stonepicnicking_okapi

May Word Count: 37,851

Writing: So I cranked out two explicit BTS fics for super_effucktive [formerly known as Dick or Treat]. I also did a series of four short ficlets for my Yahtzee prompts in the original Dracula fandom and posted on the_scent_of_lilacs. I managed the 10 of 20 challenge on sweetandshort

I have another set of Yahtzee prompts, and I have three more categories I could fill before it ends (June 18/25) but I don't know if I am feeling motivated to do that. Part of me wants to cut bait.

Because in June, I am going to be focused on my case fic exchange fic. There is a certain voice I need to capture in my head, and it's tricky (not quite as tricky as Bertie Wooster but a challenge in its own right) so that takes mental bandwidth, clearing the mechanism.

Poetry: I am almost caught up on my 52 poem prompts. This week's (which I haven't done yet) is prose poem. 3 poems done in May. I liked Stacy. I think that one worked properly.

Reading: 7 books which brings me up to 30 for the year (which is fine. I have no goal with regard to number of books read).

I just realized I haven't done a Book Bingo update since the end of March so I should do that in June. I listened to The Guest List by Lucy Foley for the multiple POV square. It was okay. Nobody was especially likable and it was 'public schoolboys kill someone and finally face consequences 20 years later. lol' I have at least 3 more I can fill already so I need to sit down and update that. Also I have 2 in my TBR which fill slots. I think the hardest one is going to be the TV Movie Tie in because I don't watch TV or movies so if there are new things in this category in the mystery/detective genre, let me know. And I've already read all the Murderbots.

I am reading the Inspector Rebus in order and I've just finished #18 & #19. Unfortunately, I've already read the ones that had TV episodes about them. I read a short story collection by Tom Mead, the locked-room magician author I've mentioned before.

Crafting: 8 spreads & 6 cards and my Alma Thomas jigsaw puzzle.

June's color theme will be peach/orange as well as rainbow for pride. There is a different kind of craft I could do in June. I may break it out.

Heath & Fitness: 16 days of yoga. But my weight is up from the first of the year. I need to stop eating junk. That's most of the problem.

Personal: I turned 50! Wow! I applied for my AARP card even though I am not a retired person. I'm just old. The boys' father went to Kenya for 10 days and returned safely. Maintenace issues (leaks and mice) persist. And they are redrawing lines for schools so we will more than likely be moving by next spring.

And the big news, I got an email late on Friday saying to call the home health agency for an interview!!! I got it too late to catch the HR office open but I will be calling Monday morning!!

June is Pride! On y va!

Word Count for March: 11588 [the end of the soap opera!]

Writing: The big thing was wrapping up the soap opera. I haven't really moved on from that. But I did do 3 fills for my first Yahtzee roll and a few other fills for emotion100 and vocab_drabbles and sweetandshort.

April is Poetry Month, however, and I'm going to be focused on that. Warning: feel free to unsubscribe for April if poetry is not your thing.

Reading: I'm still reading a lot (for me). Seven books. I didn't get to Bertram's Hotel for All of Agatha. Something for April. I finished the biography of Edward Gorey. It was very interesting.

Crafting: Only 4 spreads and 1 card. It doesn't feel like I've been very crafty this month.

Health & Fitness: I did manage 16 days of yoga.

Personal: I did fill out an application this morning on the Walmart website. That was a big fear overcome regardless of the outcome. We celebrated Minisculus birthday.

On y va to April

Word Count for January: 30,777

Reading: 4 books, which I will post about soon. GK Chesterton's work on Saint Francis of Assisi, a Jane Austen mystery, The Pale Horse, and an anthropology book on the history of sugar.

I have a tall TBR for February. I don't think realistically I will get to all of them. But I also am going to do one of my all-time favorite books of all books: A Carribean Mystery for All of Agatha.

Writing: The big accomplishment was completing my WIP, the BTS animal hybrid story I began last year at Lunar New Year.

I will keep going with the soap opera.

Poetry: I wrote 3 poems (2 of which I have posted). I am reading more poetry, but I want to be a bit more systematic about it in February.

Crafting 7 spreads. I did the Snowflake challenge. 1 jigsaw puzzle (the Scotland one). In February (to go with A Carribean Mystery) I will be doing a Miss Marple puzzle.

The big thing in February will be Valentines. I will be working on those this weekend. It also happens to be the birthday of jhope of BTS [18 Feb] and Edward Gorey's birthday, too [22 Feb].

