Michelle Taylor

For most of June, my mother has either been in a nursing facility, a hospital, or bed-bound at home. My siblings M and Alltoseek visited to help out with Mom, which is fantastic. Still, it's been an incredibly busy month, and I largely gave up on doing creative things during it.

Alltoseek focused on getting a professional caregiver in part-time because she thought I was burning out. Which at first I thought was excessive -- I'm fine! I've done caregiving for many years. It's fine. I can handle it.

And now I'm like: yeah, she's right, this is too much for me, I need help. o_o;;; The home health aide was supposed to start on July 7, but all we have heard from the agency is "her car broke down and we're trying to find a replacement." They obviously didn't find a replacement for July 7. Since they haven't communicated literally anything else, no idea when they will send someone. Tomorrow? Next week? Never? Could be anything!

Health & Fitness

I did really well for exercise in June, especially given all the other stuff that went on this month. I exercised 22 times, most of which was either weight-lifting or pretty vigorous cardio (stair-climbing, stationary bike, or swimming laps with Alltoseek). I didn't pay much attention to what I was eating, but my sister eats lots of vegetables so having her around got me to eat some, too. Consumption overall was probably up a bit but not absurdly so, I think. I've switched back to drinking caffeine-free Diet Coke, which has gone fine. Mm, Diet Coke.

Dailies

Since Mom was discharged from the nursing facility, I've not even been trying to do anything creative, so I largely stopped tracking these. The closest I get to writing is the journal entries (they're access-locked), and the closest I get to editing is having Coffee Quills read The Jewel-Strewn Night aloud (during which I will fix any typos or wording issues I spot). I do not track either of these things on the dailies and don't want to.

If and when the home health aide settles in, I may be able to spare some attention for writing/editing/drawing again? We'll see. Mostly I've been trying to hold myself together while caregiving. Thankfully, Dad still requires very minimal care beyond what his 12-hour-a-week aide provides, because Mom requires a great deal. More than Lut ever did, even for the day he was in hospice at home.

Writing

The Secret Dragon is up to 41,467, so 1800 words for the month. I wrote an absurd amount in describing my day-to-day life, but didn't track the word count. Might be around 50k? I like having the detailed record of my life but I feel like I should chill on this and get back to fiction.

The Business of Writing

I got The Kitty Coffee Pack to 65% edited and contemplated yet another name change, possibly to A Wolf-Shifter's Pack.

Art 

I checked off drawing thirteen times this month and honestly have no recollection of what I drew. Okay, now that I'm looking at my tablet, I remember that I did some relatively quick studies using random images from Pexels (whatever they had as the first image on the main page for four different images). I also worked on a new portrait of my soloRPG protagonist for some time, though I didn't finish it.

Reading

I started reading a new polyam fantasy romance but didn't get far into it. I may yet finish it; we'll see. I finished reading the main arc of a manwha, The Villainess Flips the Script! which was fun and goofy and had an interesting variation on the 'I'm reincarnated as a character in a story I read' trope. There will be an epilogue for it eventually, but it's on hiatus now. Reading the end of the arc counts for something, though. Also did my usual reading of unfinished manwha.

Social

I haven't visited my friends since early May, but my sister, Alltoseek, and my oldest brother, M, both visited my parents and me in June, so got some socializing that way outside of my parents. 

Lyric Update

Lyric continues to be mostly resigned to life as an indoor cat. A few times when Alltoseek and I were leaving to walk or swim, she waited by the door in an effort to go with us (alas, while Lyric enjoys company when she's outside, she doesn't enjoy it enough to let a human set the itinerary, so taking her for a walk on a harness doesn't work.) But we didn't let her go with us and she did not persist about it. She spent several days almost entirely in the garage both during and after the visit from M and his dog, but has since gone back to normal and spends much of her time inside.

She's spent more time downstairs over the last two weeks. I think this is one part that I'm spending more time downstairs, doing things with Mom and/or Alltoseek, and one part that she likes Alltoseek (she's more likely to stay downstairs even after I go upstairs, and she's gone to snuggle Alltoseek several times, although Alltoseek has not displaced Eliyahu as All-time Favorite Human.) It'll be interesting to see if she continues to hang out downstairs more if she returns to alternating between my room and the garage, only going downstairs when I'm there. Assuming home health aide for Mom ever materializes, I will probably 

Goal Scorecard 

• Provide care for parents: I did this thing!
• Pay June bills: I had to double-check but yes, did this thing too. I even paid estimated quarterly taxes!
• Complete 70% of edits on The Kitty Coffee Pack: It's at 65%. Close?
• Find out what I need to do to register car in new state: Nope, forgot about this one entirely
• Make podiatry appointment for Dad: I didn't forget about this one but I didn't do it, either. I made dentist and audiology appointments for Dad, which were more important. I should still do this one, though.

Stretch Goals

• Exercise 15+ times: Oh hey I did a stretch goal
• Do some art: Technically!
• Track what I read: Hey I wrote it down here, that counts
• Sell Mom's car: It's still in the garage, but I suggested giving it to M if he wanted it (he did not have a car for similar reasons to why I didn't have a car before 2017 -- didn't particularly need one and both buying and owning a car are spendy). He decided he'd take it the next time he visits.

July Goals

• Provide care for parents
• Pay July bills
• Make podiatry appointment for Dad
• Find out what I need to do to register car in new state

I'm not gonna set any creative goals for July. Hopefully I will do one or more things? Hopefully at some point Mom will actually have a home health aide instead of "well we made all the arrangements and are supposed to have one but somehow don't and they're not talking to us", too. Still. I need to go easy on myself.

July Stretch Goals

• Write 5000+ words on A Dragon's Secrets
• Finalize whatever I'm gonna call the Untitled Polyam Lesbian Romantasy
• Get edits on Untitled Polyam Lesbian Romantasy to 80%
• 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