Carol Moncado

How’d I do on last year’s goals? Overall… not terrible, but could be better…

1. Do my Bible study every day by the end of the year.
Doing better. But not daily. But did get the kids Bible study stuff too. I know C and Em especially will need help with theirs. Is it the same? No. Is it better than nothing? Yep.

2. Blog.  Three times a week.  Every week.  Or at least a note why I won’t be blogging that day.
Moving right along…
No, seriously. I didn’t. I know I didn’t. I want to do better next year.

3. Go to ACFW‘s conference in St. Louis this September.  Meet people.  Meet Julie Lessman.  Because we all know I ♥ Julie  .
Made it to ACFW! Met Julie TWICE last year! And met so so so so so many other amazing people. Both in person and online.

4. Date night – at least every other month with my honey.
This didn’t happen :(. We did have a week long working vacation in March. And several date nights during VBS but not an EOM thing. Not nearly enough.

5. Lose weight.
If you really want to see my specific goals, you can go find that other post. Let’s just say I didn’t meet any of them and leave it at that :/.

6. Exercise daily – that means at least 6 days a week – also, RUN a 5K
Uh… see #5…

7. Develop and make habitual house cleaning/other routines
Getting a bit better but certainly not great…

8. More fun stuff as a family – game night at least twice a month; Wii Fit/Resort Fun Night the other two weeks
Same as #7…

9. Finish first drafts of at least five manuscripts
a.    Liz [already at 53K] – YEP! Rough draft is done!
b.    Nick/Debbie [already over 50K] – YAY! Rough draft is done! And that’s as far as it’s ever going to get ;).
c.    Nate – Nope.
d.    Two Jasmine novels [one is nearly 50K] – Nope.
e.    Something completely new for NaNoWriMo – Yep! Very rough draft is done! Working on making it a more complete rough draft this week 🙂.

I also started and finished Suburban Straightjacket and started Role-Model Romeo. I had not even conceived of these this time last year.

10. Complete/finished/”final” draft of 3 manuscripts
a.    Liz
b.    Nick/Debbie
c.    Nate – or maybe one of the Jasmines

I didn’t finish final drafts of any of those. But I did start and finish a final draft of Suburban Straightjacket.

11. Contests – enter them 
a.   Enter two manuscripts in Genesis – Unbreak Her Heart and Nick/Debbie [and give it a title :p]
b.    Join RWA
c.    Enter RWA contests
d.    Enter at least one MS in RWA’s Golden Heart
e.    Enter Great Expectations again [entering the first time this week]
f.    Try to enter at least one contest at least every other month [those above are the biggie annual ones – at least the ones I know of]

I entered 2 books in Genesis. Joined RWA and entered Golden Heart this year with Suburban Straightjacket. I’ve also entered SS in Great Expectations and a couple of others. I’m trying to get the beginning of Finding Mr. Write ready as well, but we’ll see.

12. Read 4 books a month.  For research.  Yep.  That’s it.  Plus one non-fiction or craft book.
Didn’t read any craft books all the way through though I’ve read bits and pieces of several. I’ve read over 100 books this year, need to review some of them ;), and read some more :D.

13. Query
I haven’t queried much per se, though I did send out several for Unbreak Her Heart. I did send out two Suburban Straightjacket proposals after conference. One was rejected out of hand. The other was also rejected but very nicely so with some positive feedback as well. I’m working on at least one other proposals for an indie press. After the first of the year, I’ll start queries for SS.

14. Always remember Why I Do What I Do.
At last! One thing I fully succeeded in! [This makes much more sense when you remember there was a pic of my kids next to it ;).]

Later this week or early next I’ll post some 2012 goals. Here’s praying I can be more successful with them :).