Moving

Another week has passed.  Honestly, I'm kind of happy that the days are going by quickly.  I have this thing where I get excited about big changes that are coming in the future and it makes it really hard for me to enjoy the "now."  It kind of sucks actually...but anyway, we are most likely going to be moving away from Maine come this May.

I'm sad and happy about it at the same time.  After living here for a year and a half, I have really come to love this place.  I've made a surprising number of friends (making friends is usually difficult for me because I'm so shy), I've gotten involved at a church that I love, and there are so many great restaurants to eat at and sites to see.  The fall is of course beautiful here with the changing leaves.  And we have an awesome large apartment that we get to live in.

However, I always kind of enjoy moving (not the actual packing and moving part, but you know what I mean) and getting to start over in a new environment.  There is a good chance that we will end up in California.  My husband is from Long Beach and still has lots of friends and family there.  He unwillingly had to move to Tennessee when he was 18, but if he hadn't he wouldn't have met me!  It's funny how God makes things work like that...I'm pretty excited about moving to Cali because the environment there is TOTALLY different from anywhere else I have ever lived.  The weather is always amazing, and Disneyland is close by.  And there is a lot of tattooed people there, so I think I would fit in alright.

I don't think California is the place where I would like to settle and raise kids, because it is so far away from my family in the Midwest.  But for now, I think it will be a pretty cool adventure.  We should be figuring things out soon as far as the move goes, so I will definitely keep y'all posted.

Love,
Justene

Happy March

I love the month of March.  Mostly because of my birthday, and secondly because its when spring officially starts.

This March is going to be pretty crazy as far as I can tell.  Easter is on the 31st and I'm going to be involved with the service that morning for church.  That means rehearsals every Wednesday night as well as rehearsals for our regular church services.  We're having the Easter service at the Merrill Auditorium again, here in Portland.  It was really great singing there last year, so I'm looking forward to doing it again.  I also began a bible study on Tuesday nights with a few other girls from church.  That's a lot of church this month!  But hey, there's nothing better than spending time growing strong in the Word and in my relationship with Christ!

I'm also supposed to begin teaching voice lessons to a sweet 12 year-old girl sometime soon.  I'm a bit nervous because I've never taught voice before and I have no idea if I'll be good at it.  Hopefully the lessons will come to me when I'm "in the moment."

I get to see my Daddy tomorrow night, which is very exciting!  He'll be stopping by on his way to a business meeting in New Hampshire and will be taking me and Will out for dinner.  I know he wants to go to Duckfat, which is this small but great place that has the most amazing french fries that are fried in duck fat, hence the name of the restaurant.

Lots of things to look forward too!

Until next week,
Justene    

Winter Update

We got about 3 feet of snow a couple weeks ago!  Archie is trying to fetch his frisbee in this photo :)

Apparently this is what a true "Maine Winter" is like.  It's pretty exciting!  Although I am feeling ready for spring now.  It can never come soon enough.

I thought I should explain the title of my blog, "Therapy for a Thinker."  I read somewhere (I can't remember where) that people like me - people who spend a whole lot of time thinking - should try writing down our thoughts in order to organize them better.  Organizing our thoughts may lead us to become more articulate when we speak our thoughts out loud, and become more creative.  So writing our thoughts is like a kind of therapy for our minds.

I liked the sound of this because I hate sharing my thoughts out loud and its because I'm worried that they will come out jumbled.  I have trouble explaining things and sometimes stutter a word here and there, and it makes me feel stupid.  Therefore, I am extremely shy and usually avoid speaking to people at all costs.

But I'm not stupid!  And if people knew the things I think about, they would probably agree with me :)  So that is one of the reasons I started this blog; to write down my thoughts and organize them.  When I find myself thinking for long periods of time, my thoughts always jump around from one thing to the next, or I think about the same things over and over without really getting anywhere.  That's why I feel the need to organize my thoughts.

And writing a blog doesn't hurt my hands as much as writing in a journal.  Thank you Lord for computers...

I also learned recently that writing lists is supposed to help with actually getting things done (I have a motivation problem too).  I wrote a list of ideas for future blog posts, and I'm hoping to blog at least once a week from now on.  Let's hope I don't fail this time!  

My Happy (Work) Place

This is my new and improved home office.

I decided that since I'm going to be working from home all the time now, I need to have a space where I can stay motivated and focused and feel comfortable at the same time.  Originally when we moved into our place, I claimed the sunroom as my office.  Who cares if it's really cold in there in the winter since there is no heat?  I can just wear layers and buy a small room heater...Yeah, I ended up doing my work on the kitchen table in the heated dining room.  I even continued to do so once summer started because, surprise, it was too hot in the sunroom and there is no air conditioning in there either.

So I would work away at the kitchen table all the time and create piles of "important" papers that overtook our eating space.

