Days 42 and 43

Yeah, this blogging business is totally not going as planned.  I'm thinking about taking the week off, where I just keep a notebook or something with my progress than blog all at once about it later, to see if it makes me want to start blogging again.

Yesterday yielded a no spend day, walking the dogs and picking the paddocks.  One more no spend day for the month, which is great, because the month is almost over.

My 5 Things for yesterday:

1. I put my Mass Effect ponies away for now.  This is good because it makes my computer desk SO much cleaner, and I'm hoping that taking a short break from them will keep my motivation strong so I don't crash like I did before.
2. My husband posted an album of my ponies on the ME forum - maybe someone will see them and like them :)
3. The horses were super-crazy affectionate, which ALWAYS makes my day!
4. I got help cleaning the kitchen up, and it looks so pretty now :)
5. I discovered that if I throw mini-parties for Kurz when he does something good that he literally gets so excited that he falls over.  Super cute. I need to get a video of it.

Today didn't go as planned at ALL.  I accidentally stayed up til 2, thinking about the crossroads episode of Supernatural and kept envisioning people's faces distorting all creepy demon like, which kept me from getting to sleep.  Remember?  I don't do scary.  Well, I woke up at 8 anyway, to take care of the critters, then tried unsuccessfully to get back to sleep after chores.  Pretty much, I was a zombie through the day, felt like crap and didn't get anything done, besides picking the paddock.  The dog walking every day for a month is going to have to start back up tomorrow, and I'm going to have to do my workouts Tues, Thurs, Sat this week instead of Mon, Wed, Fri.  Worse things have happened.

Today's 5 Things:

1. Despite my exhaustion, I got all of my errands done.
2. We got one of the last few round bales in the area delivered today.  My horses are happy.
3. I started up a DeviantART page, finally, after years of contemplating it, and received a good reception for what's on it so far.
4. I can't say this for sure, but I'm 99% I know how to finish Tali's mask now, which is great, because I've been thinking about it for months now
5. My dogs might possibly be the cutest things ever.

Day 41

Today went pretty well in my mind for three very important reasons.  First, I finally got around to planting the beans I started in pots.  Second, it rained (and there's supposed to be more on the way :) ).  Last, I finished Garrus Pony.  Three down.  Woo hoo! 

Besides that, I got most of my daily mini-list finished, as in more than I have been recently.  I got my floors waxed and windows washed - so this goal's time line officially begins today!  Finally!  I got the paddock picked, though not as thoroughly as I wanted to, since I forgot before it got dark as in dark, dark.  The dogs got walked in the sliver of the day that didn't have rain, and both of the horses got good workouts.  I don't think my working them 6 days a week is going to start right now, but they deffinately need to start getting in shape!  Hopefully, Crystal will get the all clear from the farrier on Wednesday to go back to normal work.

I've got the dishes and laundry tended to.  Haven't snapped my picture yet, but will probably get a "group" shot of the three ponies I have done so far. 

What I didn't get done today that I was hoping to: Haven't painted MShep's face or EDI's - I still have ample time tonight to finish them, based on where they are right now, so that might still get finished.  I didn't read any more from Ritter's book.  I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to get it all the way done, as it is much deeper than I anticipated it being.  I can feel okay with this, since I've been studying it regularly, meaning the goal of "studying" it has been met.  I'm still going to try to finish it, and definately will at some point, but don't think that I should try to rush it.  I haven't written anything yet.  My goal was 8k today, and while I know I'll get something on paper tonight before bed, I don't think I'll reach the 8k goal.  I was going to work on cleaning my office for 30 minutes and finish off four squares on my quilt, but that didn't happen, either.  There is, however, always tomorrow.

Today was a good day.

Today's 5 Things:

1. The horses were enthusiastic (in a good way) about their work
2. I got some delicious sushi for dinner :)
3. Three of my ME ponies are officially done!!!
4. I totally started one of the goals that I was absolutely NOT motivated to do!
5. I remembered two things to get done today before the day was over.  Phew!

Days 39 (yesterday) and 40

Still haven't figured out why I've been getting so tired so fast lately.  Maybe I should just get in the habit of blogging in the morning?  Dunno. 

