I am about to turn 32 years old. But I am not old. Far from it, actually. I’ve been thinking about lots of things lately, about old friends that I’ve been able to reconnect with through Facebook, and about new friends, that I am continually creating new memories with. And when the old meets the new, it creates a wonderful atmosphere of people around me that know me, like me, and enjoy me as a person. It’s nice to have that feeling and I wish everyone I know can experience this at some point in their lives. Or at least realize that they are already loved by so many people, no matter how alone they may feel at times.

Now that I’ve reached a point in my life where I am so many things to so many people, I have to maintain balance. Not only with the people I know, but with myself. What I want to accomplish in life, and what I need to do as mother, wife, team leader, writer, photographer, daughter, etc… don’t always match up. I’ve been trying to return to a more balanced life of doing all the things I want to do while still finding time to teach my daughter everything that my parents taught me. But it’s hard. At my core I’m a writer, but the closest thing to writing I’ve been doing lately has been updating my status on Facebook and commenting to my friends on theirs. I’m definitely not living the life I envisioned for myself when I was in high school. But I’m not complaining, because I’m perfectly happy with things as they are. I would just like to add to my happiness by finding time to write more.

One of my goals this year has been to create a more welcome and inviting home, by keeping it clean and getting rid of the clutter. And when I do this, I find that I have more time to spend writing than sorting through a messy room cleaning. I recently cleaned the den and now I actually want to spend time in here, at my computer, writing. It’s amazing what a clean room will do to enhance your motivation.

Balancing everything at work and at home is pretty easy for the most part. It’s just the normal stuff of life that gets in the way, like staying on top of laundry, keeping the dishes clean, cooking regular meals, paying bills, etc… Reducing the clutter and trying to stay home more on the weekends has helped accomplish this. But I could be better.

One of my main goals this year is to write my book. I’ve already started it and it’s all written in my head already (much like my Strange Thoughts columns from eons past). I just need to set time aside each week to get it done. Seems like such a simple thing, yet each week goes by and I fail to do it. I see so many of my friends with blogs and other written things on the Internet, and I’m so happy to read what they have to say. My roommate Jill from college has a great blog about her family and how she is homeschooling her three kids. She is such an amazing person and to see her also find time to write to the world about it makes me so happy. Many of my friends spend time vlogging or writing comments about news stories they see, or writing book reviews of the books they’ve read. All this is inspiring me to get my act in gear to write my book.

Another motivating factor is my gummy lump. I think I’ve mentioned this before in a blog post, but the gummy lump is a time capsule I created in eighth grade. I had forgotten what I’ve put in there, but I know that one thing that I probably put in was a letter to my future self, most likely saying how I should be a published writer by now. I get to open it New Years Day 2010, so I have less than a year to get published, or at least to try. So I’m going to give it a go.

I’m trying to set aside time each week to blog too. Sundays are looking pretty good right now, so every sunday I should be writing something new, be it a poem, or a story, or just some thoughts I wish to relay to the world. I have this space to let people know what I think so that’s what I’m going to do. 🙂