Trying to Reset

A day late again, but March….ing on.

I don’t remember a single March in the past 15 years that hasn’t been chaotic. This one is looking to be no exception. After all… November came in like a lion, but until Dad’s Celebration of Life service on Palm Sunday weekend, the lambs are too busy rollicking in my head to settle down and rest.

That isn’t to say I’m not finding moments to settle and rejuvenate. As I mentioned in my last post, I am learning to see my limits better. In fact, I made a MOO (Me Only Outing ) to Winterthur last Thursday for some reset time. It helped… it helped a lot.

Capturing Moments in the Café

Friday was probably the most productive day I’ve had in a long, long time. Several little things that had been waiting in the wings got done. (Though, Thursday evening I spaced and missed the monthly business and process meeting with the SJWA.)

Saturday was even good, and officially that had been a planned “date day” with the Leader of the Opposition Party (actually, he and I disagree very little, but the term always makes me grin to use it). We managed a bunch of errands and figured out plans for the back yard that have been languishing since we arrived here.

Sunday… not so good. I forgot to get a WeWriWa post up on my name blog, but I did get a few things done and checked out another group in the area (this one dedicated to traveling, since I’m such a … homebody).

I’ve been waking up a lot earlier lately, and I think this sleep reset is doing something with the way I am able to function as well. I used to be a night person, but now… 4:40am waking times seem to be my regular. No alarms, just the body says “Hey, brain time.”

Thing is, I’m not set up for that at the moment. I guess that needs to be the next step: a way to make those hours in the morning more useful. Though, I haven’t quite figured out what that is without compromising some of the things that make my journey on this blue-green ball of rock worth living for….

Someday.

For now, focus needs to be on just check off boxes on my todo list. And… editing. I’m with Alberta on this… March is, even if there is no website saying it anymore, NaNoEdMo. For me, that’s also a first run of tying in pages. Double damage.

Though, TBH, I’d really rather be back at The Grotto watching these beauties:

I like the trees reflecting over the water

Inconsistent Momentum

I’d like to say that this was a profitable weekend, and… in many ways it was. I accomplished almost nothing on my goals list however. If I’d had any kind of deadline set…

Well, I’m clearly not doing well on deadlines.

That said, I did reach some of my goals. For example:

• I kept the ROW80/ROCs blog setup and pressed for the upcoming week.
• I rocked the creative side with some drawing and photography (the picture to the left is from the B&B I was staying at for the weekend; the image below is my attempt to sketch the pocket doors between the dining room and Tina’s office).
• I did some hiking (in the frigid wind of Frear Park and Westerlo Hilltowns) and reminded my legs that had become … “flumpy” after a few years of flat southern NJ terrain that hills and uneven terrain does exist.
• And I found lovely waterfalls….
• Read a lot of fiction
• I finished one of my online classes

What I did not do was:

• Write any new story (or journal entries even!)
• Photoshop lessons
• Prepare a post and join a writing bloghop

I’d say “win some, lose some”, and if I look at things in an overview of a week (and a week that I had a long trip and travel plans and visits planned for at that), I actually hit everything in my goal except posting to a bloghop (I did read posts and start looking for a snippet) and Photoshop lessons (and again, I did look through photos for prospects to work on and took my new photos with a plan for editing them)…. Basically I had a pretty good week.

So inconsistent momentum, but still movement. After all, it is about the journey more than the destination in so many ways.

One Down and…

Things are Blazing

Okay, maybe not quite that extreme, but I’m extremely pleased with myself after these past few days.  Not because I got so much done, but because of WHAT I got done.

I just sent that sponsor post out to our fearless leader (and now suddenly have ideas for a few others…  maybe I’ll prep a few if my characters will give me a few more days of nudging them aside to do so).

YEEAASSS!

I’ve also been (finally) rockin that creativity goal of mine this past week.  I need to remember to start carrying pencils with me for my doodles—otherwise I get a lot of art that looks like this:

a ballpoint pen, a writing/drawing journal and time at a B&N cafe

But if I’d stopped or put off drawing for when I had the correct tools, I’d have never met this fellow.  Not sure WHO he is yet, but definitely feeling he has a story to tell.  And I’m fairly sure he’s Hastor…

Who do YOU think this is?

Row80 Check-in & Assessment

So how’s that for a week?    I’m thinking good things.  Not ideal things.  I know I set aside some work I should have done to push past the block that was my sponsor post.  Some call it prioritizing…  I guess I should call it that too.

Sometimes it’s hard to admit I’ll never be Wonder Woman.  Wondering Woman, yes…  I’ve got that down well, but I am no Lynda Carter. *pouts*

• CRAFT
  • Goal: spend ~three hours a week delving into writing craft related learning
  • Progress: I’ve been reading John Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters.  A lot of process and general perspective on writing, and maybe 3 hours of this so far
  • Goal: Hand-write new words daily! (the Five Sentences thingie)
  • Progress:  *hems and haws*  I wrote a lot of handwritten stuff (not only on my new phone love the handwriting app), but not much of it was story related
  • Goal: typing two pages a day of old notebooks into the computer
  • Progress: I managed two days of typing and not a full two pages each
• SOCIAL
  • Goal: maintain local critique group submission of excerpts and critiques during non-NaNoWriMo months
  • Progress: behind; I owe a submission and one more critique
  • Goal: return to regular posting in the WIPpet and WeWriWa blog hops
  • Progress:  managed a WIPpet but as I noted last Sunday, I’m not rushing to jump into the WeWriWa
  • Goal: sponsor duties for the ROW80 twice a week
  • Progress: on track
• PERSONAL
  • Goal: Explore my creative side daily
  • Progress:  *high fives self*
  • Goal: Daily languages (except Sundays)
  • Progress: done, though Saturday became my Sunday
  • Goal: daily exercise amounting to a minimum of 30 minutes a day
  • Progress: Doing pretty good.  I missed … no days
• Temporary! Goal: write and submit my sponsor post
• Progress: THIS IS DONE *happy dance*

And before I start trying to post happy dance pictures of me trying to Zumba (cheers to you, ReGi), let me end this.   It’s been a…  pretty good, and very interesting, week.