- This was my first full week back at work. It wasn’t too bad, considering. Things hit crazy next week and proceed to ludicrous speed through almost the end of February, so I enjoyed the more relaxed pace.
- I did a lousy job with workouts this week. To start with, I pulled a muscle in my shoulder during my workout on Monday, so that meant weights were off the table the rest of the week while that healed up. I had grant intentions of getting up and doing some yoga, just to gently stretch out, but I just…couldn’t seem to make myself get out of bed. Despite the fact that I didn’t actually relax on my Christmas break, I did SLEEP. My body naturally wants about 10 hours a night, so I indulged. Which makes it hella hard to get back to my normal 8 hours. I did get in 2 or 3 2.5 mile walks, so I did SOMETHING to move, at least. Slow and steady. Just need to ease back in.
- I clocked a little over 4800 words this week. Most of that was on my New Year’s Eve Meet Cute. First draft is finished and off to The Hammer. I had one complete fail of a day trying to dive into my next novel project. And then I realized that I hadn’t plotted it out as thoroughly as I thought I had. I didn’t have anything clearly written out for the hero’s goal, his character arc, or….anything. It’s all about the shero in my mind for this book. Cue ruler slap to the hands. So that’s what I was working on yesterday–properly filling out the toolkit I evidently abandoned some time ago. I have this really bad inclination to want to just ignore the character arc sheets. Because I feel about them like I feel about calculus. They’re HAAARD. :whine grouse gnash teeth: But the work is always better if I figure that out ahead of time. So still working on that today and tomorrow (as I’m off for MLK Day). My hope is to get all the plotting properly finished by end of day tomorrow, so that I can properly dive in on Tuesday with drafting.
- I finished reading Shannon Stacey’s Yours To Keep this week. It’s a fun, phony engagement story. I’ve been kind of floundering around on what to read next. I’ve picked up a few things and put them down again. At the moment, I’m trying Kristan Higgins’ Somebody To Love, which I didn’t dislike enough to stop reading but haven’t loved enough to really push through. Maybe it’ll truly hook me as I get further in. She JUST found out the house she inherited from an elderly aunt is a hoarder’s den, so things are about to get interesting. I did find out that Meljean Brook has another Iron Seas novella that I hadn’t read yet (Wrecked, which was put out in an anthology I didn’t buy), so I nabbed that yesterday. I had a total fangirl moment when she responded to something I posted on Facebook the other day. In audio, I’m still working my way through (and nearly finished) re-listening to la Nora’s Black Rose. As Stella says at one point in the trilogy, “I wanna be Roz when I grow up.” She’s just awesome as a shero.
- It’s cool and sunny today. I’m thinking that means I need to get my fanny outside with the sharp shooter shovel and dig up those trash trees that have grown up in various parts of the flower beds while the ground is soft from all the rain. And also cutting back the butterfly bush that’s overtaking Daisy’s handicap ramp. I’d rather do it all while it’s cool. Maybe sometime in February I can have a mulch party. I wonder how much beer and chili it would take to bribe friends into helping spread that? There’s a lot that needs doing in the yard. We priced having a landscape company come in and clean everything up for us, but we don’t have a spare $700 bucks floating around to spend on that, so we need to get off our fannies and gradually do it all ourselves. And…we need to do it while it’s cool because I know us. Once it gets hot, all we manage to get done is the bare minimum. New aspiration: Make enough self publishing to pay off a few things, pad the savings account, and HIRE A YARD GUY.
- I also need to get started reading all these books on gardening I’ve picked up. I’m sure it’s about time to start doing something to prep the soil to do this the RIGHT way. And I need to talk to my buddy whose husband has a tiller to see if I can’t bribe them with a few casseroles to get him to come till up the little patch where I want to put my vegetable bed this year. And see if I can find a source of pallets I can deconstruct to make a raised bed there… SO MUCH TO DO. I’m determined to overcome my inherited brown thumb (it isn’t quite black) to learn how to make a proper vegetable garden.
6 thoughts on “Sunday Summary and #ROW80 Update”
Hi Kait,
I’m new to your blog and just wanted to stop in and say “Hi!”. Loved the “A glance into your life” post today. I also have a yard that is overgrown with weeds and trees. I had a landscaping company come out and quote just the tree clean up and It came out to a whopping $2000 but that’s probably because I live on the side of a mountain range lol Have you tried using Pinterest for gardening inspiration, tips and tricks? I love Pinterest and use it for EVERYTHING. My husband built my mom a raised vegetable garden last summer and we use Pinterest to figure out when to plant, how to grow them, and what to do with them afterwards.
Yeah I wasted a good hour in the Pinterest black hole this morning looking at frugal gardening tips. I’m not allowed to go there without a timer. 😀
Lol yes… I know exactly what you mean!
Agreed on knowing the character arc/motivation etc. before beginning. I learned that the hard way…
I need to get back on the workout wagon, too. I think you did better than I did, though – keep it up! I just know this week is going to be better than last. 🙂
I tend to go into the Pinterest black hole if I let myself. I’ve started a board for my book. It’s helpful. Have a good week. X