong to judge.

Way back at the start of June I wrote a letter. It was a release of rage that had built up over the frustrations I let another parent build in me. I thought ill of them and wondered why they were out to get me if you will. Recent weeks however have seen this same person go out of their way to be more than nice to me. Compliments and smiles whenever she can. I now know I shouldn't have assumed the worst.

I know that when I started writing this post I had much more to say than this. 

Or at least I thought I did. Though perhaps the fact that it is now way passed stupid o'clock and I should be tucked up in bed fast asleep has something to do with my inability to think straight.

So there you have it, turns out I am not overly knowledgeable today, but I do know that all the cool bloggers are sharing what they know here

And I also know that a Friday Flog is always a good idea

Team Friday - Getting back into it

It's been a while since I have made the time to share how I have been making exercise matter.  While I have not been neglecting my exercise as much as I have been my blogging about it, I still haven't been reaching the goals that I had hoped for.

When I started running back in February the plan was to be able to run for thirty minutes.  Which also is meant to equate to 5km.  At this point in time I can run just about for thirty minutes.  By that I mean run for ten to fifteen minutes walk for 30 seconds to sometimes a minute and do it all again.  Actually I can run for four ten minute blocks with no more than a minute between runs.  

I can also run for 5km.  Actually I can run for up to 7km.  What I can not do though is get that 5km out in thirty minutes.  Luckily though I don't beat myself up about it, well not too much anyway.

When I completed the C25K program a few months ago I decided that the next logical step was to try the Bridge to 10K program.  Even though I can't get 5km out in 30 minutes I wanted to run for longer.  Sadly I am still on week one of that program.  Turns out I didn't have as much in me after 5km as what I thought I did.  

Despite the 10km feeling a little out of my league I have not given up.

The school holidays made it a little trickier than I would have liked to maintain my three times a week runs.  Though really I am just making weak excuses.  I did manage to get a few in here and there and had I really wanted to I am sure I could have gotten a few more in.  It was just easier to say having the kids around made it harder.

Not going three times a week really made it harder for the times I did get out there.  To save my morale from completely diminishing I decided to head back to the C25K and do runs that I already knew I could.  Best. Idea. Ever.

You see going back to runs that I once struggled with, that I now almost breezed through felt amazing.  I felt stronger and more empowered than ever before.  Running through stages that I had previously had to walk through let me see just how far I have actually come.

For two weeks I retraced my C25K steps.  Yesterday I redid a week one run from Bridge to 10km.  It was harder than the C25K but no where near as hard as when I first started.  In fact at the end of it, despite being a little disappointed with my distance, I was over the moon with the amount of time I was actually running.

From here I plan to keep on going with the 10km program.  Finding nearly an hour to run rather than thirty minutes is a little trickier than I expected but oh so worth it.  All the running events for this area are all over for the year but I am certainly looking forward to being able to enter some next year.

Joining in with Get On With it Already for

as well as With Some Grace for