This week I have to say I wasn’t as productive as I’d intended to be. I kind of overdid it on my exercising this week it took two days for me to recover from that. I can see that I really do have a long ways to go if I’m going to make that triathlon in July. :)

On the posting front, I did make a post here every day except Friday because that was my first day feeling energetic enough to get some writing done, and so spent the day putting together the most recent issue of The Acorn Stash Newsletter. I still have to create the cover for it, and post the table of contents over on the blog, but the issue itself is ready for download.

This week’s photo posts included:

Scenes From the Path
Raindrops on Maples
Around the Lift Lock
My Afternoon Stroll
Sunday Sunset
and Sittin’ on the Dock

I also posted three new wallpapers with quotes on happiness. My favourite of the bunch is this one:

Happiness is like jam. You can’t spread even a little without getting some on yourself. ~ Anonymous

I’m thinking this week that I might add a few new ones without any quotes that are based on my own photos. What do you think?

And that’s unfortunately about all I got done. From the list I posted last Sunday I still have to set up a blog for the fitness stuff, and get started on the weekly Squidoo lenses. Those two tasks will head the list for the coming week, along with the usual photo posts and articles. I’m planning on heading out of town for at least one day this week to do some “country” photos. I’ve seen a few amazing shots of fence lines and snowy fields in my blog travels this week that have inspired to me to go out and capture something other than water and park paths.

Here’s to another amazing week. What do you plan to get done this week?

Now that the first week of the year is officially over, it’s time to reflect a bit on how it went and what that portends for the rest of the year. I wrote out a lot of goals and plans before the year started, and as usual, I’m off to a slower start that I wanted. But I’m not at a complete standstill, so there’s still hope for me! :)

I’ve fallen in love with doing photography stuff… almost to the point where I have to remind myself that I’m a writer first and foremost. So this week my focus was more on writing than it was on pictures. I missed two days of posting, and where once I would have stressed over it and tried to double up another day, I just let it go knowing that there are lots of days left to do more than one post if it’s warranted. Today is shaping up to be one of those days. :)

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new online this week:

On HelenaRitchie.com

Photo posts:

Rails and Trails
It’s Monday
Going With the Flow – where I also talk a bit about how one of my major goals this year is to live more in the flow instead of trying to structure each and every moment.
Urban Sunrise

More wordy posts:

Thank You post for December Commenters

On TheAcornStash.com

A new article – When Not Making a New Year’s Resolution Can Be a Good Thing

A new announcement about the Self Improvement Giveaway that I’m participating in. I’m giving away a free report on self-sabotage and how to overcome it. The giveaway is going on until the 19th of this month and you can check it out here if you’re interested: Self Improvement Giveaway (that’s an affiliate link)

A new free wallpaper you can download – This one includes a quote from Abraham Lincoln on success. (not my photo)

I also started up a new tips-style newsletter that sends out a short email every few days with success tips, quotes, and free stuff like wallpapers and reports.

On the health front, another of my major goals this year is to get healthy and compete in a sprint-distance triathlon this summer. When I told my doctor this, he actually laughed at me. So where I was mildly determined to do it before, I’m super-determined to get there this year and not only compete but finish in the top 10 for my age group. And of course, I’ll be blogging about the whole experience.

And that’s my week that was. :)

On the horizon for the upcoming week are a new full issue of The Acorn Stash on the 15th, a new blog for my fitness exploits, and of course more photo posts here, and more articles. I’m also taking part in Tiffany Dow’s challenge to build a squidoo lens a week for 52 weeks. I’m a week late starting but I’ll catch up somewhere along the line. :)

Have an awesome week! And may you accomplish everything you set out to do this week. :)

It’s been a very strange week, but a wonderful one nonetheless.

On Friday afternoon I ended up with some time to kill whilst waiting for my son and so used it to reflect a bit on my week and to jot down some thoughts. Any other time I would have been late for picking him up, but that day I planned for the traffic, and the roads were pretty much empty. Coming home was a different story though… got here and the police had our street blocked off. Don’t ask me why though because I still haven’t found out what happened.

Anyways, it was just another one of those things that made this week so strange. It started out great. Sunday and Monday were really productive, and Tuesday I spent a lot of the day watching the inauguration and indulging my inner historian. But after that it was like experiencing a serious let down. I felt like I was in a fog for most of Wednesday and Thursday, and was hardly able to do anything but sleep.

But even though it was an unproductive week, it was still good I didn’t get stressed out over anything, and that’s a major accomplishment for me. I paid attention to my body and gave it what it needed, allowing myself to sleep as and when I needed. I did all my Wonder Woman Challenges this week with the exception of an Artist’s date yesterday. I’m going to have to pick another day besides Saturday to do that one because Saturday just isn’t working out for me as a day when I can get away on my own.

If there was a downside to the week, it was the problems I had with wordpress not accepting my posts. That threw my whole writing/posting schedule off, and although I didn’t stress over it, it did affect my mindset for the entire week. I didn’t want to take the risk of writing something and losing it when I tried to save, so I just didn’t write at all. And that got me a bit frustrated that my business building isn’t going according to plan this month, and is not as successful as I’d like it to be at the moment. My first big goal of the year is to move at the end of March, and I will admit, I’m already getting anxious about it.

One thing I’ve noticed this week is the definite relationship between mindset and physical health. I always knew it was there, but I’ve had proof in spades this week. I’ve been unfocused and in a daze mentally, and at my morning weigh-in today my weight was up, and my glucose readings have been on the high side all week.

Another thing I’ve noticed this week is that I seem to be developing a pattern of withdrawing in the middle of the week. This was the second week in a row that I didn’t talk to anyone, didn’t play on twitter, check emails, or do anything that required communication for a couple of days. And it’s not a pattern that I want to develop. This week was even harder to turn everything back on and jump back into the fray.

A big part of my challenge is to be more open and allow myself to connect with others. I can honestly say that I didn’t realize how hard it would be. I think deep down somewhere I figured that it would be just like flicking a switch and I’d turn on the extroverted part of me. Only it really doesn’t work that way. It seems to me that even though humans are social creatures, being social does not come natural to everyone. It’s like any other muscle development. You have to use it to build it, and when you don’t use it, it weakens and atrophies pretty quickly. And I can honestly admit that my social muscles need a lot of strengthening. :)

This week I’m making a conscious effort to not withdraw at all; to develop my social muscles a little more, and to not allow the little setbacks to ruin my plans for the whole week. The month isn’t over yet, and although I realistically have to say I won’t meet the goals I had set for myself this month, there’s still a week to get something done so that it’s not a total loss.

Here’s to a wonderful week!

What are you doing to make sure your week is wonderful?