I didn’t even manage to pop in to say, Happy Holidays, and here’s to a wonderful new year!

(So I’m saying it now, a little belated.)

We welcomed in the New Year at Disney World in Orlando, Florida – it was a great trip, but being one of those excursion-oriented trips (theme park, theme park, and then more theme park) when we arrived back home, I felt in need of a vacation (I assume you’ve all been there, done that).

While we were away, I actually spent time pondering over what I would be doing with BelleEnchanted in 2009 – yes, that’s one of the many ways my mind likes to occupy me when I’m away on holiday. A few things occurred to me:

1. I am just not cut out for the whole journaling live online daily thing. I occasionally get into a nice blogging rhythm but I confess, nearly anything can distract me and steer me off course. And I mean, anything. Like a good book. Or a new blog idea (I don’t even want to go there. I’ll just say it happens. And happens.) Or a good dinner (and we have quite a few of those around here). Or deadlines (we have lots of those around here, too).
2. But when I fall out of blogging here, eventually I think about something I really really want to post about, and I find myself back here again. Because frankly, blogging here is fun. When I’m not distracted, that is.
3. And even though I just don’t have the disposition to blog consistently, I LOVE the thought of having done so. (It’s kind of like me and my writing, but let’s not go there, either, okay?)

These random thoughts lead me to something else: I’d like this blog to be about authenticity, inspiration and creativity. At the same time, I’d love for it to eventually resemble (somewhat) a journal (of sorts) – you know, a piece of me and my life for my kids and grandkids (if I have any) to enjoy (or not) at some vague future date (very future date, let’s hope).

All of which, I know, has nothing to do with the title of this post – yes, I’m back from Disney! And in subsequent posts, I will be putting together a little journal of our days, mainly for me and Ward, and for the kids. With pictures. Because yesterday I spent an hour uploading over 700 pictures from my digital camera to my computer. All of which I need to sort through.

But first, I felt like writing something here. And here it is.

Happy new year, everyone! Here’s to a great and fabulous 2009!

NaNoWriMo: I didn’t reach my 50,000 words on the one hand, but my initial goal was never to do that. It was to simply get myself sitting down and writing. So I must say, I’m looking at my official 32,532 words with great pride.

Here’s what I’ve discovered: for me, the biggest obstacle is the first step of sitting down and opening up my writing software. Once I place my fingers on the keys, the magic happens. I’m not sure why I have such a block about sitting down and just doing it, since I really enjoy the process so much. But one step at a time, right?

Starting tomorrow, I will have a new widget thingie on the sidebar, showing my word count for whichever novel I’ll be working on. I wasn’t able to keep going with the NaNoWriMo novel these past few days because of deadlines, and also because it suddenly seemed to me that I had to change the narrative from third person omniscient to first person, but only for the scenes involving the main protagonist. Who also wants a name change, too. (I’m not too sure about that one.)

NaBloPoMo: I was actually on track with blogging every day in November (despite what the dates on the posts tell you – I personally count a day as that period of time before I sleep and wake up to the next day. Blogging software has a more rigid, machine-driven view of “a day”.) And then I went and forgot to post yesterday!

So I very nearly posted every day here. Not too shabby, I think.

Art Every Day Month for November: I couldn’t keep up. Too many deadlines, and I also discovered that the writing took priority. I only did four pieces of work, and only posted three of them because I truly didn’t like the fourth one. I may do this challenge again, but probably not until the new year.

It’s been a good month. Ive still not had the time to check out all my favourite blogs regularly, but hopefully, because the deadlines are lighter in December, I’ll be able to get back to it. It’s one of the most enjoyable things about blogging, I’ve been discovering.