Three weeks gone into the New Year already and it seems as though years end is almost visible. Time is flying and I realised that I needed to look at organising the trip in March. Unfortunately the timing of the conference does not fit well with Roger’s treatment and travelling in February is not really an option. It is the worst month for heat and storms. If we wait until the conference and then have time we will only get a couple of weeks before we have to return for treatment. A big dilemma as we need to have three – four weeks to get where we would like to go and the same amount of time to have a dog sitter come to the house. My goal for next week – have a plan in place.

I am well on the way to achieving my toastmaster goals. It is the goal after that which will be difficult. I have to do a High Performance Leadership project. This means you have to have a vision, form a team, set goals, and carry your vision to fruition. The types of projects that fit this requirement are organise a conference, start a new club, and perhaps a membership building exercise. My goal for this is to have a plan in place as to what I can do by end February.

My Blogging Goals – so far I have kept to these with Sat being a week in review, Wednesday a random thought. Mondays have a variety of topics with writing /photography being the focus of the one for next Monday. I was going to avoid challenges but I find myself unable to resist but I will limit it to the three posts I am committed to post each week. As I get more time this might change but I want to give my husband a full two days where we can do whatever he wants and two days where I can spend visiting other bloggers.

I now have an additional goal. The photography tutor has had to retire his position and I have volunteered to fill his shoes. The way we operate is that we have a field location one week and then attend U3A to show our best 10 photos from the previous weeks shoot. We learn more from seeing others photos and working out why we like it and then trying to add that element to our own photography so I don’t really have to know anything. My goal is however to learn the rules (of course made to be broken) and give some kind of educational following our photo viewing. We can then try to implement this in one photo we show from the next photoshoot. This will take some research on my part but I hope to learn from it as well. I hope also to utilise the various talents in the existing group and have them each take a session.

My week apart from goals has been uneventful. I am slowly trying to reorganise my house as my mothers bits and pieces came here. I need to go through every file and determine what to keep and what no longer needs to be kept. There are lots of finishing off things to do as well and that is taking a bit of time. Another goal is that I am going to get back to reading. I found over the last couple of years that I didn’t have the concentration needed to read and I struggled with most books I picked up. I feel much calmer this year and I think that I will again enjoy losing myself in another world and the book I am reading (and will be reviewed next) is allowing me to do just that.

Two challenges that I am going to join in today for the first time are RDP Friday I don’t know what the letters stand for but we are given the word Skookum to use in whatever way we want. This was a word that I had never heard of and discover that it is la Chinook Jargon word that historically was used in the Pacific Northwest. No wonder I’d never heard of it. According to wikipedia it means “strong”, “greatest”, “powerful”, “ultimate”, or “brave.” I am going to display this with photography although you can write a story, a poem, graphic piece or any creative way you like. I am going to also combine it with Marsha’s challenge Photographing Public Art or as you will see written PPAC

These skookum sculptures were found in a rainforest near Maleny, making wonderful use of the natural surrounds to enhance these works of art. One I think shows anxiety or fear rather than skookum. Another show love which can engender skookum or possibly possession whilst the third I think is definitely skookum. What do you think?