Little Things to Make Life Better

Last weekend, when I was visiting my parents, I realized that there were some things dissatisfying me about my life. I’d had feelings to that effect for a while, but I think it took stepping outside of my day-to-day and being elsewhere to help me put a finger on them.

After thinking, talking with Micah and talking a bit with my mother-in-law, I think I know what to do next.

First, I’m starting a project this week to get some order in the apartment. We’re living like grad students and I doubt that we’ll ever be featured in some home catalog. That’s fine, I want my apartment to feel homey, not awkward.

But besides keeping it from getting dirty, my organizing has been sporadic. I want what my mom had…a place that’s pretty neat but doesn’t turn people off by being unusable. This comes from a combination of wanting to invite a couple friends over on Wednesday and feeling like I couldn’t want them in our house and then visiting my parents.

My stated goal would be: To be able to have anyone over without feeling embarrassed about the state of the apartment.

I think it’s doable…the apartment is quite small and we have no small children running around. It’ll probably mean dividing the place up into sections and straightening a different section each day…as well as being more conscientious about picking up after myself.

I don’t want to feel limited. And I’m happier in an organized atmosphere.

Second, I want to market myself better.

Between everything I’ve learned blogging (thanks in particular to my M-Network friends who’ve been quite helpful) and everything I knew before and things I’ve learned on my own time because I want to…I’ve learned a fair amount about blog setup and even design.

For the blogger who knows very little about WordPress software, web design, etc, I could be quite helpful in helping get their blog off the ground, assisting in difficult blog transfers (I’ve helped some people whose blogs wouldn’t auto-import), finding plugins, tweaking themes (I’m working on becoming a theme designer, but that’s still in progress), and more.

But I don’t really market that here. I do get periodic requests from readers or bloggers, and I sometimes advertise my services on craigslist.

It seems like having a more focused page with everything I offer would be quite useful. I could point people to it and it might bring in more clients. I love when I get a chance to do web stuff, so I think I’d find it personally-fulfilling as well as…budget-fulfilling.

I’ve written some of that information down and I have a basic site setup, I’m just stalled. As my MIL put it, I’m finding the “head space” for it (she’s an awesome psychologist and great at helping people talk through stuff). One thing that I think I need to work on is the whole art of the cover letter, introduction, etc. I have some darn good qualifications, but I always feel uncomfortable putting myself forward…impostor syndrome strikes again.

So my goal is: to find the head space and get the site finished by the end of May.

And a bonus goal is to get finished starting a new blog I’ve been working on for kicks (and experience). I have it all set up and a number of prewritten posts, I just find myself getting stuck when I want to press “Publish.”

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