Health and Fitness

The bullet journal thing once again fell apart halfway through the month, but I was pretty good about exercise for much of December. Eliyahu wanted to walk pretty much every day, and there were only a few times that we skipped anyway. I don't know exactly how many times I exercised this month, but it was over 20.

As is traditional for the season, I ate tons of junk food. But I ate some vegetables at the end of the month! So that should count for something.

Dailies

I have been so bad at these in 2025 that I feel like I should stop trying in 2026. Except that the check boxes are still satisfying to click. So I went ahead and made a new bullet journal for 2026. It's day 3 and I'm still keeping up on it! It helps that i've been doing most of the items on it, so there's stuff to check off.

Writing

A Dragon's Secret is at 53,200, for about 1000 words in December. Unsurprising. My personal journal was ~70,000. Still doing an excessive amount of writing about my own life. Processing.

Art

I finished the picture of Olive & Dahlia making out that I'd started in November. The main version of it had them in lingerie; I made an alternate version where their clothing was more concealing so I could share it on the Time Princess official Discord without feeling like I was being overly risque. For me, the most suggestive thing about the picture is not their clothing or pose, but their expressions. And yet no one would say 'you have to censor that expression'. Heehee.

I didn't do any other art in December, but I made a 2025 Art Retrospective. Woohoo! I've done an art retrospective for every year since 2020, which kind of amazes me, because the first one was for 2015 and I didn't have enough art in a year to do another until 2020.

I used a template with predefined sizes for each piece, where I had to crop the art to fit, which I've never done before. Using a template was so much easier. Although I only just now realized that the template didn't have a specific place for my name, so I didn't put my name on it. I should probably add my name to it.

It's half Olive fan art. That amuses me, too.

Reading

I finished the main story of Please Marry Me Again!, a romantasy manwha. I read most of the epilogue entries, but I'd lost much of my enthusiasm for the story by the time I reached the end. Romantasy manwha are often like this for me. I'll love the early relationship but by the time they reach the end, it'll have turned its attention away from the relationship and towards some boring political or action plot I don't care about.

I'm almost done with For My Derelict Favorite, which did a good job with its political plot so I enjoyed it all the way through, and The Greatest Estate Developer, a comedy/action-fantasy that's been a terrific ride. Tuftears recommended both to me and they're great. They'll probably have epilogues running for a month or three, but I expect the main story to resolve in January.

I almost finished the two chapters of "Coming Calamities" released by Time Princess in December -- I'll finish the rest in January.

Social

I saw Envoy, Sophrani and Kage most weeks in December. Eliyahu came to visit on December 14 and is staying through January 12, so that's fantastic. My brother M came down early in December and K and C visited at the end of the month. It's been a busy month for social activities, even with me staying home on Christmas because I was worried my mother might pass away that day.

December Goal Scorecard

Provide care for parents: Done!
Pay December bills: Done!
Send The Jewel-Strewn Night to first readers: Took until halfway through the month, which was surprising given that I'd finished edits on it 7 months ago. But I sent it off!
Brainstorm/work on a new outline: I actually did this! I didn't finish it, but I made meaningful progress on a new idea, and I like the idea.
Post journal entries within 48-ish hours of finishing them: I kinda whiffed this near the end of the month -- I posted the 25th-29th together on the 31st, and I'm pretty sure I finished the 25th's entry by, like, the 28th? I was running behind for that time period, but not quite that far behind. Still, I'm counting this as 'basically done' because I did well most of the month, and that period was a particularly crowded one.

Stretch Goal Scorecard

Exercise: Thanks to Eliyahu's determination to walk, I made it well over 15 times this month.
Do some art: Done!
Track what I read: Done!
Visit friends: Did that!
Spend some time with Eliyahu while they're visiting: Yessssss

January Goals

Provide care for parents
Pay December bills
Remind first readers that I'll edit book in mid-February: I don't usually jog readers' elbows -- they can finish or not, it's up to them -- but since I sent it out just before the holidays, I feel like I ought to send a reminder about it once the holidays are past and folks have had a chance to recover.
Do some creative things: Look this is gonna be another tough month. I will do some creative stuff because I want to do some creative things, but no pressure about what those things are.

Stretch Goals

Write more of A Dragon's Secret
Edit A Game to You
Work on outline/notes for next book
Play more of romance soloRPG
Exercise 15+ times
Track what I read, including Time Princess
Keep up on my Dreamwidth feed
Ask Bookbub for a Featured Deal and run another ad campaign for a book
Get backmatter updated for whatever book I promote
Pick an old picture to redraw
Do some art
Visit friends
Spend some time with Eliyahu while they're visiting

November 2025 in Review

Health and Fitness

I wasn’t tracking outside of my daily entries, which are awkward to use for statistics. It looks like I biked 16-17 times and paced on the phone 3-4 times. Some of which might have overlapped. I’ll just say 20. Exercise completely fell apart after Mom was hospitalized on the 25th, so getting to 20 anyway is pretty impressive.

My eating habits are worse: I’m snacking more as a way of self-soothing, and especially doing things like two Coke floats in one day.

I felt very burnt-out and exhausted by Mom's latest hospitalization, especially since the doctors had decided she was too confused to make her own decisions, so it was up to me and M to decide whether she should stay or not, and for how long.

Dailies

I tracked these for the first 12 days of the month and then quit. Actually, I think on Day 12 I tried reconstructing the rest of the month, rather than really keeping on top of it for the early part of the month. Either way, I didn’t record anything after the 12th.

Writing

I wrote 9147 words on A Dragon’s Secret, which is honestly a triumph for this year, good job, me. It's up to 52,209. My personal journal weighed in at 66,857 for the month. My obsession with chronicling my days is definitely cutting into my time for doing other creative activities. But it’s a coping mechanism, and I like having the record, so not gonna worry about it.

The Business of Writing

I didn't do anything business-related during November. What little energy I had went to writing, with a bit for art.

Art

I declared victory on the picture of Olive (in her boy-mode) that I'd started in October: https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonart/media_attachments/files/115/521/968/755/750/337/original/7bf1773e83cd305b.jpg

I made a handful of sketches of Olive and Olive-with-Dahlia in November, and started an ambitious and steamier painting of the two than any I've attempted before. Because of my obsession with keeping up on my journal (and also that I was more working on writing in November), I didn't finish it.

