Yay December is done! (ish)

I hope you all had a great Christmas! It was a bit chaotic, but I think over all, I couldn’t be happier, going into 2019 is something I am looking forward to right now.

So I haven’t done much writing or knitting. Things at work have been a bit manic but that’s not unusual but I am really tired from working with the Christmas rush. I am looking for a little time off. But I am sure I will find many excuses for time not spent writing but I am hoping to write more this year, rather than keep in this little old routine of not doing much. I want to write more. So I am going to be trying to find a way to manage my time much better.

The heating got fixed! Yay! It only took a damn month! But we got there in the end.

December was chaotic even though everything got rapped up early, there were family dinners and lots of work. Running around had me too exhausted to do very much.

I cant wait to see what next year will bring. Time for some adventures.

So Darling Daughters is OUT NOW , so for those of you wanting to get your hands on the ending… here is the link for Darling Daughters!  OUT NOW!

The Diary of Elliot Parker  Ninety-One to One hundred and Twenty!  OUT NOW!!!

Or if you want the whole collection in one neat and tidy book, here is the link for the Complete Collection! OUT NOW!!!!! 

Nothing changes here in terms of throwing plugs in for my amazon books on my author page… I haven’t lost my hope just yet.

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA

xxx

I hope you’ve had a brilliant Christmas, but I am really getting excited about the New Year.

Well, obviously spending lots more time with D. I’m looking forward to writing some more… Whether that is working on the big project which I barely touched after finishing it, or working more on the Dollhouse project. I love both but I don’t mind which takes priority for the year right now.

I am looking forward to continuing the work on the law of attraction stuff I started doing in the middle of 2018, it really got me focused on what I want and where I am going. I think that was a big help and a great drive to push forward more with the things that made me happiest.

I am hoping to spend some more time with the family, and I am looking forward to experiencing some new events. I am looking forward to my 28^th birthday, hopefully a smaller affair this year. Hopefully, but still as fun.

I am hoping to go on a trip to Brighton again this coming year. I want to go and see a west end show. I want to do something, like go out on Halloween like I have done the last couple of years, 2018 was The Phantom of the Opera (for the second time this year) with D. Last year, 2017 it was Wicked with D and H and in 2016 it was Wicked with C.

I am looking forward to reading new books and writing some more. I am looking forward to making some time for myself. I am hoping to do something strange and new, I wouldn’t mind trying to climb the O2 as well… 2019 looks to be full of so many opportunities.

It’s coming up to that time where I start to think a bit more about what I want to try to do next year. I think a large part of that is going to be how I spend my time.

I think the one major thing I need to really think about is motivation and will power. This year has shown me that without driving myself hard enough and just coming out of a routine and being selfish with time set aside for a dedicated purpose I won’t do it. Writing is the biggest example. If I don’t “feel like it” I have stopped doing it, and laziness and procrastinating doing other things has taken over. I don’t want to repeat that next year.

A large part of my year next year is going to be dedicating time.

This year after some time off sick in the summer and seeing how that affects my wages I am looking at a new way of budgeting… It’s like a tiered approach divided into priorities. So far looking at it this way has really helped how I view my finances and the knock on effect. It feels less stressful, although there is always more month than money, I am getting better at not spending it all… almost. This year I learned how to save a little bit better.

With next year on the fast approach I am going to have to start making some tough decisions. I think learning some self control and remaining motivated will be the biggest personal challenge I can possibly give myself.

You would think this would be all about actual orchids, but no. It is about my nana. Something you may not know about my nana is that she has a magical touch with orchids. She is the green fingered member of the family, unlike myself, I can’t even keep a cactus alive.

But I wanted to write this because, I am so very very proud of my nana. She may not believe it or realise it all the time, but I appreciate her being there for me. We don’t always get along and we bicker sometimes, but we still have a great relationship. Over the last couple of years we have really bonded since I’ve been living here.

I don’t know if it is a generational thing but she can go about things in a very inefficient way and that is normally the main cause for disagreements.

I am really lucky, she has good intentions, she does things for the right reasons mostly which means at the heart of it we get along. She is a good person, and I know we don’t always agree but she does have the best intentions.

So right now, being sat opposite her, munching on her sausage rolls with a cuppa tea while she watches bargain hunt I wanted to really remember this, this normality and stability that she has brought into my life. Something I didn’t have before, not when I lived with mother. But I appreciate her.

For Christmas, I got a shelf unit to help tidy up the kitchen to make some more space that I am sure she will fill with her kitchen gadget addiction to frustrate me. But for her birthday even though I am giving it very early, is a microwave that’s green because, it is after all, her favourite colour… my green fingered nana.

I hope she realises just how much she means to me and how much I want her to be happy and have a happy life even if that means tea and bargain hunt.