When I write about my 365 project, it seems like the weeks are flying by. When I look at the calendar, it feels like time has slowed to a crawl. January is weird that way.
Monday
The boys didn’t have to go to school, so we went to lunch and then Barnes & Noble. I bought a puzzle for the family to work on, but so far Nico and I are the only ones interested. I had to tamp down my impatient, competitive side. There were a couple of times where it was all I could do to keep from pushing Nico to the side and doing the puzzle myself. Sides first! Always work on the sides first!
I love puzzles.
Tuesday
I felt a tiny bit of inspiration for Friday’s fiction due date. It left almost as soon as it arrived, but I know it will come back.
Wednesday
I received a letter in the mail from one of my oldest friends. She attached an article on the benefits of exercising outdoors. Someone else sent me a nice email about my 365: Body, Mind, Spirit project. That was nice to hear and provided motivation for me to keep going.
In more practical news, I thought I tossed my keys in the trash can outside the Michael Levine store. Larissa tore her car apart when she got home and found them under her seat. Finding something important you thought you lost is like winning the lottery.
Thursday
You can tell a lot about your partner/spouse by the way they respond when you wake up in the middle of the night with a raging migraine. I’m married to a good guy.
Friday
If everything goes as planned, I will turn in today my first piece of writing for critique and review. I might also get the chance to visit with my niece!
The Weekend
We have a birthday party, baseball sign ups, and visits with family on the books. Should be a fun weekend.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
I loved doing puzzles with my mom. I had quite a few when I lived on my own. It’s very much a solitary project (I apparently didn’t pick a puzzle lover as a spouse, lol) so over the last 11 years the puzzle collection has slowly dwindled to zero.
Oh, and doing puzzles with children is an extreme exercise in patience.
When I was in middle school, I took creative writing. We had a pretty cool system for critiques that I think you would have liked. The teacher had four classes made up of a mixture of students in different grades and each class had it’s own dedicated folder. You would put your work in there, without your name on it, and someone from one of her other classes would do your editing. They would do a grammar check and also give you general feedback and ask questions. But it was all totally anonymous — you never knew who was critiquing you and when you dug into another class’s folder to do some editing, you didn’t know whose work you were looking at. It was really great for middle-schoolers because you didn’t have to worry about being intimated by having someone really awesome (or hot…) reading your work and you couldn’t cop out by having your best friend edit you and go really easy on you. It was like having a cross between a pen pal and a Secret Santa. And you got to go through two class edits before turning it into the teacher and having her rip you to pieces, which helped a lot.
I love jigsaw puzzles too. I almost can’t do them because I will let everything go — including sleep — in order to finish. And I’m jealous that you received an actual letter in the mail. That’s so rare these days!
LOL – maybe the puzzle and you and Nico illustrate one of those “There are two kinds of people in the world…”.
Sounds like a wonderful week. I leave for DC tomorrow for 4 days to visit my older daughter and my best friend from college. We haven’t seen each other for 13 years. Plus – DC! Ready for some museums, some monuments, and some dining.
when we do puzzles in our family, my uncle won’t let us look at the box to see what we’re doing a puzzle of! not sure if that’s typical.
I laughed out loud reading, “sides first!” line.
I like jigsaw puzzles, too — often do one at my parents’ house over holidays. My sister got one for Christmas, so we set it up and happily worked on it — she and I, and this Spanish friend of hers who hadn’t done very many. He was definitely puzzled (hah!) by my insistence on starting with the edges. I was like, that’s just how you do puzzles. But I guess not for everybody. :)
Sides first. I mean COME ON, these are the unwritten rules that all must (inherently know and) follow! If I’m doing a large (1000+) puzzle with the kids, then I have to get in there early on, and separate everything out. Sides first. Then they are grouped into ‘like’ colours, and put into little bowls on the table, then the kids can join in. Yup, I admit it, but, and this I feel is honest, a larger puzzle is often too much for a five year old, but if it is all sectioned out, and ready to go, the frustration level is kept to a minimum and they really get that feeling of accomplishment, that they’re efforts are really paying off, and they’re actually helping.
Excellent partners make everything easier, a true partner, there’s not much in life that beats that! It is a wonderful thing to have.
Good luck today with your writing. What a great experience (even if it is overwhelmingly hard).
just chiming in to say I have been following along on the 365 project on instagram mostly (never at my computer except late at night when I should be sleeping) and think it and you are awesome. Also love this weekly round up – “In more practical news, I thought I tossed my keys in the trash can” — this made me crack up — I am always doing stuff like this.
xoxoxo Abbey