Reading

Andy Brokaw recommended Of Monsters and Mainframes, by Barbara Truelove, with a suggestion of "don't read my review, don't read the blurb, just read the book." Hoopla had it, so I checked it out. The first few pages were enough to convince me to read the rest over the course of two days. Fun book! Do not read the blurb, it's got spoilers for like the last quarter of the story, COME ON. It's an sf book with supernatural elements, queer rep, and some horror.

I read various manwha, but nothing that finished. I am still stalled on finishing The Housekeeper of the Dungeon webserial. It basically resolved the romance with 60+ episodes left and there hasn't been enough remaining plot to keep me reading the rest. I expect I'll finish it eventually, though.

Social

I saw Envoy, Sophrani, and Kage every week in November, I think. I missed a visit because of Mom's hospitalization, but only one, and since I saw them for Thanksgiving that week, still got to see them each week.

Goal Scorecard

Provide care for parents: Yeah this was pretty time-intensive this month
Register the car: I actually did this! On the 24th, the Monday before Thanksgiving. Since Mom had an appointment on Tuesday the 25th (and ended up hospitalized that day), this was pretty much the last possible day to finish it in November. But I got it done! I even put the new license plate on the car the same day.
Pay November bills: I remembered to do this!
Post any complete entries at the end of the day: Basically done. There were a few entries I posted the next morning instead, and I think once that I got to it later in the next day. Still, I stuck to the spirit of this.
Make meaningful progress on A Dragon's Secret: I didn't reach my 10k threshhold, but I got to 9100 and decided that was good enough, under the circumstances.

Stretch Goal Scorecard

Exercise 15+ times: Somehow I made it to 20. I have no explanation for how that could happen.
Track what I read: I actually put the book I read into StoryGraph, even.
Do some art: Didn't finish anything, but I sketched and painted and it counts
Visit friends: \o/

December Goals

Provide care for parents
Pay December bills
Send The Jewel-Strewn Night to first readers
Brainstorm/work on a new outline: I don't think I can finish an outline in the last two weeks of the year -- I don't even have an idea I really want to work on -- but this is my best shot at making my 2025 goal of "complete 6 writing stages", since 'finish A Dragon's Secret' is even less likely to happen. So I should at least give it a shot.
Post journal entries within 48-ish hours of finishing them: 'at the end of the day' was kind of annoying, but I still want to avoid stockpiling a week's worth of entries and posting them all at once.

December Stretch Goals

Write more of A Dragon's Secret
Play more of romance soloRPG
Exercise 15+ times (organizing stuff/cleaning counts as exercise)
Track what I read, including Time Princess
Keep up on my Dreamwidth feed
Ask Bookbub for a Featured Deal and run another ad campaign for a book
Get backmatter updated for whatever book I promote
Pick an old picture to redraw
Do some art
Visit friends
Spend some time with Eliyahu while they're visiting

Health and Fitness

My daily swim routine slowly fell apart this month. I didn’t do too badly in the first twenty days -- swam twelve times, which is a lot less than “almost every day” but still regular. In the last eleven days, though, I only swam twice. Oops. Fourteen times for the month isn’t terrible, though, and I had a time or two of pacing-while-on-the-phone or whatever that I can also count as exercise.

Dailes

I just didn’t do these in October. I think I checked them off for one day and part of another, then gave up for the rest of the month.

Writing

I wrote all of 165 words on A Dragon’s Secret in October.

The Business of Writing

I published A Wolf-Shifter’s Pack! It’s done! I can take it off the to-do list forever now.

*dances*

Art

I finished this crazy-detailed portrait of Olive from Time Princess, and was super-happy with it: https://mastodon.art/@rowyn/115312491580621682

I started another crazy-detailed painting of the same character and mostly finished it. I’m not as happy with it, though. I still have to declare it Officially Done so I can start something else.

I also worked on the art for A Wolf-Shifter’s Pack: the cover and three interior illustrations. I mostly-finished all four back in March, but I cleaned them up and polished them a bit more for publication.

I am pretty sure I spent more time on art than anything else creative in October. Maybe getting A Wolf-Shifter’s Pack out the door took longer? But part of that was also art.

Reading

I got to the end of the free episodes of The Housekeeper of the Dungeon webserial, unlocked the rest, then stalled on reading it. Still reading a half-dozen manwha but none that are finished.

Oh, and I finished “The Dragon King’s Bride”, a manwha on Webtoons for a change instead of Tapas. “The Greatest Estate Developer” is almost done posting, too, so I may finish that one in November.

Social

I did quite a bit of this, really. Alltoseek visited from October 2 to October 14, C and K visited from October 12 to October 18, and E visited from October 25 to October 27. These visits were all really more about helping Mom than about specifically being social, but I love my family and when they're around I want to spend time with them. So I socialized a fair bit while they were here.

I also visited with Envoy, Sophrani, and Kage a few times during the month. I think we cancelled one Friday get-together and rescheduled another for Sunday?

Goal Scorecard:

Register car: I opted not to do this. My excuse was that we had to get this affidavit to unregister Mom's former car notarized and couldn't do that until November, so I figured I'd deal with that and the car registration at the same time. This was not a good excuse because the car has to be registered in person, though, and the affidavit could be mailed in. The real reason was that I didn't get to it early in the month and late in the month I was too stressed out by trying to publish A Wolf-Shifter's Pack and also by the shenanigans with Pruitt Home Health over the blood draw.
Provide care for parents: Done!
Pay October bills: Done!
Publish A Wolf-Shifter's Pack: Done!
Get vaccinated: Done!
Get Dad vaccinated: Done!
Schedule maintenance for my car: Not only did I schedule it, but I even brought it in and had the maintenance completed!

Stretch Goal Scorecard

Exercise 15+ times: Just barely!
Track what I read: Eh more or less? I don't think I read anything new outside of Tapas and Webtoons.
Ask Bookbub for a Featured Deal: Oh, I actually did this. They had some new sort of thing and applying for a featured deal automatically applied you for that, so I went ahead. Got rejected like the last 20+ times.
Do some art: Yep, finished one fan art and worked on a second
Visit friends: Did this one too!

