Quick update: December 2014

Hey everyone. I've been super slammed--which is awesome, but crazy. I'm more swamped than ever and my blogging suffers. (Actually I have been blogging, but for paying clients.)

I wanted to give a quick update:
1. My Spiritual growth has been subtle but good. It's great how God comes through for you when you're busy. I'm making every effort to continue to make time to hang out with God, but it's been really busy. I'm not satisfied.

2. I've been really blessed to have my mom help with childcare, and to have a happy 8 month old baby who sleeps through the night (most of the time). I also have a happy marriage to the most beautiful woman in the world. My next improvement will be to find a way to have family dinners together starting with a couple times a week.

3. I'm happy to report that I'm accomplishing my exercise goals. I wish I could say the same for my diet goals. The net effect is that I'm not losing weight, but I'm not gaining weight either. So if I can make it through the holidays without losing ground I'm prepared to call that a victory, and January is going to be a whole new campaign.

4. I'm still valiantly trying to crank out my scifi 1st draft by the end of the month/year. It's going well, but I'm behind.

5. One of the best things about my new regular writing contract is that I"m using a lot of the things that I went out of my way to learn, purely hoping that I'd get the chance to cash in on it. So take it from me, no matter what a pain in the rear it is, never stop growing your skills. Another nice thing is that I'm gaining some new skills on the job. I normally prefer to bid work for the flexibility it offers. And for the fact that I can increase my pay by working faster/better than the next guy. BUT being in a team environment again reminds me how much I learn from coworker interaction.

6. No update would be complete without mentioning my new gig at Tire Kickers. I love the guys I'm working with and I love working as a writer for start up companies. Tire Kickers stands apart from most of the companies I've worked for. They really count on using great, innovative ideas to achieve goals instead of old boy networks, bullying, marketing brainwashing, etc. It's nice to work for people who aren't jaded.

7. The holidays are pretty much taking up any effort I could expend toward relaxation. I'm going to take as much time off next week as I can, but even if I can't, I'm enjoying work. The only person working harder than me is my wife. We're up at 5 every morning and the other day she didn't sit down until about 45 mins before we had to go to bed. I have put in plenty of 16 hour days before, but I just can't run that hard anymore. We went three weeks without a day off earlier this fall and I'm just sapped.

Well I hope everyone else's life is going awesome. I should find my new groove in the new year. If not I'll have to make it happen somehow.

Bonus for making it to the bottom of the page: Writing contests for the next two months.
http://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2014/12/16/competitions-for-writers-january-february-2015/