When I go to the gym, it doesn’t matter if I walk on the treadmill for 15 minutes or 30 minutes. No one is timing me or watching me to make sure I work out, and as long as I log in for 12 times a month, my insurance will reimburse a portion of my gym fees. But no one is keeping track of the weight I’m losing (none so far, by the way). I’m the only one who will notice. So I don’t give up after 15 minutes. I increase the treadmill’s incline, or I speed it up, or I switch to the elliptical machine. I try to challenge my body so that eventually, I will lose weight.

The same thing is true with writing. No one will notice if I take a day off. If I write less than 500 words in a blog post, no one will say anything. It’s funny, just as I was planning out what to write in my head, Ed started to head upstairs. “I still have to write a blog post,” I said.

“No, you don’t,” Ed replied. He was right. I didn’t. Don’t get the wrong idea; he is supportive of my blog…it’s just that truthfully, I didn’t have to write a blog post tonight.

This NaBloPoMo blog-post-per-day, however, has been my “thing” since 2009. No one will know if I don’t write 30 posts for November this year.

But I would know. I know when my blog posts are written at the last minute and not thought out. I know when they are mundane and not very interesting to read. I’m not a humor writer, as much as I want to be. I can’t always find the right metaphors, and I often “tell” my stories instead of “showing” my stories.

I try to challenge myself, however, and so I write. I exercise my writing skills even when I don’t have to, so that eventually, I’ll become a better writer.

What have you been exercising lately?

Whenever one child has a play date and the other one doesn’t, the puppy dog eyes fill with huge crocodile tears, the lower lip comes out, and the whining begins. “Why I don’t I ever have a play date?”

I try to trick them with a special “date with Mommy,” which is code for running errands and possible getting ice cream if you’re good. They see past my trickery now, and try to get the ice cream FIRST.

Lily got me to get a salted caramel pretzel shake BEFORE we went shoe shopping this afternoon. Normally I would be all about going shoe shopping, but I had to buy new church shoes for Lily and Emmy, and white tennis shoes for Lily’s show choir performance in a couple of weeks. Do I need a new pair of church shoes? Absolutely! Did I get a pair? The fact that I was shopping with a child in tow should answer that question.

We also made a stop at Toys “R” Us and bought a Christmas gift for Emmy. My Christmas shopping has officially begun! I’m usually a last minute shopper, so this is a good start.

I made sure to whisper in Lily’s ear as I tucked her into bed that I had a great time shopping with her. That won’t stop the crocodile tears the next time Emmy has a play date, but I think Lily had fun spending time with me, too.