Some weeks–or months–are tougher than others. You know, those stretches where everything seems to fall apart at the same time–well, I’m in the middle of one of those.

Let’s see: brakes and tires on one car, the A/C on another car, the A/C in the house, and two cats got really sick and had generous vet bills. The kitties recovered, thankfully and I learned how to make kitty milkshakes and force feed them to cats. The cars, at least one of them, is driveable now, though after a huge mechanic’s bill, the A/C on the other still isn’t working–and the power windows are shot. With 90+ degree temps, it really isn’t safe to drive without windows that open. But the house is cool–though the compressor is on the last legs and the repair guy warned us to start planning for that expense.  Sigh, ok, really big sigh.

So after all of this, my dishwasher up and quits on me.  Really? Of all things here the stupid dishwasher? Now I am feeling pretty sorry for myself as I stand around washing dishes. AND I’m the meanest mom on the block, having informed my kids that they are to wash their own breakfast and lunch dishes. Nothing piling up during the day.

Funny thing, when it is just one or two dishes, it isn’t a big deal to wash them. When they are just used, stuff isn’t stuck on and they are easy to clean up. As long as we stay on top of it, it actually isn’t so bad. And now, I’ve discovered, I have a whole to do list to which that same approach can be applied. Do it in small bits, do it when its fresh, don’t let it pile up. Been trying that all week. I’ll let you know how it goes.

It was interesting keeping track of what I did this week.  It was a fairly productive week:

Words of Fiction Written: 11,400 words on 3 different fiction projects

Words of Nonfiction written:  5,500 words on three articles and a marketing plan

Blog Posts Prepared: 13 for four different sites

Emails written: 62 emails, about 2700 words 

Social Media Interactions: 55, about 1400 words

Articles (Research and writing craft/business) Read: 34 research and 35 craft/business  

Formatting: none

I did get my new story started. Forgot to add all the notes I wrote about it into the totals. Oh well. I got about 9000 words on it, so we’re off to the races. I’ve got a good sense of all four acts, which may or may not be a good things. We’ll see if the characters cooperate or not. LOL

I’ll leave you with a new entry from my Writer’s Sketchbook, just a few observations from around the neighborhood.

• She ran with an easy, loping gate, settling into each step like a bag of flour slumping on a shelf.
• One side of her shirt was caught up in the waist of her pants, one side hung free as though she could not decide on the right level of formality and thought it best to cover all her bases.

I would love to hear what you think. Please have your share of the conversation in the comments!