Welcome, June.

Well, it's been a few days since I said anything on here. JuNoWriMo is on day 5, and so far, I'm 15 days AHEAD of schedule! How's THAT for amazing!

Today is Sunday, and it's kinda raining and muggy and gross out. Ah, summer in the Midwest, I tell you. It's alright, though.

Things are going at a nice, steady pace for me, but I'm still trying to figure out a balance.
Yes, I know, when one is partaking of a NaNoWriMo project – regardless if it's June, July, or November – one is simply at the mercy of one's muse. Mine and I are having a huge debate right now, and that's okay. She's wanting to be a slacker, I, however, am not willing to do such, but I also do not want to just neglect my household, either for the sake of the almighty creativity!

I had some really interesting things happen at the start of this month that are kind of shoving me toward trying to find that balance, not just for JuNoWriMo this month and Camp NaNoWriMo next month, but overall in my life. You see, I've decided to use the books I'm writing to get published and make something of myself with them. That said, I've got beta readers carefully picked out, I've got a pound of my brother's amazing – and I do mean AMAZING – coffee that arrived on the 2^nd, which was EXCELLENT timing, because I'd used the last pot's worth on the 1^st for JuNo's kickoff. I don't know who's the bigger caffeine addict here, me or my ever-naggy muse, but nonetheless, the gift was deeply appreciated and is enjoyed everyday. I'm fixing to go make another cup, actually.

My Mom also sent a few things to help further my writing career along: journals, this little cube thing that's got paper clips, binder clips and rubber bands, some salt water taffy from Newport Beach, Oregon…. A little bit of Tin Roof Sundae fudge from a sweet shop also in Newport. Plus handmade socks (mismatched, of course), and a few other things. Pretty excited about that. And there was a t-shirt from a giveaway my brother was doing for his shop, I was one of the winners of the giveaway, so that was in there, and let me tell you, IT'S COMFY. Then, the day after that package came, I get an e-mail that I've one the 2^nd giveaway that the JuNo admins were doing, a copy of a book called “2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love” by Rachel Aaron. Pretty exciting stuff.

The other day, husband and I went to the local dollar store and I found this really cute (green, of course) basket to use for my pens and such. It was only $1USD, so we picked one up, along with a few other things and now I've got no excuse why I CAN'T work on my planning. I'm a huge scheduler, I have to have a plan in place for EVERYTHING. I've been like this for a long, long time now. I'm not sure how it got started or why, but I'm really twitchy when I don't have structure.

Been reading up on the peculiar habits of famous authors, too. Came across this one about Samuel Burkowski. Odd guy, but I like his style. Found out about another book I'm dying to get my hands on, and found out that I can get it for my e-reader for less than $15USD, so that's good. I'm trying to gain as much knowledge about the written word as I can. I have this hat (look at my bio page, I'm wearing it in the photo) that I call my “thinking cap.” I'm going to start wearing it more often when I write, I think. This summer, I've got to find a solid balance, though, like I said earlier on in this post, because I've taken on a new responsibility: helping our local cat lady feed the strays in the neighbourhood where I live. She catches them and vets them and then gets them new homes. She's asked me if I'd be willing to help feed them and give them water on certain days of the week since she's almost an hour away and can't make it out here everyday. I totally can do that. I don't mind at all. I'd read on social media a few years ago how it's a good idea to put a bowl of fresh water out everyday in the warmer months, anyway, for strays and for other animals so they have hydration in the hotter days. When the gal asked me about helping with the cats in the complex where I live, I didn't think twice. I told her I'm always home, so I can totally do that, and if there's a day I can't for whatever reason, I'll just have my husband do it. If she's in town on a day I'm usually the designated person to do the rounds, she'll shoot me a text and let me know she's got it for that particular day. It's only four days a week I've been asked to take care of, and that's really no big deal. Takes MAYBE 15 minutes total.

I have a new Tai Chi DVD I'm wanting to dive into, then I want to do Morning Pages, and then get house work done, and then whatever else. I've got an old college debt I want to pay off, $8500USD, so I've got a plan to do that, but here we go with that need for balance. I am going to save up the full amount and pay it off all in one shot. This way it's not an issue anymore, and I can get my Library Science studies underway finally. That school debt was from 17 years ago! SEVENTEEN!

Balance. Structure. TIME MANAGEMENT. If you have any tips or tricks, please feel free to contact me and let me know what they are!