spryng | Home Again and a New Year (Reply)

Sometimes it feels like I have only two modes: manic on and sloth off. I'm either doing 20 things at the same time or rolling on the floor, petting cats. No inbetween. And now that we're back from a week of pretty much rolling on the floor, petting toddlers, I'm itching to go-go-go.

I want to hike! I want to write! I want to clean! I want to cook! I want to see people! I want to make LISTS!

Since I'm stuck at work, though, I'm mostly stuck making lists. But before I get distracted by that tangent, let me reflect on last week for a few seconds. First, it was great. Second, it was cold. Third, it was family and family - especially when you get a hand in choosing it - is always grand. I loved seeing my niece (pictured above with Lady) and expanding her vocab to include "goodness!" and maybe someday "microbiome!" We got to see friends - who have amazing digs and seem really happy - and play in the snow. Or at least, I played in the snow.

Then there was lots and lots of sugar. Omg. Going on the AIP now is almost a relief.

So now, lists! I'm thinking a lot about what I want out of 2014, but I can only get through April in my head. That's all right because I'm pretty rubbish at long term goals. Shorter term, fine.

So for the first part of 2014, I want to focus on daring greatly. Besides that book being awesome, I feel like it was the final kick I needed to stop being afraid of failure. We can't know or prepare for everything and it's way cooler to attempt a jump and smash in your face and have the scars than to just stand there. I know my biggest fear of death isn't so much the dying but the regret I'll have, all the things I didn't accomplish.

And my biggest hurdle right now is querying. Setting that goal for 50 rejections last year was a good start, but I'm still afraid of rejections. I think I only ended up with about ten by the end of the year. It was too easy to put off to another day, to avoid that pain, and I ended up not doing it. So this year, I'm going to acknowledge that it hurts, that it is difficult to query, and work on making it as smooth and easy a process as possible. I've already discussed a few ways to do this with my wife - like having a query packet ready to send that's really easy to modify for individual agents and setting aside an evening or two a week - but I need to brainstorm a few more.

Everything else pretty much falls in to keeping what gains I already achieved, i.e. being consistent with weightlifting, running when I want, eating well, seeing friends on a semi-regular basis, hiking, and being generally awesome. The weightlifting and eating will get a little more focus in the next few months because I want to be the healthiest and strongest I can before we start trying for baby. I've read time and time again that ladies who squat a lot before & throughout pregnancy tend to have a much easier time of things. So squatting will continue until moral improves.

Then my other big thing is putting together and doing the things on a Tucson/General AZ bucket list. We've only got a year and a half for sure left and with our other plans, the time available to actually go out and do things will be truncated.

This is what I have so far, to be added to:

TUCSON/ARIZONA 2014
- Grand Canyon! (April)
- Ridge Hike (Tanque Verde Ridge)
- Seven Falls hike
- More sunsets at Gates Pass
- More sunrises at Tumamoc
- Visit Sedona
- Watch Dia de los Muertos procession
- Mi Nidito
- Center for creative photography
- BOOK FAIR
- Spring bloom hike