It rained all day, yesterday. Since we couldn’t take our younglings to the zoo as we’d (poorly) planned, my husband and I made another fantastic decision: Let’s do some much-needed spring cleaning. Hooray. (Someone really needs to invent a sarcasm font.)
I am not a domestic goddess. My dad did teach me how to use a microwave. (Do not put anything metal in there!) My husband is the intuitive chef who whips things together instinctively in a symphony of palate pleasing flavors. When forced to cook a meal, I studiously slave over a recipe and painstakingly measure out each ingredient as it was written and then it still only has a fifty-fifty shot of not turning out disgusting. I cook when I have to, I clean when I have to. And I buy birthday cakes.
I. Do Not. Iron. Anything. That is what the dryer is for.
Needless to say, I wasn’t a big fan of our alternate plan. I would have preferred to spend the day reading or snuggling up to watch a movie or maybe even catching up on my writing. When all of our laboring was done and the house sparkled and the adolescent boy funk and lingering dog fart smell was gone, I had to admit that I did feel great about having accomplished a daunting task. Now we had time to enjoy the rest of our day…oh, no! By the time we were done with cleaning, it was almost 6:00pm. We didn’t have time for anything else really but making dinner (the husband cooked with supervised assistance from me) and then getting everyone started towards bedtime routines. Blah, blah, blah! Thank you daylight savings.
Of course, I wasn’t tired when I needed to go to bed because it felt too damned early. When my alarm went off this morning, I reached over to bitch-slap my snooze button, and found that all of my muscles had seized up during the night from spending the entire day before cleaning. Gah! Nice. Waking up exhausted and in pain – not ideal for starting the new week.
Strangely enough, I’ve already done more work this morning than many days last week. Last week was difficult. I think the second week of a challenge is always more difficult for some reason. The heady joy of starting something new has faded and the real work you’ve gotten yourself into is staring you down in your sobered-up face.
So here is the update on my #write motivation goals:
- Complete my novel revision – Progress made. I revised close to another 50 pages. I am on page 98 out of 324.
- Post two blog entries each week – Goal made. I posted three posts last week.
- Update my journal project and keep it current – Slow progress made, but progress made, nonetheless. I started updating January’s entries. I hope to catch up to February this next week.
How are you doing with your writing goals?
valerie r lawson 
Slow progress is still progress 😀 And I love that meme you have up there – it’s so right!
Also – I don’t iron either. It’s not in my genetic makeup lol
i know, i know. i’ve seen it everywhere, but it was just so apropos, i couldn’t resist, and besides, the princess bride to boot? irresistible!
Be glad you’re not in Alaska, where our screwy time zones put us on daylight savings in winter (when there’s really no daylight to save anyway) and double daylight savings in summer (when we have so much it just means the sun’s still upafter midnight.) My #writemotivation is OK so far, but I still have to revise that chapter.
ugh! that makes absolutely no sense. you guys should opt out like Arizona. in fact, we ALL should. keep up with the revisions! you’ll get there!
Oh. My. Gosh! You sound so much like me! I cannot cook for the life of me, although with current health issues, I am slowly learning. I HATE CLEANING! My mother loves it, I hate it!
After working in the back half of the yard yesterday, I woke up much like you did this morning! UGH! Hope we both can get through this and on to better things. Though I still have the front yard to work on, and that’s triple the work of the back! ugh! ugh!
ha ha! i just finished reading your post and i was thinking the same thing! i can’t even think about tackling the yard yet and my husband wants to make our garden three times the size it was last year. i could handle the size it was last year – one square foot. he’s killing me.
Way to go, Val! 😀 Progress is progress, even if it is slow. Now that you are done cleaning your house, you are welcome to come over and take care of mine! 😀
BTW…love the picture.
#writemotivation cookies heading your way! 😀
i will eat your cookies but scoff at the idea of more cleaning.
Daylight savings is awful in spring. It’s 1:59, and then suddenly 3 AM! Out of nowhere!
And congratz on progress! Progress is always good, no matter how small! ^_^
i hate when 3am sneaks up on you – so cunning!
great post, laughed out loud, twice. keep it up girl. proud of you?
ha! would looove to know where YOU laughed (probably in reference to my cooking abilities). and thank you.
Yup, I feel yer pain. Just finished mowing a much-needed-mowing lawn when I’d rather be finishing up a book cover and starting another illustration or comic book page. Plus, I’m sure I will also feel the mowing in my back tomorrow when I wake. 🙂 Plus, it does, indeed, feel good to see a pretty lawn. Plus (How many pluses could I fit in this comment?!), I’m surprising my wife with the mown lawn because she was planning on doing it this week. 🙂
excellent! lawn-mowing is another thing i’m so looking forward to. jessica will surely appreciate the surprise even if your back muscles don’t. i give that comment an a+++
Awesome job! WOO HOO! You’ll nip those goals in the bud yet 🙂 GO YOU!!!
I have the same stance with ironing. I won’t even touch an iron. Ever.
And I’m not a fan of losing an hour of life. It’s so wrong. Everything was off the entire day. Including dark at 7am when it was finally getting light out at that time.
Keep up your super great attitude and goal busting awesomeness!!
thank you, thank you very much. down with irons!
Ugh, spring cleaning . . . I’m going to need to do that soon.
Good job on your goals! You’re doing fantastic, and I’m so behind on my novel work XD.
thanks! i’d say leave the spring cleaning and work on the novel…much more rewarding and less painful, well PHYSICALLY painful.
You know, I was doing good last week. Getting plenty of sleep, and I’d noticed that I didn’t seem to hit my mid-afternoon slump. I was being productive. Stuff was happening. It was awesome.
Then DST hit and I have been dragging ever since. When 3 p.m. rolls around, I want to do nothing but take a nap! Boo on daylight savings!
I will say there has been one unexpected bonus to the time jumping forward: instead of waking me up at 6:30 a.m. with his yowls to go outside, my cat is now waking me up at 7:30, which is when my alarm goes off anyway. So…yay? 😉
Major congratulations on the progress you’ve made on your goals! And remember: slow progress is lasting progress. 🙂
(And The Princess Bride? Yes, please!!)
you’re right. i think all we can do is hold on to the fleeting positives that come with dst until our bodies adjust and we forgive it for wreaking havoc.
I don’t blame you for hating to clean. I share your pain. Good job with keeping up with your writing goals! Remember, every little bit helps. 🙂
thanks so much.