Sunday Update – April 30, 2017

Finally, things were mostly back to normal this week, except for my husband staying home sick for two days. He was really down and out with a nasty cough that sapped all his energy. But by the end of the week, he was much better, so no worries. It was just some virus and I suspect this week he'll be back to 100%.

I worked hard on trying to meet some writing goals this week. April pretty much sucked for meeting goals, but that was bound to happen eventually. I'm a human being, and I get sick or busy. But I made some good progress this week and I'm sure I know where I want to take this book and the whole series now. I've also returned to discovery writing instead of plotting everything, which is leading to discoveries about my characters I wasn't expecting. I love it because it feels unexpected (one of my major goals as a writer). When I plot, my stories feel boring. When I just write and see what happens, my ideas are so much better. So even though it's slower, this feels like it's the better choice.

On Monday, we had time after school, so we picked up the house and then I treated the kids to frozen yogurt. On Tuesday, I concentrated on dictation and then writing in the afternoon while my kid had her tutoring. On Wednesday, I left my sick husband at home to rest, and I went to Panera for the day to hang with my buddy, Amy. Then in the evening we had tennis and the spring choral concert at school for my oldest kid. It was a lovely day, even though it was busy.

On Thursday, I concentrated on dictation and writing at home again, after going back to bed in the morning. I woke up that day and my entire right eye was bloodshot. Like blood red. Gross. Hello, Spring Allergies! So I hit the Visine and went back to bed. When I got up, I ate and got to work. I was off all day, but I made it through with some Benadryl at bedtime. On Friday, I dictated on the treadmill before heading out to the gym to lift weights and then Whole Foods for lunch. Then I worked in the afternoon outside, enjoying the spring weather, before taking my youngest to a birthday party.

Yesterday, I got a nice long walk in and then wrote in the afternoon outside. I was feeling a little lost in the story, so this morning, I plan to hit my notes in Evernote and go over what I've written and what should come next.

Tomorrow is May 1st! Which means I go over my goals from April and set goals for May. I'll also be doing my first ever Facebook Live event and going over the results from my Readers Survey! So if you want to stop by and watch, I'll be live on my page at 1PM EDT. Once it's over, I plan to upload the video to my YouTube channel for others to watch.

What else happened this week?

I crossed the 30k mark on Hikoboshi 2.

I'm actually in the home stretch on this knitting project I've been working on for almost 3 years.

We saw two different houses in our neighborhood get flocked. This is some fundraising thing for the school.

Sitting outside amongst the pollen. It was too beautiful to be inside.

And spring is looking beautiful! New trees are blooming and old ones are dropping their petals. I love seeing everything green again!

Coming up this week on the blog: May Goals and a post about where my shoes have been this year.