All lovely things come to an end, eventually. The end of summer is getting closer, total bummer. I’m thankful Michigan has a law regarding the start of public school, not before labor day. Sure, it keeps families vacationing longer, but it also ensures we have the whole month of August to enjoy, very nice. I’m trying to not freak out about how my days will change. I might need to add mommy chauffeur to my goal list. All the running around will make my days tighter, and although I’ve improved my time management, I’m going to have a real test of my skills this fall. I’ve worked hard on building my writing momentum and I have no desire to slow down. Some things are impossible to avoid.

I want to give a special shout out to my youngest, he turns 3 today. Quarter after four o’clock in the afternoon three years ago you finally came out of my belly at a tremendous speed. You were over a week late, but I’ve forgiven you for that. You are a joy in our lives and I love you very much.

Motivation Jars (14-goals in all & $7.50 is up for grabs each week): 13-goals had real good progress or they’re in line for progress. Wardrobe Jar gets $6.96 (total so far: $47.67) and NOT my political party of choice jar gets $0.54 (total so far: $4.83)

The Goals – week-7 results

• Spend at least 1-hour a day with my characters– done
• Pick a title for Voyage Novu #1 & #2- glad I didn’t put a due date on this goal, because it’s giving me a roller coaster ride. My list of possibilities is growing, though so that’s something.
• Write 3,000 words each week or 33,000 for the round- 1,188 words, I think I might have deleted more words then added this week, bummer. I’m going to have to do a read through before I can figure out where I’m going, which halted my word count this week.
• Spend time editing at least 3 times each week- done. I spent 3-days editing this week.
• Send Voyage Novu #1 to 2nd beta- Goal complete.
• Finish Editing Voyage Novu #1- I finished my beta’s notes and I’m in the middle of another read through, great 2-simultaneous reads throughs. Let’s hope I keep the stories from crossing 🙂
• Voyage Novu#1 Query/Synopsis: finish, polish, get 2nd opinions, finalize AND send out 1st round- I made a bit of progress this week on the synopsis and I’m looking forward to giant leaps next week. The yahoo group Marketing for Romance Writers will hold pitch camp this week.
• Finish first draft of Voyage Novu#2 and begin to edit- With about 5,000 words left to write on VN#2, I’d like to see this goal begin after labor day.
• Finish reading current craft book and start another- a whole chapter done, I’ve moved at snails pace on this one, but I only have one chapter left now.
• Workout a minimum of 200-minutes a week and round it out with plenty of water, sleep and my calorie limit- done. 🙂
• Study one of the Nia 52-moves each week- Upward Punch: start in the ready position. Your elbow pushes your fist from the palm up ready position and spirals the forearm bone to a full extension with the palm down. Reverse move back to the ready position. Sense the stop. Benefit: strengthens your core as well as your arm and will enhance your sense of personal power.
• Finish the Sanjana bars and start the Opal bars (i.e. studying the song/movement structure)- I wrote out the bars for the next song in the routine, next week I’ll need to document the movement.
• Finish needed continuing education, enter all credits on PMI site and save my PMP certification for another 3-years- finished the 1st book and now I have just one book left to read and just over a month before my certification is up for renewal. I think I might just squeak by on this one.
• Stay on top of my co-op preschool Treasurer responsibilities- Done, just one parent email and one trip up to the school to pick up the mail. Yeah for another slow week.

I’m hoping we all have a nice smooth week, daily progress, hard stuff first, loads of writing and tons of fun.