Weekly Goals, Week 45: On the Struggle Bus

This week I'm feeling the weight of everything.  Taking care of my cat and NaNoWriMo the November writing challenge combined are almost too much to manage, leaving no hope for cleaning my house or getting caught up on doll work.  Last week was so hectic I didn't even get a chance to write my weekly goals post until Friday.

Other than Izzy's demanding schedule of care, I'm keeping my goals pretty minimal to avoid adding to the overall feeling of overwhelm.

1. Work on my novel
2. Keep up on the demands of FauxNoWriMo

FauxNoWriMo should need too much maintenance from here on out, just a weekly email and maybe some last-minute organizing to get a final push write-in in place for Saturday, November 30th.  Since that day falls on a Saturday, we're thinking it would be a good opportunity for an extra-long write-in to help anyone who needs a big push that day to finish.

I'm really hoping that Izzy starts to improve so that her care will begin to be a little less demanding, but if that point comes, it'll probably still be at least a week or two out.

Weekly Goals, Week 44: Ramping Up

This has been such a crazy week that I'm only now finally blogging about my goals for the week, and the week is basically over!

Part of the reason everything has been so crazy is that I realized over the weekend that November was nearly here.  While our region is distancing ourselves from NaNoWriMo, we are still planning on carrying on as usual with writing and events.  I had done a bunch of planning last month and early this month before Izzy got sick, which turned out to be a blessing, because once my cat got sick, everything else fell by the wayside.  I tried to get caught up on planning last week, but November was coming up too quickly and we weren't doing enough promotion, which I didn't realize until late Sunday evening.

So most of my work time this week ended up being focused on getting ready for NaNoWriMo - or FauxNoWriMo, as we're calling it.  I put together an eleventh hour email and social media blast on Monday providing all of the kickoff party details, worked pretty much all week on getting the last of the planning done, and wrote a week one blast to go out yesterday, reminding everyone of the kickoff party and listing the write-ins for the rest of the week.

I also babysat Monday through Wednesday, and yesterday took Izzy to the vet for a follow up.  She ended up being unexpectedly hospitalized overnight.  We were up late for the kickoff party, of course, and then up early this morning to talk to the vet.  Izzy is coming home this evening (we're on our way to pick her up now) and then it's back to planning our lives around her schedule of feedings, water, and meds.

I'm definitely feeling it all wearing on me.  I'm sleep deprived from staying up until 3am and later to take care of Izzy, then waking up early (for me) the next morning to do it all again.  Being up super late last night too for the kickoff party did not help.  Plus there's the stress: emotional, financial, and the weight of the to-do list I no longer have time for hanging over all of it.

Enter November writing month.

I think, between Izzy and writing this month, there's a lot else I won't be able to accomplish.  I am solidly stuck in survival mode, just like I was when my horse was sick two years ago.

With all of that in mind, I'm not going to overload myself with goals just at the moment.  With only this weekend left before next week starts it all again, I have only two goals right now:

1. Get Izzy's GoFundMe up
2. Work on my novel every day

It may prove to be too difficult with the demands of Izzy's care, but I'm going to try to keep up on writing during November.  I may not be able to sustain 1,667 words per day right now, but I'd like to at least work on it every day, even if it's a smaller amount.

But most importantly, I need to get Izzy's GoFundMe up.  We've nearly exhausted our resources, and with her having come so far, we can't give up now.  We just need a little help getting her the rest of the way.

Heavy stuff.  You can see why I'm stressed, not just with the amount of care, but with the financial responsibilities as well!