Done for the Week: So Soon Again

Last night's post, which was supposed to be last Monday's, reported on the previous week's achievements.  It's a bit time-warpy, I'll admit, but getting back on track requires this close-upon-the-heels account of the week that ended last night. 

Here's what got done:  (I know, I know.  Passive tense a no-no.)

Done for the Week:  Jan. 9-15, 2012

1. Consulted physical therapist for injury evaluation
   
2. Watched two basketball games, and against my feminist principles part of one football game, with various family members
3. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Traitor to Memory aloud with my husband--nearing the end
4. Read "The Valley of Fear" from The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
5. Continued to work my two part-time jobs
6. Published 1 blog post
7. Continued work on current clients' projects
8. Spent 6 hours working on recall campaign
9. Helped with and attended recall celebration
10. Went out for a drink with recall friends
11. Attended board meeting
12. Attended annual prayer breakfast celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
13. Attended 2 yoga classes
14. Did laundry 
15. Called my mother
16. Continued to support my son in his search for an internship
17. Took my son out to dinner 
18. Had lunch and breakfast dates with my husband
19. Arranged dishwasher repair
20. Arranged final Christmas celebration, delayed by travel and new baby in the family
21. Meditated 3 times
22. Continued setting up new bedroom with my husband
23. Continued to help my son set up his new bedroom
24. Continued refurbishing upstairs bathroom, including major cleaning
25. Cleaned or reorganized upstairs linen closet
26. Continued major decluttering

The most important thing I accomplished last week was the completion of Phase 2 of a major household shift, involving exchanging bedrooms and bathrooms with my oldest son.   We are reaching the stage where the improvements are beginning to motivate continued progress.  Having the week off from the recently concluded recall process, before beginning to work on voter ID and registration, should free up some time for this ongoing project. 

My focus goal for last week was to make time to continue exercising regularly.  How did I do?  As my son would say, "Epic Fail!"  I did manage to get to yoga class twice, but otherwise succumbed to fatigue, busyness, and an increasingly bothersome foot injury.  The physical therapist I consulted about my foot ordered me to see an orthopedist, which I plan to do this week.  In the meantime, I intend to focus on walking, non-weight-bearing hip strengthening exercises, and swimming, and to make it to the gym three times this week.

And oh, yeah, concentrate on finding more time for Put it to Bed.

Done for the Week: Groping My Way Through the Dark

Last week flew by, as weeks are wont to do, winding down the year.  It is dark by 4:30 now, and I start longing for bed at about 7:30.  My body and mind are suckers for the hibernation signals.  Alas, no cave, and no accommodation of this ancient impulse in our frenzied year-end rituals.

Here's what I managed to drag myself through last week, but not without a lot of yawning.  And yes, the occasional curse.

Done for the Week:  Dec. 12-Dec. 18, 2011

1. Took my dog to the dog park with my son
2. Read Now is the Time to Open Your Heart, by Alice Walker
3. Continued to work my two part-time jobs
4. Published 2 blog posts
5. Continued work on current clients' projects
6. Spent 14+ hours working on recall campaign
7. Played my now-tolerable piano almost every day
8. Attended 1 yoga class
9. Continued to support my daughter's growing family
10. Attended Issues Night meeting and holiday potluck
11. Attended Board meeting
12. Meditated 3 times
13. Watched one episode of Eureka with my son
14. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Traitor to Memory aloud with my husband--just past the middle of this 700+ pages tome
15. Went to dinner with my husband
16. Did laundry 
17. Arranged vet appointment for immunization updates
18. Continued Christmas shopping
19. Took my sister to lunch for her birthday
20. Completed my sister's birthday jewelry gift
21. Took friend out for pre-holiday lunch
22. Attended Sunday church service
23. Tracked over three times as many blog visits in the first half of this month as in all of December 2010
24. Paid our monthly bills

For the second week in a row, the most important thing I did last week was to spend parts of four days working on the campaign to recall the governor of my state.  This included participating in the press conference to announce the collection of over half a million signatures in 30 days, just shy of the number needed to trigger the recall.  Our goal is to get 720,000 signatures on the recall petitions in the time remaining--until January 17th--to establish a secure margin against expected challenges.  

