Category: Experience

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Goal Update for October

At the end of each month, (or beginning), I review my yearly goals and spend some time reflecting on how I’m doing in living the life I want to live ~ a way of becoming my own accountability partner and having frequent check-ins to evaluate my progress. I’m still in the process of revising some of my goals as I encounter successes…..and setbacks. New goals have asterisks for the month of November, when I will report on them in a few weeks. For the month of October, here’s my goal reflection:

CategoryGoalsMy Progress
Literature



Read for Sarah Donovan’s Book Group


Send out Postcards


Blog Daily




I participated in the October book discussion with Sarah’s reading group for Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World. I’ll participate in the book discussion for Assessment 3.0 this month. Time for reading has been scarce lately, but Audible is a good way to try to keep up the pace when all I can do is multi-task.



I sent no postcards this month.

I continue to blog daily, and the daily writing and reflecting is a wonderful habit for me. I don’t feel complete without some form of daily writing, and the blog is a way of continuing the habit.

I had a Zoom meeting with Ruth Ayers of Choice Literacy about writing for her website. I look forward to spending some time writing about local literacy events.
Creativity

*Decorate for fall





*Create Shutterfly Route 66
I created a surprise ducking of our office. I used tiny ducks left over from my brother in law’s birthday ducking and put them to use in the office, even adding Halloween ducks to the lineup.

I have been trying to get to Shutterfly since July, so if I haven’t accomplished this goal by the end of October, I may give up on this one. Update: I’m giving up on this goal.
SpiritualityTune in to church



Pray!



Keep OLW priority		We have been tuning in to church. With Dad preaching every Sunday in October and a few Sundays ahead of that, it makes the church home hunt take a back seat until my childhood church gets a new preacher, since I have the opportunity to hear Dad.

My car is still my prayer chamber for daily prayer, and there’s so much to give thanks for. I continue my conversations with the good Lord each morning and afternoon.

I’m still keeping my OLW my priority: pray!
Reflection
Spend time tracking goals each month

I’m tracking goals, revising, and considering some new categories as I look at my goal table.
Self-Improvement*Reach top of weight rangeThis is a setback for me this month. I’ve hit major stress and gained weight, despite joining WW. I need to set a firm date and get the mental mindset that it takes to stay on track. I have work to do. Update: every day, the diet is starting “tomorrow.” I seriously need a good mindset to start back. I’m keeping this goal. I need to get on track. Tomorrow.
GratitudeDevote blog days to counting blessingsI begin the days this way and end them giving thanks as well.
ExperienceEmbrace Slow Travel







Focus on the Outdoors


I’ve taken a trip in October to F D R State Park for a Little Guy Southern States Meet Up. We met people who have the same kind of camper we have, and we even signed up for next year’s meet up in Tennessee at Roan Mountain State Park. My brother and his fiancee came for a visit during Fall Break, and it was wonderful having some time together with them.

I’m still focusing on the outdoors with birdwatching adventures and camping. We also built our own fire pit foundation for the fire pit my son gave us for Christmas last year.



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Project S’mores Pie

cool night for s’mores pie

after our chili supper

next to the campfire

family dinner

Sunday evening gathering

sharing old stories

new memories made

conversations under a

starry nighttime sky

Graham cracker crust with marshmallow and chocolate
Baked and then browned on top
Rich and sweet but everyone liked it
Dinner and dessert by the fire
We added Campfire Colors for a dazzling show!
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Autumn Walk

I had a meeting in our local coffee shop yesterday and treated myself to a Hex Latte while projecting next year’s budget and goals with a community partner. From inside, the vintage paned windows make the outside world look a little bit like a dripping realistic painting – the kind of windows that have candles and snowdrifts in the winter and don’t have 20/20 sharp focus. It’s like I’m in a world of my own in there.

I confess: I was.

I had a moment, looking across the town square, when a brilliant flash of fall colors caught my eye. “I’m walking this square when I leave here. I’m sharing these pictures with others – this Hallmark Movie charm this time of year is too beautiful to keep all to myself,” I decided, right then and there in the middle of a business meeting.

We finished. I walked along, thinking in Haiku, as I mostly do. Here is part of my walk that I’m sharing with you:

charming small town vibes

fall displays on courthouse square

spiced chills in crisp air

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Taking a Boon Canine for a Walk

Today’s host for our final day of the October Open Write is Anna Roseboro of Michigan, who inspires us to write Take a Word for a Walk poems. You can read her full prompt here, along with the poems of others and the responses to writers.

