Resolution Check-In: May Edition

Woah -- April is gone and we are already four days into the month of May. My creative writing has stalled during these last few weeks -- but I am hoping to crank things up again so that I have a productive summer vacation.

Here's a quick update of my New Year's Resolutions:

1) Take More Photos (at least two pictures a week)

Much to my surprise, I managed to keep up with this goal. I took a total of 60 photos in April. Here are some of my favorites.

The first one is from our visit to the Embry Riddle campus in Daytona Beach, Florida. Here's the band performing in front of the Science Building. (Check out that cool observatory tower!)

I took a lot of snapshots -- most of them were either boring or just odd. But I rather like this image of an amazing collection of these little model planes in a glass case. 

* * * 

The next day... Mackenzie and I visited the campus of Creighton University (located in beautiful Omaha, Nebraska). I met a squirrel. 

While Mack experience dorm life, I wandered around the town and discovered a cool board game cafe called "Spiel-Bound."

Corgi-on-Campus.

* * * 

On holiday, I met the most terrifying Easter Bunny in Palm Springs... or maybe in actuality it was the least terrifying furry in Palm Springs. It's hard to say. But what is for certain, this is the blurriest selfie known to Man.

* * * 

 Here's my favorite photo of the month: Lizzie and Em. 

ACHIEVEMENT: 33% Complete

2) Write / Sell a New Picture Book

As mentioned last month, my agent sold a new picture book!  This month I received the contract in the mail. I signed it off, sent it back, so everything is going well in this category. 

I'll give you more details on this project as soon as I can. 

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED. 

3) Generate Idea for Next Big Project (Complete 25% of it)

Because I paused on the novel and sifted to a chapter book (which I don't think counts as a big project) I haven't made progress this month. Hopefully that will change before June arrives. 

ACHIEVEMENT: 20% Complete. 

4) Work on a Creative Project with my Daughters. 

My lame excuse: we've been caught up in all things college. 

ACHIEVEMENT: Pending...

5) Show my appreciation more often / strengthen relationships and communication

I thought that this would be the easiest one of the bunch. Instead, this has turned into the project which I keep forgetting about -- and when I don't forget about it I just get lazy. I connected with a couple people this month... but not nearly enough to get me back on track to taking this goal a lot more seriously. 

ACHIEVEMENT: 7.5% Complete

6) Lose ten pounds. 

This one is still maintained -- thank goodness. Last January I was at 175 pounds... I went down as low as 158 pounds, and I have since leveled off at 164 pounds. (At least that's what I was this morning... I did eat about a half dozen Candy Cane Joe-Joe's... That's right! I still have boxes of Trader Joe's cookies, left over from Christmas. Jealous? 

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED.