Happy 1,100 posts!

I like counting things and celebrating milestones.  For instance, in March I celebrated my eighth freelancing anniversary.  Not full-time or even all that seriously -- but my first-ever freelance article (an article for a content site, not something I'm necessarily proud of, but it's what got me started) was sold in March 2005.  (I freelanced full-time for six years, from October 2005 to November 2011.)

This post represents another milestone: It's my 1,100th post on this blog.

Balancing goals and freelancing

Tracking my progress on my goals this year has had an interesting effect on my freelancing:  I'm not anymore.

Goals check for the week of April 1

Last week was a somewhat iffy week.  I had a vet appointment for the horses on Tuesday that kept me at the barn nearly until it was time to pick up the kids I take care of from school.  Panama, my first horse, has been struggling with his weight lately, and as a result I have backed off on how much I am riding him.  The vet has me feeding him extra every day, though, so I have been out at the barn more often than my usual -- which is, of course, eating into my time to do other things.

Goals check for the weeks of March 18 and 25

I never blogged last week with an update on how work on my goals was going, which was largely because it wasn't.  I spent a lot of the week of March 18th reading, both old vampire literature (research for an important scene in my novel) and the March selection for the sci-fi/fantasy book club I belong to.  I didn't ride much, and didn't get much of anything else done, either.

Goals check for the week of March 11

I can't believe in another couple of weeks we'll have reached the end of the first quarter of 2013.  It's a bit of a reminder to keep going on my goals, because with a quarter of the year gone, what do I have to show for it?  I've done passably well at achieving my daily and weekly goals -- riding the horses and working on my novel -- not as well as I would have liked, mind you, but well enough to maintain forward progress.  But what about my longer term goals for the year: my blogs, my other writing projects, my reading list?  I've made virtually no progress there, except for finally starting Les Miserables.

Goals check for the week of March 4

Last week will be a fun week to blog about!  Lots of developments.  For one thing, I found out that there is a Camp NaNoWriMo session in April this year, which motivated me to finish the novel I was currently working on and do the revisions (finally) on the first novel -- I want to be ready to start a new project on April 1st!  I also had a good week with the horses, even though I didn't entirely meet my goals for the week.

Goals check for the week of February 25

Last week is a bit of a blur in my mind -- what with worrying about Panama's back and several other responsibilities, I didn't move forward much on either working on my novel, or riding Rondo more often as I had planned.  I am, however, plugging along on Les Miz.