JANUARY 2020

THE FIRST MONTH OF THE YEAR IS OVER. WHAT. 2020 is 1/12 of the way done. :o (Yes, as a matter of fact, I DID use that same joke last year. And let's be honest, I'll probably use it every year now.)

I've actually had a fantastic month! I really couldn't be much happier with how this first chapter of 2020 unfolded for me. But I'll spare you the rambling and just get right into the details.

I would have liked to start off the month with reading, like, eight books? But hey, sometimes that just can't happen. And I still did have a pretty good reading month, looking back on it. I read The Warrior Maiden and The Piper's Pursuit by Melanie Dickerson; and a devotional called Unbridled Faith by Heather Ruble (she and her husband preached a revival at our church a few years ago). I'm also reading but not quite done with The Tale of Despereaux, The Book of Secrets by M.L. Little, and Power Rangers: The Ultimate Visual History. Enjoying all three very much!

Okay, this I COULD have been happier with. Of course when the month started I had big dreams about diving back into writing headfirst and finishing a draft and doing all sorts of other things. Because, like I am at the beginning of every year, I was motivated. But apparently I wasn't motivated enough. xD My main focus was Fall Into Time, and I wrote a couple thousand words or so, but then I realized that I've written myself into a corner that I can't really find a way out of without a) some awful writing that will for sure get trashed later, or b) doing some actual planning. So I chose B, and that's what I've been doing since. Just worldbuilding and digging deeper into the characters and everything. And hopefully I'll be able to come up with a better idea of where this story is going.

I bought a new notebook for the occasion. (Who doesn't love a new notebook?) Not just a plain old spiral notebook (not that there's anything wrong with those), but a bit of a nicer, journal-like one. Simple, black (it's really similar to the one I use for my bullet journal, but the pages are lined instead of dotted), and pretty. I also got new pens and guys, Sharpie pens are the bomb. Who'da thunk. :o

One of my best friends left for college. She's only been gone for a couple weeks and I already miss her so much. *cries* But she's not far away and she'll be back sometimes, so it could be worse. This is just the first time I've had to deal with anything like this. *sigh*

More Marvel movies! You might remember me mentioning that my family was watching all the Marvel movies in order. This month we watched Black Panther, Spider-man: Homecoming, Doctor Strange, and Thor: Ragnarok. My favorite out of these would probably be Ragnarok, with Homecoming coming in second.

I talked soo many 2020 things.

A brief update on how this year's goals and ambitions are going so far: Somehow this far into the year (LOL YES WE'RE SOO FAR INTO THE YEAR), I'm still motivated and excited about those goals. Even the simple ones like keeping my room clean. I've been putting forth a totally uncharacteristic effort to keep my room clean, and one of the first days of the year when I walked into my super clean room after being used to messiness, it literally made me so happy I started smiling. xD It's the little things, guys.

Working out is also something that's making me happy?? To the point where I'm almost obsessed with it and want to do it all the time. Of course, that's impossible. But it's a good thing, I guess, because that means that I'm willing to fight through the pain and tears. xD And I've been focusing not as much on how it makes me look, but more on how it makes me feel. Because I want to feel awesome and like I can be a superhero. xD (Also, sidenote, I started listening to Thunder by Imagine Dragons when I workout and it PUMPS ME UP SO MUCH DUDES. And I also realized, with
Ragnarok still on my mind, that that song would make an amazing Thor music video.)

Weirdly, it seems like all my non-book related goals are turning out really well, and then the book-related ones are suffering a little. I'm sliding back into the reading vibe more slowly than I thought I would, and I already mentioned how little writing I've done. I don't know what it is, but I do hope I can turn that around soon.

I wouldn't feel right ending this without mentioning one of my most important goals, which was to make prayer more of a priority in my life. I'm planning a post that will talk about that a little more later, but just in short: I'm learning to put prayer above the other things on my list. No, I don't do it all the time, though I wish I did. And no, I haven't made special time for prayer every single this year. But I'm getting better. And better is good.

lol Emily you said this was going to be a brief update

So, overall, January was a great month! In February, now that I've fallen into a pretty good routine of everyday things like cleaning and exercising, I hope to create more of a routine for writing. (If you follow me on Instagram- and if you don't and want to it's @emilygrantauthor-, feel free to shoot me a DM every now and then to poke and prod me and tell me I should be writing! Nothing like accountability xD)

I want to mention before I end this post that IT'S OKAY if you didn't have a wildly productive month. Having a successful January does not dictate whether you have a successful YEAR. (And getting a bunch of stuff done doesn't dictate whether you had a successful January!) Maybe you didn't do much of anything this month, but just focused on rest, or on building new routines. THAT'S OKAY. Starting off the year with outrageous ambitions isn't for everybody. You do you. <3 p="">With that being said, I hope you all had a great start to your year, however you spent it! And that February will be even better!

How was your January? Did you go full-force into the resolutions/goals or take more of a relaxed approach? What are your hopes for February?