For those of you who stopped by on Tuesday and didn’t find a new post, I offer my apology. I was on and airplane. Or more accurately, I was in a car, then on the Metro, through security and onto a plane, finding the shuttle to my car and back in a car to home with stops on the way to collect my dog and buy some groceries. As I’m still coping with a winter cold, I was pretty beat by this time and decided to just sit with a cup of tea and watch TV. How distressing to discover that in my absence, my TV had died. That meant, since I have only the one TV, yesterday was spent researching and then heading out to purchase a replacement and finally hooking the whole thing up – TV, U-Verse box, DVD player and Amazon Firestick. I rather amazed myself by getting it all done and working first time. The only thing that didn’t happened was getting the universal remote programmed to handle the other gadgets. Maybe another day I’ll try again  and I’ll suddenly figure out what they mean by pressing the TV button – they don’t say on which remote or what button exactly since none are labeled TV. But for now, I’m ready to watch the ball go down in Times Square and welcome the new year while I contemplate my New Year's resolutions.

I make them every year. Sometimes I keep them, sometimes not so much. Last year I bought a Fitbit and promised I was going to walk every day. I started with 7,000 steps a day but by May had graduated up to 10,000. I have met that goal most days. I missed a few around Thanksgiving and more around Christmas, but for the most part I kept that resolution. However, to go with it, I was hoping to lose some weight. Actually I did lose some – 12# to be exact, but not nearly as much as I’d secretly hoped. I’d also promised that with the demise of the living history museum downtown, I’d find a new way to volunteer some of my time to others. That I did, too. I took the training and now am an official volunteer at the USO lounge at the Jacksonville airport. I had another new book come out, TRUSTING WILL, and appeared in two anthologies: with a recipe and writing organization tips in WE’D RATHER BE WRITING, and a Christmas story in SNOWBIRD CHRISTMAS vol. 3. I also completed another book in my Tide’s Way series that will come out in 2016. So, all in all, last year was pretty successful.

I started a monthly newsletter last year, which I plan to continue this year. If you are interested in signing up here’s the link: Skye-writer's Newsletter  I sometimes spotlight other authors, post book reviews or writing tips or highlight a new release of my own when I have one.

I’m going to continue with my volunteering with the USO and that scale is still sitting there waiting to keep tabs on me. It’s another Fitbit gadget that sends the results of every weigh-in to my Fitbit dashboard on my computer and the app on my phone so there’s no ignoring it unless I just don’t step onto it. My doctor want’s to try another approach to weight loss to augment my own efforts so we’ll see how that goes.

I resolve to find at least one new author and to make a stab at cleaning up the to-be-read pile that seems to always overflow, my Kindle and various horizontal surfaces in my home. I will also complete the novella I’ve been plotting in my head and submit at least one new manuscript for publication. Inspired by my friend, Heather Ashby, I bought a Gratitude Journal which I have already begun and am super excited about keeping up, heightening my awareness of all the blessings I already have and being thankful for things I still hope to have, creating a whole new level of positive vibes in my life.  I’m still wearing the Fitbit and plan to keep up the daily step goal. Maybe I’ll even add some new exercise beyond the walking, but I’m not going to officially add it to the list. I’ll be doing well to meet those already outlined.

If you are making resolutions this year, I wish you success in meeting them. And whether you do or don’t, I wish you all a blessed, prosperous and happy new year.