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And the World Goes Back to Normal

0 comments By Nicki Filed in Completely Off Topic Tagged with , , , , December 26th, 2009 @ 12:44 pm
Seriously - isn't she cute?

Photo by Shine4Him8

Well, perhaps the whole world wasn’t crazy yesterday, or the day before, but mine was. Now, knowing that there will be no more short store hours, or store closings altogether, for another week, I can breathe easy.

Crazy that store closings do that to a girl, huh? It makes me realize how dependent I am on commercial things. McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Target, Barnes & Noble…perhaps I’m more of a Material Girl than I thought.

I got a ton of story ideas from Santa Baby, and purchased the Taylor Swift version so I could figure out exactly what she was asking for. Then I watched Uptown Girls, and wondered how I could write a story that wasn’t exactly like that, and wondered if I could even make the story enjoyable without the morality lesson.

Because I think it would be fun to live that life. (Now I feel obliged to say, “Just for a little while, at least,” but I don’t know if I really mean it.)

At any rate, getting off that tangent, I’ve got some Birthday shopping to do today for my little girl who is turning 4 on Monday. Argh! She is officially no longer a toddler, although she hasn’t really acted like one in a long time. In fact, the only time we don’t understand her is when she’s in full melt-down mode, most likely because she can’t get something she wants, and then we can’t understand it anyway. It sort of works out.

There are still things I need to get done before December 31st, but I’m off the next week so hopefully I’ll have the chance to do them while in between children’s movies and making the kids clean up the horrendous mess that is surely inevitable in my living room. I need to:

  1. Finish my 2010 goal list (Annual Review by Chris Guillebeau, Nickified)
  2. Finish Running Towards Home, my 2009 NaNoWriMo novel, and edit it
  3. Get my Shopify store up and ready for the contest

Oh, and normal stuff like feeding my family, cleaning the house, and sleeping still apply. I sincerely hope the last bit of 2009 is a wonderful roller coaster ride. I’ll keep you updated! (And get back to early morning posts at the start of next year. Right now, it just seems too formal for this week of sleeping in and child wrangling!)

Getting Back on Track

0 comments By Nicki Filed in Organization, Planning Tagged with , , , , , , , , , December 3rd, 2009 @ 8:39 am

to do...done!I haven’t done much reading lately due to my November commitment. I also did absolutely no web design, nor did I do anything, actually, to help support my family. December is also a rocky month, and so my goals are not too high, but I here is a quick list of things that I would like to accomplish and work back into my daily routine.

  • Regular reading of actual books currently purchased and on my bookshelf.
  • Design of real estate website templates for my coworker who then creates the actual sites.
  • Wii Fit exercise – at least 30 minutes/credits per day.
  • Walking – a few times a week with a friend who could use the company, I think.
  • Publication of new Squidoo Lenses. I’ve been nominated for Giant Squidhood, I just need another 40 lenses or so, and could write about…
    • The books I’m going to read.
    • Things I’m learning in my design travels.
    • Life experiences I’ve had and how I’ve dealt with them.
    • My favorite things.
    • My vacation to Prague two years ago.
    • My father’s disease.
    • The tattoo I recently started planning. (Excitement!!)

If I could get a schedule going, where I do X on Monday, and YY on Tuesday, etc, that would be the bomb. Having a schedule is, in my experience, the single best way for me to get things done.

When I went back to school in 2000, I began working the night shift at my job. I had the absolute best job, because I got to work for two hours, and study or read or whatever for the remaining six. My schedule was strict. Beginning at 11 p.m., I would work until midnight, where I would then take one hour to surf the Internet, chat, play games or read. Then from 1 a.m. until I was either done with my homework, or if it was a project I couldn’t complete in one night, until 4 a.m., I would study my ass off. Then from 4 a.m. until my shift was over, I would get to do whatever again – work, play, read, chat, whatever. Do you know what happened to my grades when I started that schedule?

I got A’s everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. It was a wonderous thing, especially since I had never considered myself anything more than a B average student.

So that’s the deal. As I work through December, I’ll keep giving updates. Maybe Monday mornings will be my update days, as Sunday evenings are usually the evenings when I have the least time. :)

Quick Planning Results

0 comments By Nicki Filed in Planning Tagged with , September 14th, 2009 @ 10:40 pm

So I made a quick list yesterday evening of things to do today. I didn’t really think about how much I could actually accomplish, but rather what did I have hanging around to do. It wasn’t even everything I had to do – just some of the stuff that seemed most urgent.

The two things I didn’t accomplish – pulling off all the unread books from the shelf and getting halfway through the house tracking budget – were fairly unimportant and rather important items, respectively. The least important item, eating sushi for lunch, was the item I most looked forward to. The most important item, checking up on my bills, I almost forgot to do. And actually, when I remembered to do it, I almost pushed it off until tomorrow. Or Thursday, my new Bill Day that I’m not quite used to yet, which is why I almost missed this one.

I think my list was too long, and I should have prioritized it (the numbers were random) as well as been more specific about a couple items. I’m glad I included things that were easy to accomplish, because it’s good for a person to see progress.

I don’t make lists often, but when I do, it’s always a good feeling to cross things off and see the results. Even when everything doesn’t get done, some little things do, and I don’t feel quite so lazy.

Do you use lists? Do they help you or just overwhelm you?

So! Here’s another list for tonight – prioritized this time with specifics.

  1. Review spelling words with D
  2. Listen to D read his book the school gave us only one day to get read on a Monday night, thankyouverymuch
  3. Call oil company and get a delivery, if not sign up for a delivery and service plan
  4. Complete 3 more columns in my house budget tracking
  5. Alphabetize the DVD’s and VHS tapes
  6. Bathe kids

Quick Planning

0 comments By Nicki Filed in Completely Off Topic Tagged with , September 13th, 2009 @ 10:54 pm

I need to get a lot of things done tomorrow (9/14/09), so here’s just a quick list. Maybe this will help keep me accountable for what needs to get accomplished.

  1. Call for oil delivery – I called, but they closed at 4 p.m. I thought I had at least until 5:30!
  2. Return Netflix (NCIS Season 6 Disc 4)
  3. Clip coupons from Sunday’s paper - this took like an hour. What a lot of coupons!
  4. Sort out unread books from all books on the shelves
  5. Reach halfway point for House Tracking budget
  6. Return Flash books to coworker – an easy drop-off
  7. Get recycling out – on the way out the door
  8. Check bills to make sure I don’t miss any this week - just barely caught this one
  9. Take son to Boy Scouts meeting at 7 p.m. – which he loved! He’s all signed up, and ready to go!
  10. Eat sushi for lunch – this is a long list, I’m tired already!

Also, in reference to the whole brain-mouth thing from yesterday, wouldn’t you know it but my son had a huge brain-mouth disconnect this morning at Church. I’d asked him if he’d had fun during Sunday school, and he said, “Well, I was having fun until you came!” Yes, he’s six. Yes, so far my parents chuckled when I retold the story. But oh yes, it definitely hurt. I think his age is no excuse, and we will be working on thinking before speaking this week in terms of behavior.

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plan: to devise or project the realization or achievement of

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