25 in '25: This is a challenge I stole from smallhobbit, and I am interpreting it as '25 new-to-me things which make me S-T-R-E-T-C-H' and for January: 1. I hemmed two pair of pants for the first time ever in my half century of living and 2. I mixed the essential oils I got for Christmas in a spray form. For February, I am going to try a new supermarket (ALDI for US friends, which I have never been to) and not sure what else.

Heath & Fitness: 16 days of yoga! Unfortunately, the scale went in the wrong direction. But TODAY the pediatrician put Minisculus on a Caloric Moderation program (ha!) and so I am going to be implementing the 7 steps (1 step every 2 weeks) and maybe that will be a good thing. Step 1 is scheduled meals and snacks (so no free-range snacking).

Putting the phone in the kitchen before I go to bed was the new habit. The one I am trying for February is no screen + eating (drinking is still ok) and this includes phone.

Of course, the boys' father losing his job is the big personal catastrophe, but even before that, the snow definitely put me in a bad state (and, of course, fascism). The snow itself is beautiful but being trapped and fearful for so many days was not a fun thing. Keeping my regular schedule of shopping and chores is more important to my mental health than I knew.

It's already February now, so I'd better get this up! On y va!

Where has the year gone?!

Word count for November: 19790

Writing: All but 100 words are my soap opera updates. I would like to do better in December, filling more prompts from DW comms.

Reading: 3 books. The Seishi Yokomizo novel, the Nero Wolfe, and the Rebus. I am working on the next Rebus.

Crafting: I finished a Christmas gift. 6 cards, 4 of them Xmas cards. 3 spreads, 2 monthly spreads and a decorating of the Aruba guidebook.

Personal: 2 races! The Aruba trip.

On y va to December!

Word Count for September: 21,481

Writing: I did manager 10 ficlets for sweetandshort. And I kept up my soap opera regular updates on Friday with two special updates for Jungkook & RM's birthdays.

I had to feed my Bun Koo claim to the Ferret (this means I dropped the claim and abandoned the idea of writing the fic) because now we are in going into October and I just don't have time to do it justice. Which is a shame because I read A LOT about the care of rabbits for no reason.

October is Spook Me challenge and Hallowe'en and I haven't even opened my Spook Me prompts. That is on the list of to-do's for tomorrow (which is in about 30 minutes).

Reading: I read/listened to 6 books, which is a lot for me for one month. I will be doing my review for the Review-a-thon on booknook on the 28th. I want to finish the BTS book this month. I am about halfway through it. I also want to pick up a copy of Seishi Yokomizo's new translation (The Little Sparrow Murders) before the vacation at the end of the month. That will be my Trip Book.

Crafting: The big thing was finishing SSCP #1 and starting #2 & #3. I also did 2 jigsaw puzzles, 6 spreads and 6 cards. I am going to do Hallowe'en cards for everyone. If I don't have your address and you'd like one, just message me with it on DW. Or email me at okapi1895@gmail.com I have lots of international stamps!

Health & Fitness: I am up to 9 km in my training. The race is 10 Nov and is a 10 km. I have done 17 days of training and 17 days of Yoga with Adriene.

Personal: Lots of maintenance issues with the apartment. The leaks from the upstairs neighbors. The microwave blew up. The mice. Ugh. But the big anxiety right now is my spending is out of control. Really, I need to put my credit card on ice for a while. I just need to STOP, you know? Yes, you know. Some of it is the kids but some of it is my poor impulse control. I am thinking I need to get my old Cognitive Behavior Therapy workbook out because it's getting a bit nutty.

Anyway, October is my favorite month of the year so in about 20 minutes it will begin...

...on y va.

July is gone. Wow.

Monthly Word Count: 34,565

Writing: 99% of my writing was my soap opera update because 9 July was a landmark day and I wanted to reach a certain point in the plot--ending the first arc--by that day. BUT I also did 10 drabbles for sweetandshort using dad jokes and 4 ficlets for vocab_drabbles using the language of flowers.

Reading: I finished the Bingo! Huzzah! I actually read 7 books this month, which is a lot for me! This month, I am doing 4:50 from Paddington for All of Agatha and I am going to savor it. And pray for a Lucy Eylesbarrow to deliver me from domestic drudgery.

Collage & Crafts: I finished my cross stitch gift & 3 jigsaw puzzles (also a lot). 5 spreads & 2 cards.

Health & Fitness: I am still training for the 10k. 17 days of running either outdoors or at the Y. I did 16 days of Yoga with Adriene! Didn't lose an ounce. You know the adage: You can't outrun a bad diet. My picture should be beside that (if I allowed my picture to be taken, which I don't).

