Can you tell sleeping has been on my mind a lot lately? I’m loving these Ann Gish sheets right here. Looks perfect to snuggle and sleep in. But I doubt this would survive the jumping, tumbling and sliding treatment from my girls.

Most of our sheets are actually threadbare and torn in a lot of places but I think I’ll wait awhile before we buy new ones. At least until the kids stop thinking our bed is a trampoline.

Our bed has been my bestfriend for the past weeks. And that explains why I was hardly able to complete the 30 – day blogging challenge. Truth is, the moment my body hits the bed, I’m gone. Much as I would like to get up again to blog after the kids fall asleep, I’m lost in lalaland until the sun shines through our bedroom window.

I’ll keep writing but I’ll give up on the challenge. For now. We’ll see when I’ll have enough guts to do this challenge again.

Now my bed is calling and I better sleep.

And so I tried to do this One Post a Day thing and it’s Day 18 (gasp!) and I have a backlog of 13 posts. Still, I’m not giving up. I’m just changing the challenge to 30 Posts in 30 Days and I’ve got 12 days left to complete it.

I need to write. I want to write. And blogging is one of the ways I can keep the writing fire burning. Sometimes I still get stumped by the blank screen. And my goal is just to be able to conquer that and write away.

I’ve been quite busy with my new job and it can be physically exhausting. The one hour commute is no joke. When I get home, I just want to plop into bed and sleep. When I do try to write something, I’m blank and sleepy.

So now I am forcing myself to get the words out so I can train my brain to churn thoughts on command. Inspiration is nice but I can’t always rely on it to make me write.

Like right now, the kids are out playing and I have a little window of free time to focus on something. If I wait for inspiration to come, I’m pretty sure, an hour from now, I’ll still be staring at a blank screen.

So if you’ve got a lot of ideas in your head but you feel like you can’t start writing, just start typing one sentence. Any sentence. Then type another and another. Just keep typing.

So what if it doesn’t make sense yet? So what if it isn’t perfect?

You can always go back to it later. The most important thing is just to get started.

I imagine it like a cork in a bottle. Once you pop it out, your words are just gonna keep flowing and flowing. And before you know it, you’ve just finished a 300+ word post.

I just did.

It feels good to face the blank screen again and conquer it. It’s been quite a long time since I last blogged. But I know, I’ll always stick around this space to keep me grounded.

It’s the beginning of November, the perfect time to give myself a challenge: I am writing one post every day for a month. Yes, I am inspired by the NaBloPoMO and I also feel that I need this to get my flow back.

I do remember a time when the words came so easily. Bravely, I would write what’s on my mind with no care for perfection. Just an earnest desire to get my message across.

With daily practice, I want to bring that writing groove back. I know I won’t write perfectly all the time, and that’s okay. I am making peace with imperfection.

Besides, writing has been and will always be good therapy for me. It’s such a vibe lifter. And I want positive vibes all the time.

I intend to do this One Post a Day challenge across my other blogs so I will actually be writing more than one post a day. It’s a huge stretch but one that I think will be worth it.

If you feel inclined to do the challenge as well, share your thoughts in the comments. It would be fun to go through this journey together.

Let the challenge begin!

Wow, this feels good.

I always feel like blogging again whenever my space gets a new look. It feels like a new slate, not really blank, but fresh enough for new ideas to flow.

I’ve returned to simplicity again. Simple typography, less graphics and happier colors.

It was fun making all those graphics and fancy borders I used to have but somehow I’ve outgrown that phase and I am increasingly finding myself yearning for simplicity. Simple is always beautiful.

Can you believe it’s almost April?

Jamaine is celebrating her fourth birthday next week. We’re expecting her acceptance letter for school too. I’m so thankful I’m working from home most of the time and we have the resources to send her to a great school.

Things are working out nicely, I know life is just gonna keep getting better and better.

And I’m gonna keep blogging and blogging and blogging…

Happy weekend everyone!

I’m starting to like Tumblr again. I signed up for it way back when it was still quite new, so new that I was able to get my first name for the URL.

I used it for awhile, then forgot about it. Then I used it again. It was really an on and off relationship.

