Mid-Week Slump

Man, it's gross outside! I'm yearning for some sun! 

Temps are supposed to go up this weekend though! I'm so looking forward to it. 

Coming off retreat is often difficult to navigate. You go from doing nothing but taking care of your own personal needs and writing, to being slammed back into reality. Usually it takes a few days to find your balance again. 

I think I'm doing okay though this time. I always take Monday's off from writing. It's just my thing. Last night, I managed words and came to the conclusion that I'm starting this story in the wrong place. Or maybe I'm just thinking too hard about it. Not sure yet but I'm still on a good track. 

That Man and I are going away just the two of us this weekend. Just a quick little weekend getaway, which is so needed and very much looked forward to. We were going to do this for our anniversary but the timing never worked out. I'm not sure how we got it to work out for this weekend, but we did and it even worked out for the housemates taking care of the home front without issue, so yay us. 

And that's all I have...

Stay dry and...

Behave! 

Retreat: Day Three: PM

Well, this is it. 

My last retreat post. Once I'm done here, I'll be packing up my gear in preparation to leave in the morning. I highly doubt you'll hear from me tomorrow. 

It's been an epic time. Though today went way, way too fast. So fast that even though I got up at six-thirty thinking it was eight-thirty, I didn't eat dinner until after seven. I planned to take a nap and the next thing I knew it was almost four. 

I am confident in what I'm doing on many fronts now. I'm still excited for this story even though I spent a lot of time writing just brain barf. But that's okay. That's usually what I do anyway. I have a better handle on my characters and how I want things to go down. So it's a total win. I achieved an epic word count and I needed to write those words to know things. 

We did find out that this house won't be available going forward. Something with the town and something something something. I don't know. It's sad because this is the perfect layout and size for us. The only thing that's not sad is I won't miss my bed here. I remember saying my bed sucked last time, but it was hard to know for sure because I was dealing with my hip at the same time. 

I can say without pause that my bed here is horrible. I woke up with leg pain, back pain, side pain, and shoulder pain. So good riddance to that. We're looking for new houses, but since I'm not sure what our schedule is going to look like in the month we're planning, I have to wait to commit. 

And that's a wrap. 

Behave! 

Retreat: Day Three: AM

It was a mostly crappy night's sleep. 

I solved my light pollution issue, but not the comfort issue. I think the bed is just not comfortable. Especially since I woke up with pains. One more night and then I'll be back in my comfy bed. I also rolled over thinking it was after eight. Uuhhh...it wasn't even seven. 

That's okay. I had to pee and I kept questioning my word count from yesterday. I was correct with my tally. I can take a nap later if I want. But it's supposed to be close to sixty today and I don't know if I want to miss that. 

All I know is that I'm going to be cranking out the words.

And that is all...

Behave!

Retreat: Day Two: PM

And I'm still rolling. I'm in danger of breaking my brain though. 

I've netted about 12k words so far today. I'm debating whether to continue or let my brain rest and goof off the rest of the evening. 

I will have to do some heavy edits. My stream of thought turned into revealing backstory, which is completely fine and needs to be done, just maybe not in the huge chunks I've been putting on the page.

I'm at one with this story so even with the backstory puking out of me, I'm not faltering anymore and that is epic. It's been a hot minute.  

It's been a lovely day. I only got one work call which is fantastic. I've been in my comfy clothes all day. I have played musical chairs with the sitting surfaces here and finally went back to my regular spot after fortifying it with pillows. (This couch is very well worn and the cushions slouch into the back making your back hurt) I even managed to hit my step goal for the day. 

I think I'm leaning towards the goofing off at this point, but that might change. We'll see. 

And that is all for now...

Behave! 

Retreat: Day Two: AM

The view from my writing spot is glorious. And I still feel as obnoxious as I did yesterday, so there's that. I'm keeping it to myself. Mostly. Ha!

I slept in a bit. Which I don't think counts because it took me forever to fall asleep last night. It was light pollution, struggling to find a comfortable position, a wee bit of anxiety of things that aren't within my control - you know, the usual. 

I'm in my writing spot with my document open and maybe 75 words written. Ha! I have a full cup of coffee (my second) and I'm getting back to the manuscript now. 

Behave!

Retreat: Day One: PM

Well, here we are at almost the end of day one. Yeah, it's early by standards, but not when you've been up since five am after not sleeping great, worked half of a crazy day, hauled your gear (times two - once loading up this morning and again when i got here), and let yourself relax for the first time in a long time. 

