When I have two day weekends, Sundays have become the day for beating back the clutter.  Last week it was finding my desk amongst the stacks of books so I can read and write more comfortably.  Today I’m beating at the overflowing email filled with a few requests for reviews, links to stories I’m following, and the daily ephemera which creeps in reminding me there are adulting things to be taken care of.

My day job affords me the opportunity to make up hours for days I’m forced to miss (as a contractor I don’t receive pay for company holidays).  I’m also afforded overtime to help keep the finances in better shape.  Of course, this cuts into time for my own work, which includes finding a balance for it all.  But I have to have my #moneyhoney.

Yesterday, I took colorful pen in hand and opened my book journal to make the somewhat definitive list of projects and writing I’m working on.  It is a lot.  With deadlines.  I’m not here to join the chorus of every writer saying it’s hard.  That much is obvious.  But when I dedicated myself to this work nearly a year ago, I knew going in it would be tough to keep up and get it done.  That commitment remains foremost in my mind.

As my work on the Three Books continues (not writing, reviewing), I have taken some side steps into womanism.  The woman’s studies reader has some of the classic essays from founding mothers, making this an opportunity to explore my own feminism.  I was probably in my mid-fifties when I started recognizing feminism as a thing in my life, and the sexism which is so rampant in every woman’s life.  I want to learn more in order to continue my own healing process.

Attacking the clutter is another way I’m taking care of myself.  I can’t nap myself through it.

The best piece of advice I’ve received is, “Just finish the thing.”  So that’s where I am.