Since I got my Android and found an app for Tumblr, I began to like using it again for uploading photos and stuff that I feel are too short for a blog but too long for Twitter.

It’s like my moblog now, not sure though how this Tumblr fascination will last. Tumbling is definitely easier than blogging because you can make it short and sweet. Which in turn makes it easier to update more frequently.

Do you have a Tumblog? Mine is at http://Jayme.tumblr.com. Drop by for a visit, or ask me a question. I’d love to see you in the tumbleworld.

Today is the one month mark before hubby returns home from the land far, far away. Somehow, one month makes it easier to bear than saying 4 weeks or 31 days.

Just one month to go. Just one month more.

In the meantime, I will keep myself busy with our girls and with work. Sometimes, I still feel lonely and there are a lot of moments that I wish Kernan was here.

But I keep reminding myself to be grateful for all the blessings coming our way. To be thankful for everything else that’s going great in our lives.

I am thankful that each day that passes brings us closer to our “Ohana Day.” I imagine that would be one happy day indeed.

The days are actually passing by faster and I’m sure he’d be home before I know it.

It’s a beautiful Monday.

I’m sure it’s going to be a great week.

What are you grateful for today?

Wow, I love how my blog feels fresh again. How do you like the new look?

Today, I finally mustered enough courage to hit the “Update” button on my admin dashboard and level up this blog to WordPress 3.0.

And to commemorate the new version of WordPress, I decided to give my blog a new look too. It’s the new All Jayme on WordPress 3.0.

The back story

For the past weeks, I’ve been waiting for an upgrade option in my Cpanel through Fantastico. But weeks have passed since WordPress 3.0 has been released, still no upgrade link.

If you’re a WordPress user like me, I guess you’d agree that it’s kinda annoying to see that notice on top of the dashboard all the time reminding you to upgrade. I even tried asking support from my webhost but as it turned out they had no control over Fantastico.

Why was this such a big deal for me? Well, more than two years ago, my blog went bonkers when I carelessly hit Upgrade to WordPress 2.3. I was able to sort things out despite my panic though it took some serious brain wracking to restore everything back to normal.

As I mentioned in that post, I changed my layout to celebrate my blog’s second lease on life.

When I upgraded to WP 2.5.,  I let Fantastico do its job and everything went smoothly. I also changed to a new layout again at that time to complement the new WP version.

Upgrading to WP 3.0 within the blog dashboard

Since I couldn’t wait for Fantastico to release an upgrade script, I decided to try the Update button found in the WordPress dashboard just to get it over with. To be extra careful, I tried it first on a test blog to see if everything will work smoothly.

After I hit the Update button, I was taken to the Upgrade page and presented with two buttons: to update automatically or to download the core files to update manually.Of course, I hit the left button because automatic install is easy peasy.

Notice that it says you need to back up your database files to be safe. But I didn’t do that anymore because the test blog had little content. If you’re upgrading your actual blog, do back up your files just to be on the safe side.

After hitting Upgrade Automatically, this is what appeared on the page. It only took a few seconds and the update was successful.

This is the first time I tried the Update button and it’s pretty fast and easy. Now that I know that this works, I won’t have to rely on Fantastico anymore for updates and I can upgrade right away when a new WP version is released.

I haven’t explored 3.0′s full features yet but it looks pretty much the same.

Now all my blogs are running on 3.0. . Some are lined up to undergo a major redesign too.

I just realized, I wasn’t able to take screenshots of my previous designs. It would have been great to see how my blog has evolved through the years.

Redirection

I’ve actually been thinking about what direction to take with my blogs.  Next month, All Jayme will celebrate its third anniversary.

So far, I’ve only been winging it with blogging here but I now feel like I want to take it the next level too and make it better.

Does that make sense? My mind has been swimming in all things geeky in the last few hours.

Anyway, it’s past 2 a.m. and I better get some sleep.

Happy pretty Monday everyone!

P.S.

If you ever need help with getting set up with a self – hosted WordPress blog or with tweaking your blog design, let me know, maybe I could help. I’m no blogging diva but I’ve learned enough to set up 11 blogs.

Oftentimes, the change needs to be done within ourselves. But sometimes, we can change the circumstances around us too.