Yesterday, got all the normal stuff done.  Got a decent amount of pony customization done.  Got my reading done.

Yesterday's 5:

1. Got more shavings to stockpile for winter
2. Paid off one of the husband's preordered games so we don't have to worry about it later
3. Ate some delicious, greasy food for dinner (sometimes, that just needs to happen!)
4. Started browsing Halloween decor :)
5. Got to enjoy a workout-free day after being sore from the previous day.

Today ran about the same as yesterday, only I didn't wake up til almost 11 (GEEZ!) and morning chores were already done for me.  I got a decent workout in, though I screwed myself up six minutes out by chugging a quarter bottle of Powerade.  Yeah.  Can't explain why I did it, but I can tell you that I was extremely nauseous about three seconds later.  Forced myself to power walk the last six minutes to at least finish my time.  Lots of good pony work done today, and started whatever number walking the dogs every day is.  I need to look that up, huh?

Anyway, it's not even 9, and I'm already beat, not sure why on that, either.  I've got some reading and writing to do before bed, so better cut the blog short.

Today's 5 Things:

1. Shared the string garden idea with my brother, and he made one that's super pretty :)
2. Super close to finishing Garrus pony - he'll be done tomorrow!
3. I slept soooooo good last night!
4. Fast food is starting to show signs of disagreeing with me (what makes this something I'm grateful for is that I'm hoping it will encourage me to start eating better)
5. Breakfast was a super delicious Amish made cinnamon roll :)

Days 37 (yesterday) and 38

New (not-so-cute) thing that I've uncovered about myself: I'm getting old.  Old, as in, at night when I get tired, I absolutely crash.  That, or I'm getting sick.  Sick could be a possibility, too, especially after today's workout flop (see below).  I didn't get to my blog yesterday 1. Because I lost track of time being totally awesome and 2. Because of my old-ness, I pretty much got slap-happy exhausted and had to go straight to bed after my shower.  No joke.

Anyway, yesterday wasn't very productive outside of the house, but MAN ALIVE did I get some ME pony progress!  Let's see, Joker's body got finished with its paint job and sealed.  He got his tail rooted, his face finished and sealed and his mane rooted, then his beard flocked.  Garrus's body got finished with its sculpt work and survived his baking.  EDI's head sat there and stared at me for a while as I schemed up what I want to do with her, and both Shepards got their heads completely primed and ready to go.  Overall, I spent probably a full 8 hours working on freaking My Little Ponies yesterday.  The result?  I'm deliriously happy to see them getting done :)

Outside of Pony progress, I got my dishes taken care of (didn't have enough laundry to justify runninga load), picked my paddock and took my picture.  Pretty much that all sums up my day.  Exciting stuff, huh? 

Yesterday's 5 Things:

1. I got sushi for dinner!  I've been craving it for pretty much a week or so and finally got it! 
2. I TOTALLY got my motivation for working on my ponies back (not gonna lie, the prospect of possibly having some of the hubby's nerd friends over this weekend is kind of helping me with my desire to work on them)
3. I have my string garden all planned out and know how to go about assembling it.  Now all I need is my substrate and it'll be done!
4. Revisited Firefly while I worked on rooting Joker's head.  I miss Firefly.
5. I didn't ache as bad as I expected to after the previous day's workout :)

Today, I got quite a bit of pony work done again.  Joker's flocked beard got dyed its appropriate color and he got fully assembled.  I have a visor from a Rainbow Dash that I'm trying to turn into his hat, but I'm not sure if it will go on his head without damage his paint job.  So, if I can convince myself Joker's complete without his hat, he's officially done.  Garrus's head is a good 85% finished with his paint job, and his body is around 50%.  I fully expect to have his painting finished and sealed by the end of the day tomorrow.  EDI's head has its base coat down, and I decided to be gutsy and try styling her hair instead of sculpting it on.  I'm going to need a lot of wish lucked to me for this one, as I'm terrible at styling.  MShep has his head finished with its base coat, I just have to find a better picture of his eyes to know how I want to paint them.  FemShep's face is completely on (including super cute freckles!), and she's going to get rooted tomorrow.  I'm so excited for this 1. Because rerooting is my FAVORITE part of customizing (well... besides gluing the head on and looking at the pony finished for the first time) and 2. Because I'm super excited about her hair color - it's a very pretty red :).  If Garrus makes it to the rerooting stage tomorrow, I'll consider it a big time bonus, but I'll be happy just to have his paint work done.  Haven't decided when I'm going to start sculpting the bodies of the three heads I have in progress yet, but I'm sure that will work itself out in good time :)

