Goals check for the week of April 22

First of all, I am considering doing a monthly goals check-in, instead of writing weekly posts on it.  Although these posts keep me on track, they also keep me from blogging about other -- and probably more interesting -- topics on my blog.  The biggest downside is that I often forget the previous week if I wait too long beyond Monday to write the post; if I'm trying to recall an entire month, I think I'll forget even more.  What do you think?  Would you prefer to see less of these posts?

But for now, on to the usual goals check.  Last week was kind of dismal, but as promised, this past week was a little better, especially in the novel department.

1. Novels: I worked on marking revisions and rewriting a specific scene (to give me some word count for Camp NaNoWriMo) four out of seven days last week, which was pretty good.  Yesterday in particular was quite productive (I count weekends on the previous week), as I rewrote an entire scene, garnering nearly 3,000 words, and leaving me only 2,252 to go to reach my word count goal of the month of 10k.  (We were able to choose our own word counts this year in Camp NaNo, and I chose a low one because I knew I would be also marking revisions in the manuscript, rather than spending the month writing new word count.)

To be perfectly honest, I am not as far in revisions as I wanted to get this month.  I am still not much further than where I got stalled when I took a break to read Victorian vampire literature as part of my research.  (The scene I rewrote last night has to do with that.)  I am, however, through a rather sticky part of the manuscript -- "sticky" meaning it needed a lot of research and rewriting, and as a result slowed me down -- so hopefully it will be faster going for a little while.  I need to be more diligent about making time for it, which is hard right now with as many other things as I have demanding my time, but I want to be sure I finish marking and making my revisions before the second session of Camp NaNoWriMo in July -- I plan on starting an all-new novel (or possibly a novella) in my series during that session of Camp.

2. Blogs and websites: No progress yet.  Hopefully I will have some time between finishing revisions and starting Camp NaNo in July, and I can work on overhauling some of my blogs in the interim...

3. Other writing projects: These will likely be put on hold until after the July session of Camp NaNo.

4. Books: Just last night I finished the book I was reading, a book club selection from a month or so ago that I had taken a break from in order to read Victorian vampire literature.  Now I can get back to finishing Les Miserables, and knocking one (very long) book off of my classics reading list for 2013!

5. Horses: I haven't been riding a lot lately, even though I've been up at the barn daily -- Panama has been struggling with his weight, and is now on a daily medication to treat for ulcers.  We don't know for sure that that's what it is, but it is the next most likely culprit, so we are treating for it and seeing what happens.  The daily trips to the barn to feed him extra food and give him medication take up a lot of time each day, and as a result I don't think I'll be riding much -- either horse -- until we figure it out.  I just don't have a lot of time left after you factor in an hour or two each day for that trip to the barn.

I'm not riding Panama much because I worry about expending too many calories on riding, calories that he needs for V.'s rides and (hopefully) to pack on weight.  Last week, however, I did ride him briefly on Wednesday and had a short lesson on him on Thursday.  Combined with V.'s lesson on Thursday and her practice ride on Friday, plus the bath that the kids and I gave him on Friday, he got a lot of attention last week.  Rondo, on the other hand, was only ridden on Thursday, the day my trainer came.

It was a crazy week last week, being the first full week with Panama being on this daily medication, as well as some other obligations that kept me quite busy all week.  In addition, the kids had the day off from school on Friday -- which was also my birthday, coincidentally -- and since their mom was out of town, I worked a long day with them.  We spent most of the day at the barn, so it was quite enjoyable, but still -- it meant there was no time for writing that day.

Summer is fast approaching, too, which is somewhat alarming -- I work more hours in the summer, which means less time for other things.  Last summer I felt quite frazzled by the end of the summer.  I think I need to have a plan in mind for the important things (writing, riding) I need to make time for this summer, and make sure I don't inadvertently overload myself with the unimportant stuff.