2011 Check In, Month 5

Another killer busy month here. I did another (final) rewrite on my Post-apocalyptic Persuasion book that ate up all of May. I had a slew of houseguests. I hung out with SB, Rio, and Q. I watched my garden wither and ::knockwood:: bounce back.

So, to catch y’all up from May:

Writing: Didn’t accomplish any of my May writing goals, since instead I rewrote the ending of my book. But now it’s done. My goal for this month is to finally do short story #3 and get started on a new proposal.

Home: I rearranged my kitchen, and helped SB take out one huge ungainly bush and trim all the others, and finally unpacked and shelved every book in my house. YAY! There wasn’t any *big* change this month, but enough little things to make a difference to me. What happened is once Q started crawling around and I took in the set-up through baby proofing eyes, I realized it was silly to keep all my pretty, fragile china teacups in a cupboard that she could reach with her little baby fingers WHILE displaying on a decorative shelf all of the valves and whatnot of her plastic bottle collection. I don’t know what I was thinking. I blame new-infant sleep deprivation insanity. So, one little switcheroo later:

Pretty, huh? If only it weren’t too hot for tea. My home improvement projects for this month include: finish cleaning out my closet (I skipped pruning last year because it was too depressing while in maternity-wear), babyproof, put in the rocks around the AC units near the patio, clean out the flower garden and replant, and do something about the Ent.

Blog: Sadface. But, I’m already doing better in June!

Quality Time with SB: We took walks every afternoon with Rio and the bebe. It was a whole family time fun thing. We even took the baby swimming for the first time. She loved it!

Rio: See above. She’s still sick. Now the vet thinks it’s some kind of food allergy, which I suspect is related to the fact that Q thinks it’s HILARIOUS to give Rio all her food. Maybe she’s allergic to DHA, which I swear they put in every darn baby food on the market. I found fish oil in Queenie’s YOGURT the other day. Are you kidding me? YOGURT?

Garden: Well, after my pathetic garden post from last week, I redoubled my efforts and I think I may have turned it around. My garden (sans zucchini, which I didn’t plant this year) now looks a lot more like the one from 2010. Yay for tomato food. The plants are higher than my office windowsill now. I also planted a small “garden annex” on the inside of the fence and put three sweet peppers (which are hanging on) and one squash (which I don’t think is) in there. I hope to get some tomatoes next month. Fingers crossed!

And, the big list:

1. Revise/finish my contracted novel.
2. Write short story #1
3. Write short story #2
4. Write short story #3
5. Write short story #4
6. Write new proposal #1
7. Write new proposal/book #2
8. Go to one writing-related conference.
9. Walk my dog.
10. Plant a garden.
11. Make sure I spend quality time with Sailor Boy.
12. Do at least two home improvement projects.
13. Cut our budget.