Once again, some of my volunteer time was spent standing out in the cold with a clipboard, collecting signatures, a few insulting words and gestures, some honest but civil disagreement, words and gestures of support, and hot chocolate, coffee and a cookie purchased for me by three separate grateful individuals who warmed my body and my heart.

Last week's focus goal was to continue the fledgling (one week old) momentum  on my novel, and specifically to produce one more chapter.  The bad news is that I failed to make/find the necessary time in a very busy week to sit down and collect my thoughts and turn them into pages.  The good news is that. . . well, there isn't really any on this front.  Unless I count the guilt and disappointment that remind me of my goal.


Realistically, I am unlikely to get much writing done this week.  My household is relocating to New Orleans midweek, to spend Christmas with my mother.  Somehow the prospect of taking our not-so-organized show on the road is more than a bit daunting, adding to the normal stress of this time of year.  There's the dog to stash--requiring shots, licensing and a permit for the dog park frequented by our dog sitter, not to mention the guilt we are all negotiating for abandoning this most loving and nervous of family members.  Then there's packing and the joy of air travel, with at least one flight phobic in our merry band.  And papers and mail to stop.  And shopping to finish.  And property taxes to pay, a tree to finish decorating so we can leave it behind, a partridge or two hanging about. . .   


So later for the novel.


My focus goal for this week is to make time to exercise at least three times (Note the complete absence of exercise from this week's list of accomplishments.), and to meditate daily.  If this seems like a pretty tall meditating order, it should be just enough zen to counter the effects of our dislocation and the reconfiguration of family demands to which I am likely to be overly responsive.

Done for the Week: Not So Pretty, But Progress Nonetheless

Another week.  Another dollar sum insufficient to meet all obligations.

A recent Census Bureau report alerted us to our teetering state on the brink of middle class removal, despite our several full- and part-time jobs.  On its heels came the $15,000+ bills which have begun to roll in for my son's not-quite-24-hour hospital stay ten days ago.  Luckily, we are long past any enchantment with a materialist middle class lifestyle.  But it would be nice to be able to pay our bills.

In between bouts of worrying about money, and worrying about my mom and my children and my end-of-the-semester-overwhelmed spouse, I managed to get these things done:

Done for the Week:  Dec. 5-Dec. 11, 2011

1. Biked twice--still healing before resuming running
2. Read House Rules, by Jodi Picoult
3. Continued to work my two part-time jobs
4. Published 3 blog posts
5. Continued work on current clients' projects
6. Spent 14+ hours working on recall campaign
7. Arranged, endured and paid for two sessions of piano repair and tuning
8. Played my now-tolerable piano every day
9. Attended 1 yoga class
10. Continued to support my daughter's growing family
11. Participated in church service organized by my social justice committee
12. Went to my tap class
13. Watched one episode of Eureka with my son
14. Watched one episode of Boss with my husband
15. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Traitor to Memory aloud with my husband--we're midway now in this 700+ pages tome
16. Made Sunday soup
17. Went to dinner with my husband
18. Did laundry 
19. Finished draft of novel chapter
20. Arranged dog care for Christmas trip
21. Began Christmas shopping
22. Arranged birthday lunch with my sister
23. Began my sister's birthday jewelry gift
24. Bought 2012 planning and purse calendars

The most important thing I did last week was to spend parts of four days working on the campaign to recall the governor of my state.  In terms of potential impact, this project is clearly the biggest thing I am currently engaged in.  And doing my small part helps me to keep at bay the shredded-social-fabric blues.  Five more weeks to go in this phase of the operation.  The numbers are looking good, but it's way too early to relax.  So this undertaking will continue to claim whatever chunks of my time I can spare--and some I probably can't--into mid-January.

