Friday Confessional

It's time for our weekly confessions! Visit Mamarazzi to link up or just read some confessions.

I confess that...


...this NaNoWriMo caper is harder than it looks!

National Novel Writing Month happens every November. 

The goal: to write a 50000 word novel in 30 days.

Don't get me wrong. I didn't think it would be easy! I just didn't think it would be this hard.

The good news is that I have outlined my whole novel. And I think that I've got a good story to tell.

The bad news is that so far I've only written 1689 words. I'm falling behind!

I think that I've underestimated the number of hours that it takes to peck away at the keyboard and get the words out.

I know what you're thinking! GET OFF THE BLOG FIONA AND BACK TO YOUR NOVEL!

...I may have accidentally boarded the end of year silly season crazy train roller-coaster!

Last week I shared that I hadn't done any planning for Christmas yet. I still haven't. But I did make a positive decision about how I was going to deal with it.

I like to do one thing at a time. I like to make a list of what needs to be done and work through it one step at a time. I know that this is the way that I work. I know that I always manage to get everything done in the end. So I decided to just let myself do my thing and not worry about what everyone else is doing.

So what if Christmas planning hasn't made it to the top of my list yet? I'll get there.

But it's hard to keep calm and carry on, when every day someone is adding something to my list! Excuse me everyone, I have enough to do already. Please stop sending notes home from school, emails, or calling me with helpful suggestions of things I need to do. I have ENOUGH!

Want to know what the biggest problem is?

None of the things being added to my list are extraordinary or unreasonable. No-one's being demanding. It's all just completely normal day-to-day running-a-household-and-family stuff. There just seems to be an awful lot of it at the moment. And lots of these things have deadlines that fall before December 25th.

What does that mean?

Christmas is sliding lower and lower down my to-do list. It has almost fallen off the bottom! I'm worried that it will not make it to the top in time.

And so I'm getting tempted to jump right on the crazy train and start stressing. Somebody stop me!

What have you got to confess this week?

Confession Time

I'm doing the Friday Confessional again!

Click the pic to go visit Mamarazzi and play along!

I confess...

...that I'm not finding the planning of my "world tour 2012" very enjoyable.

Let me catch you up if you're new around here or visiting from Mamarazzi's. My family is going on a big, awesome, round-the-world holiday next year.

It is a very big deal and it is going to be awesome.

And it's not even just in the wishin' and hopin' stage; it's really happening! We have forked over our thousands of dollars for the flights. We are visiting our travel consultant tomorrow to spend some more money. Yay!

But I've got to admit that trolling through brochures and surfing the internet, comparing prices and making lists, is getting old real fast. And when Chris and I talk about it, some very real cracks are starting to appear in the "perfect holiday plans", given that he and I have very different personalities and, I think, ver different expectations for the trip.

I hope that the travel consultant is not called upon to do some impromptu marriage counseling tomorrow!

...that I have not done a thing so far to prepare for Christmas.

No. Just no. Not a hope in hell that I'll ever have something like this for Christmas.

Please don't tell me how many shopping days are left until Christmas. I don't want to know.

I have no idea what I'm buying for the kids, or what to tell other relatives to get for them.

I have no idea what I'm buying for the assorted relatives that I need to buy for.

Christmas cards? With a cute picture of the kids/family on them? Haven't done them since 2001. Seriously. I buy my Christmas cards in the supermarket and send them off in reply to cards that I receive. I know. I suck.

...that I signed up for NaNoWriMo.


What was I thinking???

For those of you not in the know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. Yes, novel writing. In a month.

For the month of November, I'm going to be madly scrambling to write in every spare moment to reach the magical goal of 50000 words (yes, you read that right!) and get this novel out of my head and onto the page. Pages.

Go here to find out more!

Well that's all for me. What do you have to confess?

Confession is Good for the Soul

I confess...
...that I am using a fellow blogger's linky meme to give my blogging a little bit of a pep up.
I've been feeling unfocused with my blogging lately. 
Lacking inspiration.
So I've been on the lookout for some blogs that host regular linkups. I thought that joining in would give me some much needed motivation to write about a given topic.
I confess that if linking up with Mamarazzi's Friday Confessional brings me a few more readers and/or followers, that wouldn't be such a bad thing either.
I confess...
...that I'm finding this a little bit harder than I thought I would. 
It's pretty easy to write something flippant and leave it at that; it's harder to share something of myself in truth.
So I'm going to try to walk the middle ground here.
I confess...
...that I like wine. A lot. And I have to be careful, when I'm relaxed and enjoying myself, not to drink too much of it. Or I might get a bit tipsy. Which is fine, but not so much when I'm at a family gathering with the kids in tow.
I confess...
...that I like teen-centred TV shows waaaay too much for a woman my age. I think I may be suffering from a case of arrested development. I'm ever so happy watching things set in high schools full of teen angst. The Vampire Diaries being my latest crush. I've been like this for a long time. I don't think that I'm likely to grow out of it any time soon.
So that's me for today.
If you've got something to confess, click on the pic at the top of this post and visit Mamarazzi.