Goals check for the weeks of July 8 and July 15

This past week was so busy that I didn't have a chance to post about last week, so I'm doing a two-for-one post.  Since I was on vacation the first week, and the second week was almost the reverse (constantly busy), this post is going to be something of a mixed bag.

1. Novels: The week of July 8th was my week off, so I was home all week -- and since I was puppy sitting for the family I work for while they were on vacation, I was trying to stay home a lot, which meant plenty of writing time.  The result was that I worked on my novel revisions and research five days out of seven.  I got several pages of revisions made, but mostly I was working on research: fact checking and researching things I had made notes about in the manuscript when I went through and marked revisions months ago.

Last week was dismal, though.  I was at the barn with the kids nearly every day, plus other demands on my time, and as a result the first chance I had to work on the novel was Saturday.  I did spend most of the day on it -- doing research and some other tasks -- so I felt somewhat redeemed.  I'm hoping to get some work done on it today (Sunday), too.

2. Blogs and websites: No progress yet.

3. Other writing projects: No progress yet.

4. Books: Especially since I've been doing lots of research lately, Les Miz is still on hold while I read up on the 1920s.

5. Horses: This is another case of a reversal between the first and second weeks, but the other way around.  The week of my vacation I didn't actually ride much, partly because I was working on my novel so much and partly because I was concerned about leaving the puppy alone too much.  The first half of the week I didn't get out there at all, and then I rode him briefly Thursday (and actually put my mom on him for the first time too), went for a trail ride on Friday, and enjoyed a nice long ride on Saturday.  My trainer rode Rondo for me on Thursday (something came up and I couldn't make it to the barn for our scheduled lesson), but that was the only work he had that week.

Last week was better.  I took the kids to the barn with me Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday -- V. had a lesson on Tuesday, and we both had lessons on Thursday.  Wednesday was her practice ride and we both rode that day, plus I put her little brother, A., on Panama both Wednesday and Thursday.  I loved all the barn time, but it was also exhausting, and together with some other responsibilities, it took up most of my time and all of my energy those days.

I think it's interesting to see the reversal between the two weeks -- lots of writing and very little riding one week, and lots of riding and very little writing the next.  Finding a balance between the two is still something I need to work on, because I dislike neglecting either my novel or my horses!