Finding Time

I know they say travel broadens the mind but it also rips a hole in your soul. The first trip I took was a vacation with my Aunt and Uncle. I read 5 books on that trip and it was awesome. I swam a little and was able to just site on a quiet patio and read. I do not require lots of entertainment on vacation.

I was home only three weeks when my brother died and I had to leave and go home for the funeral. I was gone only three days but let's face it, it was not a pleasant trip. My whole family is still reeling from this death and I don't know why we'll ever feel that it has really happened.

The next trip was exactly one week later. We went to Arkansas to pick up my granddaughter. She's been visiting her dad for the last six weeks. I'm glad she's home. I'm glad I'm home! This is the longest trip I take. It takes 12 hours. The map says 9 but if you really have to go to the bathroom and eat, you can just add more. If there is construction or car accidents... and there are... you can add even more. We experienced it all. We left both times at 6 a.m. and arrived home at 5 p.m. We limited out stops to the shortest possible time. This helped. Leaving extremely early also seemed to make a difference is how we felt. The fact that I didn't have to do the driving certainly helped me. I'm much less tired than I was after that first trip.

Somewhere in all that I managed to scrounge up 1354 thus far in July in one of my WIP. I'd hoped for more but unfortunately, travel got in the way. Now, despite all that, I don't think 1354 is anything to sneeze at. I'm amazed that I got that much writing done. Admittedly, that's only over the course of two days but I consider myself lucky to have had two days where I could function. I will thank God for small favors.

School starts on the 7th so things will be busy the next few weeks but I've pretty excited that I don't have anywhere I have to go and I might just get some more writing accomplished.

I'm going to set up my calendar in the next few days with my writing times and I'm trying to make sure I get enough rest factored in. That seems to be my biggest need. I am always tired due to the RA and the fibromyalgia. Factoring in rest when you have an autoimmune disease is so important, particularly if you want to write. In the past, I've always neglected it and this last year has really revealed that to me. Once I started making rest a priority, above everything else, and setting aside days for specific chores I found that I functioned better and actually felt like I could do other things like writing or working on a home improvement project.

I'm going to try to hang on to the optimism and structure my time more stringently. Pray for me. I need it.