It just dawned on me yesterday how I’ve been struggling for years to make it on time for work. When I already needed to do was change something about the situation to make it all easier.

I think I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I liked having a job with flexi time and so having a bundy clock in my regular job was a struggle for me. For the past years, I would drag myself out of bed every morning and race with the clock to get to work on time. But more often than not, I would be late and I just accepted it as it is.

This week, my editor asked me if I wanted to adjust my time in to one hour later so my time records would be better. I was slightly hesitant because that would mean my dismissal would be one hour later too. But I agreed anyway thinking my current schedule is not really working for me.

The result: I’m always on time now. Often, I arrive earlier than my time – in.

Strange how it’s strikingly simple but it took me this long to make that change.

The lesson: Be aware of what’s not working for you and make the change.

And so I’m applying the same thing with my get fit plan. I’ve been feeling frustrated for the past weeks because I haven’t been able to run. I’m feeling sluggish and the waist has been expanding a little bit.

Running is not working for me right now because I’ve just recovered. So I’m changing other things instead like my portion control. I’ve been eating alone for breakfast and dinner since Kernan flew to the land far away. So I actually eat less.

It’s a little bit of a good thing but I’d gladly eat more as long as we eat meals together and we’d run together after too.

Instead of taking the quick fix route (I admit, I took a peek at some Clinicallix reviews), I’m going to do weight loss yoga again so I can have some kind of exercise that’s gentler than running.

After this pestering coughs go away for good, I will definitely lace up again.

If something’s not working in your life right now, don’t fight it or struggle with it. Just ask yourself, what else do you need to change?

You might be surprised at how easy it could have been if you just did.

This has been my focus this week.

It’s still a looong time before Kernan comes home and I find myself getting really sad at times. But I try to snap back as soon as I can and just shift to happiness and gratitude. I remind myself to be thankful that hubby got this great opportunity to show what he’s got. He deserves that and so much more.

And there are a lot of other things to be happy about:

• I’ve recovered enough to get back to work. I only have occasional coughs now but I’m taking lots of vitamin C and drinking lots of water so this should go away completely soon.
• I finally bought a new journal and I’m writing again as much as I can. It’s doing me a lot of good in so many ways.
• My girls are always there to welcome me home. It always swells my heart when I hear my babies squealing in delight when I arrive home. If you hear us, you’ll think we haven’t seen each other in months instead of hours.
• My family is visiting more frequently. It’s always comforting to know that they’re just a call away.
• My bosses at work are superb. I’m always thankful that they genuinely care about us as team members and not just as employees.
• My special project is starting to show positive results. I now believe that “it will work, if you work it.”

Other things to look forward to:

• When I’m completely recovered, I will start running again. I so miss running in UP. Hopefully, I can also join another race. But this time I’ll make sure I’m ready for rain.
• A colleague from college is getting married next week. I’m pretty sure it’s going to double as a reunion for us. Haven’t decided yet what I’ll wear or what wedding gifts I’ll give them.
• My special project continuing to thrive. I’m so excited about this and once it’s stable I’ll share more about it here. But for now, I’m just so thankful that it’s all coming together.

It’s the middle of the week, so close yet so far away from Friday. But I’m just taking it one day at a time and making the most of every moment. Always finding reasons to be happy and positive.

What are you happy about this week?

If there’s one thing I remind myself over and over: if you want to be more focused in your daily tasks, make a list.

I’ve been mostly in bed for the past days but I’ve been quite productive with my special project because I’m following a list day after day. Whenever I make a list, I can focus my efforts on one thing at a time and compartmentalize myself.

Of course, this is still not a perfect approach as the internet can still be so distracting. But every time I do get sidetracked, I keep coming back to my list and I’m on track again.

I used to take notes on my phone and even those fancy organizers. I even got an ebook about list systems so I can learn more about organizing my tasks.

But I keep coming back to a plain list and a plain notebook. And it always works for me.

Sometimes it gets overwhelming to see all the things I have to do but whenever I get to cross out one task… that’s pleasure.

I take this as a good sign that I’ll have a productive week ahead.

Happy Sunday everyone!

—

What do you do to keep organized?