November Goals:

Provide care for parents
Register car: so this can finally come off the goal list >:(
Pay November bills
Post any complete entries at end of day: This isn’t “I have to finish writing up each day by the end of the day”, which would be a terrible goal. It’s just to get me into the habit of posting when I finish a day instead of eventually posting a 10,000-word entry covering the last week. I’ve posted two entries this month that covered two days, but that’s because I happened to finish writing about both days on that day, rather than because I forgot to post
Make meaningful progress on A Dragon’s Secret (let’s say 10,000 words) or officially shelve it and work on a new outline: I think I’m more tired of writing fiction than I am sick of this book in particular. But it’s been my official WIP for almost a year now and in the last seven months I’ve written less than 7,000 words total. I still enjoy re-reading it and reading the outline, but the lack of momentum on it is unsettling. November is normally good for writing, but I’ve not even tried to work on fiction yet and it’s Day Six already. Still, we’ll see.

November Stretch Goals

Play more of romance soloRPG
Exercise 15+ times (organizing stuff/cleaning counts as exercise)
Track what I read
Keep up on my Dreamwidth feed
Ask Bookbub for a Featured Deal and run another ad campaign for a book
Get backmatter updated for whatever book I promote
Pick an old picture to redraw
Do some art
Visit friends

Health and Fitness

I did well on exercise in September: 20 times. Most of that was an hour of swimming, though I did count "pacing in my room while on the phone" a few times.

Diet: unchanged.

Dailies

I was pretty good about tracking in September. Drawing was easily the winner on creative activities, at 20 times. Editing was 15 times, most of which was the final read-through. Writing was six times. Three were the last days of the month, as I finally dragged myself to the end of the scene I'd been so bleh about writing.

Writing

I wrote all of 718 words, but hey, finished the unenthusiastic scene of A Dragon's Secret. I bet I will do something else with that scene before I send it to first readers, but eh, done for now.

The Business of Writing

I finished the final read-through of A Wolf-Shifter's Pack! I have a few small things left to do before layout, and then I can publish it.

Art

I completed three more fan art pieces of Olive: two that were pretty complicated, and one straightforward portrait. I started a second straightforward portrait and didn't finish it until October, because I went overboard on details for it.

This one was my favorite of the three: https://mastodon.art/@rowyn/115175044747789153

Reading

I finished reading "Status Window to the Soul", which took me a while because after the first third, it just wasn't that compelling. I started reading "The Dragon King's Bride", but didn't finish that until October. I guess I should put those in my Storygraph. I'm trying to be better about tracking manwha as "things I have read", at least when I finish one, but I am still not good about it.

Also, in August I beta-read the second Space Dragons novella and forgot to mention it in my August review post, whoops. It's not published yet, so I'm not logging it. I kind of want to log unpublished things but it also feels rude to the author to add their work to Storygraph before they publish it.

I started reading the web serial for "The Housekeeper of the Dungeon"; I've been unlocking a few episodes per day for free and reading them as I go. It's made me feel even more like "reading manwha and other graphic novels is still reading", because the web serial is one long book. Each episode of it is a few pages long, and most of them cover significantly less story than the corresponding webtoon episode. For a long time, the manwha and web serial were almost identical in terms of story events; I'd expected the manwha to cut a lot, but it hasn't so far. I did finally get to some material that had been cut, one scene that was changed, and what looks like a couple of episodes that the manwha added (although possibly things have been rearranged instead of cut/added, since I haven't finished yet.) The manwha has a better translation and the changes it's made improve it, in my opinion, so I still prefer the manwha. But the web serial is enjoyable and complete already, so I'll finish it. But thus far, I'm fine with unlocking as much as possible slowly for free before I buy the last section. I suspect this will continue to be true, since the kind of tense, nerve-wracking scenes that make most people want to read quickly to find out how it's resolved generally just make me put the story down these days. I guess they still worked with Murderbot? So I'm not immune. Maybe it depends on the story, or maybe it's my mood. Or a combination of both.

Anyway, the experience has made me realize that I won't necessarily get more out of reading a book than I do out of reading a graphic novel.

Social

Still visiting Sophrani, Kage, and Envoy pretty regularly! \o/

Goal Scorecard:

Provide care for parents: Done!
Pay September bills: Done!
Complete final read-through on A Wolf-Shifter’s Pack: Done!
Do something about the next scene of A Dragon's Secrets (write it, or skip it, or phone it in, or whatever else gets me to writing a different scene): Finished the scene!
Look at this list a few times during the month so that I actually do the next two: Oh yeah did this too.
File 2024 taxes (I have an extension on filing until October but I don’t want to wait until the last minute. Again.): Done!
Complete and print forms to register car: Done!

Stretch goals completed:

Exercise 15+ times: got to 20, woo!
Track what I read: okay so I had to go back through my September entries and log them in this entry to remember, but technically, that's tracking.
Do some art: finished two things! Spent quite a bit of time drawing and painting, really.
Visited friends: did that! \o/

October Goals

It's more than a third through October, so I feel a little silly setting goals now. But I have some things I would like to get done this month that I have not done, so I better put them down or they're not happening.

Provide care for parents
Pay October bills
Publish A Wolf-Shifter’s Pack
Get COVID vaccine before my siblings leave (and flu vaccine at the same time, but COVID is the one I can't wait on because I need to do it while someone is here to take care of Mom while I'm sick from COVID vaccine aftereffects).
Take Dad for TDAP and shingles vaccine (or have someone else take him)

October Stretch Goals

Work on outline for some new project
Finish two or more scenes of A Dragon's Secret
Play more of romance soloRPG
Exercise 15+ times (organizing stuff/cleaning counts as exercise)
Track what I read
Keep up on my Dreamwidth feed
Ask Bookbub for a Featured Deal and run another ad campaign for a book
Get backmatter updated for whatever book I promote
Pick an old picture to redraw
Do some art
Visit friends

Health and Fitness

Exercise was pretty spotty in August: 15 times, most of which were swimming. I was sick for the first week of August and for several days during the month, which cut into exercise.

I have gradually increased the length of time I spend swimming -- I started at half an hour while Alltoseek was visiting, then moved up to 45 minutes, and now am at 60-63 minutes. I probably won’t expand beyond that range. The default swim lane reservation is an hour, and exercising for more than an hour feels excessive anyway.

Diet is about the same.

Dailies

Tracking these has remained fitful.I have down 10 times editing, 5 times writing, and 10 times drawing, which is probably accurate.

Writing

I got 730 words into the unenthusiastic scene of A Dragon’s Secret. I re-read most of the draft so far in the hopes of motivating myself to write more, but while I enjoyed the re-read, I’m still not motivated to write.

The Business of Writing

I declared victory over the last three editing points before final-readthrough of A Wolf-Shifter’s Pack, and started the final read-through. Which means I should be able to publish it in October, finally.

