Foovay’s Cauldron

I don’t really “do” resolutions. I discovered very early in my life, that I never keep them. I mean, from Jan.1st I’m breaking them. So I quit making them. I believe it is Louise Hay who says that she is against New Years Resolutions because you are just setting yourself up to fail, and then ladle guilt over yourself. In far too many cases, she is exactly right.

But I’ve found myself in the last month or so, thinking of some habits I would like to create in the New Year. Some of them I’ve been talking about much longer than that. So just how does one accomplish that without falling into the broken resolution guilt trap?

Leo Babuta of Zen Habits has a good idea in this entry, Make 2009 Great: Join the Power of Less’ New Year Challenge. His approach is not so much “make a resolution” as “learn a new habit”. He has written extensively about forming new habits and therefore has a method laid out to help you do just that.

Yes, I joined the Challenge. My new habit is 10 minutes (at least) of yoga on a daily basis. Although my physical health is still good (knock on wood) especially on these cold mornings I find myself very stiff and achy. I’ve been in the habit of doing yoga on a daily basis before, but as we moved about, jobs and lifestyles changed, I lost the routine and the habit. I miss it. I can tell the difference. So my challenge is to regain that habit and make it part of my morning routine.

The other thing I want to do – that I have been talking about since we moved to New Mexico – is doing a daily drawing of our ever changing and beautiful sky. I don’t really believe I will ever be a great skyscape or landscape artist – but who knows, maybe I’ll surprise myself. In the process, I think/hope I’ll also learn more about working in watercolor, pastels, and possibly even get adventuresome and try oils. I don’t imagine this work will be for sale, but again, maybe I’ll surprise myself. I know any time I have disciplined myself to daily drawing, my art has improved.

On a side note to that – since I hand draw many of my ATCs I’ve discovered not only improvements in my drawing in general, but especially in my ability to render accurately in that small size. I’m liking it Meanwhile, I’ve begun to have my doubts if Swap-bot is really the community for me. I think I’m going to explore some other communities a bit.

I was doing a major happy dance yesterday! I discovered over $100 I didn’t know I had – LOL! It was a big payment from one of my adult sponsors, sent through a service I don’t use anymore – or thought I didn’t! It was a great surprise, and allowed me to pay my hosting for next month, as well as renewing one of the adult domains. Demented-Pixie.com is also coming up for renewal next month, but I’m actually considering maybe letting it go. Sigh.

That is the second big surprise payment from an adult sponsor this year. The two of those quite eclipse what I’ve made with Adsense, ProjectWonderful, and all mainstream sponsors put together. Never mind the big $10 or so from Squidoo, and another $10 from Zazzle (for the YEAR in both accounts). The really funny part is that I have done nothing about getting my adult sites back up and running since the big October crash. Yet I’ve worked my ass off on the mainstream stuff.

Looks like the pendulum has swung the other way.

So I spent most of yesterday working on the adult side. I’m actually going through my old sponsors, looking at how they will fit into what I am doing now, and putting ads in place for the most part. I’ll probably do that most of the day today as well.

I am still hoping to gain Giant Squidom and I have at least a few more old lenses to update at Squidoo before the end of the year. If I don’t get it this time, fuck it. I’ll go play on the adult side for a few months.

Last yesterday evening I got a call asking me to nurse a baby goat. He’s supposed to be arriving today. Although his stay is planned to be short, he will likely take up a good deal of time while he is here. So if I’m not around, I’m being a goat mommy.

Happy New Year – in case I don’t blog again until after.