The Upside

I have not been feeling well for a few weeks. At first, it was just a general malaise and nausea. Then last week I got the flu which sadly morphed into pneumonia. The whole thing started out with me not feeling like eating (rare for me - I love food) and as I got sicker, I never restarted eating. This was a bad mistake. I had a raging fever for days (it peaked at 105 - but don't tell my mom). What they say is true, feed a fever. And I didn't. And that is why, perhaps, I got pneumonia. I was just too run down. Yuck. But I will tell you the one upside. And I am only telling you this because you will understand that I feel so bad, I needed to find an upside. I am seeing my cheekbones for the first time in months.

Creating a new habit

At some point I stumbled across a blog called Zen Habits which I have been reading regularly ever since. Here is an excerpt from the "About" page on the Zen Habits website:

"My name is Leo Babauta, I’m married with six kids, I live on Guam, I’m a writer and a runner and a vegetarian and I love writing Zen Habits.

Zen Habits covers: achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits."

I have enjoyed being inspired by Leo's posts and have tried to make some changes in my life because of them. One thing I am currently involved in is a challenge to create a new habit. The idea is that if a) you get into the habit of doing something daily and b) you report on your progress daily, you are more likely to create a habit. As such, I joined the February Challenge with the goal of doing my back exercises every day. I didn't read about it until February 4th but I have been doing my exercises and posting every day since then. My back thanks me.

Even better, the energy I am getting from meeting my committment to myself seems to be spilling into the rest of my life. The other day I finally cleaned off my dresser, I have been trying to keep the kitchen counter clutter free and I started the first paintings I have painted in I-don't-know-how-long.

Are there any habits you would like to cultivate? If you decide to join the challenge...let me know. I am planning to create another habit next month.

Day 21: Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 35,032

Impressions: I think I am starting to get "Nanowrimo wrists". This is something like "tennis elbow" or "Wii shoulder". Both wrists are really hurting. I am hoping that I am just having a bad random day today and that it is not something that will trouble me for the next 9 days. If I feel this bad tomorrow, I may have to take a day off.

I feel like the Main Character of the book has bounced around a bit. In the beginning it was one person and then it changed to be that person's mother. In a way, I feel like I have abandoned my other characters to follow the path of the mother. I am not sure if this is good or bad. I am looking forward to December 1, 2007 when I can read the entire thing in one sitting. I have not done this. The only thing I read is when I sit down to write I read the last paragraph of the previous day's writing.

Interesting writing tonight. Some surprising things happened. For me, writing is like reading a book, I never know what will happen!

Likelihood of Finishing Nanowrimo: 100%. I added a counter to the top of this page to count down to 0 more words to go to get to 50,000.

Taking Challenges Seriously

While I realize that NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo are voluntary challenges, I still had to make a commitment to fulfilling the challenges. I take these challenges very seriously. NaNoWriMo is more forgiving than NaBloPoMo. If I miss a day, I just have to make it up another day as long as at the end of 30 days, I have written 50,000 words. NaBloPoMo is a different sort of challenge. It challenges you to write a blog post every day. I fear that I won't be able to meet this challenge. I fear I will fall asleep with my sick son and miss posting. I fear I will fall prey to Blogger's silly pre-post dating. I fear that I won't fulfill the challenge.

What I don't understand, is why I can't take other challenges as seriously. For example, I have an excellent reason to lose some weight right now. I am going to be filmed in 10 days. Why am I not pulling out all the stops to a) not eat and b) exercise more? I don't know. That challenge is much harder than NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo combined. How weird is that?

My throat is hurting and I am tired. I am not sure I will write for NaNoWriMo tonight. But that is OK because I am still ahead. I will definitely not post my progress tonight. I will give myself a break and do that tomorrow.

Kids Yoga Game

Today I thought up a game to play with my man and kids. Our kids already know a few yoga poses. Wouldn't it be fun to teach them so more and then when someone shouted out the name of a pose, everyone would have to do it? It would help me do more yoga and it probably be good for the kids to be "in control" some of the time. I am sure there would be limits like "no yoga during meals". I am looking forward to trying it.

p.s. You could also do this using yoga cards. Each person could just pull a card and then everyone would have to do the pose on the card.

Day 4: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)

Nanowrimo


Daily goal / alternate "finish early" goal: 1,667 / 1,786 words


Today's goal / alternate "finish early" goal: 6,666 / 7,143 words total


My total words written: 7,753 words total (What do you think of the color coding?)


Impressions: I like this story. It isn't particularly a new story...but what story is? I think I have figured out a plot although I am not sure how the prologue I wrote fits in to the current storyline. Either I am going to have to come up with a link or I am going to have to write it off (pun intended) as a warm up exercise.

I am having serious issues which I am not addressing right now. They are in the areas of consistency of voice and dialogue. I am not a regular writer so to some extent, I don't know how to a) choose a voice and b) do non sucky dialogue. Will writing a lot help? Or do I need to focus on learning how to do these things? Since I have no time to learn (only time to write and blog) I will have to hope it is the former and not the latter. I will leave these problems until NaNoEdMo (or perhaps sooner) unless anyone has any great ideas they want to share.

Is there anything anyone out there would like to know about this experience? Just post a comment and I will reply to your post.

Likelihood of finishing Nanowrimo: 100%.


Likelihood of finishing NaBloPomo: I am still going strong (can you say that if you are just on day 4 of 30 days?).


Super Goal: Help our whole family get healthy!!!

Clutter Battles - Part 4 - Turning the Tide

I forgot to take a "before" photo.

This past week was a clutter battle blitz. For a variety of reasons, the universe conspired (in a good way) to give me some space and mental capacity to get rid of some of my clutter - primarily in the area of children's clothing. So far, I have gotten 23 grocery bags out the door to new homes. Yes, I really said twenty-three!!! So where did they go? Most of them were "recycled".

* 5 bags to a friend who is having a boy
* 5 bags to a friend who is having a girl
* 5 bags to Goodwill
* 2 bags to a consignment shop (and now I have $61 credit there)
* 1 bag to another consignment shop (where my daughter got two skirts as trade)
* 3 bags paper recycling (2 of them were shredded on our new shredder)
* 2 bags to other friends (one is clothes loaned to my kids, one is clothes we are giving to someone else)

I also got my office painted and my shelving units installed. I have put my already organized bins onto the shelving units and am hoping to move my desk back into my office this week. We have a lot of work still to do but it feels so great to be making progress. It is very freeing!

Another area I am working on at the same time as working on my clutter is my health. One habit that I am finding hard to break is not eating within 2 hours of bedtime. During the week I do ok but on the weekend, especially Sunday nights, I have a hard time. I have heard that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Does anyone out there have any good ideas for breaking this habit or replacing it with a new, healthy habit? I'd love to hear from you.