Holidaze

And thus, the holiday season is half over. I’ve loved having a string of days at home, though, as usual, I overestimated how much I might actually successfully accomplish. None of the rooms I thought might be sorted are; neither did I do more at my computer than diddle around on social media sites.

On the other hand, yesterday I finally (almost two years after our Aquafarm arrived as a reward for having supported Back To The Roots’ Kickstarter campaign!) set up our tank. Unfortunately, my first experience with a new fish did not end well. While Bettas are supposed to be the easiest fish for rank newbies to handle, my first died within 6 hours of being installed in the new tank. This meant my morning was then occupied with researching all the ways the fish can die. I suspect the whole “does fine at room temperature” instruction was the root cause, so when I returned to the pet store today, it was to buy additional water conditioners as well as a tank heater to make sure hypothermia did not set in once again. Felix the 2nd appears to be thriving as I write tonight, so I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t have to handle another death in the family very soon.

Also, we’ve managed multiple walks per day for the entire week. Our newest schedule seems to be to get up around 8 to potty the youngest canines, bring them in for breakfast, and then take all three for a little more than a mile walk. When the weather’s nice, in the afternoon, we take another one ranging between 1.7-2.8 miles. We cap the day with a final, half-mile walk.

I don’t think I’ve been in as good shape (despite the lingering lung issues from the cold/flu of a week ago) in decades.

And we seem to have finally hit the age with KouKi that she’s letting us get more decent stretches of sleep–or we’ve walked her enough that she’s as worn out as we are.

😀

To sum, then… This round I did check off a few things: Finished my MBA! Posted three (of the four of my goal) book reviews. Got the exercise thing sorted. However, I did not finish Jasper’s Story, though I did start reviewing my work on Red Slaves book 3. I don’t think my brain has actually been awake enough to be creative in the past month, but as the youngest of our pack matures, this too shall change, so maybe next round I’ll finally get back to some decent word counts.

I will be looking forward to it, though I can see my social calendar here will remain busier than anywhere we’ve previously lived. I’m not terribly happy about that given how precious time has become, even though I enjoy spending time with family and extended family–and today I got to help with the holiday baking with my nieces, as well as enjoy the Packers clinching their division for the fourth year running. It will be an ongoing challenge for me, but hearkens back to the Zen to Zany quote that kicked off this post: Happy thoughts really are the best cure for stress. Sharing unstructured time with hubs; watching Felix cavort through the water, or the furbabies chase each other through the house; or relaxing with good stories… definitely happy-making experiences. I feel  those cramped neurons unfurling in my brain.

While the next round technically kicks off January 5th, I’ll be spending the week considering what my goals should be to report for my next check-in, as I balance family and work needs with my own creative drive. Meantime, consider visiting the other ROW80 writers to see how they’ve met their goals.