Sunday check in between challenges

SO SICK.

This week has been about taking care of my sweetie... well, trying to. I am pretty dependent on him when it comes to eating. So we ate canned food or takeout. Not great for getting over the creeping crud, and not good for either of us as far as our health goes. He got sick on Christmas. I started getting sick on Friday and it hit will full force on Saturday. I would have gladly let someone shoot me. I would have felt better.

You would think, working in health care, I would get sick a lot, but the opposite is actually true. Once you get past the first year or so, you have been introduced to all the bugs, viral and bacterial, and you tend to be less susceptible. This is a good thing. But, once in a while, you still get sick. For real sick. And I am. Bleh. Which is how I feel.

So, I don't think I'll make my 200,000 word goal for the year. Unless I feel a surprising amount better tomorrow. If I don't, I won't put any pressure on myself to finish. I did pretty well getting to 195,000 words on my first try. Yay for that!

I know it's between rounds, but I am enjoying the check ins twice a week, they are keeping me honest. I plan to just keep on checking in. This week, there just wasn't much to report. Have a great New Year Day to everyone with the same calendar as us in the US, and a great week to everyone for whom January 1 is not a holiday, enjoy the week. I wish you health!!

Sunday, just keep swimming

Well, it has been quite the week! I did finally get some exercise, but not before being called on my lazy butt-itude by Ron. Thanks, Ron.

I cleaned the house on Saturday morning in preparation for the homecoming of my wonderful child, who has been gone for 2 years. I love that kid. He has truly grown into a man and I am overwhelmed at the intelligence and amazing maturity he is showing every day. He constantly amazes me and I am grateful to have him around and will be sad to see him off to college when he has to go home. I will hoarde every moment I can with him. Said house-cleaning left me quite sore. Legs especially, arms from all the scrubbing and oh, my feet! Today, we went shopping and walked extensively around Best Buy and Costco, which I am totally counting. So, two out of three days down, and I just have to get on the treadmill tomorrow to make the movement goal for the weekend! 

Next on the list was planning the meals. That will be a difficult one this week due to the kid being here and Christmas, but I am going to take a shot at it tomorrow evening. I am fortunate to be off work until the day after Christmas, which is great, I think my brain needed a break. I had a blind spot again this morning. Stupid head and headaches. That's the second one this week. 

I was thinking of working a bit, but I don't think I will until after Christmas. I am on call Christmas Day and my wonderful colleagues have split the week up with me so that I can spend some quality time with the kid. I can't tell you how amazing it is to work in a place that has such an optimistic and team work inspiring atmosphere. I have spoken to so many people who struggle every day with politics and difficulties with colleagues. Mine are wonderful to work with. Maybe I am the difficult one? Oh, I hope not.

My sister has a dog that is sick and may not make it another few days, so I expect to be comforting her tomorrow when the kid and I go to see her and her hubby. Sad, but then again, I am lucky to live close enough to be able to go see her and be there for her. I am glad for this.

So, the theme for this week is short term struggles and long term successes. I guess it comes down to what Dori said in Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming."

Goals:

1. Physical: 10 minutes on the treadmill on all days off (or equivalent movement)

2. Nutrition: Plan meals and shop for food (this is much bigger than it sounds)

3. Writing: Get to 200,000 words. 

I have written about 2000 words so far this week, which isn't bad. I have a pretty clean house which is nice, and should keep me on track for more writing. I am at a total of about 194,000 for the year. Six thousand is really not many words. I could do that all in a day. Let's see if I can do it before next check in an Wednesday!

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Limited Obsession

Well, the Sunday check in is not exactly what I had hoped it would be. I guess that's why we do this, though, right? Keep on keeping on. So, my goal was to write 9000 words this weekend and get to 200,000 words for the year. I didn't get there. I wrote 2300 words, though. I'm at 194,000 words for the year, which isn't too bad. I'm a little disappointed, but really, it was a pretty good weekend. I finished up the Christmas shopping, read a couple of good books, may have found a new author that I like and didn't eat too much crap.