Anna writes: Take a word for a walk.  Students might choose a word from the class generated vocabulary list or from a list of concepts or abstract terms. Move this word through the poem so that it appears in each “X” position.  There can be six words in each line.  Use color, abstraction, or other poetic devices in your poem. Use this formation:

X – – – – –

– X- – – –

– -X- – –

– – – X – –

– – – – X –

– – – – – X

Master of the House, Doling Out the Charm, Ready with a Handshake and an Open Paw

Boon – blessing, benefit, favorable, friendly, chipper

Everybody’s boon companion – one convivial mister

Les Miserables boon lyrics loop de-loo

We have a boon canine: Boo,

who sleeps under the boon moon

awakening soon, our Boo boy boon

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Little Guy Southern States Meet-Up

The day we bought our Little Guy

My husband and I attended the Southern States Little Guy Meet-Up over the weekend at F. D. Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia. There were 21 Little Guy campers occupying campsites and probably 35 or 40 people gathered for the campfires each night, so I wrote a Luc Bat today about my weekend. At http://www.ethicalela.com, our third day of the October Open Write is being hosted by Wendy Everand of New York, who introduced this poetry form and inspired us to write one today. You can read her actual prompt here if you’d like to try one of your own! If you are interested in next year’s Meet Up, it will be at Roan Mountain State Park in Tennessee from October 16-20, 2024. Come join us – to write poetry, to camp, or both!

Notes about this form from Wendy: The luc bat is a poem with Vietnamese origins.  It means “six-eight” and consists of alternating lines of six and eight syllables with an unusual rhyme scheme:  

xxxxxA
xxxxxAxB
xxxxxB
xxxxxBxC
xxxxxC
xxxxxCxD
xxxxxD
xxxxxDxE

There is no set length to a luc bat:  you can make it as long as you wish.  And there’s no set meter.

Little Guy Southern States Meet Up

Southern States Campground Meet:
from all around, to greet the day
there’s just no better way
for LG folks to play and chat
we roll out welcome mats
put on jeans, don camp hats, build fires,
give camper tours, check wires
make our beds, shine our tires…….relax!

Getting set up
Picnicking at Dowdell’s Knob overlooking the valley
Fitz kept my seat warm while I took a breakfast picture
A group of LG folks at pumpkin archery class
Group fire in the evening – one member shared chocolate from a box that was the size of a wall poster
We threw in color flame to have a colorful fire that lasted about 30 minutes – blues and purples and greens!
Always the sad part – coming home from a great camping weekend!
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If My Shoes Could Talk

Today at http://www.ethicalela.com, Tammi Belko of Ohio is our host for the second day of the October Open Write. You can see her prompt and read her poem here as she inspires us all to write. Today, we are writing about what our shoes would say if they could talk. I got a little concerned about the reality of this ever happening…….all my secrets would be told!

If My Shoes Could Talk

If my shoes could talk
they’d tell all my dark secrets:
sweets-binge hiding spots
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Crossings

Erica Johnson, our host at http://www.ethicalela.com for the first day of our five-day October Open Write, wrote one of my favorite forms of poetry – found poetry – in an art museum using the artists’ statements about the works! You can read her poem here – it surely captures the essence of departure by someone, leaving us to feel the loneliness that comes, almost missing them before they get fully out of sight. I feel I have been on an art exhibit tour today. Erica invited us to find poems in artists’ statements about paintings as well. I have a framed print of a painting that my parents gave me for Christmas in 1984, after I fell in love with the landscapes of the English countryside painted by John Constable following a visit to the National Gallery in London. My favorite Constable work: The White Horse, kept at the Frick Collection in New York. Here is the art link: https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.1146.html

The White Horse

six-foot wide space
a new technique
spanning canvas
no longer overshadowed

The White Horse
crosses
the River Stour
to the other side
on a barge

full-size sketch
with broad brushstrokes
thus crossing a new
career threshold

The White Horse painting appears at 2:37 and at 2:49 in the video
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Little Guy Max, Mini Max, and Micro Max Meet-Up

Picking up our LGM in North Georgia last November

Today we are heading off to F. D. Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia for the Southeastern States Little Guy Meet Up. This is a group of people who all love camping in our Little Guy campers. We’ll gather at various campsites as hosts invite us to bring a log of firewood and our camp chairs to sit around the fire pit and share stories of our camping experiences. Some travelers will take two days to make the journey, but we are blessed that the event is happening at one of our favorite campgrounds that is just under one hour from our home.

We bought our 2022 Little Guy Max Rough Rider by Extreme Outdoors in November 2022 from a couple who had planned to travel and camp throughout the United States but had a change of life circumstances that thwarted their plans. The previous owners had done all of the initial fine-tuning needed when anyone buys a new camper, and had even put together a three-inch binder owner’s manual with plastic sleeves, receipts, and warranty paperwork. They’d changed out the uncomfortable mattress for a Bamboo mattress and added a Froli bedding system, for starters. They’d also added a bike rack and put extra sealant on the side seams. They took immaculate care of the camper, and we felt fortunate to have had an actual engineer own it before we bought it from them.

“Join the club,” the previous owners urged, “there’s a whole following of LGM owners out there, and you can learn a lot from the Facebook groups.”

So we did. We joined all the groups and learned about Randi’s Adventures on YouTube, where she gives weekly tips on camping in this minimalist fashion that we have come to love. She hosts a yearly gathering on Lake Michigan, and we hope to get to that one someday, too.

But for now, we’re joining the meet-ups closer to home. Today, my husband and our dogs will make the trip to get set up, and I’ll join them after this evening’s National Day on Writing event on our town square. I’ll share pictures and stories from the meet up next week, after our October 5-day Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com that begins tomorrow.

Cheers for cozy nights with blankets and clear, starry skies! We can’t wait to share our adventures with you next week!