Sha Naa Naa

Made a simple change to the last few posts by adding a number to their titles — counting down the Blog365!

Sigh.

The only reason I’m still awake right now? The hour-and-a-half nap I took this afternoon. My husband is sprawled on the bed and knocked out right now.

I slept from about 2 AM to 6 AM last night — which is more than the kids did! In addition to the lock-in last night, I also led two contemporary praise songs in the church service today.

Spending the night sleeping in my church with my husband and 11+ kids from grades 6-12 after an evening of making chili, cornbread, and pumpkin cookies for a fundraiser. Hooray for youth advisors!

Now, to rediscover that awesome chili recipe…

[ written on Nov. 22 (and back-dated such), posted Nov. 23 ]

Once every few years, I get the Draining Sickness.

Every time I get it, I have a different set of symptoms: sometimes I’m stuffy and sneezing, sometimes I’m hacking and coughing, sometimes I’m shaking and throwing up. The one constant symptom is deep and utterly draining exhaustion.

Today was spent mostly in bed and mostly asleep, but I’m still so tired. I’m up now, trying to get something constructive done before I go back to bed.

So, today’s my birthday. I’m 27 years old, I’m sick with a weird cold, and my life is perhaps the busiest that it’s ever been.

What am I doing?

1. I’m working on a great website for a friend’s business. (Which is behind schedule, as those of you who followed the link might have noticed…) This is a long-term web development project, hopefully lasting many years.
2. I’m hopefully finishing my B.A as of the end of the year. I’m taking two undergrad classes at Northwestern through mid-December (one on the history of early modern English printed books and an advanced creative non-fiction seminar) and chasing down people at UPenn by phone and e-mail for approvals.
3. Assuming #2 succeeds, I’m starting grad school at DePaul in January for a M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction. (Luckily, I’m taking all online classes for my first quarter.)
4. Also in January, I’m restarting work at my wonderful H&R Block office for tax season 2009.
5. And in line with point #4, I’m studying for the three 3-hour exams that I need to pass in order to be certified as an Enrolled Agent by the IRS.

I’m finishing only about 80% of all my work and obligations, getting very little sleep, doing very little knitting, and experiencing a whole lot of stress. So what am I doing now? Announcing the start of a new project: I’m trying the Blog 365 Challenge.

That’s exactly what it sounds like: posting at least one blog entry a day for 365 straight days. A straight year of blogging, starting today.

Here are the most important rules (in my opinion) for the challenge:

• Blog every day for 365 days in a row.
• No Internet? Write your post locally and post it once you’re back on the grid. If you post offline work, consider changing the date on the post to reflect the day you actually created the content.
• A post is a post is a post, and doesn’t have to be in writing. Photos, YouTube videos, and the like are considered content.
• Have fun!

So, here goes. To those who’ve complained about my lack of blogging (*cough*Sarah*cough*) and lack of contact in general (hi, everyone on Facebook!), this post’s for you.