It was our 8th no-spend day of the month - we're almost there!, I got my dishes done, my laundry is currently running, and I'm going to grab my camera for a pic of something as soon as this post is over.  I got a really good, really insightful chunk of reading done (about time, right?) that really tied everything so far together.  I'm also pretty hmm... amused?  disgusted?  I don't know what the right word is, to go through my horsey life carrying around a deeper understanding of classical horsemanship now.  It kind of takes some of the authority out of the training articles in the magazines I read, espcially when you see all of the orchestra-conductor hands and uneven contacts and such.  I mean, it didn't really make sense before, but now it just baffles me that there are people who pay these trainers BIG bucks for doing things that just aren't right. 

I was so excited for my workout today, but unfortunately, it was a flop.  I don't know what happened, besides my diaphragm cramped up and made it so I literall couldn't breathe if my upper body was moving.  It worked okay for a little bit as long as I held on to the sides of the treadmill to keep my torso still, but that made it super hard to actually run.  I ended up going for 20 minutes, which is 15 short of what my goal of the day was.  Pretty disappointed about that, but I do have to look at the 20 minutes that I did run, compared to the "OMG I can't run more than 50 meters!" that I was at six weeks ago.  Trying to find the positive.  We had some delicious pad thai (it's becoming a household staple, lol) at the table for dinner today and played a pretty mean game of Candy Land.  When our bonus comes in, we're going to invest in a couple more board games.  Not that I don't love Guess Who? and Candy Land, but there really are only so many times you can play them in a row before you just want a game of Sorry! or something.  I have Horseopoly, but even the "quick play" rules state that it will take about an hour.  Not sure I want to make that kind of commitment to a board game over dinner.

Today's 5 Things:

1. All of my fish tanks are now clean :)
2. I slept SUPER good last night.  Like, so good that when I woke up because of a yowling cat, I realized I was freezing because I hadn't dried my hair before bed and hadn't moved at ALL so was laying on wet pillows.
3. I baked another cookie pie, new and improved with M&Ms :)
4. The neighbors got back.  I'd been taking care of their dog for... uh... two weeks now?  They were supposed to be gone for one week, then postponed, then postponed again, then postponed one more time.  Well, they got back this evening, so I get my mornings back to the normal routine again.
5. I got help with house chores today - that's ALWAYS something to be grateful for!

Day 36

Today was dominated by my workout from Hell and pony customization.

I almost didn't go to the gym again today, because I didn't sleep well last night, and woke up sore.  However, I'd already had two days in a row off, and really needed to workout, so workout I did.  I was really pretty excited with myself - ran for 30 minutes solid and worked on 5.5 machines.  The .5 was during my shoulder presses when my arms litterally started shaking too much for me to move them anymore and I decided to call it quits.  I'm happy with what I got done today, but DANG it hurt!  To reward myself for a job well done, my husband and I treated ourselves to subs from our favorite sandwich shop, so today was not a no-spender.  That's fine.  We only have a few more to go :)

As far as my ponies go, I really found my motivation.  I put the heads of everyone I'm working on on the end of pencils and have them staring at me from a cup on top of the computer tower.  Two of them have the whites of their eyes painted in and just keep staring at me all lifeless-like.  Kinda helped get my rear in gear.  I can now say that Garrus is 90% sculpted (only have his arms and toes left!), but I think he's going to have to get finished tomorrow.  It's late, and I'm tired.  Maybe while he's baking, I'll pull out my paints and work on finishing Joker's body (well... I need to finish painting his head, too.  Still not too sure on what I'm going to do for his ball cap, though).  I'm not sure if I'm going to jump right on board with sculpting the next pony body or not (looks like the Sheps are gonna get their bodies next, that or EDI), or if I'm going to go on another pony hiatus, but I've started talking a bit too much about this project at this point and really think I need to buckle down on at least a few more. 