The bad news is that I didn't work out at all, I am so tired and don't know why (a new cold sore may explain some of the fatigue), and I am feeling a bit headachy. Hopefully, it won't turn into something. This is the only reason I miss work. Stupid migraines. When they did the original MRI of my head, I had hoped they would find something that could be fixed because I was so miserable. Now, I wish there was nothing wrong.

Either way, I must get back into good shape. Writing helps to distract me. Now, I must start taking better physical care of my body. I wish it was as easy as it seems like it will be when I make the goal. Boo to tired. I also know that if I work out regularly for a week or so, the tired will get so much better. Here's what I didn't do...obsess. I have to plan. Plan my food, plan my workouts and then follow through. So, new goals this week.

1- Write 1000 words a day until the end of the year. I found a new warm up that I am going to try over at the Accidental Novelist's old site. I tried some of them today and found the chaining method to be super helpful.

2-Obsess over working out for my 5 day off stretch. I am on call over Christmas for a couple days, but not working for 5 days in a row. This would be a great time for me to start working out.  So, I used to have a work out journal. I will  decide whether to do it separately or to put it in my regular journal. I am going to make up a term, limited obsession, to use when I am trying to plan my workouts and eating patterns. I can't get carried away with it to the exclusion of writing and working, etc, but I have to focus more than I am. I NEED a PLAN.

3-Relax and have a nice Christmas. Sometimes I forget to relax and chill. This is my reminder.

Have a great week, everyone!


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Wednesday writing distraction

We went to a party on Friday, and I asked my husband what Mike's wife's name was.

"What's my microwave's name?" asks my deaf husband. "Sharp, I think." He also answers. With a straight face.

Oh boy.

So, this week is not a great one. I had bad news. The Neurosurgeon I saw at Mayo last summer looked at the recent MRI of my head and decided the narrowed vessel was worse and I need to go back to Mayo. For some people this would not be a big deal, but I live in Montana and Mayo clinic is in Minnesota, about a 1300 mile trip. It's 20 hours of driving. Boo.

The good news is that my husband does not have a hernia, so no expensive operation for him. Yay! And, I am finding that writing and the movie Despicable Me 2 are both good distractions from the troubles of bad health. Weirdly, it is not the health I am worried about, it's the damn money. The insurance is much worse in 2014 than it was this year, so it will be much more expensive. How will we do it?

How? I will write and write and write... to take my mind off of what I can't change. I will go to the doctor and let him do bypass surgery in my brain if that is what he wants to do so that I don't have a stroke... at forty two. And I will write. I will write to cope, I will write to live and I will write so that I don't disappear from the earth... at forty two.

GOALS:
Goal last weekend (Friday through Monday) 3000 words, made it with 3336.
Goal this weekend (Friday through Monday) 9000 words. This will get me to 200,000 for the year. I would really like that. And, I think I need the distraction.

Physical: Treadmill walk fifteen minutes three days Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Make a nice salad for the weekend. No fast food. Gotta take care of the brain.

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Sunday Check-in with Rebecca

ROW80 Check in Sunday!
I like this having to check in twice a week, it keeps me thinking about what I am doing pretty consistently. I wrote my 1000 words on Thursday, as I had planned. We went to our Christmas party on Friday, which was quite fun. I didn't get there until about 7:30, and it started about an hour before that. I did get most of my work done, though, yay, me! Last year, my work took up so much of my time that I had no life. This year, I am taking my life back and making sure that I have things in my life other than work.

I wrote 290 on Saturday (because it was such bad weather, I did not take the 400 mile trip and risk life and limb to get the child. Boo for having to wait. Yay for not defying death.) and I am at 1500 for the day but not yet done. So, I think, I'll make my 3000 for the weekend like I had planned even with a CT tomorrow for my hubby (poor guy is nervous, I don't blame him a bit, I hate those things) and a meeting I have to present at tomorrow night.

