APRIL In Review

April has come and April has gone. Historically, April has been my least favorite month. There are lot's of reasons for that, but April 2014 was actually pretty great. I traveled a bit, got to see a lot of friends, and explored Denver some more with some great people. 

Also, I was intentionally creative and pretty much rocked all my goals. They were so life giving, which is why they were so fun. The only week I didn't quite succeed at them was the week I traveled, but it's kind of hard to bring your ukulele to 10 cities on a work trip. So I think that's okay.

1. Play the ukulele three times a week for a half an hour.
• Nailed it. Songs I learned to play from memory: Kiss the Girl, I'm a Believer, Cups from Pitch Perfect, Stay by T. Swift, and I'm currently working on Wagon Wheel. One of the committee heads for Summer Training plays the Ukulele, so I'm excited to play with her this summer!
2. Sit down two times a week for at least an hour and write.
• Success! And this was probably my favorite of the three goals. I loved adding this practice into my life. I got to check out a few fun coffee shops, and I felt a lot of freedom in my writing. Instead of frantically scrambling to get the words out of my head and onto the page (internet), I was able to jot down notes and really spend time with some of my ideas. I definitely want to keep doing this. 
3. Create something beautiful once a week. An image for this blog. A song. A craft for my wall. A card for a friend. A friendship bracelet. Just something.
• Semi-success? I was able to finish my scarf for #scarvesforthehomeless, I made some cool stuff for this blog, and some cute stationary/envelopes for friends. The main reason I sent this goal is because I've been wanting to make this craft for my room, but I didn't end up getting a chance to do it.

I have the map AND the paint! I just need to do it.
image via.

April, if you could continue to be so great for the rest of time, I'd really be okay with that.

April Goals: Create More

Every week when I make my schedule, I always try to work in time to write. And even when it makes it onto the calendar, it is one of the first things that I am willing to move around. Which usually  means I don't end up doing it.

Do I need to write to successfully do my job and get through life? No. But writing gives me life, it energizes me, it helps me process information, and it allows me to become more self aware. I think these are pretty important things. So in April, one of the main things I want to do is write more. Maybe I won't be writing publishable things, but I want to dedicate time each week to sit down and write.

I have also really enjoyed playing my ukulele. I'm still pretty bad, but that's what practice is for, right? Playing the ukulele gives me a chance to sing, and puts creating music back in my life.

As I was reflecting on these things, I realized I just miss time to create. So with that in mind, I set 3 Goals for April to help me create:

1. Play the ukulele three times a week for a half an hour.
   
2. Sit down two times a week for at least an hour and write.
   
3. Create something beautiful once a week. An image for this blog. A song. A craft for my wall. A card for a friend. A friendship bracelet. Just something.

Here's to investing in myself, my spiritual gifts, and hobbies that give me life. 

Trusting Jesus in my Art

I was complaining to myself earlier today that 1. I hadn't posted anything for this 7postsin7days business yet, and 2. it was really, really hard to write this week.

Then I sat down to write, and I finished off two pieces that have been sitting in my Evernote for awhile, made some good progress on a few posts I've been wanting to write, and started a mini-series I've been wanting to do for awhile now.

But I didn't want to publish any of them. I wanted to save them for later, edit them up, add some images, make them more perfect. But most of all, I wanted to protect myself for future weeks with some back up posts. I wanted to schedule one a week, so I could feel confident in my blogging stability for the next few months. Get ahead, you know?

The question I must ask myself is if I truly believe I have been called to share this and gifted with writing, why don't I trust myself or Jesus with what I'm creating?

So though I chose to write this instead for today's post, those other posts will come out later this week. I'm choosing to trust myself with this skill I have developed and Jesus with the gift he has blessed me with.

And, I'm combating my perfectionism by keeping this short and image-less. :)

7x7: Writing

7 posts in 7 days. Woof. I signed up on Jen's blog and now I'm telling you all about it, so that means I have to do it...right? Right.

I actually am really excited about this and I want to do it. Ever since I've implemented this 6-step planning process in my life, one of my main roles each week is a writer. And a goal for the past 3 weeks has been to find writing exercises and do them three times a week. And...I have not done that yet. So this 7x7 project is going to be my writing exercises for the week. Thanks for bearing with me.

Of course, now that I've committed to doing this, I can't think of anything to write. Recently, someone told me that writer's block is not a real thing. That only writing when you feel intensely inspired is laziness and we stifle our creativity when we do this. A little intense, yes, but also motivating. I've been in the place where I only write when an incredible idea comes to me...and that just leads to disconnected and incomplete pieces. I don't want to live in a place of perfectionism and inconsistency. No, I want to be a writer who pushes through and makes her work a priority. I want to write when the writing is hard and bad so I can improve it and grow. So this week, I'm focusing on my writing goals.

I actually have a lot of writing goals

• Make a facebook page
• Figure out a layout/branding I actually like
• Set readership goals
• Dedicate some time to writing each week instead of just doing it sporadically

...but I'm really good at brainstorming goals and not actually following through. I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately....hmm. Maybe I should figure out how to work on that.

