done for four weeks

Not a very productive week. Monday I didn’t get home from work til after 7:30 and Tuesday I got off work at 6:30 but stopped in at my women’s group for a few minutes. Also on Tuesday, a friend called me in crisis, so another friend and I went out to dinner with her on Wednesday night so she could get it off her chest. I know that kind of stuff is important, so I wouldn’t have done anything different. On Thursday, I got home probably around 6:30, but by then I had had it for the week. I was shot.

I had hoped to be ambitious on my day off, Friday, but got a slow start and then my son called, which again, I know is more important than some list of goals. We did talk about the nonprofit, so that was at least helpful.

Had planned on going shopping in the afternoon, but because I seemed to be behind all day, I didn’t get done nearly as much as I had hoped.

Lastly, Saturday, I got sucked into scanning and organizing my old family picture. While listening to Simon and Garfunkel. You can imagine what state of mind that left me in.

Let me try color-coding my progress again. I like the visual. Green highlight is goal accomplished. Yellow highlight is at least worked on. Red print is a total failure.

1)    Email my manuscript back to my editor and contact the publisher about dates, deadlines and how the cover is coming along. Done.

2)    Research venues for speaking engagements or book-signings and contact one of them. Not at all.

3)    Research places for submissions. Not at all.

4) Post three times to the Dino Chronicles.  I also need to commit to read other blogs.  Posted three times, but really didn’t read too many other blogs.

5) Hem another set of my daughter’s curtains. Hemmed one pair Friday and a single panel last night.

6) Finalize details of trip to Kenya. Ok, let me just come up with a list right now.

a) Go through my clothes and supplies I already have to see what I need. Done.

b) Go shopping. I need a new SD card for the camera, a new USB, comfort-food snacks, and a big bag of Jolly Ranchers for our host. And the few clothes I have to come up with that I need. Went shopping, but only for clothes and a new suitcase for my daughter.

c) Hunt for my Yellow Fever immunization card. I looked for it once again in every conceivable place in this house. No luck. I suppose I should call the clinic which issued the first one. Of course, I made it without it on the last trip, so I don’t think it’s the end of the world. Unless, of course, there is a Yellow Fever outbreak while we’re gone.   

7) Exercise three mornings and four evenings for at least 15 minutes each, including running three times. Sure, coz I’ve had time for this!

8) Try to go to my women’s group meeting on Tuesday night. Stopped in for about ten minutes. Does that count?  

Okay, so here’s the deal. Everything is just gonna be on hold until I get back from Kenya on April 15. That’s just the way it’s gonna be. I’ll let you know then how the trip went and start forward progress once again.

Have a good couple of weeks. 

Isn't this the most ridiculous picture? That's me in the middle with Mom and my sister Pat. (circa 1967) We are in the back of our pickup camper. I can't believe that all of us (with my dad and the dog) lived in the back of that camper for umpteen camping trips. 

Gonna Do It

I made some headway this week. Unfortunately, I still put in way too many hours at the day-job. Don’t know when I’ll be able to cut back, but I’m thinking it doesn’t matter – the work is always going to be there and killing myself over it isn’t going to solve anything.

Here’s what I got done:

1) Finish editing the manuscript. Yes, at 8 Saturday morning. I will email it to my publisher sometime today.

2) Post three times to the Dino Chronicles.  Yes. I realized I was starting to be a downer in everything I wrote there, so decided to declare this Merriment March and will only post happy stories during the week.

3) Hem another set of my daughter’s curtains. Nope.

4) Finalize the list of things I need to do for the trip to Kenya and when they need to be done by. Still got the list in my head, but we did a few things this weekend – ordered our Visas and confirmed our ride to the airport and back (my hapless son!).

5) Exercise three mornings and four evenings for at least 15 minutes each. I exercised two mornings and four evenings, but can’t say I reached 15 minutes every time. I did make the crazy decision to start running again, so ran twice on the treadmill, for only about five minutes, but it’s a start.

6) Bonus points! I almost forgot. I updated my website.

I’m going to shoot for an even more productive week this time:

1)    Email my manuscript back to my editor and contact the publisher about dates, deadlines and how the cover is coming along.

2)    Research venues for speaking engagements or book-signings and contact one of them. I’m still not sure when my novel will be out, but I think that early summer is reasonable to set up some gigs. 

3)    Research places for submissions. I haven’t submitted anything since January and really should be working on that.

4) Post three times to the Dino Chronicles.  I also need to commit to read other blogs.  

5) Hem another set of my daughter’s curtains. Her entire upstairs is waiting for these curtains before she can declare it a finished project. I should post pictures of her progress sometime.

6) Finalize details of trip to Kenya. Ok, let me just come up with a list right now.

a) Go through my clothes and supplies I already have to see what I need.

b) Go shopping. I need a new SD card for the camera, a new USB, comfort-food snacks, and a big bag of Jolly Ranchers for our host. And the few clothes I have to come up with from above. 

c) Seek and find my yellow fever card. At least we have found out that we don't need a booster on it. Now I just have to find the proof that I had it.   

7) Exercise three mornings and four evenings for at least 15 minutes each, including running three times.

8) Try to go to my women’s group meeting on Tuesday night, coz it really is time that I start getting out in public again. I have to say the heck with work and just walk out the door at a reasonable time and have a life again.

Sounds ambitious to me. But I’m gonna do it!

My daughter's adorable little house. It needs a lot of work, but she is getting there. 

Keeping my head above water

I gave it my best shot, but wasn’t able to do nearly as much as I wanted last week.

     1)    Start reading through “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” again.

Goal – 20 chapters. Actual – 10 chapters.

     2)    Clean off my dining room table, which looks like an episode of Hoarders.

Goal – clean half of it. Actual – cleaned all of it, but unfortunately, I moved most of it into the spare bedroom, so didn’t actually make much headway.

     3)    Get back on track blogging on The Dino Chronicles, as well as here.

Goal – post three times. Actual – Yes, yeah!

     4)    Set up a time table for my trip to Kenya in 31 days!

Goal – time line. Actual – not a genuine time line, but at least a to-do list.

     5)    Hem my daughter’s curtains.

Goal – finish one set. Actual – ¾ of the way done with one set, but need to power through it before morning as I need to take them to my daughter’s to see if they are the right length.  

     6)    The other thing I need to do to get ready for that trip is get in shape.

Goal – Exercise three mornings and three evenings. Actual – Did two mornings and three evenings.  

The thing is I worked 46 hours at the day job last week, which doesn’t leave much time or energy in the evenings. I did some house work on Friday afternoon and was going to get lots more done Saturday afternoon, but two of my former co-workers showed up, out of the blue. We had a good visit, though, and friends always trump goals.

Sunday we have a meeting of Tumaini Volunteers and it will probably take up most of the day. Next week looks like more hours on the day job, but I’m going to push through and try to get back on track with everything. I don’t think I’m going to do anything this week with Mom’s stuff. It is not going to go anywhere and I don’t need that spare room for anything else right now.

1) Finish editing the manuscript.

2) Post three times to the Dino Chronicles.  

3) Hem another set of my daughter’s curtains

4) Finalize the list of things I need to go for the trip and when they need to be done by.

5) Exercise three mornings and four evenings for at least 15 minutes each. (Sometimes I do like 40 situps and a minute of planks and say that I worked out. I need to put forth a better effort.) 

            Other than that, I’m just going to focus on keeping my head above the water. 

The pile of stuff - doesn't look too bad in this picture.