Okay. I'm almost at the relaxed part. 

I intend to sleep in tomorrow. The alarms are already turned off. 

I did figure out how to work the coffee pot, which is important. And I found a cool mug that holds a lot of coffee. 

I have written more words in these few hours than I have in a while. It's a good feeling and I think I'm going in the right direction. We had our nacho dinner (the only meal we share while here) and we've checked a few things off of our "agenda". I put that in quotes because it's really a list of stuff we want to talk about in no particular order. 

I think I might be diving into the self publishing world here soon. I'll let you know when I figure stuff out and get that going. My time is going to be short over the next few weeks, which will give me the opportunity to continue to gather information and figure out how I want to start. 

Other than that... I'm so happy to be here. (so much that I'm a tiny bit of obnoxious. Just a tiny. Ha!) 

Behave! 

Retreat: Day One: Arrival

Here I am! 

I made it here in good time and didn't almost die on the highway this time. I stopped for ice and tea for one of my retreat mates. And I forgot the ice. Of course. But the fridge here makes ice and the ice tastes fine so unless something happens, I'm not going back out. 

I have organized my room, ate some cheese crackers, and changed into my comfy pants. We've had a short session of talking and now everyone is getting stuff done. 

Or trying to. 

I didn't forward work calls and my phone has been going off constantly. It's a crap shoot though. Some days no calls come through. Other days it's reminiscent of being at the switchboard where you're putting people on hold to answer three other lines. Oh well. It is what it is. I only have another hour and a half to deal with it. Oh. And all day tomorrow. If it gets bad, I'll have my boss switch the lines, but I don't expect it to be a problem. 

The view is so beautiful here. I'm currently sitting on a super comfy couch with a built in footrest, facing woods and rolling hills. I have a new document open and I'm ready to begin. 

And that's it for now...

Behave! 

Almost Time!

This time tomorrow I'll be about an hour away from heading to retreat! (I mean, if this blog posts at the time it's supposed to!) 

I have collected my meals and just have to do laundry and pack clothes and my computer. 

I ready to restart this book. I've been writing copious notes and thoughts on how I need it to be and that's been helping my brain get in the right space. Yeah, I could have started it before, but it feels symbolic to begin again on retreat. 

That's all until retreat starts! 

Behave! 

Weekend Wrap Up

This weather needs to get its act together. Either rain or snow, but if it's going to be snow, then bring it! It looks like it's snowing now though. I have no idea what's going to happen. 

Here we are at Sunday evening again. Okay, it's not quite evening... or is it? 

Anyway... here's the Sunday list:

1. Not getting to sleep in on Saturday since the construction guys started banging things at 6:30. Technically, I guess I got an hour more than normal, but since I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, I don't think it counts. 

2. Getting our shopping done ahead of the "milk, bread, and eggs" crowd. 

3. Making something new for our Saturday evening plans. Cannoli dip. It turned out really well! 

4. Paint night with friends. It was a blast. That Man even painted and his turned out so good! Mine looks like a baby owl. (We painted owls) His looks like it was supposed to. He's far more artistic than I am. 

5. Sleeping in this morning. It was lovely.

6. Waking up to "breakfast pizza" made by That Man. And coffee. 

7. Retreat in 3.5 days!!

8. Mac and cheese for dinner. We made a meal for folks that had a really hard week and just doubled it so we had dinner too. So technically dinner was made by noon. 

9. Chocolate chip cookies. 

That's all I have...

Behave!

Feel Good Friday

Yay! It's Friday!

It's raining here! And it's cold. Not freezing, but cold and damp. It makes me want to take a nap...

Here's my list:

1. Retreat in less than a week. 

2. Pizza for dinner. No cooking! 

3. Texting with K5. 

4. Sleeping in tomorrow. 

5. That Man and I making plans for a solo weekend. 

6. Weekend plans. 

7. The cleaning out of old papers that has occurred in my house. (Still no documents)

That's it...

Behave! 

Stuff & Things

In one week, I will be on retreat! 

I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to the days of solid writing, the companionship of friends, and the peaceful setting. 

Writing has been slow this week. I'm on a mission to find some documents that aren't where they were supposed to be. So far, I have unloaded my house with tons of unneeded papers and things that don't need to be kept. I have a few more places to look -- well, more like go through places again because maybe I missed them? IDK, it's exhausting and satisfying.