Last week's focus goal--back for the second week by "popular" demand--was "to resume work on my novel."  More specifically, and accountably, I  vowed (yeeks!) "to make better use of what calm spaces there are, to more proactively protect my time, and to complete at least a chapter of my novel."  So how did I do?

First of all, what "calm spaces?"  Secondly, with the recall campaign hungry for any semi-competent and reliable bodies they can conscript, and a four-year-old grandson who can now call me on the phone to wheedle time with Nana, I have to confess I pretty much flunked "proactively protect[ing] my time."  Oh well.

But the good news is that I did manage to crank out a new chapter of my novel.  Okay, truth be told, I did so by forcing myself out to sit at Starbuck's last night just so I wouldn't have to admit defeat in this week's accounting.  But that in itself was an accomplishment, on a cold and dark December evening.  And after a somewhat scrappy week of flaring tempers, I am grateful to my husband for accompanying me and keeping me honest.

For the coming week, I will focus only on continuing this fledgling momentum.  One more chapter.  Forget calm spaces.  Forget "proactivity" of any sort.

Done for the Week: Missing the Essential

Why does it feel like last week was so busy?  Because it was? 

Why does it feel like I'm avoiding the most important work?  Because I am?

Done for the Week:  Nov. 21-27, 2011

1. Biked twice--nursing undiagnosed injury--shin splints?  tendonitis?  DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness--it's a runners' thing)?
2. Walked my dog three times, with various family members 
3. Read Love Invents Us, by Amy Bloom; Called to Freedom, by Stephen Boehrer
4. Continued to work my two part-time jobs
5. Published 3 blog posts
6. Continued significant work on current clients' projects
7. Attended Jobs Prayer Vigil
8. Attended Town Hall for proposed city Jobs Act
9. Continued to collect recall petition signatures
10. Celebrated Thanksgiving with my family
11. Had my daughter and her growing family over for day-after-Thanksgiving dinner
12. Babysat my new granddaughter and her four-year-0ld brother twice
13. Refinanced our house
14. Watched one episode of Boss with my husband
15. Scheduled weekly volunteering at Recall office for the duration
16. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Traitor to Memory aloud with my husband
17. Watched one episode of Eureka with my son
18. Replaced broken toilet seat
19. Cleaned the kitchen and sunroom/dining room
20. Cleaned out entryway closet
21. Started cleaning my study 
22. Scheduled car repair appointment
23. Scheduled doctor's appointment
24. Ordered birthday present for my mom
25. Ordered replacement part for the dishwasher
26. Got new running shoes
27. Tried new turkey leftover recipe
28. Scheduled piano repair/tuning appointment
29. Went to Happy Hour with my husband
30. Did laundry

I didn't spend the last week just spinning my wheels, but I did, as this week's quote says, "not do the one thing [I] ought to do."  I don't exactly feel that I am wasting my life, because most of what I am busy with is important to me.  But I am coming to realize that it is time to get back to work on my novel.

I have been experiencing some noticeable muscle/joint soreness lately and, in true hypochondriacal fashion, registered a fear the other morning that I might have bone cancer.  While it is much more likely that I have merely overdone my training, and underdone my sleep and necessary self-care the last couple of months, that moment of anxiety was enough to clarify some things for me. 

Like everyone else, I do not have unlimited tenure on this planet.  And like most of us, I do a fairly good job of ignoring that fact most of the time.  But when I was staring it in the face that morning, I thought of my novel.  And I thought that its unfinished state would be my deepest regret if I were suddenly to run out of time.

And thus, my focus goal for the coming week is to resume work on my novel.  And in service of that goal, I plan to employ Neil Fiore's Unschedule--subject of the single-most viewed post, hands down, of my blog.

