1.07.2015

IWSG - First of the New Year!

This post is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, a bloghop dedicated to writers supporting one another through this crazy thing called 'being a writer'. They're a good bunch - check my buddies out!

In the normal way of the busy holidays, not too much writing has been happening around here lately. I had, of course, hoped to find some quiet time amidst all the hullaballoo, but didn't manage to do so. Somehow days that had no plans ended up being quite busy. (e.g. on Christmas Day when I ended up cantoring at Mass because the usual singer came down with bronchitis! All I have to say about that is thank goodness for Christmas Carols.)

But reading and listening to media definitely happened! I got all of the Harry Potter movies on Bluray as a gift, so we watched several of those, and listened to all of the Serial podcast during our many, many hours of driving. And, my good friend Katie gave me Amy Poehler's Yes Please. I have TORN through this book. She is so heartfelt and of course snarky, and just incredibly honest. 

She spends the entire preface talking about how "Writing is Hard".

This brilliant, successful woman who makes a living by writing hilarious things thinks writing is hard. And then goes on to tell about many of her quirks and stressors related to being a writer. Aaaannnnd of course had me crying tears of laughter while talking about it. So I guess my IWSG this month is again not focused so much on the insecurity part, but more on the support part.

If the inimitable Amy Poehler thinks it's hard, this crazy thing called 'writing' probably is hard. We are totally not alone. She worked her tail off to get where she is, just like all the IWSG'ers out there. So keep at it. 

I bet she'd love IWSG. We should figure out how to get her on this bandwagon. Wouldn't that be fun?

If you could make your writing (or life) stressors into a punchline, what would it be?

1.06.2015

January Cure

Hydrangeas!
This month, more as a distraction to keep my mind off other things than as a New Year resolution, we decided to participate in Apartment Therapy's January Cure. The Cure is pretty simple. You sign up and every day they email you a task to accomplish for that day, all with the mind of making your home a better place to live. This could mean cleaning your pantry, or buying flowers (actually that one is every week :) ), or deep cleaning all your floors. They're really good about keeping large tasks to the weekend and assigning smaller tasks on work nights.

Last night's task was to walk through the house and make a list of all the things you'd like to improve/clean/work on. We went room by room and the final list was over 2 pages single spaced! Yikes. Per the instructions though, we pared the list down to just a couple things per room, and this is what I've decided to try to accomplish this month.

Kitchen (seriously needs a remodel but this is what can actually be accomplished this month hah)
Replace grate covers on wood floor
Tie-backs for curtains by sliding door
Rug that does not slip by sliding door (the Roomba keeps stealing it!)
Decoration by window

Bathrooms
Better shower curtain rod in guest bath (it likes to fall at 3am)
Toothbrush holders
Storage in guest bath - shelf above toilet?
Plant in master bath

Bedroom
Decoration above bed
Clean dresser tops
Table/small dresser between closet & bathroom doors
Buy better pant hangers (any suggestions? I'd like to do this right ONCE and be done with it for the rest of my life)

Living Room
Need a small bookshelf
Make/find a key hook to hang by garage door
Rug by garage door

Guest/sewing Rooms
Clean closets
Finish hemming pants

Office
Redo childhood picture albums into smaller ones that aren't water damaged
Retie the couch cover

Obviously some of these tasks are larger than others - that was intentional to help keep things feeling manageable. We'll see how it goes! I will try to update as we do things that are picture-worthy (hemmed pants aren't really that exciting...).

What are you doing to kick off the new year?