Anyway. I'm willing to forgive myself for the lack of words on the page. Besides the above, I'm not super happy with how things are going. It's like I'm missing something. Which I think is my brain keeps going back to how it was originally written and that's not how I want it. Working through that and I will overcome. I'm still very excited for this story. 

What else? Not much. Same old around the homestead. 

And that is all...

Behave!  

Weekend Wrap Up

That Man woke up this morning thinking it was Monday. That's a hateful way to start a Sunday morning! Sunday's are hard enough! 

It's been a decent weekend. The book signing yesterday was a lot of fun. I sold books, which is awesome (and also made me feel like I made the right decision canceling next month's signing). I don't have many left at all. Anyway. I got to see old friends and catch up a bit. K3 & A stopped by, as well as my sister and niece. 

It's sad though thinking that'll be my very last signing for a while. I love that event so much. Last year was the only year I missed and I likely could have done it but had no idea where I'd be with my recovery when the time to make a commitment came. 

We had a nice dinner at home and a chill evening. We even sat outside in the sun for a while. 

Today was errands, laundry, blah blah blah. I did get a decent word count and it's going well, though I'm going to have to tighten things up before I go too much farther. Or I'll wait and do it while doing edits. We'll see. 

And that's all I have. 

Behave! 

Positives...

In an effort to shake off the negativity seemingly all around me, here is my positivity list for today...

1. Being done with taxes. (I do have to write some checks but the main work is done)

2. A warm house. 

3. My dog still hanging in there. Every day she continues to have her spark is precious right now. 

4. The booksigning coming up this weekend. I'm excited and nervous. 

5. The weather is a lot warmer today. 

6. Trying new recipes with That Man and laughing when they don't turn out as good as they looked. Ha! 

7. Spring is coming. 

8. Being excited to write again. 

9. My kids. They're awesome and make me laugh. 

10. That Man. I couldn't ask for better. 

11. Retreat coming up. 

That's good for now. There are many more positives, but my list is likely boring to you. Ha! 

Staying off social media has been a huge help as far as me trying to stay positive. I'm not missing it at all. 

That is all...

Behave! 

Weekend Wrap Up!

Here we are at Sunday evening again. And it's still cold out. 

Hopefully it starts to warm up soon. "They" say it's supposed to by next weekend. We'll see. I'm not holding my breath. Spring is coming, right? 

The people in my house are going stir crazy. Me included. 

Yesterday we ran around getting our errands done and yeah, we did have dinner out, which was nice. But it was so cold it was hard to enjoy the evening to its fullest. If that makes sense. 

Today we've been home all day. Thank goodness. I slept in and woke up to That Man and K4 making breakfast. Lots of coffee. Laundry. And I spent most of the day writing. I'm not saying what I'm working on yet except that it's an older project that needs a rewrite. 

And I've been sneezing all freaking day. 

This week is sort of on the "quiet" list. I hope. I still need to finish taxes and take care of some other admin duties. Ugh. 

Behave! 

Mother Nature is Nuts!

What is this weather hell we're living in? I know I complained about the cold the last time I posted, but Mother Nature has turned it up in a rude and horrid way. What is she thinking? I didn't know we lived in Antarctica! 

We were out earlier. It was horrible. 

So here's a brief Feel Good Friday on Saturday...

1. It was a rough week, but we made it through. We dealt with a lot this week -- sickness, cold, insanity at work, and you know...life in general. 

2. Sleeping in this morning and hopefully the same tomorrow. I did wake up at 5:30am and said hell no. It was too dark and cold. 

3. Maybe figuring out what I'm actually doing with my writing life. 

4. Our evening plans. 

5. Getting the errands done and not freezing to death when we did. 

The bad thing is that I had to give up the book signing in March. I just don't have enough inventory and whatever I have left after the greenhouse signing is (hopefully) spoken for. I did keep a copy of each book for myself. It's a really strange place to be in and I don't like it. 

That's all I have...

Behave! 

Living in the SubZero...

I'm tired of it. 

I know I'm not the only one. My heating bill is going to be so outrageous. But what are the options? Freeze? I think not. But seriously, Mother Nature, please check yourself. We're dying here! 

Yeah. I know. Everyone feels the same way. 

I jumped on social media the other day. I don't think I can do that anymore. Sometimes I hop on and scroll for a few seconds to see what's going on. I rarely post (though I know I should for the author stuff and I probably will post something about the greenhouse signing). My feed was filled with people complaining, being entitled, and talking down to each other in the comments. 

