October Challenge – How Did It Go?

Back at the start of the month I set my self a 3 part challenge for October and I am pleased to say I succeeded (sort of). Yay for me!

1. Blog More. I wanted to post at least 1 if not 2 ‘proper’ blog posts a week over the course of October on top of my 365 project posts and I managed a total of 11 which is a pass. Especially impressive considering I was away on holiday for half-term week and had no internet access.

 

2. Read At Least 2 Books. This is where the ‘sort of’ comes in. I read one and two-thirds. I finished Pale Demon and got very close to finishing Forever but I didn’t manage to fit it in before I went away and the opportunities for reading when sharing a caravan (and bed) with both Tori and Arthur are precisely non-existent. When they weren’t running us ragged we were collapsed in a heap somewhere sleeping!

 

3. Cook At Least One New Recipe. Now here I excelled – I cooked LOTS of new things this month. This is partly down to my random urges to bake and also to the wonderful veg boxes we are now getting – I have to start finding things to do to use all the yummy veggies!

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So one fail but one super success – that equals out, right?

Personal Challenge – October

Click here to Link Up your own Personal Challenge post and see what everyone else is doing!

I missed last month…oops…

So, Hello October and your very confused weather! My Personal Challenge for this month? Try to get back on top of my blog, finish at least 2 books and cook at least one new recipe.

I neglected Carole Finds Her Wings over September aside from my 365 Project posts and I missed it. I just wasn’t really myself last month and  lots of things suffered for it – I didn’t cook as much, read as much or blog as much amongst other things. So this month I want to try and fix those things with my 3-part challenge.

1. Blog more.

I want to aim for at least one, if not two, blog posts a week aside from my 365 posts. By that I mean posts with words, like this one. Any two – be it a meme or an original post.

2. Read at least two books.

I have just started Pale Demon by Kim Harrison so I am aiming to finish that and then read another one after it. I am thinking it is either going to be Forever  by Maggie Steifvater or The Omen Machine by Terry Goodkind. but it could end up being neither of those because I have so many books in my TBR pile that I might pick another one at random in the end!

3. Cook at least one new recipe.

I have petered out on my meal planning too and have been cooking all the old standards that I used to with little variation so this month I want to cook something shiny, brand new and different at least once.

 

Fingers crossed October is a better month than September was and I start to get back on track with everything. I’m fed up of feeling fed up.

Sorry I’ve Been Quiet.

You may have noticed that I have been a little quiet on the original blog-post front for the last week or so and I just thought I’d offer up an explanation.

It got mentioned by someone, and not for the first time, about how they didn’t understand where I found the time to blog at the same time as having two small children. They found they didn’t have time for anything when their children were small because once they’d done the housework, fed and played with the kids and slept when they were sleeping they didn’t have any time for anything else.

That hurt. It made me feel like I was somehow neglecting Tori and Arthur by blogging or being on Twitter or Facebook. I suddenly felt like I should stay away and do nothing but housework and play with them and nap when they napped otherwise I was letting them down.

I felt like I’d failed them. And so I stopped.

Once I’d calmed down a bit and had a few hugs (both real and virtual) I realised I haven’t let them down at all – I don’t nap when they nap, I sit down with a drink and my laptop instead. I steal half an hour to do something that makes me feel like me, to be ‘Carole’ not just ‘Mummy’. I write. Writing is my daytime nap. It relaxes me and makes me feel better and these few days without it I have noticed a difference and it hasn’t been a good one.

I’ve had a bit less patience with the Smalls. And with me. And with Sy. And with everything else.

I need to write. I’ve blogged about that before. Even now, with two little people taking up most of my time, I still need to write. Even if it’s only a couple of hundred words about something that has annoyed me or a mushy post about friends and family and not a chapter of my latest novel (yeah – you know that 80k in 80 days thing? – That didn’t happen…) Writing is writing and it’s part of who I am.

Maybe other people never had time for such frivolities. Me? I make time.

Well, I have to start somewhere…

I hate first posts. This may not be my first try at a first post but they never seem to get any easier. I never know what to put. So…

…Hi! I’m Carole and I’m doing my best to have a life and become a writer all at the same time. Which is a bit of a challenge. I graduated from Bath Spa University in 2009 with a BA(Hons) in Creative Writing, which I like to think qualifies me as, at the very least, an ‘almost writer’.

I’ve tried blogging before but never been very good at it and generally let them fade away into oblivion and hope they never resurface. Alt. Fiction 2010 inspired me to change this and to create a blog that actually does something for me in a positive manner. Like help me meet people like you, who also like to read or write or provide critical comments or share writing…or whatever it is that you do. Also it might help someone notice me because I am here. Really really here. *waves madly* At some point I would like to be ‘somewhere’ instead of ‘here’ and hopefully this is a tiny shuffle in the right direction.

I’m now going to stop waffling and rescue my incredibly late dinner from the oven as I forgot it and now suspect it is more closely resembling charcoal than food…