Welcome, August, with your hot, muggy weather and zero holidays and hopefully lots and lots of work. Where am I on my goals?
Writing: Was supposed to finish a short story (check) and start a new proposal (checkity check). This month: Campnanowrimo. And copyedits on For Darkness Shows the Stars.
Home:
- finish cleaning out my closet (I have two big boxes to donate/trash but I bet I can get another one)
- get rid of the furniture we don’t use anymore, (including two dressers)
- finish babyproofing as Q grows more mobile by the day (she’s crawling with her belly up now, and pulling herself up on anything she can reach) Made some headway on this, but are you ever really “finished”?
- put in the rocks around the AC units near the patio
- clean out the flower garden and replant
- create an herb garden I’ve decided this isn’t happening this year.
- Do something about the vines/weeds taking over our yard.
No new goals here this month.
Blog: I blogged eleven times in July. This seems to be an ongoing average for me, looking back over the months. I would like to bump it up a bit, but it probably won’t be this month, given all the work I have to do.
Quality Time with SB: Alas. More evening sofa sitting. We’re so dull. (Otherwise known as: we have an infant.) Seriously, the one time we attempted to go out and have an adventure, the place was closed and we ended up at the mall. Where we bought some new clothes, but still. This month, our poison of choice was Treme, which I loved.
On the flip side, it’s more like the nature of our quality time has changed. We spend a lot of time as a family now — hanging out on the floor watching Q cruise around and learn to play with things and make noises that could almost be mistaken for words is really entertaining. Also, Q is great at restaurants. There was a time there, around 6 months, when she wasn’t old enough to sit in a high chair and eat real food, but wasn’t young enough to sleep through the whole thing in her sling — and that made restaurants tough. But now she’s back in the swing of things charming every waiter in town.
Rio: Poor Rio. We’ve had some outlandish heatwaves in DC this summer, which means that long walks for Rio are definitely out of the question. She’s gotten in some good swimming time and a few longer hikes when weather permits, but mostly it’s quick runs to the park with her tennis ball so she doesn’t pass out from this heat.
Garden: Drowning in tomatoes. Basil doing great. Have some peppers sprouting. Mint hanging on. I got one squash before the heat killed my squashes.
And the big list:
- Revise/finish my contracted novel.
- Write short story #1
- Write short story #2
- Write short story #3
- Write short story #4
- Write essay #1
- Write new proposal #1
- Write new proposal/book #2
- Go to one writing-related conference.
- Walk my dog.
- Plant a garden.
- Make sure I spend quality time with Sailor Boy.
- Do at least two home improvement projects.
- Cut our budget.
- Read at least one new novel per month.
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