There's already too many negative things going on in the world. We don't need to treat each other like that. I'm not sure what happened to "scrolling by" something you don't like/agree with but it seems to be a thing of the past. So my exposure to it will be very limited or not at all for a while. Maybe forever. 

Also...our grandkids seem to think we have no idea on what is or isn't AI. Which cracks us up. I've taken to sending ridiculously obvious AI pictures to our group chat with an innocent..."this is real, right?" just to continue to stir the pot. They also believe we're woefully technologically impaired. We play along with that one too. At least for now. 

That's all I have...

Behave! 

Weekend Wrap Up

Well...here we are again. Sunday evening. Boo!

My back hurts. Not sure what I did to it. It started yesterday. I'm stretching it and using a heating pad but it's pissing me off. 

We've been home all weekend which is rare and good. It's been a while. Yesterday we cleaned out closets and drawers, dusted, and rehung the tapestry that fell down in our room. Getting rid of things and making space feels awesome. Today was deep cleaning the fridge and ice machine, washing sheets, and other odd chores. 

We talked a lot about my writing and how I have been feeling and I know what I'm doing now. I'm writing a story I started last summer. It's what feels right and it's been going well. I went through the pages I had yesterday and have added several thousand words so far today. So yeah... that's good. 

I'll be at the garden center on Valentine's Day for my favorite book signing. I have limited stock so if there's something you want, now's the time to get it. If I come away from this with books left, I'll be at a signing next month. But that's going to be it for a while since I'm an orphan with no publisher currently. 

And that's all I have.

Behave!

Feel Good Friday!

What an excessively long week! We made it to Friday though!

Let's hit the list:

1. The snow was beautiful and I loved having a "snow day" (even if it was Sunday) and the subsequent "working from home snow day". But now... now all the snow is a pain in the butt. Ha! We didn't shovel the whole way out because of the ice and plow piles. It's fine. It'll melt enough (eventually) to not matter. Well, maybe it won't melt since we're living in sub-zero world. I'm over the cold weather. So much. 

Tuesday showed up with a giant freaking cold for me. I stayed home from the day job and slept literally all day. It's slowly improving, though I'm not close to being 100% yet. My head kills and the draining is annoying. (this is not numbered because it's not anything even closely related to feel good)

2. Barring any emergencies, we have a nothing weekend for the first time in a long time. Every time we think we're going to have one, something happens. This just means that we'll tackle some of the things on the list that we haven't had time for, but that's fine. 

3. Sleeping in. I really hope it happens. 

4. Hoping to get some writing in. I still have no idea what I'm working on. It'll happen at some point. It's frustrating.

That's all I have!

Behave! 

Snowmaggedon! Working From Home!

It was nice to wake up about 10 minutes before I had to log in. That's the longest I slept in all weekend. Oy. 

That Man had some issues getting logged in, but we finally overcame. Now our dining room table is a work space. He has way more "physical" things spread out. I have a tiny pile, but our work is very different. 

The cats are a mess. Our female cat wants to be in the middle of the papers and is generally being a pest. The boys are watching the birds from the dining room window. And the dog is just happy we're home. She's curled up at our feet under the table. 

Now we have to shovel. Well, shovel and work. The two upstairs will be helping as soon as they get up and moving. We're not in a rush. They'll be the first ones to leave in the morning, so we technically have all day. Traffic is so quiet. 

That's about it...

Behave! 

Snowmaggedon!

It's still coming down. Only now it's a freezing rain, sleet, snow mix. 

It's so quiet and beautiful outside! 

You can hear the little birds talking to each other. And the squirrels making their little noises. We had to put more bird seed out since they emptied the feeder between yesterday and today. It's amazing when there's no traffic noise!

Mainly we've been cooking/eating today. Made homemade boston cream donuts this morning. Not too bad, but will need tweaking if I'm going to do it again. It's K4's boy's birthday today. We did steak and eggs for breakfast. Well, the rest of them did. I just did steak and mushrooms since I didn't feel like eggs. Warmed up homemade white pizza for lunch. And a milkshake. We're having lasagna for dinner and then banana splits in lieu of cake. 

Then a nap, which was lovely. Now I'm going to see what kind of writing nonsense I can get into until K4 decides to start making the birthday dinner. IDK if she'll need my help or not, but I'll be available to bother her at least. Ha! 

No word on tomorrow's work schedule yet, but it's pretty obvious we'll be working from home. 