I already got this week's band taken care of, too.  It's a band called Purity Ring that my brother described as "chill" and I have to agree.  It was very pleasant to listen to, something that is totally not distracting and good for just doing your own thing.  I might keep them in mind to listen to later, which is what this experiment of new bands was all about in the first place :)

So far, neither reading nor writing occurred today, but I think I'm going to get a little bit of one or the other in right before I go to bed.  (I did get another 2k in on my 'fic before bed last night).  My paddocks got picked, my photo got taken, laundry and dishes are up to date.

My 5 Things:

1. Felt super motivated - yay!
2. Cleaned some of the fish tanks - yay!
3. I GOT ICE CREAM!  YAY!
4. Took a nice, hot soak after my workout - yay!
5. I got some magazines in the mail today (and I do love me some magazines!) - yay!

Day 35

BAM!  Blogging today about today!  HA!

Had a pretty good one, overall.  I gave myself an unreasonably long list of things to get done today and got about half of it done, so I'll consider it pretty good as a whole.  I mean, seriously, I'm pretty sure that there are not enough hours in the day to get everything that I wrote down as things I wanted to do finished with all at once.  Add to that the fact that I got a couple of really big things accomplished that *weren't* on this list.  And the fact that I took a two hour nap in the middle of the day.  Not going to appologize for that one.

The things that weren't planned for the day involved demolishing a third of what remains from the "workshop" side of my barn.  I started it when we first moved in, but couldn't finish the rest of it on my own and it took me this long (and the fact that we needed to free up enough space for more hay) to motivate my husband to help.  We proceeded to move about fifty bales of hay before we opted to not do much more for now, since we didn't have to.  After all, we are supposed to have somewhere between 80 and 120 bales to be moving all in one day over the next week or so, so we're trying to save ourselves for that.

My paddocks got picked, my dishes and laundry completed and my picture of the day taken.

I took care of the month's new recipe today, too.  I'm kind of disappointed in myself, though, because the reason that I challenged myself to this is because I'm a terrible cook and want to get better.  I am, however, a phenomenal baker, which means that I subconsciously only try new recipes for delicious morsels.  Today, I made a chocolate chip cookie pie which tastes just like the cookie from Applebee's cookie sundae, which is great, because my husband and I have been known to eat a nice meal at home, then drive to Applebee's just for dessert.  Not very practical, but *delicious*!  I think next time, I'll try a bit less butter, but overall, I'm not disappointed AT ALL.

My Mass Effect Pony project is all a mess right now.  I have Joker's body about 85 - 90% done and his head prepped.  Garrus's head is sculpted and baked, but his new and improved body is waiting for sculpt work (that I'm hoping I'll start tomorrow, since I have a whole lot of motivation going right now).  Both MShep and FemShep have their heads prepped (her a bit further than his), and I've started dissecting a poor, poor Rainbow Dash for her transformation into a Hanar (don't ask).  I'm itching to get to work on EDI and both of the squad's Asari girls, but I need to buckle down and finish who's already in the works before I let myself take on more of the cast.  The last thing that I need is to get myself overwhelmed and give up again.

I painted my nails today, a pretty neon scheme that didn't turn out quite as well as I imagined it would in my head.  Oh well.  Can't win them all, right?  Got more 'fic work done, 2165 words to be exact, which puts me at a total of 17554 for the month.  I'm still terribly short of where I *ought* to be if I'm treating this like an offical Camp NaNo, but I have faith that I can catch up (and hopefully finish this beast).  I'm planning to churn out another couple thousand right before I climb into bed.  Not sure if that'll happen or not.  It was also no-spend day number 7 for the month.  Easy peasy.

