Updates: Woggies 19 & 20

Woggy #19 Complete: Mail & Info Sorter/Organizer

It's taken a while, but I can finally check the remaining items off of my to do list for this woggy. As with all things it hasn't turned out to work quite as perfectly as I had been hoping, and we are tweaking it here and there all the time, but mostly, I am very satisfied with how this system has turned out. Our inboxes are no longer cluttered with old things, everything has a place to go, and we are finally able to leave each other notes and reminders in a way where the other person actually notices it and does something about it. Hooray!



Woggy #20 Update: Home Inventory

I took advantage of having all my boxes of holiday decorations down to take care of a much-needed chunk of woggy #20. I photographed and wrote an itemization of all major contents of our holiday decorations. the photos have been uploaded to my computer, but I have yet to enter all of the information and research prices in the actual inventory program. But even without that, this is a major accomplishment. Since we have over the years collected quite a few fancier glass ornaments, some of limited edition, I can only assume these are important items to include in our inventory for insurance purposes, especially if we were to ever need to replace them. They are all fairly safely nestled in popcorn most of the year, but when one lives in earthquake country, you never know.

Things I can check off my woggy to-do list:

X take down holiday items and photograph them
X put holiday items back away
X upload holiday item photos & add to hall closet folder

Things Left to Complete This Woggy Project:

• research & re-enter all of the item details for the coat closet
  
• research & enter item details for holiday items
• photograph kitchen, dining area, living room, bedroom, garden, WIC, master bath, workroom, & workroom closet
• upload photos for all above rooms, and place in appropriate folders
• research and enter item details for all above items
• print out new household inventory
• adjust homeowner's insurance to new amount
• replace old inventory with the new one in our lockbox

Update: Woggy #15 Complete!!

Over the past several years, I've taken to the practice of sending myself on emotional/spiritual "retreats" These work much in the same way that official "retreats" at retreat centers work, except I just do them in my own home. Sometimes I plan them in advance, and sometimes I just take one when life is getting just a little too frazzled, when my mind and spirit have become lost or feel like they're scattered in a million directions, making nothing in my life work smoothly. Some last just for a day, others for a week, and one even for two weeks. But the goal of all of them is the same. Time to focus on spiritual and emotional issues, at the forefront of all other concerns.

With the whirlwind that always surrounds the holiday season, I have now made a specific ritual of doing a retreat each year right before the holiday craziness is about to descend, so that I can head into that season with a firm and solid grounding.

Over the past year or so, it has been during these retreats that I have made the most progress towards reading and finishing my Woggy #15, the book called Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life. And I'm happy to say that it was during my latest pre-holiday retreat that I was able to not only make time for and recover from an emotional slump in the previously mentioned Woggy #24 (my NaNo 2009 novel), but I was also able to finally finish reading Woggy#15.

The completion of this book is in my mind no small achievement. It is to me as significant and was as challenging as the task of writing a novel in one month, or my previous task of walking 70 miles on my own two feet. On a spiritual level all three of these tasks are completely connected for me, as they have all involved the same emotional and spiritual undertaking. They have each taught me the same lesson in different form.

But like the other two, while the tangible task has been completed, there is still plenty of learning and journey to go. I have read all of the words, I have done all of the main exercises. But many of the exercises are more of an ongoing process, which will not be truly completed for a year or more. And the lessons and discipline learned are ones I will need to carry with me on a daily basis in a conscious, mindful fashion in order for the learning and practice to be truly complete. This will continue until the day when all of these lessons are formed as intrinsic habits without my having to conscientiously consider them, if in fact such a day will ever come. Whichever may be true, I am thankful for having read this book, the process I've gone through and all that I've learned, and the continuing lessons I hope to carry with me into my future as a result of having read it.

"Life is a choice. The choice here is not about whether or not to have pain. It is whether or not to live a valued, meaningful life."

Update: Woggy #24

Yes folks, after four years of repeated perseverance, and thirty days of trials and tribulations, I have at last succeeded at achieving the previously elusive goal of achieving the NaNo challenge of writing a full 50,000 words within one month. I began my month not expecting I would reach it, then after a week of steady on-par progress, I became excited that I would actually be achieving it.

Then halfway through the month, I allowed life's duties to overtake the writing and fell behind. The week after that I grew despondent and was sure I would never, ever be able to finish a NaNo challenge, but from the depths of this pit I decided to just start writing anyway, little by little, hour after hour, day after day. And before I knew it I was not only on par but well above par for completing at the end of the month. Then, to my surprise, several days ahead from the end with just a mere 2000 words to go, I began fearing my success.

