Today I’m hosting family and friends to celebrate my two son’s birthdays. These happy occasions take a ton of time and I have some to spare, ha ha. I save event to-do-lists from year to year and boy do they come in handy. I have listed who to invite, where to get the cake, who has card tables they can bring, don’t want to forget to order the balloons or pick them up…all the way to the thank you notes. This year I attempted to do more things early to save my precious writing time. I’m pretty well prepared for the party, but I didn’t get much done this week on the giant list below. I tried and for that I need to let myself off the hook.

Motivation Jars (14-goals in all & $7.50 is up for grabs each week): 10-goals had real good progress or they’re in line for progress. Wardrobe Jar gets $5.36 (total so far: $53.03) and NOT my political party of choice jar gets $2.14 (total so far: $6.97)

The Goals – week-8 results

• Spend at least 1-hour a day with my characters– done
• Pick a title for Voyage Novu #1 & #2- I spent no time on this task this week, other than thinking I needed to do it. WEEK 9 PRIORITY
• Write 3,000 words each week or 33,000 for the round- no writing this week, I’d get sick about it except I KNOW next week will be different. WEEK 9 PRIORITY
• 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 have not yet finished my current read through, maybe next week and then it will be off to a beta, again.
• Voyage Novu#1 Query/Synopsis: finish, polish, get 2nd opinions, finalize AND send out 1st round- I participated in a pitch camp this week and I greatly improved my logline.
• Finish first draft of Voyage Novu#2 and begin to edit- I originally planned for this goal to be done Mid-August, then by Labor day and now the plan is early September. I still have about 5,000 words left to write.
• Finish reading current craft book and start another- I only have one more chapter to read, but it didn’t happen this week. WEEK 9 PRIORITY
• Workout a minimum of 200-minutes a week and round it out with plenty of water, sleep and my calorie limit- done. 🙂 Not sure how I pulled this off this week, but I did. I can tell you, however, today I wont be counting my calories.
• Study one of the Nia 52-moves each week- Outward Punch: start in the ready position. Your elbow pushes your fist from the palm up to palm down with a full extension of the elbow out in front of you at shoulder lever. 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 didn’t finish the movement notes, but I made progress and I’ve got to be happy with that
• Finish needed continuing education, enter all credits on PMI site and save my PMP certification for another 3-years- No progress here, it slipped through my fingers WEEK 9 PRIORITY
• Stay on top of my co-op preschool Treasurer responsibilities- I didn’t have to do anything this week. What? Yes! But I wont be so lucky next week. I need to have the next round of invoices out by the end of the month and I have another parent meeting.

I’m looking forward to relaxing back into my normal routine this week. But first, I’m going to celebrate my boys. They’re now 3 and 6, how did that happen?

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

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.