This challenge is helping me to get back on track. SO:

Goals for the week and the rest of the round

1. Writing: 1000 words at least 3 days a week. That will put me at about 200,000 words for the year, and a respectable finish for my year. I'm at 191,275 words since Jan 1, 2013. Decent Freshman effort. If it takes a million words to get to some good ones, I have a few years to go, but I'm excited about the journey. I have been writing for a long time, just not seriously.

2. Physical: Walk on the treadmill 10-20 minutes a day at least three days a week until the end of the year. This will help to get me back on track to physical fitness, which I have been ignoring for about three years. Can't continue to do that. And I love to run.

3. Work balance: Work to 7pm on my 4 days a week and no more. No weekend work, no longer days than that. It makes an 11.5 hour day and that is enough. I am on two committees and that is enough. I love my work, but it must not take up my whole life.

That's it for my Sunday check-in, hope everyone has a wonderful early December week and that no one gets too cold. We have had some seriously cold temps here over the last week. I wish for indoor gas stations. :)



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First ROW80 post

So excited to try the ROW80 challenge. My WriYe goal for the year was 250,000 words and I'm at 188,000. So, this month I am not going to get my goal, but, I am excited that since it is my first year really attempting to write anything, I am going to finish up somewhere in the 200,000+ word general area. Not bad for a first attempt.

So, my goal for this week, since this is a mid-week check-in:
1. Write 1000 words a day on Thursday and Sunday and Monday.
I have a Christmas party on Friday, have to go on an 8 hour+ car trip on Saturday (to pick up my son, yay!) and can't plan on writing those days. Today was brute at work, didn't get home until after 8. Boy, did 10 (bedtime) come fast!

Starting small, let's see how it goes.
Have a great week, everyone!



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Life after NaNoWriMo

Well, I did it! I finished the NaNoWriMo challenge (National Novel Writing Month). I got my 50,000 words done in the month of November. The book I wrote is so not done, of course, there is a lot of editing and rewriting to be done before it will be ready for readers. There is a huge sense of accomplishment when you get to two days before the month is over and still have to write 20,000 words, and you get it done. Yay!!

I wrote over 5.000 words the day after Thanksgiving and then 14,700 words the last day of the month. This should have been impossible as my average writing speed is somewhere around 1000 words per hour. Somehow, I pulled it off and I never want to write that many words in one day again.
In April, I set this audacious goal of 85,000 words and made it... then didn't write again until July. That wasn't a good plan.

So, as I was looking around on the internet, I found WriYe, which I have been doing for the last year. The goal is to write a certain number of words all throughout the year. I am at 188,000 of the 250,000 word goal I set for myself last year at this time. Not too bad, but I hope to finish the year a little closer to the 250,000. The problem with the challenge is that I just don't get enough push from it. So, I kept looking around.

And I found ROW80, which is a Round of Words in 80 days. I love this idea. If NaNoWriMo is a sprint, trying to get 50,000 words written in one month, turning off the inner editor and just getting the thing down on paper, then ROW80 is a marathon. It understands that we all have a life, we cannot ignore our spouses, pets and personal hygiene for the entire rest of our lives in order to write. Yes, this does sometimes happen during NaNo. How do you suppose I wrote 14,000 words in one day? It was not pretty.

So, it looks like there are goals to write and try to reach and posts that need to happen twice a week, Sunday and Wednesday. I am just a baby at this writing thing, so I will start small, but I will start and hope to get five novels written over the next year. I also need to get physically back in shape. I can't just be writing and working, there has to be some physical movement. So, eating well, exercise, and writing, writing, writing.

I may even try to write a little booklet on depression to hand out to patients. This has been something I've been thinking about for a while now. I have a few books I recommend, but they are kind of long and I think it's not fair to make people go buy something to get better. Maybe a little starter booklet that would give them some of the information that I have picked up over time and that we talk about in the clinic but you can never remember by the time you leave.