As to last week, my most important accomplishment was refinancing our house.  Not single-handedly, of course, but in cooperation with my husband and my credit union.  This act matters because of the thousands of dollars and years of financial freedom it will reclaim for us, so that we can keep it together that much longer--provided we don't die of bone cancer sooner.

Last week's focus goal was "to continue the effort to get to the gym," and to "try to walk my dog on days when I don't work out."  Because of the whole fake-bone cancer thing, I was forced to take it easy workout-wise.  But I did manage to make it to the gym twice, and to walk my dog three times--twice at the dog park, from my house to my daughter's and back, a short drive but a forty-minute round-trip walk.


And now, in the interest of keeping some time for (gulp) my personal n-word, I'm declaring this post done.

Done for the Week: Resisting Hibernation

It's back!  That time of year when I struggle to get out of pajamas, and out of the house.

It's dark well before dinner, and chilly temperatures have us encased in increasingly heavy clothing when we must venture out. 

Add to that the accumulated fatigue of the last year's onslaught of crises, from the personal to the political, and my inner child is threatening a strike.

I am still managing to put one foot in front of the other, if slowly, and to be semi-productive.  Here's what got done last week:

Done for the Week:  Nov. 14-20, 2011

1. Ran once, biked twice
2. Read All Passion Spent, by Vita Sackville-West
3. Continued to work my two part-time jobs
4. Published 2 blog posts
5. Continued significant work on current clients' projects
6. Welcomed my new tiny granddaughter home, after 5 weeks in the hospital!
7. Participated in Occupy Milwaukee event marking national day of economic emergency
8. Participated in Recall Walker Kick-off Rally
9. Began collecting signatures on recall petition
10. Volunteered to staff Recall office
11. Attended my organization's annual public meeting
12. Watched two episodes of Boss with my husband
13. Did laundry
14. Cleaned out entryway closet
15. Cleaned refrigerator
16. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Traitor to Memory aloud with my husband
17. Went to Happy Hour with my husband
18. Planned trip to spend Christmas with my mother
19. Booked plane reservations
20. Held family meeting to plan Thanksgiving dinner
21. Cooked Mexican Chicken Lime Soup

Two really important things happened this past week, only one of which I can list as a personal accomplishment.  The first is that my new granddaughter finally came home, after five weeks in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.  She and her family are doing well, for which I am thrilled.  My son-in-law is on paternity leave through this coming week, so my own support duties are minimal for the time being.  When my daughter goes back to work, after the first of the year, I get to start remembering how to care for an infant and a preschooler simultaneously.  (I'm taking my vitamins.)

Last week's other important thing was that I began to collect signatures on the petitions to recall our governor and lieutenant governor.  After ten destructive months in office, many of us are committed to putting an end to their consistently undemocratic campaign to radically undermine what's left of the safety net for our most vulnerable citizens.  I expect to work hard while our 60-day countdown clock ticks.  Wisconsin--Forward!

Meanwhile, I will continue to be engaged in trying to live my own life.  And I will need energy and stamina.  Apropos of this concern, last week's focus goal was "to work out at least three days."   I did manage to bike twice and run once, but one workout session combined biking and running--so actually I only worked out two days.  Our recent time change means that most available workout time is after dark, when my strong hibernation impulse kicks in big time.  All I really want to do after dinner is read, relax with my family, and go to bed early.  I don't even have basketball to keep me awake this season.  But I intend to continue the effort to get to the gym--my focus goal for the coming week.

It helps that I am surrounded by challenged fellow-exercisers, including my husband, my triathlon training partner, and both of my sons.  I need to take advantage of the guilt I feel when I let them down, as they often don't exercise if I don't.  I plan to accept more of their invitations.  I will also try to walk my dog on days when I don't work out, and to exercise earlier in the day when possible.  

It will be easier to work in working out if I can be in a bit more control of my time (more feasible since my granddaughter is home), and complete regular tasks, like blogging, before noon.  

Whew!  I just made it.