Like First Grade Basketball: ROW80 Check In

Parenting is full of twists and turns and the unexpected. I'm constantly amazed by how little I know. Every time I think I'm ahead of the curve, a new challenge pops up. I'm not complaining. It's hard, but it's also taught me a lot about myself and about life. I knew I'd be expected to teach them, but I'm overwhelmed by how much they teach me.

Today, my baby girl played her first game of basketball after only two practices. She's been dribbling her ball all over the place and begging her dad to practice with her.

She gave it her all during the game, and refused to allow the much bigger boys to intimidate her. The whole ride home she was trying to convince her dad to buy the family a basketball hoop.

Her enthusiasm was contagious. I'm always planning and assessing. What's the best use of my time, what task makes most sense to do first, what path is the most effective? I forget to just take the ball and play my heart out.

Writing is full of much bigger authors and lots of players. But there's no reason to be intimidated. I need to write, pour all my creative juices into it. Because if I do, I'll be happy and excited to play again. There's a place for planning and strategizing, especially as you gain skills and ability, but you need to love the game.

In the end...

"It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up." Vince Lombardi

My ROW80 Update

It's Sunday. Time for an update on my ROW80 progress.

Writing: Going really well so far. Thursday through Saturday resulted in 1,667 words, so I'm keeping with my 500 word per day goal. I'd like another 1,500+ words by Wednesday's check in.

Blogging: Posting daily here. My Thursday review of Stephen King's On Writing was featured on BlogHer. *I'm dancing* And I posted three times on Mom in Love with Fiction.

Reading: In addition to the 2012 To Be Read (TBR) Pile Challenge, I'm participating in The Stephen King Project. I'm still hoping to add at least one more 2012 reading challenge. Any suggestions?

Editing: Fell behind, but planning to catch up this week.

Exercise: Staying on track. It's helped that we've had warm, non-January weather lately and I love getting outdoors to exercise. And I'm getting a handle on sugar.

Social Media: Doing better, but it's so hard to unplug. I need to take my laptop to a building with no wireless signal.

Hope everyone else is keeping the momentum going.

Check out other ROW80 participants here.