Leaves are falling all around, It’s time I was on my way.
Thanks to you, I’m much obliged for such a pleasant stay.
But now it’s time for me to go. The autumn moon lights my way.
For now I smell the rain, and with it pain, and it’s headed my way.
Sometimes I grow so tired, but I know I’ve got one thing I got to do. Ramble on.
“Ramble On” Led Zeppelin
I continued into this week with the focus of rejuvenating and reflecting. The spring to summer months have some difficult life memories attached for me and I alternate between hunkering down in my bunker of solitude and rushing out into the world to breathe. I’ve learned is to listen to what my inner self mentions as a need and to do things differently to answer the requests.
Self-Care Actions This Week:
- Saying no to invites that will cause angst – We can feel pressure to say, “yes,” and force ourselves to attend events because we want to avoid making the host or person inviting us feel bad. Making ourselves feel bad is not an okay compromise so I turned down two. One was a brunch with a negative energy woman I did not want to break bread with and the other a gathering where the emotional context would have been overwhelming.
- Feeding a craving – I had a hankering for garlic pizza and got one. I then enjoyed days of having a piece for lunch paired with green beans with onions and yams. Is pizza the healthiest food choice? Nope, but it sure was delightful.
- Not feeding a craving – At 10:00 pm last night, the craving monster told me that I wanted Twizzlers, gummy bears, and a slice of coconut cream pie. It then whispered that a drive to the 24-hour Walgreens could deliver on the first two. I put that on pause to watch “48 Hours” and got a great spinoff story idea. Then at 11:00 pm, the monster perked up again to chat and I doused it with some decaf coffee and called it a night. Feeding a craving born out of being tired is not a healthy choice for me.
- Planning time off – I booked Thursday and Friday for vacation. My only plan right now is to relax and get caught up on an at home project. That’s good enough for me.
ROW80 Goals Progress
Completed Round Goals
- Complete assignments for From Plot to Finish master class with Laurie Schnebly Campbell (first two weeks of April). – Goal complete.
Still Ongoing Round Goals
Writing/Craft
- At least one hour of WIP writing time five days a week. – Squee! I hit four days this week. I’ll take the improvement and rearranging of my schedule. Another step and I hit this goal.
- Complete one craft book via reading at least one chapter a week. – Done. The chapter this week was on research so I read for info versus anything I need to immediately apply to my current WIP.
- Complete two novels and one book of short stories via reading at least one chapter a week. – Done for week via another story done from “2oth Century Ghosts.”
Social Media
- Complete ROW80 sponsor duties via reading and commenting on assigned blogs each week. – I’m now back on track with sponsor duties.
- Share contents of other bloggers via link backs from each of my posts. – Partially done again.
- Check Triberr at least once daily. – Done only three days. Ugh.
- Join and learn Pinterest. – Pending. I plan to do this the weekend of May 19. It looks like I’ll need to also switch to the timeline feature in Facebook so I want time to organize FB as needed once the change is made.
Healthy Happy Living
- Cardio exercise three times a week. – Two thirds done again with an hour each time.
- Look for yoga/meditation course option each week. – Not done though I did get in quiet mind time via a massage.
- Complete neck exercises every day. – Done.
What are some of the ways you kickback and take care of yourself? Do you have any goals that are now completely done? Be sure to check out the ROW80 updates of others via the blog hop.
Other Related Tidbits:
- Roni Loren shares some of the dream poses she hopes to reach with Yoga Aspirations.
- Reading Kate MacNicol’s Laptop On Fire kicked off one of my writing sessions this week. “Book. Me. Laptop. Today. Guilt-free.” True words, Kate!
- Michael Haynes shared some feedback received from editors with Rejection Relics.
Barbara McDowell 
Impressive self-care actions, Barbara; its importance can never be under stressed. Thanks for the inspiration.
Karen
I appreciate your support, Karen.
Good for you on the self-care Barbara ( so important!) and good work on your other goals too.
Thanks for the blog love, I’m glad those words got you going. Have a great week!
I love your perspective on keeping the writing first. As writers, that is what we go back to. When everything else is flying around and skewed, we go write. A word, a sentence, a paragraph, a page. Doesn’t matter as long as we go do.
Saying “no” is such an important thing. Kudos for taking care of yourself in such situations. And congrats on all the improved and done things oh you list. Have a great week!
Thanks, Katherine. Saying “no” opens up our time to say “yes” to what matters and will be positive in our lives.
great advice on the self care, Barb. two days staycation sounds heavenly…i think i’ll try it
Louise, the staycation is fab! Just having a slowed down pace feels so good. Mental and physical rest.
I can relate to the battle of fighting off the craving for coconut cream pie 🙂
True confession, Emma. I was just in Giant Eagle and the layout was such that you have to walk through the bakery to get to the aisles. I passed a bin with coconut meringue pie and did a double take, step back to stare at it. Thankfully, I continued past because I wasn’t sure if the meringue part would taste good and I don’t need a whole pie. Whew! Now on the hunt for a single slice…
Wow you have great willpower. I would have taken the whole pie 🙂
I do suspect if it had been pure coconut cream I’d have stood staring at it a lot longer.
What a week! Great job at making time for writing, and working to take good care of yourself. That has become a priority for me as well – the sunshine and warmer weather certainly helps get me into that mode. Love the saying “no” as I’ve had to drop that word more times than other people may like, and I’m finding that I’m okay with that. And major rah rah’s for completing the assignments on your workshop. Wishing you another healthy and happy week!!
Thanks, Marie. You are right that the sunshine and warmer weather help. I feel more energized and alert in the evenings and can get in the writing without losing focus.
Good for you taking care of yourself and saying no to unhealthy situations. Aw yes, cravings. Which is why I keep dentyne gum around so when I get a craving for chocolate, eat a piece of gum and it takes care of the sweets desire. Most of the time. 🙂 I recently joined Pinterest and still trying to find the time to figure it all out. Sounds like you are doing great. Keep it up.
I’m with you, Robin. I have Altoids and Tic-Tacs at work to go for when I hear the vending machine (specifically the peanut M&Ms calling). I also will drink some green tea to turn off the munchies. Thanks for the comment.
Been talking to you on Twitter and didn’t realize we were doing the ROW challenge at the same time! Somehow, I’ve missed your blog in my rounds of visits.
I just joined Pinterest last week. I’ve already four or five random people repin pictures I’ve pinned. I’m setting a timer when I get one there because I could easily lose hours on there. Let me know if you want a direct invitation. Without one, you have to wait two to three weeks to get in. (Why, I don’t know).
I so relate to the late night munchies. usually a signal of fatigue but can also be a signal of thirst. those of us whose minds have forgotten how to inhabit our bodies tend to misinterpret such cues.
thanx for visiting my Sunday check-in and sorry I din’t get here sooner. Came over looking for your Wednesday check-in but don’t see it yet. if you post let me know and I’ll try to get back over.
I like you concept of putting ROW80 into Pages. I’ve yet to implement Pages on my Blogger platform but have been intending to get around to it for awhile now. I don’t want to limit myself to a single niche as so many blogging gurus tout as by passions are so diverse but it makes sense to compartmentalize so visitors can find what they came to see easier.
i’ve seen a lot of ROW80 peeps are including goals in other categories on their check-ins and I’m thinking of doing the same but not immediately. Baby steps! I think just getting one major change established will naturally effect changes in other areas and a skill learned in one context is transferable. Here’s hoping anyway.