Well, except for that new little kid growing inside you, I guess. But all writing (including blog posts), and cleaning, and taking decent care of your children, and, well, everything else. I know I said I was going to write about more than writing. Hopefully I’ll manage to write about writing, too (hopefully I’ll manage to actually do some writing I can write about). But I don’t think it’s going to happen for another month or two, when I might start to feel semi-human again. Sorry.

Since I’ve gotten married I’ve watched a lot more basketball. DH is a fan of college and NBA basketball, and loves to play himself. I don’t always watch with him, but it makes him happy to talk about the game to someone, so sometimes I do. Last night he stayed up late to watch the US beat Mexico in the FIBA Americas tournament. I had things I wanted to do that didn’t involve watching basketball, but I did sit in the room with DH while he watched. I checked my e-mail, blogged, and did some writing. DH got very excited about the game, and was happy he could talk to me about it, though there were many points when he was disappointed. This was a fairly typical conversation:

DH: That was awesome! Did you see that?!

Me: Um, no. Sorry.

DH: You didn’t see that?! It was awesome!

Me: Sorry. I’m not really watching the game.

Still, we spent some time together, and that was nice. It was a good night. The US played well and won, so DH was in a good mood. I got my writing done, because I’m used to doing that with the TV on in the background (though it’s usually Sesame Street or Curious George rather than basketball). And best of all, my kitchen got cleaned. DH felt a little guilty for staying up late, so he used the commercial breaks to do dishes, wipe up the table and sweep the kitchen floor. It was great. I wish basketball was on every night. At least as long as the team DH is cheering for wins.

So, I decided to make this more than just a writing blog. I sometimes want some space to talk about my kiddos, and since I post so infrequently on here anyway, I thought I’d just combine the two. Besides, if I blog about the kiddos it will help me remember things so I can maybe update their journals some day. And writing journals is still writing. So it’s all related… at least sort of.  Anyway, stay tuned for new and different things.

I wrote 1584 words yesterday.  I also wrote over 1300 on Tuesday and over 500 on Monday.  I’m very excited, and thinking that I might actually be able to finish this book.  Not that I’m that close to finishing, but having a productive week gives me hope.  And makes me happy — I’m really enjoying writing right now.  Half my house is still in boxes, but I just don’t care.  It’s amazing what a good mood writing a lot puts me in.

So far I’m not doing too badly with my new writing project.  Friday I wrote 527 words, Saturday and Monday I didn’t write, but Tuesday I wrote 112 words and yesterday 122.  So far today I haven’t written, but I’m planning to do so before I go to bed.  It’s not great progress, but it’s not bad, either.  1426 words in a week, and that’s with a holiday, moving in, doctor’s appointments and a visit from my parents.  I’m pretty happy.

We also just revived the IWriSloMo LiveJournal group, and I joined.  I’ve been on the mailing list, but I didn’t join the group before.  But now that I’m in to blogging, and I understand the joy of a group blog for so many purposes, I thought I’d try it out.  I don’t like the LJ format that well, but it’s ok.  Hopefully having other people also working on stuff and reporting their progress will help inspire me (or guilt me in to doing the same).

I wrote 665 words yesterday.  It was great.  Life has been so crazy that I haven’t been writing, and it’s still crazy, but it was driving me even more crazy to not be writing, so here I am again.  My house is not at all unpacked from the latest move (2 weeks ago), and we have no fence, or blinds, or numerous other things in our new house.  I also still have a 2.5yo and 1yo running me ragged, I’m making way too many things from scratch due to the 1yo’s soy allergy, and the 2.5yo has a developmental evaluation next week for some serious speech delays.  But oh well.  I’m actually pretty happy, and all because I’m not only writing, but having a good time doing it.  Of course, I did something I swore I wasn’t going to do.  I started something new (despite the fact that I already have 4 works-in-progress that I really do want to finish).  The new book is a little lighter reading, and therefore a little lighter writing, and I’m really enjoying it.  Hopefully I can keep up production.  I’m hoping for 500 words today and another 500 tomorrow.  My parents are coming to visit next week, so writing goals will probably be slightly lower.

Well, it’s been years since I’ve actually sat down and written out specific goals at the beginning of the year, and I decided this was the year to start again.  And I’m posting them here so that I can try to be accountable for them, too (I really am much better at doing things when I tell someone else that I’m going to).  I came up with 5 categories and 3 goals in each one (see, organization!).  And while this is a little off-subject, one of them is a writing goal, so see, it really belongs here…

family:

spend 20 min with each kid every day — I spend a lot of time with my kids, but I’m not always good about just spending time with them — I’m always trying to get other things done, too

get pregnant — not something I want to do just yet, but I think if I don’t before the end of the year it’s going to be really hard to convince myself to go back

keep journals and website not more than 3 mo. out of date — this shouldn’t be hard to do once I get them up to date — right now they’re about 7 mo. behind

church:

100% VT — this shouldn’t be too hard

attend temple 3 times — I’m mostly doing this for my husband, and this will only include 1 endowment session

get familiar with Mom’s family history — I think there’s maybe more that could be done on it, but I won’t know unless I spend some time getting familiar with it first

house:

move (3 times) and get unpacked — yes, we’re moving 3 times this year — once to Puerto Rico, then back to WI, then somewhere else — the first two shouldn’t be too hard, but getting unpacked after the last one will be a struggle

sort through 1 box of papers — i have a few boxes of papers waiting to be filed in my library

get family pic taken — really, this fits under household, since the picture we have hanging now doesn’t have either of the kids in it

personal:

read 30 books (2 non-fiction) — this shouldn’t be hard, since I’ve already read 10 and it’s not quite the end of January

exercise for 10 minutes 3x/week — I’m not very good about exercising, so I figured i’d start small

finish 1st draft of a manuscript — it doesn’t matter which of the 4 WIPs, just one of them — this is by far the hardest goal on the list, but I really want to do it!

finances:

get loans less than (x amount) and savings more than (x amount) — I figure I probably don’t need to publish specific financial info on my blog

get tax papers filed — I actually did most of this the other day

submit income taxes by March — harder than it looks, since we own property with my in-laws and I have to wait for them to give me some of the info before I can file

I haven’t posted on here for a while because I haven’t written for a while.  But I’m hoping to do some serious writing in the next few months (more on that soon), so stay tuned for updates!

I never did figure out what happened to the old one.  Maybe she died.  I don’t think it’s likely, but it is possible.  But regardless, I’ve spent the last week looking for a new babysitter.  I think maybe I found one.  She’s coming over on Saturday to talk to us about the job, so hopefully it’ll work out.  And then maybe I can actually have some time to do some writing again.  Wish me luck.

Well, DH watched the kids for a little while last night, so I had some time to do some writing.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling very good, so I didn’t get too much done.  Just 141 words.  But that does push my total for the month over 1000, so that’s good, I guess.  And I think DH is going to give me some more writing time tomorrow, so hopefully I can get a larger chunk written then.