Anyways, that's going to be all for today. Thanks for reading, and coming a long for this 7x7 journey. Thank you for giving me an outlet to grow as a writer and have fun along the way. Hopefully, we can create something amazing together this week.

a grateful heart.

This is Jon.

well, and Carol.

Jon has been running the FOCUS twitter, and thanks to his retweet, so many awesome, awesome people read my post last Monday. Thanks to everyone who hopped on over here via FOCUS, and thanks to those of you who are still here! I'm excited you're here, and I'm excited to get to know you better!

I've been feeling so incredibly grateful this past week by the number of people that have viewed my blog. I've gotten encouraging comments and texts and messages thanking me for my vulnerability in my last post.

A good friend of mine from Drake, Erika of All Things E, wrote a great post last week on the Numbers Game in the blog world, and it came at just the right time. I was getting discouraged by my low daily readership, and then BAM, hundreds of y'all stopped by last week. But that's not even the thing that matters.

I'm on the far left & Erika is on the far right!

Erika wisely writes about putting faces to the numbers and recognizing that every click is an actual human person. So, like she did, I pictured what it would have been like to give my blog post as a speech to a room full of that many people. I imagine it would look something like this:

image via EideCom.

Okay, so that picture is the main ballroom from SLS and it is close to 2,500 people...but still. It helps put it in perspective. I also started thinking about how much time it would take me to sit down with every person who stops by and reads and get coffee with them. That's a lot of time. Thanks Erika for your awesome insight on how our worth in blogging should be more about the individuals who read rather than the stats and numbers.

I started writing after my long break because:
1. I wanted to,
2. it kept coming up in prayer, and
3. apparently writing is one of my spiritual gifts. (hollaatchya, Spiritual Gifts Inventory.)

image via.

Having the habit of picturing sharing my posts with a room full of individuals flows into gratitude for this platform to share my heart, gifts, and relationship with Jesus. It reminds me why I'm writing and why I can spend so much time on this hobby.

So to all my fellow bloggers out there, hop on over to All Things E and read Erika's post, and then spend some time in gratitude for your blog...even if only one person reads it each day!

Here We Go

here we go, one more time, everybody's feeling fine, here we go now...

Alright, alright, I'm a slacker when it comes to writing. I can't even begin to tell you how many times writing and planning for writing ends up uncrossed off on my to do list. I could blame it on being busy or so many other things, but when it comes down to it, I was just slacking.

Many times I would start to write again, but then question of why am I doing this would come up...so I would stop. It is so easy to highlight the perfect parts of my life as I'm writing, but that's not reality. Last year there was a lot of suffering coupled with my joy and I wasn't sure how to articulate it without feeling fake. So even though I really wanted to write, I just didn't.

Jesus and I talked about it, and I'm going to start writing again. Here's why:

1. To document my growth during this "critical decade"

Seriously, every few months I look back and feel so different than who I was before. The decisions we make in our twenties will effect the rest of our lives (seriously. that's one of the reason's I'm a FOCUS Missionary). With such rapid growth and change, it is nice to have the means to document it so I can look back and see where I was compared to where I am now.

2. To share the light of Christ and the beauty of His Church through media as a part of the New Evangelization

My relationship with Jesus is very intimate, but every good gift that He gives is meant to be shared. Jesus loves us each uniquely and personally, but He gives us the gift of others to encourage us in our walks of faith. If my journey and relationship with Jesus can help someone else, then heck yes I want to write about it!

As I've fallen deeper and deeper in love with Christ and His Church, the more I've desired to share this love. We are called to do this in all ways! I talk about Jesus in my real life and my social media life. Why not share this love via the bloggosphere!?

3. Spiritual Gifts Inventory 

One time last year I thought about completely deleting my blog off the internet, and then I got a letter from an old college friend. She had been watching The Tudors, and had become fascinated by the beauty of the latin prayers of the Rosary that Catherine, Henry VIII's first wife, would pray on the show. This compelled her to research modern day examples of people living out their Catholic faith. I received one of the kindest letters I've ever received from her, telling me how she had read through my old posts and was inspired by the work I was doing with FOCUS. So after that, I decided I should probably leave this up.

That experience with my friend coupled with the results from the St. Catherine of Siena Spiritual Gifts Inventory that I took last year further convicted me that I needed to step up my game and start writing again. This was one of the coolest tests I've taken. It takes real situations from your life and simply points you towards some of the ordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit that you could have. It is meant as a way to encourage you to pursue some of them more deeply to see if this is a gift God has given to you to bring others to Him. Writing was one of my top potential gifts. If God has given me the ability to inspire others to draw close to Him through my writing, then I will write. "Let us use the gifts given to us by grace..." - Romans 12:6

4. To stay connected with my mission partners and friends

Yup. Stay tuned for thoughts on my mission, Jesus, friendship, and all other kinds of good, random things. Enjoy this picture of me and my friend Megan in bear costumes:

I can't wait to tell you about the ministry fair.

5. To push myself

I love writing because I love critical thinking and analyzing. Writing consistently will give me a formal outlet for this and will allow me to use my voice. It will help me to fully develop my thoughts and opinions and practice expressing them in a formal manner.

So there it is! We're going to try this again more consistently.