I stopped cold for a day and a half, afraid of what succeeding at this goal might mean. In the face of this I decided to use the same strategy that had got me through my mid-month slump, and just sat down to write with no thoughts of specific expectation. Before I knew it, I was looking at the NaNo "Congratulations, Winner" page, with two days to spare on the calendar. In shock at my success at first, I've slowly been learning to accept it (strange as that may sound), and I now look ahead to the next horizon for my book, which is finishing the novel.

By my calculations plot-wise, I am about half-way through the book, and therefore should have about 50,000 words to go. But if I managed that many words in under one month flat, I figure competing the first draft of my novel within another 6 months should be no trouble at all. All I need to do is get writing!!

Things Left to Complete This Woggy Project:

• determine a new more moderate daily and/or weekly word count goal
• create a chart for logging progress
• begin writing
• repeat, repeat, repeat until draft 1 is complete
• devise plan for revision process
  

Holiday break

Yes, yes, between NaNo and all the various household business that befalls a keeper of the home during the holidays, I've been away from wog. Have you missed me? I'll be back in action soon with lots of new posts, I promise!

Woggy #24: Moon Walk Novel

Yes, people, November is here again and that can mean only one thing (besides decomposing pumpkins and constant robocalls to all American voters, of course) and that is, novel writing time! I've begun my novel for this year on a good note if you consider the amount I wrote yesterday, or a bad one if you consider here I am on day two procrastinating my novel by making this blog entry instead.

In any case, for those interested in the subject of my novel: it is set on the moon, which instantly makes it "science fiction" even if it's really something else, because well, in case you hadn't noticed, we are not yet living on the moon in real life. One might think the normal definition of "writing what is not exactly the same as real life" could just be called "fiction", but seeing as all space-related imaginings have been deemed by some cosmic entity to be "scientific", I guess that leaves me with my "science fiction" novel.

For those interested in my day-to-day progress (as I do not plan on providing day to day updates here...) you can check my NaNo page, or (hopefully, if I get it working properly) you can check this nifty widget here:



Things Left to Complete This Woggy Project:

• write 1667 words
  
• repeat each day for every day in November
• after Dec 1, devise plan for continuing and completing the remainder of the novel
• etc., etc., to be determined after Dec 1
  

Update: Woggy #1 is complete!

While it's possible I expended as many hours involved in this project as I did on the actual trip it is commemorating, I am happy to say that much to my surprise, my BC trip scrapbook is finally, actually finished!

While I had been progressing on this project in a couple of fits and starts since my last official update here, the most significant work stoppage happened when I ran out of photo corners a couple months ago, and didn't know exactly where to I'd be able to easily get some more. Several trips around town on foot later, I gave up on the supporting local business angle and just ordered a bunch in the mail. By the time they arrived of course, my enthusiasm for finishing the project had ebbed.

So, all of the scrapbook project materials had been sitting in a neatly organized pile under one of our living room chairs for a few months before I picked it up again the other evening. By this point in time, the scrapbook project had two things going for it: one, the actual vacation itself had passed the year anniversary point, increasing my desire to finish it, and two, my husband has been away on a work trip, leaving me with large blocks of idle time in the evenings with no conversation or activity to fill them. The tedium part of the handiwork was helped by Mr. Erroll Flynn, Robert Osborne, and a bunch of their old friends. I emerged from a haze of sea voyages, royalty, and scrapbooking sometime later that night with a complete stack of pages, beginning to end, and a really, REALLY big mess on my living room floor.

All that was left at this point was to procure a more efficient means of hole-punchery than the little hand-held object currently in my possession. But things worked out in favor of that as well, as I already had some other shopping to do in the general vicinity of the office supply store (where I was surprised to find they had a huge array of hole-punching options for me to choose from). Last evening I finished off the punching and binding, and could hardly believe my eyes looking at the actual finished project. It really did come out much like I had originally envisioned.

So, now all that's left is the cleaning up part, which I suppose technically means this project isn't completely finished yet, but since I do actually plan on taking care of that in an hour or two, I'm going to go ahead and rule that part as virtually completed.

Update: Woggy #16 Complete!

The day before I left for my trip, a miracle happened: we received a call from the shipping company that our new bed frame was in town and wanted to drop by and see us. An even greater miracle: while I was busy hiking across the countryside of Pennsylvania, my husband defended the home front by fearlessly battling crate, box, and hex wrench to create the wonder you now see pictured here.

I came home to a completed bed! A years-long woggy has finally come to a close...

And hey, doesn't our new bed look great?!


Oh, and since we are all about process here at Woggy Enterprises, here's the in-progress view showing this woggy over the past couple weeks, prior to the complete bed pictured above...


Items I can check off my Woggy To-do list:

X wait for shipment of our bed
X put our new bed together
X say, "Hey, doesn't our new bed look great?!"