Week{ending}...

As I had determined to do from the beginning, I held my plans for this week loosely, and many of them slipped out - replaced by interruptions and detours. 

And that's okay. I'm not frustrated or discouraged. The overall goal for planning was to move forward and not idle or drift, and that was certainly accomplished - if not in the ways I'd planned.  

On this Saturday morning, I'm deeply satisfied with how the week unfolded and even with the plans we have for today that were not on my calendar for the week. 

What about your week? Are you satisfied with your accomplishments? Do you, like me, have new plans for the weekend you had not anticipated?  I really would love to know.

{Photo}Day 13/366 bringing in beauty

With a brand new notebook...

Now that the holiday weeks of I-don't-have-a-clue-what-day-it-is are over and {Lord willing} there's a good possibility that a whole week {without a holiday} lays before me, I look forward to how I can work those goals - not as a to-do list, but a guide for growth. A framework - boundaries. 

I'll look for a new and interesting recipe, consider an artist or musician to research and a photography skill to practice, and wonder what I'll write to my grands in a Letter from Mimi's Backyard.

I know to expect challenges, interruptions, and the need to make adjustments and even embrace them, but I'm excited. It feels a bit like a new job or the first day of school with a brand new notebook.  

I better go sharpen my pencils.

{Photo} Day 8/366: red-bellied woodpecker at my sunflower seed feeder

Week{ending}...

6/366

With outside temperatures in the upper sixties, I spent hours in my backyard yesterday soaking up sunshine in a make-shift "woman cave" - a lounge chair, a basket of cameras, a larger basket of books and journals, my iPod and coffee. My heart is set on a repeat today - Lord willing. 

The weather is a huge influence on my adherence to goals. Delightful days like yesterday demand that I drop all other plans and bask in the gift. Wouldn't you do the same? All was not lost, however. I made significant progress in Les Miserables, read a short Victor Hugo biography, and did five loads of laundry. Sounds like progress to me.

As idyllic as I may have made this week appear, it was not without life's distractions and diversions that included knee injections, a hard freeze, severe fatigue, and Casey in an auto accident on his way to work after a truck ran a red light and hit another truck that hit Casey. Casey was shaken and a bit sore, but otherwise okay. His car sure isn't. Writing a blog post was one of the only daily goals I may have met some days, and that's okay with me.  

Speaking of writing, have you entered this month's The Write Practice "Show Off" writing contest?  I hope so - many of Pollywog Creek's readers are excellent writers. The deadline to enter is Tuesday, January 10th, so you've got all weekend to work on it. 

I'm begging grace and patience if you've emailed, called or left a comment this past week that I did not respond to. Severe fatigue is a understatement. With barely enough energy to walk from one room to the next, I was in bed by 7 one night.  Some days I was too weary to talk so I ignored phone calls and have voice messages I only listened to yesterday. In a true emergency, I knew the person trying to reach me would call Louis or Emily if I didn't answer. Fortunately that never happened, but I did unintentionally worry a few friends. Please forgive me. I treasure your friendship, your comments and words of encouragement, but the rest has been good for me. The fatigue fog seems to be lifting a bit, so while watching the Gators play basketball today, I hope to respond to the comments and emails I've neglected this week. 

For now, my morning chores are behind me and it's warming up outside - time to gather my "woman cave" furnishings and find a lovely spot of sunshine.

I'd love to know what your day holds...and if you have an awesome main dish recipe you think I would like to prepare next week, I'd truly love for you to share it with me. 

{Photos} a visiting warbler

Every week...

5/366

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
(Proverbs 19:21 ESV)

There's been a comfortable orderliness to this first week of the new year - it opened gloriously into a sabbath day of rest and reflection and gently unfolded with daily insights for not only the day laid open before me but for the days and weeks to come.

Even as I made thoughtful, prayerful plans of my own, I held tight to the thread spun throughout every day - that the LORD's plans are the ones that prevail. When the unexpected derailed my goals for the day, I could release them to calmly focus on the interruption and be satisfied that my accomplishments were in the Lord's hands, not mine.

My weekly goals were designed to both give me space to accomplish them while prioritizing some of the daily goals by enhancing them. Reading, writing and photography are some of my most important goals. Though I might not meet them daily, including them in my weekly goals will highlight their importance {to me}.

     {In Christ Alone} {Every Week}

• Read  ----> a classic
• Learn  ----> focus on an author, artist, musician, sculptor...
• Write  ----> letter(s) to family and friends
• Family ----> write a "Letter from Mimi's Backyard"
• Cook  ----> prepare one new recipe
• Photography ----> learn and practice a new skill or technique

How am I doing so far? 

I started reading Hugo's Les Miserables - thanks to my very smart and witty friend Mary. It's massive. I might be in it for a while. 

I also roasted a chicken using a mouth-watering recipe from the lovely and insightful Tonia. I had to adapt it a bit, but it was still wonderful. I'm making the broth today.  

That's it - but it's only Friday. I have the rest of the day and all day tomorrow, Lord willing. 

What about you? Have you met any of your goals for the week?

{Photo} Orchids inside, protected from the frost and freeze

Every day...

4/366

...the prudent gives thought to his steps.
(Proverbs 14:15 ESV)

Being prudent in this verse from Proverbs means two things to me: that it's important to plan and that planning takes time to pray and think through.

As I mentioned, without a plan or goals I drift aimlessly, but impulsive or hastily made plans are not wise either.  

My daughter recently accepted an opportunity to do something without giving it much thought. It was a great opportunity and I would have done the same thing, but when the stress of trying to make it work became overwhelming, she realized her over-commitment. Backing out disappointed others, creating more stress - a predicament I'm all too familiar with myself. 

As I have created goals for the coming year, I have tried to be prudent - to pray through them and think carefully about whether they are appropriate goals for me in this season. Even so, as I work through them, I have given myself permission to revise them. The point is to keep growing and moving forward - to live life to its fullest in the places the Lord leads me.

     {In Christ Alone} {Every Day}

• Create ----> write a poem, paint, sew, craft, play piano, garden, photograph, redecorate...
• Bring Beauty ----> to me, in the house, in the yard, or to others...
• Write ----> ghost writing assignments, to the grands, blog, works in progress...
• Read ----> poetry, biography, best-seller, essay...
• Photography ----> project 366... 
• Move ----> walk, stretch, bounce, range of motion...

The idea is to do something from the list of possible options in each category. It's not binding or exhaustive, and some of the weekly goals, that I will post tomorrow, enhance these categories to emphasize my priorities. 

I'd love to know what you think, and if you have similar goals for this new year. 

{Photos} winter arrived in a hard freeze to Pollywog Creek, flowers rescued before the freeze

Promises...

Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise...
2 Chronicles 6:10
Promises. I've learned not to make them, because chances are my best intentions {and memory} will fail. And if there's anything I've learned from this past year of affliction, life's best lived one day {if not one step} at a time.

But there's a balance between taking life as it comes and holding tight to plans and an agenda - a balance I often struggled to find last year. Too often I drifted aimlessly when established patterns and rhythms no longer worked. That's not my hope for the days to come. I need to gently tap the pendulum in the other direction.

Before my mornings were greeted with pain, I'd wake every day with open hands and the simple prayer, What are we going to do today, LORD? It didn't mean that I didn't have plans for the day, only that I wasn't clinging to them - that I was giving them over to be changed or redirected, because if the Lord wasn't in them, I didn't want to be either. 

I still don't, so as I endeavor to stop drifting and move forward with a few simple plans {not promises} for the days to come, I preface them with  "Lord willing".