That is all. I hope you're staying warm and dry if you're involved in this storm and cold. The forecast definitely doesn't look good for the next 10 days. 

Behave! 

The Eve of Snowmaggedon!

Well, here we are... waiting for the snow...

So many unknowns with this storm. 

But we're ready. I guess. We'll see?

We were out earlier. B had a soccer game. Which was epic. He scored three goals, including a headshot. We ran into friends there. Their son plays a league above B (though we played them last summer and our boys beat them pretty solid). It was nice to catch up a little though. 

Then we decided to hit the store. (I knew we would) It was fine though. Busy, but not insane and there were plenty of milk, bread, eggs, and toilet paper. Actually I don't know if that's true because I didn't look at that stuff. Instead I got ice cream, whipped cream, my favorite coffee creamer, and cheese--which was the only thing we were out of. Ha! 

K4 was out and about today and sent me a pic of the mega stores parking lot. Whoa. It was packed. 

So now we wait. The snow blower is ready. The shovels are out. It's so freaking cold though and it's supposed to stay like that for the foreseeable future. I hate that part. 

My plan is to spend as much time as possible writing tomorrow. But we'll see. It's possible we'll have guests if power goes out. Plus, I have no idea what I'm writing yet. I spent some time writing out an idea I had, but I don't know if it'll go anywhere. It's more of a "backstory" kind of thing anyway. But I'm getting there. 

That is all...

Behave! 

Feel Good Friday!

It's about time! This has been a long week! 

I'm trying to rally up the positives, so let's just get to the list!

1. SNOW in the forecast. How much is anyone's guess at this point, but they're saying "significant". I'm all about that. 

2. Plans for our snow day that include food and relaxation. 

3. We have done our store run and "should" be good. I have a feeling we're going to realize we either forgot something or decide we need something we didn't get though. But oh well. We'll brave the "bread, eggs, and milk" crowd if we have to. 

4. Getting to do two awesome critiques this week. My friends are awesome storytellers and writers. It's actually quite humbling to be in their company. Especially when I currently feel like a hack. 

5. Having the ability to work from home restored. It had been shut down when we had a slight system compromise. With the weather coming, the bosses made sure everyone had the ability again, which is awesome. 

6. The potential for my brain to decide to be creative again this weekend. It's there...shimmering just under the surface. I can feel it. 

7. Definitely sleeping in on both days this weekend. After a rough week where we thought our bed heater was doomed, our temperature is back where it's supposed to be. (It somehow got turned down...we think it might have been when the dog leaked pee on our bed and we ended up stripping the bed at 5am, but who knows?)

8. 34 days until Retreat! 

And that's it! 

Behave! 

Off Rails...

So January has become one big calendar page of stress and nonsense. Almost three weeks into this new year and I already want to write it off and start over.

I'm so off my game writing-wise. I thought I had the "best" idea, but it fizzled out a few thousand words in. Then I had another "great" idea and it said "nope" about 800 words in. So...fine. Right now I'm critiquing for friends in the hope that my brain starts sparking again. 

I did get a small "what if" sizzle this morning which was exciting. We'll see if it goes away or if it becomes something I can work with. 

I have retreat coming up in 38 days. I'm so excited to go even though I have no idea what I'll be doing. 

And that's it... Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on and it's really affecting me, but now we're at the point where there's not much I can do about any of it beyond what I've already done, so... It's time to let it go. (we all know how hard that is)

We soldier on...

Behave! 

Happy New Year!

Yeah, I know it's the third. It's been the new year for 3 days. 

We didn't think we were going to make it to midnight on New Years Eve. We somehow did and were then in bed at 12:02. I know, we're such party animals! Ha! 

We did have some excellent pork & sauerkraut and a pretty chill New Years day. Yesterday we practiced our relaxation skills and it was lovely. We slept in and did very little for the first time in forever. Well, the washing machine was torn apart and the new pump motor was ordered. We took naps and had an easy dinner with minimal clean up. 

Today was a grocery store run, writing, and dismantling Christmas. The tree is down and put away. Most of the porch decorations have been stored away. The snowman are still out, but they're allowed to be for a few months. 

So far we've managed to avoid the sickness, but one of our coworkers came in very sick on Wednesday. We avoided him, so hopefully...

One more day off before the day job insanity of January. Inventory and end year stuff will be crazy. 

And that's all I have. I started a new project and I'm picking my way through setting up the story. So far so good. 

Behave!