Art

I finished another two portraits for Ex-Villainess, and did two Time Princess fan art illos. I ended up particularly liking the one of Olive and Dahlia kissing: https://mastodon.art/@rowyn/115118505363629540

Reading

I have not motivated myself to listen to any more audiobooks while swimming. I’ve been listening to podcasts instead. Still reading a lot of manwha, almost all of it incomplete. One series, “My Failing Divorce” finally concluded. I unlocked the remaining episodes but haven’t actually read them yet. The first half of this series was fun in a “there’s never any serious threats” way. Eventually, though, the author introduced an incredibly tedious and annoying amnesia plot and I regretted unlocking the episodes. I read through to the eventual unsatisfying conclusion of that arc. I think Tapas ran a sale on the final episodes so I got them, but I still haven’t actually read them. I’m not sure where I stopped reading anymore; Tapas marked all the episodes as read when I bought them, because I had to click on each one to buy it. At some point I guess I should actually read it.

Social

I’ve been seeing Sophani, Kage and Envoy on most Fridays; I think three times in August, because I cancelled twice over not feeling well.

Goal Scorecard

Provide care for parents: Done!
Pay August bills: Done!
Decide what I’m doing with those last three editing points on A Wolf-Shifter’s Pack: Done!
Look at this list a few times during the month so that I actually do the next two: I actually did check it enough times to do the last two!
Find out what I need to do to register car in new state: Done. I need to fill out and print two forms but I have all the information and other paperwork I need.
Make podiatry appointment for Dad: Done! It was September 2.

Stretch Goals completed:

Finalize whatever I'm gonna call the Untitled Polyam Lesbian Romantasy: Yeah I think I’m sticking with A Wolf-Shifter’s Pack at this point
Start final read through on Untitled Polyam Lesbian Romantasy: Oh hey I thought this stretch goal was to finish it. I didn’t, but I started it, so I got this stretch goal
Play more of romance soloRPG: I wrote out Day 3, which was fun! Then the Day 4 prompts bored me and I stopped writing it. Aw.
Exercise 15+ times (organizing stuff/cleaning counts as exercise): Just barely!
Track what I read: So I didn’t finish anything but technically I have tracked the nothing that I finished!
Do some art: 4 pictures!
Visit friends: oh hey I did this one too!

September Goals

Provide care for parents
Pay September bills
Complete final read-through on A Wolf-Shifter’s Pack
Do something about the next scene of A Dragon's Secrets (write it, or skip it, or phone it in, or whatever else gets me to writing a different scene)
Look at this list a few times during the month so that I actually do the next two
File 2024 taxes (I have an extension on filing until October but I don’t want to wait until the last minute. Again.)
Complete and print forms to register car

September Stretch Goals

Work on outline for some new project
Play more of romance soloRPG
Exercise 15+ times (organizing stuff/cleaning counts as exercise)
Track what I read
Keep up on my Dreamwidth feed
Ask Bookbub for a Featured Deal and run another ad campaign for a book
Get backmatter updated for whatever book I promote
Pick an old picture to redraw
Do some art
Register car
Visit friends

Health & Fitness

Alltoseek’s visit got me on a swimming kick that lasted until I got sick on July 29. I went swimming for 30-45 minutes twenty-five times in July. I even got back to lifting weights, going three times before I got sick. I expect I will return to exercising once I feel fully recovered. Especially when this unseasonable cool period ends. (It hasn’t been cold here, but it’s been in the high-60s and 70s for the last two days, which is perfectly comfortable walking weather and therefore not making me yearn to be immersed in a swimming pool.)

Not paying much attention to diet, so it’s been mediocre.

Dailies

I started tracking these again but I still wasn’t doing much creative in July. I worked on drawings 8 times, writing The Dragon’s Secret 4 times, and editing 9 times. Tracking fell apart after I got sick.

Writing

I made a thousand words of notes for The Dragon’s Secret, about the next scene. I am not enthusiastic about this scene. Perhaps I should skip it, or make a placeholder for it and come back to it.

The Business of Writing

A Wolf-Shiter’s Pack (fka Be That Way) is at 73% edited. I have three remaining editing points before the final read-through. I made a few notes on how to address those last editing points. If I can knock those out, the final read-through is straightforward. It’s much harder to motivate myself to work on “read through the text and fix errors and poor word choices” than “figure out a solution for this issue.” It’s not even that they’re hard issues or plot holes. It’s just coming up with ideas for an interesting new scene that will [establish thing]. For some reason this feels so much harder when I have to do after writing the book than if I do it while writing the outline.

Although I’ve been stuck on The Dragon’s Secret for a while so maybe planning is just too hard for me now in general.

Art

My eight times of ticking off drawing resulted in three portraits of characters from the Villainess soloRPG I started back in March. I also re-started writing it since I was drawing for it anyway.

Reading

I did a lot of reading this month, mostly unfinished manwha. I also listened to Lady Susan, an early epistolary novella by Jane Austen; I’ve read it before but remembered it so poorly that I’d forgotten how much of it was not letters from or to the title character. The LibriVox dramatic reading of this was excellent. And I listened to Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte; some aspects of the story were overstated, but overall I enjoyed this book and am glad to have read it. I started with a collaborative recording on LibriVox and liked the first narrator, Melissa. The next two narrators I was less impressed by, so I switched to the dramatic reading, which was well done.

And I listened to two Brandon Sanderson novels, Tress and the Emerald Sea, and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. I enjoyed both of them: YA fantasy novels with strong romantic elements. Sanderson normally does a great job writing climaxes and bringing all the elements of the story together, so I was surprised at an aspect of Yumi that left me saying “that? Really? That’s what you’re going with here?” It didn’t ruin the story for me, just startled me.

Social

I made it out to see Sophrani, Kage, and Envoy twice in July! It was nice to visit my friends again. I cancelled once because K was visiting, and again this week because I was sick (though that was in August), but I plan to see them again this weekend. Yay friend-time!

Goal Scorecard

Provide care for parents: Done!
Pay July bills: Done!
Make podiatry appointment for Dad: oh I forgot this was on here
Find out what I need to do to register car in new state: and this too

I had only four items and somehow I managed to drop the ball on two of them. o_o It was not a good month.

Stretch goals:

Exercise 15+ times: I did a stretch goal!
Play more of romance soloRPG: technically!
Track what I read: my tracker didn’t have the read dates for Tress so I’ve guessed at them now, but eh, good enough.
Do some art: another technically!
Visit friends: twice!