Today's 5 Things:

1. I got to start the day off by catching up with a great friend that I haven't talked to in quite a while
2. I got up on time today, without hitting snooze (of course, I *did* take a nap, but still!  Up on time!)
3. I'm making progress again in claiming my barn 100% for equine activities
4. Blogger totally saved 3/4 of this post for me, so when my internet had one of its stupid "I'm rural internet!" crashes, I didn't lose all of my post
5. Even though it was super windy, it was a really nice day outside

Day 33 (yesterday) and Day 34

Here I am, not blogging AGAIN!  Good thing "blog regularly" wasn't an item on my List, huh?

Anyway, yesterday was pretty awesome.  I got to sleep in because my husband did all of the morning critter chores.  It was great.  I got next to nothing accomplished, as far as the List goes, but I did go get a pot for my black beans that are growing out of control.  Also got about 1.5k written on my 'fic.  I still want to aim to finish 50k before August is through, but I have to dig out what all I've done this month and add up my total.  I know it's possible, I just have to decide to do it.  Riiiight.

Yesterday's 5 Things:

1. My husband surprised me with taking care of morning chores
2. I got a special breakfast *and* special dinner! 
3. Finally started working with the horses again (I've been super lazy/super busy with other things lately), and they were amazing!
4. My rescued orchid seems to be doing amazingly well.  Now all I have to do is hope the cats leave it alone!
5. We got one full installment of hay moved to make room for the new hay that should (read, better) be coming next week!

Today, I got a lot more done than yesterday.  At least, it feels like I did. 

I finally started catching up on this month's equine literature, which is pretty good, since I'm running out of month, and this is super deep stuff to wade through.  The paddock got picked and my progress is finally starting to look like I've been doing something out there.  The end of massive picking is almost done, and then I get to bring out Spanky (that's my riding mower's name...) to try and finish leveling out where I've been "composting" most of what's come out of there in my desperate attempt to fix the round pen ruts that were left by the previous homeowner.

No real, official 'fic work was done today, but I did brainstorm a bunch of ideas for it (like I needed more of those...).  I might have to make an actual hour-by-hour schedule for myself before I go to bed tonight so that I can get in all of the things that I feel I "need" to do tomorrow to get myself firmly back on track.  Photo a day is still on track.  I also worked a TON on my Mass Effect Ponies, though it's not evident to most observers that much progress was made.  I scrapped the work I'd done on Mordin's head so far, as I've had him under way for so long that his clay was starting to dry out.  The one thing worse than never finishing sculpt work is to have it crack while it's baking.  I prepped baits for probably 90% of the remaining crew, which involved a lot of cutting off heads and ripping out hair, and succeeded in giving me a blister about half the size of a dime on the inside middle knuckle of my right ring finger.  This might put a damper on my thoughts of more pony work and moving hay over the next couple of days.  Oops.

My new band this week, according to the internet, is supposed to be some big, hot, new group that (go figure) I've never heard of.  They're called Friends.  I'm not sure I really "get" them, but again, I'll listen to reeeeeally close to any kind of music, so I can't say anything worse than "it's not what I usually listen to."  I'm pretty shocked at myself that it took me to the last day of the week to get to this week's band!  Yikes!  Better work on that tomorrow, huh?

The laundry and dishes things are still going great, though I haven't run the dishwasher in a couple of days because we've been hand washing a lot of things lately.  My counter and sink are still clean, though, so I'm not going to get too much more bent out of shape by the fact that dirty dishes are still in the machine.  I guess I should add that I'm one of those people that washes the dishes before they ever go into the machine, anyway, so it's not like they're actually *dirty* dirty. 

Today was our sixth no-spend of the month, and I'm going to do my darndest to have tomorrow be one, too.  It might get kind of hard, because I spent all evening craving ice cream, which we have none of, but I'm hoping that craving will go away while I sleep.  It's not very likely (as I pretty much always crave ice cream), but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for it.

Today's 5 Things:

1. More rain today!  Not much, but still, rain <3
2. The lessons I worked on with the horses yesterday totally stuck with them!
3. I swept and vacuumed for the first time in two whole days and my floors look nice again :)
4. 3/4 of the indoor furry kids got Furminated today
5. Our ridiculously tall hay towers were not knocked down by the cats over night.  I'm hoping that's a good sign for the future.