Done for the Week: By the Light of a Bull Moose Jack-o-Lantern

Any week spent with a delighted child, new to the rituals of holidays and celebrations, can't be all bad.  Last week, my favorite three-year-old provided a much-needed antidote to the crabbiness that permeated my household.  His pterosaur crest was an engineering challenge, his pumpkin was carved "like a bull moose," his "trick or treat" was delivered with a shout.  And he towed his Nana and his uncle, who was dressed as a large tree monster, along from door to door with glee.  He was the irrepressible sunshine in a gray and windy stretch.

The list below would undoubtedly be shorter if not for his infectious energy.  

Done for the Week:  Oct. 25-31

1. Continued off-season race training, in race-recovery mode; ran once, biked once
2. Finished No Time to Wave Goodbye, by Jacqueline Mitchard
3. Continued significant support to transitioning nonprofit organization
4. Worked my two part-time jobs
5. Published 5 blog posts
6. Meditated 4 times
7. Wrote 4 Gratitude Journal entries
8. Wrote 4 Morning Pages
9. Spent 4 hours working on my novel
10. Continued reading aloud Elizabeth George's In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner with my husband; went to Happy Hour, and to see Waiting for Superman
11. Attended 2 yoga classes
12. Began teaching my teenage son yoga
13. Walked my dog twice
14. Cleaned my bedroom
15. Bribed my sons to clean their bedrooms
16. Ordered new appliances to replace two on their last legs--in time for free delivery offer (expiring Oct. 31)
17. Took grandson to preschool Halloween party; stayed for parade, and filmed it for working parents
18. Straightened and vacuumed living room
19. Put a noticeable dent in laundry pile
20. Went trick-or-treating with pterosaur grandson (refrained from tricking or being treated myself)
21. Saw my therapist
22. Attended forum on city job-creation strategy
23. Attended fund-raising committee meeting

Last week's most important accomplishment, in my opinion, was ordering new appliances to replace the ones currently beeping and fading in my kitchen--in red above.  This was significant because it is one of those things I have been putting off due to my inability to make a decision, given all the complex factors involved.  It feels good to have finally pulled this particular trigger, and to have done so just in time to save a little money on delivery.  Each time I succeed in acting on something like this I imagine my postponement/inertia monkey losing a little power.

Last week's focus goal, which I met, was to spend 4 hours on my novel.  I now have approximately 50 pages completed.  Next week's focus goal will remain the same, until this becomes well-established.  At this rate, I should have a not-so-excellent draft finished sometime next spring.  And then I can call in the internal editor, the hatchet woman, the one I've got locked in the closet for now.

My secondary focus once again was on exercising, meditating and cleaning.  The plan was to meditate 4 times (check); exercise 4 times (busyness and post-race fatigue and, yes, a little laziness meant that I exercised only twice); catch up on the laundry (didn't quite make it, but I made some progress, and intend to keep on feeding the machines and shoving the output into drawers and closets and out the door, in the case of rejects); and clean one room (check).  Not too bad for a week with a houseful of mood-swinging men.

Next week, I will try to meditate more regularly; exercise 4 times; keep hacking away at the laundry; and get the kitchen ready for the new appliances to be installed.

And to spend as much time as possible relishing the threatened daylight of this last week of Daylight Saving Time.  And appreciating my very own ray, that sweet and happy little guy whose verve isn't rationed or manipulated by government forces.