August Goals

Provide care for parents
Pay August bills
Decide what I’m doing with those last three editing points on A Wolf-Shifter’s Pack
Look at this list a few times during the month so that I actually do the next two
Find out what I need to do to register car in new state
Make podiatry appointment for Dad

August Stretch Goals

Do something about the next scene of A Dragon's Secrets (write it, or skip it, or phone it in, or whatever else gets me to writing a different scene)
Finalize whatever I'm gonna call the Untitled Polyam Lesbian Romantasy
Start final read through on Untitled Polyam Lesbian Romantasy
Work on outline for some new project
Play more of romance soloRPG
Exercise 15+ times (organizing stuff/cleaning counts as exercise)
Track what I read
Keep up on my Dreamwidth feed
Ask Bookbub for a Featured Deal and run another ad campaign for a book
Get backmatter updated for whatever book I promote
Pick an old picture to redraw
Do some art
Register car
Visit friends

Health & Fitness

I exercised the first eight days of May: two times at the community center gym, while the rest were either unpacking-related or pacing while on the phone. Then on May 10, I came down with COVID (caught from my dad, who caught it from his poker buddies.)

On May 11, Mom also came down with COVID, and at 2AM on May 12, she fell on her way to the bathroom and broke her leg.

Between all of that, I didn't do any more exercising for the rest of May. COVID was weird. I never felt very sick. I had a sore throat for a while. It was mostly gone after several days and I went back to drinking caffeine-free Diet Coke instead of strawberry-watermelon drink mix. Then a few days after that, I switched back to drink mix because my throat felt a little not-right. It wasn't exactly sore, but soda did not feel good going down. I am still having drink mix instead of soda, though I stopped warming it up a week or so ago. (Now I make it cold, with filtered water from the fridge and crushed ice.) My throat doesn't bother me at all but I feel like it would bother me if I drank soda, so I haven't. I like the strawberry-watermelon drink mix pretty well, and the nice dietitian Lut saw a year ago recommended flavored drink mixes over soda. I had a significant amount of fatigue that lingered along with a little congestion and a little cough and the barely-noticable sore throat. So I was like 90% recovered after four days and then stayed at 90% for a week and a half, and then upgraded to 95%. By the end of May, I'd reached 99%, with just the barely-noticable throat thing remaining.

Eating habits have been reasonable by my standards. Mom often wants a sub, and I get one whenever she does, so technically I'm eating a lot of restaurant food. But sub sandwiches are fine as restaurant food goes; I get a bit of veggies on them and they're not particularly fatty, nor large; I'll eat half of an 8" sub for lunch and have the other half for dinner (unless my father eats it for dinner first). No worse than the usual foods I eat. I also ate more frozen vegetables at home this month.

Dailies

I did well with these until I got sick, and then stopped using them again. May 11 through May 23 is just blank. Once again, with the new month, I've started using them again.

Writing

I basically did no new writing in May. Like two hundred words added to The Secret Dragon, up 39,604, I'm guessing. (I haven't done much writing so far in June, either, but I forgot to check where I was at the start of the month. Didn't work on the soloRPG at all.

The Business of Writing

I renamed Be That Way to The Kitty Coffee Pack (which also may not last as a title) and made progress on edits. I got it to 40% complete by the end of May. My goal for the month was 50%, so I missed it, but with everything else going on this month, 40% is pretty great.

Art

I drew a few times in May, finishing one small (6"x6") marker picture of Koysko from The Secret Dragon, and starting a similarly small picture of Strikvi from the same story. Art ranked at the bottom of things to do this month, so it's amazing I did any of it.

Reading

More big chunks of unfinished manwha. I re-read some of my own books for comfort, but no books by other people.

Lyric update

Lyris has adjusted to her new home pretty well. She likes to hang out in the garage. At first, I thought garage was her Substitute Outside. But it has since struck me that the detached garage at my old house was a favorite hangout of hers, too. It was very common for her to emerge from it when I called for her to come in after a few hours. Perhaps even more common than hanging out on the porch. Maybe she just likes garages.

She got outside once, when Mom let her into the garage without realizing I'd accidentally left the outer door open. I came home when Mom let me know, and Lyric came running to me as soon as she heard me calling for her. Since then, she hasn't tried to get outside; she no longer mews at the door, or comes running when it opens, or runs in front of me when I approach a door, hoping to get out when I open it. I keep an eye on her when Dad and I leave the house, because there'd be plenty of time for a cat to get out, but she just watches us from the living room.

So while I still feel like it'd be nice to have a screened-in porch for her, I'm not sure she needs it. Also, I asked the HOA about a catio and the rep was like "NO CATIO. But MAYBE you can have a screened porch. First you need to read this 80 page document and figure out what in it is relevant and complete this form asking for approval from some number of neighbors and then we'll think about whether or not we'll allow it."

I don't even want to read the 80 page doc and I definitely do not want to wander the neighborhood stalking neighbors to get them to sign the form. Dad has a poker buddy who's involved with the HOA; I may ask him at some point if there's a way to make this process less onerous than it appears. But between the cost, the bureaucracy, and Lyric's increased tolerance of life as an indoor cat, I'm leaning towards letting the whole thing slide.

Goal Scorecard for May

Provide care for parents: This has been A Lot. Dad is low-maintenance, thank goodness. The home health aide is mostly important for ensuring he gets showered; he's pretty self-sufficient on other daily tasks. Mom was in the hospital for nine days and is now in a skilled nursing facility. I've visited her every day but one (when I was too exhausted from COVID and poor sleep to feel safe driving). I've been bringing her food most days (she won't eat the institutional food), and doing what I can to make her more comfortable and promote her recovery. (Sometimes those goals do not go together.) She hasn't been able to walk since her leg broke; she's not allowed to put weight on it and she's not strong enough to support herself with her arms and one leg. So therapy is doing what they can to improve her mobility.
Pay May bills: Done!
Call Ting to cancel second phone line: the magic of goal list works again: this is done.
Complete at least 50% of final edits: Not done, but honorable mention for making it to 40%
Register with the HOA: Done
Find out HOA approval process for catio: Done and bleh.
Attempt to get DMV appointment: Done! On the second attempt, I even succeeded at getting an appointment!

Stretch Goals:

A bit surprisingly, I did none of these. I mean, yeah, it was a busy month. But usually I get some random stretch goal done anyway.

