blog – The HeartWord Way

Greetings! I hope your November and Thanksgiving was wonderful! Today, I’ll be giving my November Monthly Recap.

Writing

My goal was to start going through my book, but I got no writing time in last month. None. I suppose I could’ve spent less time reading… but Legacy came out last month! I just HAD to spend every spare second reading it!

So, on the less desperate side of things, I plan to spend less time reading and more time writing this month.

Blogging

Well… I think we all know how blogging went for me this month, if you read my update post. No posts. No time to write.

But, this month will be better. I plan to get at least two posts out that will continue our bullet journal series.

Goals

My goals last month were:

Drink more water. I did start on my water goal, which was to get to the point where I drank three cups of water each day. I got up to two cups, but not three.
Read three books. I did reach this goal.
Study driving book. Nope. I didn’t. Not even once. I have a driving guide that I’m trying to get through, but I just haven’t had time to study it.
Work on going through your book. This is referring to the book I’ve written. As I said before, I didn’t have any time.
Do a devotion every day. I did not do very good on this goal.

My goals this month are:

Study driving book at least three times a week. Be finished with it by the end of Christmas break.
Get at least two blog posts out.
Work on going through my book.
Get to the point where you drink three cups of water a day.
Read at least two books.
Do daily devotions.

Books

Last month, I read three books and started one.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. This is the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, and I loved reading it for the second time. The first time I read this series, my mom read it out loud to me; so this is my first time reading the books for myself.
Legacy. Okay, I have a lot to say about this book, but I’m going to save it for a different post. I got a request to post about this book when it came out, so that can definitely be expected this month, for all of you KEEPER fans. This is the eighth book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series and I enjoyed it. So. Much! Whenever I had a break in my school work, I buried my nose in this book. I CANNOT WAIT for book nine.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I finished this book for the second time, and had just too. Many. Feelings. Of course, I loved it all the way through and I started book seven the moment I finished it. 🙂

My goal next month is to read at least two books (this is less than last month because I want to focus more on writing and studying my driving guide). I plan to finish book seven of the Harry Potter series, and start another series of books (I’m not sure what I’ll read next).

Bullet Journal

I think I’m finally getting the hang of bullet journaling (says the girl who’s been bullet journaling for over a year). I’ve figured out a system that works for me, and I didn’t miss very many days of filling out my journal this month. That might sound kind of discouraging, given that I’ve been bullet journaling for over a year, but it has truly been an amazing journey. It has been so fun to figure all this out, and I am so happy that I decided to try it.

This month, I did a Christmas-y theme, given that it is December.

I used stencils to create this page, and I’m not thrilled with how it turned out. But it’s only the title page. I don’t really look at the this page a lot.

This is my monthly overview. I have my calendar, and a section for events and another section for goals underneath it. On the right page is a page for reviewing my month. The first two sections are for writing out the positive and negative things that happened during the month. The next two sections are for recording the books that I read and my water goal. Finally, I have a place to record memories and and a drawing of a snowman. Isn’t he just so cute?

Next is my mood tracker. This is a simple tracker. Each day, I’ll choose the snowflake that best shows how I felt and draw it in the empty space.

This is my December Brain Dump, where I can write down anything I want to remember.

Here is my Habit Tracker for this month. It’s the same as always: dates are written at the top, and on the side of the green line is where I will write my habits.

Finally, here is my weekly layout. I did this in gel pen because I couldn’t come up with any color schemes that I hadn’t used on my regular pens and I had a lot more colors to choose from with my gel pens. The left page has all of my extra information and the right page contains all of the daily sections. At the top of the left page, I have a section for my goals. I’ve decided to start doing three goals for each week as well as the ones for the entire month. Underneath that is a section to record all of the exercise that I do during the week. The section below that is divided in two- one for extra notes and one for my water tracker. Finally, I have my to-do list at the bottom of the page.

Life In General

Life in general last month was hectic. We just moved in to our new house last October, and this month was full of unpacking the house and going out. Then came Thanksgiving, and it was from house to house, dinner to dinner, family to family. So now, I’m glad to be back home, writing this post in front of my Christmas tree.

Next Time…

That’s it for today’s monthly recap. My next post will be about Legacy, so if you’re a KEEPER fan, stick around!

How was your November? Are you all set for Christmas? Are you a KEEPER fan? Tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading! Happy writing!

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Matthew 6:3 ESV

Hello, fellow book-readers and writers! Sorry it has been so long since my last post! I’ve had a busy summer so far! Today, I am going to talk to you about what I have learned about blogging, and a few tips.

How I Got Started

I know I’ve probably told you this before, but in case you haven’t heard the story, I’m doing it now so you can either re-read it or read it for the first time.

I decided to start a blog when my mom and dad started their blog. They have a coffee shop in Chattanooga (Sourdough Cuppa Joe), and they decided to start a blog about what they had learned. That was when my dad told me that I would be a great blogger, since I had already been writing. I took the words to heart, and now I have been blogging for eight months! Wow, has it really been that long? I can’t believe it! Anyway, I decided to start a blog about my two favorite things to do: reading and writing.

Tips

And now, I will share a few helpful hints on blogging.

When writing a post, try to do it in one sitting. This keeps your mind on the same subject, which keeps your creative juices flowing.
Don’t worry about the amount of likes and comments you get on each post. I still struggle with this, but I’m learning. Trust me, you don’t need to worry about it. It will only add stress to your life.
Write from your heart. Write whatever comes to your mind about your topic.
Try to plan out your posts. Since I do about one post a week, whenever I write a post, I go ahead and decide on the topic for the next one.

Writing a Post

Now I’ll go over the steps I go through when writing a post.

Come up with a topic. This is not always easy, so do something to help you get thinking. You could go for a quick run, take a shower, or even eat a snack.
Introduce your topic. Tell everyone what you’ll be writing about, and maybe even define your main points.
If you haven’t already, come up with your main points. You can write your outline in a notebook, or even just do it in your head.
Write! Do anything you can to keep your thoughts going easily (I’ll talk more about that next week).
Conclude your post. I give my topic for my next post, and ask a few questions that might provoke everyone to give a comment. I have a phrase I always end with (thanks for reading, happy writing), and then I finish with a Bible verse.
Finally, come up with a title. This should be pretty easy since you’ve already written the post. Try to come up with something that will attract readers and sound interesting to read.

Six easy steps! Could it be any easier? That’s really all there is to it.

Well, that’s it for today. For my next post, I’ll give you some tips on how to get your creative juices flowing. Was today’s post helpful? Do you have any tips that you could share?