Enjoying the Planning

My obligatory New Year's Eve run photo. I didn't fall! It was snowing off and on for the last day of 2025. 

Today I am still deciding whether I'll go for a run or work out inside. Because I slept terribly last night, staying indoors and using the walking pad is very appealing. 

I'm taking advantage of my last weekday off before Winter Break is over by indulging in planning and list-making. 

For a couple of weeks this holiday season, I tried out a journaling app. I used it daily for the first week, and then I dropped off. It's a good thing that the free trial was a month long; it gave me enough time to realize I wouldn't stick to using it long enough to make the cost worth it. 

Do you use any apps for scheduling or planning? 

I have scheduled myself a bunch of fun activities for January. Now I need to focus on not cancelling my participation in order to stay home. TBD! 

Feeling Crafty?

This month I find my calendar stuffed with activities involving me leaving the house. I don't know how this has happened. I don't like being out in the evening in the winter. I really dislike being in a cold car waiting for it to warm up surrounded by cold dark air. But here we are! Last week I went to a paint and sip night (see painting below), a program about Black music history (at my library), and a bunco fundraiser ( l lost eleven times and won seven). Later this month I have a paint night at my library, a Soul Food cooking class, and I am going to Love's Sweet Arrow for a panel of authors discussing sexy romance!

One reason this is happening is happenstance, and also because I'm not drafting any book right now. After drafting my last book during October and November, I realized I needed to plan my writing around my work schedule instead of writing despite my work schedule.  I also planned a longer drafting period so that I'm not feeling like my brain is fried. Some authors can write 3, 4, or 5 thousand words a day.  I'd rather write more days in a row at a lesser volume of words. I'll be drafting my next book in March and April since we have only 14 days of school in March and 18 in April. Then I'll draft two books this summer. And that will get me all my first drafts for 2025. 

How are you doing? Overall I think February is the gloomiest month of the year! 

Here is my painting. For this paint night, you get an outlined canvas to paint. I showed it to my kiddo who said, so it's like a coloring book but a painting. Yes, that's it exactly.  Looking at it after it dried, you can see that I have made the most 1980s-colored painting humanly possible!