June Goals

Provide care for parents
Pay June bills
Complete 70% of edits on The Kitty Coffee Pack
Find out what I need to do to register car in new state
Make podiatry appointment for Dad

June Stretch Goals

Write 10,000+ words on The Secret Dragon
Finish edits on The Kitty Coffee Pack
Publish The Kitty Coffee Pack
Play more of romance soloRPG
Exercise 15+ times (organizing stuff/cleaning counts as exercise)
Track what I read
Keep up on my Dreamwidth feed
Ask Bookbub for a Featured Deal and run another ad campaign for a book
Get backmatter updated for whatever book I promote
Pick an old picture to redraw
Do some art
Sell mom's car (I do not expect to do this until Mom is home and I don't really expect her to come home until July, at this point. But I want this to stay on the list so I don't forget about it entirely.)
Register car

Health & Fitness

I finally had gallbladder surgery on March 3rd! This meant I felt much worse from March 3-8 or so, and then started to feel better. By the end of the month, I was more-or-less back to baseline.

I've sometimes wondered if my "takes a nap every day" thing was a sign of excessive fatigue, and I'd had a little hope that I would have more energy after recovering from surgery than I'd had before the first gallbladder attack. That does not seem to have panned out. I'm not entirely sure I have more energy now than I had on February 26 and 27, before surgery, when it had taken me a while to load 9+ boxes of books into the car for two trips to donate books. I'd needed to rest a few times, but I had loaded them. I'd been feeling pretty good.

On the other hand, from February 28-March 2, I mustered basically zero energy for activities related to purging stuff, so...yeah, I'm probably doing better now than before surgery. When your main symptom is fatigue, it's hard to tell how bad the fatigue is.

I did laundry on March 2, including all the bedding, and counted that as exercise, then counted pacing on the phone as exercise on March 8. But I didn't make a real effort to get back to exercise until March 10, when I had the post-surgery follow-up. From the 10th through the 31st, I exercised 17 times, so 19 for the month. Which is pretty good for a month where I had surgery!

My diet has mostly gone back to pre-gallbladder-attacks foods, which means I am once more eating lots of cheese and high-fat snack foods, and almost no vegetables. The one exception is breakfast: I used to make cream of wheat with nutella for breakfast every morning, and now I have yogurt with granola. This is more because I don't have to cook it than out of a belief it is significantly healthier. It's probably a bit healthier, though: no palm oil.

Writing

The Secret Dragon is up 36,526 words: 13,200 words for the month. More than I've written in any other month this year! Progress still feels sluggish but

*waves arms at everything else*

yeah that.

I started a romance soloRPG, "Reincarnated as The Unlovable Villainess." That journal is at 3,328 words, with another 1000 words of notes for it. It's fun but not enough more fun than writing The Secret Dragon, so I've mostly been working on that when I'm in the mood to write fiction.

The Business of Writing

I did a bit more editing on A Game to You early in the month. Then, while recovering from surgery, I read through The Jewel-Strewn Night and decided to edit that instead. I've remained focused on The Jewel-Strewn Night for editing, and it's now in the final proofreading pass before I share it with first readers.

Except most of my first readers haven't finished with Be That Way yet. So I'm likely to finish The Jewel-Strewn Night in April but not share it with first readers until May? Idk. We'll see.

Art

I checked the "draw" box 23 times in March. Most of that time was spent on the cover illustration for Be That Way, which I finished on March 18. I'll probably tweak it a bit when I do the cover layout, but that can wait until I'm done with final edits and know the exact dimmensions of the paper book. (And therefore the exact size for the wrap cover). I worked on three other character portraits for Be That Way in March and finished two; the last one is still in progress.

Reading

I finished one Time Princess spin-off story (the spin-offs are short and have no meaningful choices), "Timeless Love". I got halfway through Feathers of Dawn and then stalled. I haven't quite decided to DNF it yet, tho. Mostly I've been reading big chunks of unfinished manwha and a new unfinished Time Princess story. I checked the habit box for reading on 30 days; probably half for Feathers of Dawn and the rest reading manwha (I don't count reading a single update, but if I read a big batch of episodes, I count that) or Time Princess stories.

Moving Preparations

I did very little in the way of physical preperation, but I made arrangements for a bunch of things. I have movers scheduled for both my stuff and my car, plane tickets for myself and my cat, and a new cat carrier. I also took Lyric to the vet to get her shots updated and also cleared for travel (this last turned out to be unnecessary, because the airline I'm flying on doesn't require a certificate of health from pets on domestic flights. But I had to take her in for shots anyway, so no issue.) And got the vet's recommendation to give her gabapentin before the flight.

This felt like so much while I was doing it, I gotta say. I have my sister-in-law to thank for me getting it done at all, because she went through and called bunch of movers in my area to find the best ones for me, and contacted the transport company I'm using for my car.

On the last day of the month, I also called a nearby thrift shop about what kind of donations they take (basically everything I have to donate), and filled two 25-gallon bags with the clothes from Lut's bureau.

Things I have to do in April:

Take care of payment for movers
Talk to realtor about selling the house
Shut off the utilities to the house, unless the realtor advocates leaving them on for a while? I actually might need to leave them on because the gas furnace has an electric start, so if I want the furnace to run to keep the pipes from freezing, I need both (freezing is unlikely in mid-April but still). Oh, and the sump pump is electric and the backup sump pump is water-based so...yeah. I don't want to turn off water/gas/electric until the house sells. I'll unplug everything instead. Still need to turn off the fiber, though. Also need to find out if Google Fiber will want their equipment returned to them.
Talk to my mom about anything else I might not be thinking of.

My parents have bought, moved, and sold so many houses just in my lifetime. I think they've owned four different houses in the time I've lived in this one, and four more between when I was born and when I bought this house. I've never sold a house before and I haven't moved in 22 years. I hired movers the last time I moved, too, but that time was local so it was simpler. Though I'm actually moving much less this time, since I'm not moving Lut's things or most of the furniture. The reclining loveseat, the painting desk, the desk chair, and one bookcase are the only big awkward pieces that I'm bringing with me. Everything else is either small or folding. Anyway, my mom is an expert on moving and selling houses so I should consult her.

I have some other prep things that I'd like to -- mostly donate or throw away more stuff -- but if that doesn't get done, oh well. House is selling as-is. It will be worth less because of this but meh. My house was always a place to live and not an investment.

Goal Scorecard

Have gallbladder removed: done! Rest in peace, gallbladder.
Recover from gallbladder surgery: done!
Call parents a few times: done! I talked to them four times in March, even.
Pay March Bills: I forgot to put this on the goal list but did NOT forget to do it. So victory!