Personal Spending was out of control! Today I did back-to-school clothing shopping and wanted a lie-down when I saw the total. Minor is wearing men's size clothes. I allowed him to pick out his own underpants (like a man!) and at the register, they ended up being $88! I nearly had a heart attack. (We Put Some Back).

This month, the boys are going to a professional soccer game with their dad and without me! And the county fair is this coming week. And school starts on 26 Aug. Minor will be in 8th grade (so last year of middle school) and Minisculus will be in 4th (still elementary school).

I would like to focus on 1. slowing down and being one pointed (the oppositie of multi-tasking) 2. increasing my distance in 10k training 3. Super Secret Craft Project 4. poetry 5. getting my star-cross lovers in my soap opera reunited (one is in jail, the other has amnesia).

On y va to August!

Wow. It's been a month, hasn't it?

Word Count: 41,514

I know, right? I triple checked it because it seems too high but it comes from the dick_or_treat fills + my soap opera updates. So I'm, like, 20k (so a month) from the Year end goal of 150k. What?!

Writing: I did 4 fills for dick_or_treat total (for April and May) and 3 in May itself. There's a WIP I won't finish (may never finish) which I started for it, set in my BTS A/B/O tarot 'verse.

10 fills for sweetandshort 10 out of 20 and 2 for the photo prompts.
1 fill for emotions100
4 fills for vocab_drabbles including 3 poems for GYWO Yahtzee. I am 1 and 1/4 poems from finishing the Yahtzee set but it's a toss up if I will before the end of things in June.
4 updates on the soap opera
5 poems

So next up, I told myself I am not doing ANYTHING but 1. unconventional courtship (due 13 June) and then Intoabar (which I'm not doing again ever because I got...Sherlock Holmes...meets Raymond West (Miss Marple's nephew). This is why I don't do exchanges either. Other people picking my prompts always rubs my fur the wrong way.

To do unconventional courtship properly, I need to steep myself in hardboiled voice (not a hardship, I love it) but it's like doing a Bertie fic. You have to go Method Actress for a bit. So expect a lot of slumming angels to appear across the board. And my soap opera is reaching a boiling point. I want my big shock to go up on ARMY day (9 July).

Reading: I am loving Margery Allingham. I think listening to the audiobooks is part of it. I never thought of myself as a Campion fan but I am! I just finished The China Governess, I also listened to The Mind-Readers and I am impressed. So maybe I will do her oeuvre from start to finish, too, one day.

3 Bingo squares done.

I have 8 squares on the bingo left and the goal is blackout by the time school starts back at the end of August. I think I can do it. I have a great selection of books. I just need to make more time to read.

I met my goal of catching up on Fannish 50 (one post a week, I'm on 22). I won't be on Monday but I am going to celebrate until then :)

Personal: I finished the 5k relay. Not a PR but I also didn't injure myself like in November. AND I signed up for the bridge 10k in November (solo) and will start training for that in the morning!

The diet didn't happen. And I gained some weight back BUT tomorrow is another day.

13 spreads! And 7 cards! That's a lot of collage. And I haven't even done June one yet!

2 jigsaw puzzles. I have a lovely supply to keep me going until the end of the year.

Another odd monthly goal which I met was not getting a sunburn. In March, I got cooked to a crisp, shoulders, neck, and chest and it lingered, itching badly all day and night and sometimes stinging, too, for weeks and weeks, long after it peeled and healed on the surface. So I decided not to put myself through all that again. And I did it! Yay. Given how much time I spend on sidelines watching little boys play sports it's impressive.

Also, it's morbid but my mom died when she was 48 (and I was 18) and so having my 49th birthday means I've lived longer than she did. And it makes me Think.

Minor's track and soccer seasons are done. Minisculus still has soccer and swimming lessons. Last day of school is 14 June.

so, June is Pride. I'll be focusing on my 3 fics (unconventional courtship, intoabar, and soap opera) and reading and starting the 10k training. I also want to finish my other OM cross stitch but I am setting that as an end-of-summer goal.

On y va.

Word Count for March: 28,212

Writing: Most of the word count is my new BTS soap opera Ungrateful. I am trying to update on a schedule (something I've never done before), every Friday. I have one more easy chapter and then I shall have to start Plotting. The first part is most smut but I am soon going to introduce a murder!

I did 10 fills for sweetandshort's 10 out of 20. I did my first round of GYWO Yahtzee with a Yahtzee of Miss Marple.

Next month is the first month of Dick or Treat, which I usually participate in, but it's also Poetry Month, so the word count will go down.

Reading/Listening: I have finished a total of 8 books this month, which is much more than usual. Many are audiobooks but still. An Agatha Christie, a Michael Gilbert, 2 Matthew Venn books, a graphic novel, the honkaku, Posession, and a science fiction.

