When I set my goals for this year, I pledged to continue the things I thought worked last year, which includes posting regular updates. It’s a new month, so here’s the next report!

So, how did I do…?

First, my specific goals for April were:

• Complete Camp NaNoWriMo: specifically, write 25,000 words worth of scenes to make 2 and 3 work as separate books, finish re-arranging the subplots for subsequent books in the series. About a week into the month, when I was still mostly trying to get the plot timeline to work, I reduced the word count to 15,000 words. My official count, when I uploaded all the new scenes to the NaNoWriMo site on April to validate, was 17,359. I wrote just a bit more the next day. I’m counting it as Done!
• Finish draft two of the Cthulhu Ponies map. Not finished.
• Run episode three of the Cthulhu Ponies game. Done!
• Complete layout and upload that book to the on-demand publisher. Not finished. Progress was made, though.
• Write at least two blog posts about things I like, rather than ranting about things that outrage me. Barely, but done!

Then the goals for the year. Each goal is paired with some specific tasks based on the notion of trying to replace a bad habit with a good one:

Write more, rant less. My tasks are: listen to non-political podcasts or audiobooks every week; spend at least one lunch break a week reading one of my ebooks instead of the news; continue to spend at least half of my lunch break writing; give myself a monthly quota of blog posts about things I love; set specific monthly writing goals in each check-in.

I tried out several new podcasts to put into the rotation. The only one that seems to be sticking is “The Sewers of Paris” which has nothing to do with Paris or sewers, but is a fun podcast to listen to. April was a stressful week at work, and very frequently I didn’t take my usual lunch break. Which may count as a violation of the next goal. I did not work while I ate, but I cut my breaks really short at least a couple of days each week. On the other hand, I did a lot of writing. So I’m going to count this one as a squeak-by win for the month.

Take care of myself. My tasks are: get back in the habit of waking up on weekends at nearly the same time as work days; get back in the habit to making weekly meal plans together; get back in the habit of setting up my pill-minder every week.

I kept to my sleep schedule much better this month. We planned meals most weeks and mostly stuck to the plans. I did a good job with the pill-minder. More importantly, after many days of really exceptionally bad hay fever days, I did some research, consulted with my doctor, and changed to a new prescription med for the hay fever. The pollen counts have remained dreadfully high, but now I’m only having ordinary hay fever days. I suppose having been on virtually the same prescription for 17 years, I might have been overdue for a change.

Enjoy time with friends. My task is to make an effort at get-togethers to ask leading questions.

I certainly enjoyed the time with friends. We had meet ups with both gaming groups that went well. I had several visits with people outside the scheduled events. I also spent the last week of the month organizing a group outing to see a movie, though the movie happened this weekend (and it was so fun to go do silly things with friends), but I’m going to count the planning/coordinating time as progress on this goal for the month.

Paint, draw, and make music. I have received excellent suggestions of tasks. The one I like most is to draw or doodle some fan art for projects I love.

But I didn’t do any of that.

I did spend some time pulling public domain photographs out of a government archive to use in a design/art project, so I did a bit more this month than I have been!

So, I had already set myself specific tasks for May before the month started, which is a good thing, because I’ve already finished two them. The tasks for May are:

• Complete my North American Fur contribution and upload the file to the publisher.
• Go see Avengers: Age of Ultron with some awesome people and hangout afterward.
• Get Date Night happening a bit more regularly again, including dragging my hubby to see the new Mad Max movie.
• Upload the overdue project to the on-demand service before the in-laws arrive in town.
• Run a Steampunk game and have the virtual Cthulhu Ponies session.
• Get some writing or editing in before things get crazy.
• Write at least two blog posts about things I like rather than ranting.
• Have fun with the brother-in-law and sister-in-law when they are here.
• Attend EverfreeNW.