March Stretch Goals Completed

Talk to vet about traveling with Lyric and see what they recommend: done!
Contact moving compan(ies). Figure out date for moving: done!
Get plane tickets for move (including whatever ticket Lyric needs): done!
Track what I read: I didn't finish anything in March but technically I'm still tracking it!
Exercise: 19 times, pretty good for a surgery month (even if my bar for what consitutes "exercise" was very low)
Write some of The Secret Dragon: 13,200 words!
Edit: Made good progress on The Jewel-Strewn Night and got a little done on A Game to You
Play a romance soloRPG: Done! Though I haven't played very much of it.
Work on cover art or book illustrations: I did both! Cover and one book illo is done and the other two book illos are mostly done.
Keep up on my Dreamwidth feed: Pretty sure I missed some days, but I covered the 5th through the 31st, at least. Good enough.

April Goals

Move to provide care for my parents
Cancel Google Fiber & return equipment if necessary
Contact realtor about selling house
Pay April bills

I know I'm gonna do more than those four, but those four are the big ones that I must do in April, and moving is super-stressful even when you can afford to pay for all the things to make it easier.

April Stretch Goals:

Call Ting to cancel second cellphone line
Finish initial edits on The Jewel-Strewn Night
Write some of The Secret Dragon
Play more of romance soloRPG
Finish illustrations for Be That Way
Exercise 15+ times
Track what I read
Make progress clearing out stuff I no longer want
Keep up on my Dreamwidth feed
Ask Bookbub for a Featured Deal and run another ad campaign for a book
Get backmatter updated for whatever book I promote

Pick an old picture to redraw

Health & Fitness

Overall health for most of February was Not Great. After feeling mostly-okay on the 1st and 2nd, I felt much worse again on the 3rd. For probably half of the month I was having regular but minor pain, and for basically all of February I had high levels of fatigue: taking multiple naps every day and too tired for much if any exercise. I started setting the bar for "have exercised" very low, including at one point "finished filling one (1) bag of trash in the basement and carried it out to the trash cart." Because if that's all I have energy for, I might as well count it.

I reached this extremely low bar 17 times in February, so hey, that was something.

Eating habits were not bad, in the sense of "I generally managed to eat enough food." My appetite started to recover towards the end of the month. I have continued to avoid eating more than tiny quantities of my usual high-fat snack foods (ice cream, brownies, hot chocolate).

I'm having my gallbladder removed on March 3, so I expect to feel much worse for several days and then hopefully I will gradually feel better at after that. The surgeon said most people have a few weeks of digestive turmoil after gallbladder surgery and then everything goes back to normal, but some people have long-term issues, especially with eating lots of fatty food at once. No telling which I'll be.

Writing

Work on The Secret Dragon continues slowly. Book was at 23,325 words at the end of the month, so 8,560 new words in February. Still haven't started another soloRPG. Maybe this month?

Part of me is like "8500 words? This is so slow. I'll never finish writing it at this rate." And the rest of me goes "please bear in mind everything else going on and chill."

Oh, right. Everything else is going on too.

The Business of Writing

I finished initial edits on Be That Way and sent it to first readers. At least one person finished commenting on it (because they told me) but I am following my usual policy of not looking so I don't get neurotic about it. I told first readers they had until May because between gallbladder and moving plans, I doubted I'd get back to it any sooner than that.

I started initial edits of A Game to You, more so that I could check the "edit" box on my habit tracker than because I think I will finish editing it in 2025.

Art

I did some drawing in February: portraits of Caliper and Raeku from Be That Way, random drawings of ocean and a rose, and some miscellaneous hand sketches. I checked the "draw" box 14 times; I generally didn't push to finish pictures in a single day.

Reading

I finished first-reading Tuftears' Timecrossed Engineer, and went back to reading The Spellshop. After I finished that, I read Jaycee Jarvis's Taxing Courtship. Also read a graphic novel, If You'll Have Me by Eunnie. I started reading Martha Wells' The Cloud Roads on February 28; haven't gotten very far in it yet.

I opened a Storygraph account to see if that'd help with tracking. I am not enamored of it yet but I guess I like it marginally better than Bookwyrm? It does some things that annoy me -- like when I mark a book as read, it defaults to "no date" for when I started or finished and I have to manually adjust it 3 weeks later when I notice (and no longer remember when I started or finished). But maybe I'll get used to it. It might be better about the date behavior if I mark books as "currently reading" before I mark them as "read", idk. It does use the current date as the default "start date" when I mark a book as currently reading (which I had to fix for The Cloud Roads because I changed the status on the 27th but didn't start reading until the 28th, but at least it was close.)

Three books and one graphic novel in a month is not a tremendous amount of reading by my childhood standards (I was a book-a-day reader before I went to college). But it is evidence of Reading Regularly: good enough. I checked the habit box for "read" 26 times in February. Yay!

Moving Preparations

I filled the trash cart every week in February with unwanted things that I didn't think anyone else would want as a donation. I have failed to do this for tomorrow, mostly from lack of energy. I will also fail to do this next week, because I'll be recovering from surgery and also not supposed to lift much weight at one time. (I am allowed to pick up my cat, though, so that's good. Not that she likes being picked up much so I rarely do, but it's the principle of the thing.)

However, this week I accomplished the much more important task of donating all the books. 19 tubs of books. I'm keeping some books but I donated the vast majority to a used bookstore.

I have a bunch of other stuff I'd like to donate -- all Lut's clothing, for one category -- but made zero progress on that.

I need to call movers and buy plane tickets and figure out cat and car transportation. (My plan is to pay someone to move the car, while the cat will fly with me. But I should see if I can get good drugs for Lyric for the trip because she hates even short car rides. And also I don't know the exact logistics for these things.)

Goal Scorecard

Finish initial edits for Be That Way: done!
Contact primary care physician if I haven't heard from specialist by 2/7: Yes I did have to follow up, and yes I did. SUCCESS.
Contact at least one (1) place about donations. Of anything.: I contacted TWO places! Because the first used bookstore I tried didn't have space for all the books I have to donate. The second one did, which is why I stopped at two.
Finish reading Timecrossed Engineer: Done!
Call parents a few times: Three times! Yeah, that's about as good as it gets. On the bright side, I will be living with them soon and will no longer need to use the phone to contact them. So that'll be nice. Phones should be seen and not heard.