Since I had grown used to working in the dining room, I had this revelation:  What if I make the dining room my office?  Whoa!  I would have heat in the winter time and a space for my piles that is not our kitchen table!

All I had to do was move the kitchen table over to one side of the room and then I got my husband to help me carry this gajillion pound desk ($50 on craigslist) from the sunroom to the dining room and put it against the other wall.  Then I worked on organizing it and making it homey.

You can't see it in the picture, but there is a big ice cream scoop puzzle hanging on the wall above my desk.  The chair is an old thing from office depot that my mom nicely covered with floral fabric.  The fabric was originally meant for the cushions on our kitchen chairs, but my husband found it to be too girly for his bottom to rest upon.  The pencil holder is a Vera Bradley mug that my sister got me for my birthday one year, and it happens to match both the chair and the ice cream puzzle quite nicely.

In the second picture you can see that I made my office more personal and comfy with pictures of my favorite people.  Pictures of my family on the bulletin board, my husband in the frame, and my dog on the mouse pad.  All of these were ordered from snapfish.com.

I have worked in this space a few days now, and it is definitely an improvement over my original situation.  I'm looking forward to seeing if my productivity and eventually my paychecks start improving due to this new environment.    

Lots of Changes and Self-Publishing

It's been over a year since my last post.  I'm really good at this blogging thing, aren't I?

Maybe one day I'll actually be able to maintain this thing.  I always think about how cool it would be to have this blog that lots of people read, and to write great posts all the time.  And then for some reason I can only write one post a year...

Anyway, things have changed quite a bit since my last post.  I now live in Maine with my husband who transfered to the law school here in Portland, and we have a German Shepherd puppy named Archimedes (Archie for short).  I currently have two jobs, but I recently put in my two weeks notice at one of them.  Too stressful.

It's kind of funny how I was all unemployed during my last post a year ago, and since then I've had three different jobs.  I'll spare you the explanation.

So in about two weeks I will be working full time for Outskirts Press Inc. a self-publishing company.  I didn't really know what self-publishing was until I began working for Outskirts.  It's actually pretty cool.  If you write a book and want to avoid the frustrations of trying to get published by a big name publishing company, self-publishing is the way to go!  Especially if you are a new author that no one has ever heard of.

Outskirts Press has so many different options when it comes to publishing, it's almost impossible to not get what you want out of your experience with them.  You start out by choosing a package that will best suit your needs and then add on whatever else you might want.  They will also help you with your marketing efforts!

If I were to ever publish a book with Outskirts, I would choose the Diamond package for $999.  This package includes some great things such as a standard interior format based on industry standards for your book's genre, several different outlets for distribution including Spring Arbor Christian Distribution, and a free e-book format.

I would want my cover to be something special, so I would go with the Custom Cover option for $299 with the Diamond package.  With this option, I can give the cover designer my ideas for the cover and they will create two different concepts for me to choose from based on my ideas.  The result is a truly unique cover for my book.

Another thing to consider purchasing is editing, especially if you didn't have someone else edit the manuscript already.  This costs 1.4 cents per word.  It can be pricey if you have a lot of words, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen author's spend a lot of money on edits after they review their proofs because they didn't edit it before hand.

So that's my speil on Outskirts Press.  If you're interested, click here.

You can also check out the CEO's blog here.

My summer 2011 craft

Something I like to do every summer is work on some kind of project.  This year I am cross stitching a cute little wedding record to hang in our bathroom.  Here it is, and in case it isn't obvious, on the left is my work in progress and on the right is what it will look like when it is done...

At the bottom I will stitch our names and the date we got married (Justene & William May 28, 2011).  I love how grandma-ish it will be having this hanging in our bathroom and in all of our future homes.  Will thought it was finished when I showed him my progress at one point.  I was like, "omg they don't even have heads yet, William," and he said that he thought it was kind of cool that way...

I love cross stitching kits that you get from craft stores.  They give you just about everything you need, and if you kind of know what you're doing and just follow the pattern, you can create a beautiful picture.  Why can't everything be that easy?

Hope in the midst of unemployment

Today I decided to start blogging.  I also happened to come across an inspirational article (after deciding to blog), perfect material for my first time entering into the blogosphere.  I've been searching and applying for jobs for the past two weeks now and so far I haven't heard from anyone except Macy's and it seemed like they had contacted me by accident.  I came across this article through a website called Snag a Job which has helped me to find open positions in my area to apply to.  Here is the article:

http://blog.rvacreates.com/2011/06/10/guest-post-never-rule-out-a-ridiculous-exit-strategy/

I've always wanted to start my own type of creative business, which is why I found this article so intriguing.  Unfortunately it doesn't completely apply to me because I am already unemployed, and it talks about entrepreneurship as a sort of back up plan if you get laid off.  But it still really inspires me.  I am very talented with my hands and feel that if I could just find the right craft, then maybe I could do something like that and start my own business.  That would be so fun!  Any ideas...?