Next month is Poetry Month so my goal is to read Jo Bell's How to be a Poet cover to cover.

Crafting: I dyed eggs with the boys today. I finished Minisculus' cross stitch for his birthday. I have two spring/Easter crafts, only one of which I may get to by Sunday. 3 spreads and 2 cards. Next month, I am probably not going to have a lot of time to craft. I was thinking about sending out spring cards. I am on the fence about that.

Personal: I have been doing good with the yoga and the exercise. I am doing better with the intermittent fasting too. I lost a tiny bit of weight. The one area that suffered this month was spending. I spent too much on unnecessary stuff. And set myself up for more unnecessary spending.

I filled in the calendar for the boys' activities for April and we have something almost every day of the entire month (weekends included). Both boys have soccer practices and games and Minor has track practices and meets and choral events and Minisculus has swimming lessons so I am going to have to be GENTLE (with myself and everyone) and PATIENT and PREPARED and FLEXIBLE. And let some things go.

So, I am planning to open the bottle of cava I bought for New Year's Eve (and never opened) on Sunday for Easter brunch and enjoy my last day of holiday.

Word Count: 5366

[about 7k short of my monthly goal :( Sadness.]

Reading: 5 books. 3 audiobooks. 2 print books. 1 Agatha Christie. I am in the process of reading two more.

Writing: I did some small things. I did write 4 poems. I wrote 800 words of Jeeves & The Baghdad Chest, but it's just a beginning. I'm very disappointed in myself for that. I also didn't finish the Snowflake challenge. But I did do a 365 Questions for 2024.

Crafts: I finished a cross-stitch! Something I began before Xmas. I'm not going to post photos yet. I did 1 puzzle. 4 collage spreads and 1 card.

Personal: Let's focus first on the positive: I did 15 days of Yoga with Adriene. Every other day is a good system for me.

I am working on recording my expenses in a spread sheet. That's a work in progress. I suppose it's like food logging for the first time and you say to yourself 'Wow, that's a lot of junk!'

The boys' father and I renewed the lease on our apartment. The rent went up (of course) but at least we won't be homeless for the next 12 months.

I did not lose any weight this month. I realize there's no way I'm not going to downward spiral about this, not making any progress in the Very First Month, but I am giving myself today to spiral and tomorrow to get back on the wagon. That (and not finishing the Jeeves fic and not finishing the Snowflake Challenge) has left me feeling fairly shitty about myself.

But, on y va to February. There are a lot of good things in February. Lunar New Year, Mardi Gras, Valentine's Day, Edward Gorey's birthday, Leap Day, lots of interesting bits and bobs. So, what's ahead:

-Valentine's. I have so many fun card/collage materials. Really, the cards are going to be exquisite.
-I want to go on 2 hikes/walks in February (one alone and one with the boys, not strenuous, maybe 1-3 hrs each). I have got 2 books from the library about trails in my area. I think it would be interesting to see if I benefit from More Nature in my life.
-I was thinking about a Venom fic for Valentine's Day and something inspired by Edward Gorey's The Fatal Lozenge for his birthday on the 22nd. The cover of that is my Gorey calendar picture for February and I am inspired.
-a poem for Holmes Minor Poetry page. smallhobbit and debriswoman have contributed excellent works on the theme of a skiing/tobogganing competition and I need to hold my own
-keep up the good work with the yoga, get myself comfortable with doing daily sun salutations
-finish my Marie Kondo decluttering in the 2 weeks that the boys' father traveling
-finish the snowflake challenge
-finish Jeeves & the Baghdad Chest

Word Count: 9314

[since I've met my annual goal, I'm not superinvested in the word count]

Writing:

-I have 400 works on AO3. I like nice round numbers.
-I ended up doing two fics for Sick or Treat.
-I finished Fandom Empire challenge as #6
-4 poems
-added an autumn chapter to my ACD fic, Four Seasons, Four Cases

Reading:

I read/listened to a lot more this month.

1. The Invisible Man by HG Wells
2. The Amnityville Horror by Jay Anson
3. A Daughter's a Daughter by Mary Westmacott
4. The Theft of the Iron Dogs by ECR Lorac
5. System Collapse by Martha Wells
6. Dead Wake by Erik Lawson

Personal: The 5k! I did only 3 spreads but I've done 13 cards. I'm working on Xmas gifts. Unfortunately, I've gained some weight back but tomorrow is another day and I'm going to try to get back on the wagon. I'm going to cancel my Noom by the end of the month. I don't want to spend more money on it even though I haven't reached my goal.