February Stretch Goals completed

Write some of The Secret Dragon: 8500 words!
Made progress on clearing out stuff I no longer want
Track what I read: I even got a Storygraph account!
Got a HIDA scan and scheduled gallbladder surgery: okay so this wasn't a stretch goal, but these were important things and they count.

March Goals

Have gallbladder removed
Recover from gallbladder surgery
Call parents a few times

Yeah that's gonna be it for the Actual Goals. Everything else will have to be a stretch goal. Surgery recovery is supposed to be "one week to recover, one month before you can lift heavy things," so in theory I should have around 3 weeks where I can do things like write/draw/edit/sort out logistics for move. But in the spirit of being gentle with myself, I will not count on it.

March Stretch Goals

Talk to vet about traveling with Lyric and see what they recommend
Contact moving compan(ies). Figure out date for moving.
Get plane tickets for move (including whatever ticket Lyric needs)
Contact real estate agent about selling house.
Maybe donate/throw out stuff by carrying small quantities at a time idk?
Track what I read
Exercise (at all)
Write some of The Secret Dragon
Edit A Game to You or another book
Work on a book outline for whatever I'm writing next
Play a romance soloRPG
Work on cover art or book illustrations
Keep up on my Dreamwidth feed
Ask Bookbub for a Featured Deal and run another ad campaign for a book
Get backmatter updated for whatever book I promote
Pick an old picture to redraw

I want to say that the reason I keep doing these every month, including in the absolutely terrible months, because I genuinely love these reviews. They help me remember my life and they help me align my perspective with reality. If I had to rely on my memory alone, I would have such a weirdly skewed perspective from reality.

But also, I just really like writing these. I woke up this morning and was like "aw yeah it's a new year I get to do my year in review!" And then when I sat down to do it, I remembered I have to do a month in review too, and was like "Great!"

I don't think I can explain why I enjoy this tradition so much. Part of it is that I have such a long history of accomplishing whatever goals I set that by this point I associate the review with a sense of accomplishment even if I didn't get things done. Maybe another part is that I have prompts for the reviews (the section hearders) and it's comparatively easy to write to prompts. Anyway.

Woohoo! Another time-period-in-review!

Health & Fitness

Exercise remains mediocre at best, in the 1-2 times per week range, I'd guess. During the week-long visit to my parents over Christmas, I got myself to use their exercise bike exactly once. Eliyahu came to cat-sit and visit on the 19th, and we walked together on the 20th before I left, and on the 29th and 30th. We didn't go out on the 31st because it was below 40 F and breezy. I teased Eliyahu, "I won't make you walk today in deference to your delicate northern Canadian constitution."

Today's high is slightly above 40F and no wind to speak of, so I think I'll make them walk today, though. After they're done with morning prayers and the grocery delivery has arrived.

Writing

Because of 4thewords' 250k-in-44-days challenge, my usual November push continued well into December. I wrote another 55k from December 1-11. Most of that was dictation word salad, journal entries, and notes for The Secret Dragon, which I finished outlining.

My total fiction drafted for December was 7237 words on The Secret Dragon. Most of that was after the challenge ended. It's not a huge amount, but I am pleased that my fiction writing didn't grind to a total halt after November like it usually does.

The Business of Writing

I set my books to 75% off for the Smashwords annual sale and mentioned this once or twice on the Fediverse. I didn't do anything else business-related.

Art

I kept up with daily Apothecaria illustrations in December, completing 31. The buffer is at zero now (after posting Jan 1's entry), and is not likely to get much above that because there's only 11 entries left to illustrate and post. Unless I add some material or revise where the breakpoints are, final Apothecaria entry will go up on Jan 12. Woohoo! I am excited to finish this and also to have "illustrate and post Apothecaria entries" off the mental to-do list.

Reading

I finished the audiobook for The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in December. It was fine. Maybe I'll write a review for it eventually. It had many good qualities but did some things that rubbed me the wrong way so my overall impression was very much "that was a book, yup."

I finished three manwha: I Accidentally Saved the Male Lead's Brother, The Lost Stiletto Affair, and The Flower That Devoured the Sun. These were all pretty good. The Flower That Devoured the Sun is somewhat unsatisfying as a romance but makes up for it by having such a delightfully unusual protagonist. I mentioned this story in my July review (https://rowyn.dreamwidth.org/694078.html) ; because the main character is the female reincarnation of an ultra-powerful male sorcerer; she chose to reincarnate, remembers her past life with as much clarity as her current life, and still thinks of herself as the same person. The gender aspect here is largely unexamined -- it comes across as cosmetic more than anything else, of no more importance than the change in her hair color (previously black, now silver). She gets a little more connected to her current life and the people in it as the story progresses, but retains the sense of detachment and analytical thinking that makes her compelling.

Social

Eliyahu flew in on December 19 and cat-sitted from December 21-28 while I visited my parents and also my North Carolina friends. Friends-visit was Dec 22-23 and Dec 27, while I spent the rest of the visit with my parents. For Christmas, my brother refrained from giving me any chores to do for my parents while I was there, which was very kind of him. My mom asked me to change the batteries in all the smoke detectors, though, so I did that. I have done this once before but, surprisingly, did not remember that two of their smoke detectors take two AA batteries instead of one 9-volt, like every other smoke detector in their house (which has this strange wired-in-place system so they all use what look like identical detectors) and also literally every other smoke detector I've ever seen anywhere. What. Why.

The first one I checked was AA and they didn't have any AA batteries at home because we'd ordered 9-volt batteries because that's what you put in smoke detectors. My mother suggested I check another before giving up and going out for 16 AA batteries, and thankfully I did since it was only two of the eight that used AA. I wrote an email to the rest of the family describing the situation, 5% in case they had to change smoke detector batteries in the future and 95% so that I'd remember when I had to change them. I will be moving to live with my parents so they have someone relatively able-bodied on the premises. Probably in March or April, possibly sooner if my mother gets hip surgery scheduled for sooner than that.

Goal Scorecard

Finish an outline: I finished the outline for The Secret Dragon!
Pay December bills: I very nearly forgot to do this, but took care of them at 10PM last night
Call parents at least once before trip: I think I called them exactly once before the trip, but hey, that counts
Visit parents: Sure did!

December stretch goals

Illustrate Apothecaria through end of December: Done!
Start writing something: I started The Secret Dragon!
I didn't have "journal entries" down as a stretch goal, but I posted 5 entries beyond the review in December, so that was cool.

January Goals