Three months and thirteen days. That’s how long it’s been since my last post here. How terrible of me! Yes, I must admit, I have fallen waaayyy off the writing bandwagon the past several weeks. But I’m getting back on again and hoping going to ride longer and farther than ever before with this blogging stretch. So, I thought I’d ease back into things with a little recap of what’s been going on these past three months.
August, September and October were a blur of busyness. Several times I wished someone would stop the merry-go-round so I could get off. I’m too young for life to be passing me by this quickly! I think that’s part of the reason I look forward so much to fall and winter; it gives my family and I a chance to step back and breath a little after the hectic pace of keeping up with a large garden and lawn. Vegetables and grass wait for no man, and on top of that, we didn’t get a hard frost until well into October, so the gardening lasted longer than usual.
But God blessed our gardens and gave us a good harvest, so I am grateful for that. You can’t beat the flavor, price, or peace of mind (knowing when you open a jar of beans you won’t find a cigarette butt inside) of your own home grown and preserved food. I did manage to fit in a foliage drive through New Hampshire and Vermont with a couple of friends, a visit to a WW2 museum with my mom (I’ll have to do a separate post on that sometime – it was so interesting!), and a trail walk with my mom, sister-in-law, and two nephews. Those are the pictures you see interspersed throughout this post.
In September I decided to take the month to go back and look at my novel for the first time since I finished the second- first draft last year (there are two drafts of my story, one from each NaNoWriMo I have done. However, they are both first drafts because the story changed a bit from the first draft to the second.) There is much work to do to have the story completed, but I was encouraged that the first draft wasn’t as horrible as I had expected!
In October I signed up for a 30-day Intentional Blogging challenge from Jeff Goins. One of the first assignments for this challenge was to write the “About Page” for your blog. I decided that I wouldn’t write anything else until that project was done (since I’ve had this blog for two years already and still haven’t written one), which is the main reason you haven’t heard from me for three months and thirteen days. Trying to condense who you are, why you write, and what your reader can expect from your blog into 1,000 words (preferably less), with charm and wit, is no small task. Struggle is the perfect word to describe my attempts at completing this, and I have succeeded at being a master of procrastination with it. “Everything is more important that writing an about page! I’m too tired! I can’t think of anything to write! It’s not coming together! It probably never will!”
But eventually, after a few short sessions of word hacking and patching, things are beginning (I think? And hope?) to take shape. I have decided that I can no longer postpone all other writing until this project is done, so I am making my re-entry into the world of writing. My plan is to spend a few minutes at the start of each writing session to work on my about page a bit more, so that way I won’t completely lose track of it, and hopefully in a couple of weeks you will see the finished result!
November came, and with it the feeling that always comes after a hot, harried summer: a feeling of re-awakening. Instead of keeping my head down and focusing on the next hurdle in the race, I’m able to look up, slow down (sort of…), and contemplate the scenery and focus on how I’m getting to the finish line. With the gardens tucked away and the lawn raked, I could now dust off my sewing machine and begin making Christmas gifts. Mom and I are trying hard to get our Christmas crafting and shopping done early so that we can focus on other, more important aspects of Christmas this year. I just have one more gift to buy and a lot of things left to make, which I’m hoping to make progress on this week, and then I’m done!!! 😀
One other recent development that I’m hoping will help me get more writing done is that I got a new laptop! I’ve been planning on it for a while now, since my old laptop (which I purchased 6 years ago with money I earned mowing lawn for someone over the summer) had a dead battery, a dead cord (thankfully I was able to borrow the cords from my parents’ laptops), no software advanced enough to play the movies that my camera takes, and was running out of space. Not to mention that the speakers were dying and it’s HUGE, even compared to laptops of approximately the same age.
To go from my 7 lb (which felt like 10), 16″, Vista-running hulk to this sleek little 4 lb, 13.3″ Windows 8-running touchscreen with a 360* hinge so I can fold it back and use the on-screen keyboard or stand it up and watch videos, is quite a change! Technology is crazy. I can hardly keep up with it! But I am enjoying my new laptop and I’m hoping it’s going to make it easier for me to write since I will have a more portable laptop to work on. That’s what I prayed for anyway!
And there you have it. A brief review of the past three months and thirteen days of my life.
What has happened to you over the past three months and thirteen days? Share it in the comments below, if you like. I’d love to hear about it!
Diana love the blog it looks beautiful and yes the months go by in a crazy fashion and nothing gets finished. I set deadlines they did not happen. Oh well, here’s to another year, I remember saying that last year. Happy writing friend, your pictures are gorgeous. Kath.
Thank you, Kath! From what I’ve seen you’ve made some beautiful progress on your art this year! We’ll keep trying to meet those goals and eventually they will happen.
I can’t believe it’s already December. Yes, the months (this year) has flown. So good to hear you’re reviewing and editing your novel. I’m fascinated with the WWII era.