Spring Birds and Summer Challenges

I can't believe we are at the end of May already. The month flew by and, as usual, I have no idea where the time went. To all my American readers, I hope you enjoyed the Memorial Day holiday weekend, and the unofficial kick-off to summer. We certainly have summer temperatures here in Ohio as we turn the calendar over to June.

I met some new little friends in May as a pair of robins built their nest in the forsythia bush in my parents' yard. We discovered the family when my nephew was trimming the bush, and nearly cut the branches that held the nest. Thankfully, he saw the nest in time and quit trimming, but it was a big shock as the parents had done such a great job of hiding the nest, we had no idea the babies were there.

At first, we were afraid the nest would no longer have enough shelter since the bush had been trimmed, but luckily that wasn't the case and the babies continued to thrive and grow. I loved checking on them and watching their progress.

Yesterday morning, my mom saw one of the little birds fly away and, sure enough, by the end of the day they were all gone. When I went to check on them yesterday afternoon, the nest was completely empty, and had the look of a vacant house. No traces of the little bird family remained.

I can't deny I'll miss checking in on these guys. But, it was somehow fitting that as the temperatures soared and the holiday marked the start of summer here in the US, the little birds of spring went away.

As May ends and the summer months begin, I am measuring my progress on some ongoing challenges.

I joined the 400 Mile Fitness Challenge back in February, and I have found it to be very motivating. I love watching my little runner move forward on my exercise ticker, and was excited to see her reach the halfway point last week. I want to say thank you again to Shanae Branham at Triumph and Tears for taking over hosting duties on the challenge, and keeping it going. I'm anxious to continue on, and look forward to staying on track with early morning walks this summer.

Unfortunately, staying on track with my writing challenge isn't really possible, as I'm so far off the track I can't even see it. I signed up for May...You Write Your Novel at the beginning of May, with the goal of writing 1000 words a day and ending up with 80,000 words by July 19th. By now, I should have around 30,000 words. What do I have instead? About 8500.

I can only blame this on my typical pattern of procrastinating until the last possible minute to complete anything. If MYWYN had been an assignment back when I was in school, I would have been up all night on July 18th trying to hammer out as many words as possible. Old habits die hard.

So May was a bust for me on this challenge, but I'm determined to make June better. I still have 50 days to go until the end of MYWYN, so I can start now, give myself a kick in the pants, and crank out those words. I'm turning to one of my favorite motivational quotes to get inspired.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. ~ Samuel Beckett

Happy June, everyone!

Change in Plans

Even though I just wrote yesterday that I was planning to participate in BuNoWriMo, my plans have changed. A woman has a right to change her mind, right?

Thanks to Rebecca Bradley at Life in Clarity, I learned about the May - you write your novel blog, created by Quillers. The goal is the same as BuNoWriMo, completing a novel, but the challenge lasts for 80 days instead of 30. I'm a little late to the party as it started on May 1, but I still have a good 71 days to work with, so I'm just jumping in and I'm excited to see how it goes.

I was excited to learn of the June challenge, but a bit nervous about it at the same time as it seemed a little overwhelming. I think this extended challenge period will be a great way for me to get my feet wet with novel writing challenges without getting stressed out. Thanks to Quillers for this opportunity!

Now I'm hoping I can keep to this plan for more than one day! ;)