I feel like my brain isn't functioning at even half capacity since getting back from vacation. Is this a result of jetlag? Recovery? Not sure, but I hope that I get jumpstarted before NaNo starts on Friday. 

Overall this was a slow/medium checkin, and I think that's ok. I'm still getting in the groove and warming back up to doing a lot more, and that's exactly what I need to do before doing a deep dive into NaNo. 

AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
1) I've been keeping up with the ML/regional related posts and responding where appropriate. I have not started to really interact with the forums or crosslinking them yet. This is mostly because I'm still getting used to the new site and getting everyone else used to working with the new site. I did start to get a lot more scene beats and more details in my NaNo outline. It's not to the individual scene level yet, and I need some more smaller obstacles for my characters to overcome. That being said, I have the overarching plot and I had already made my peace with this being a plantser year, and this continues to support that. 

2) I started to make the scrapbook and got two pages in. I also spent waaaay too much time going through friends pictures to figure out which are going to make it into the scrapbook. This was kinda needed, though perhaps I could have been smarter about it by using my photos first and then going to search for photos when I was missing some. That's ok, now I have a full inventory of what's available which should make things faster when I get back into this. 

3) Finished the first section of the book. Some of it really hit home and I'm sure this will make a difference in my life. 

4) I've been trying to keep up with 7 miles of walking over the weekend, but it takes a lot of time to do this and I'm still sleeping a lot as I get recover from my vacation. Therefore I ended up with closer to my normal 4 miles. BUT I decided to get the new Adventure Ring for the switch and did two sessions on that. My shoulders actually hurt from that! I'm impressed with the amount of fitness it encourages and how fun it is. I'll definitely continue doing this every day. 

I did not try a new recipe. I'm still enjoying a lot of my favorites now that I'm back home and there hasn't quite been space for that yet. I did look into that one farm that does home deliveries of milk, they offer a lot more than that! I signed up to get an evaluation and am currently waiting for an email from them. 

INTENTIONS/MINI-GOALS:
1) Crosspost between the forums and FB group. Post in the event for the Kick-off Party. Post on the forums. Look into NaNoFaces. Update the description post to include an inbedded calendar. Post on the FB group to encourage everyone to take time to look at the website now and get used to it. 

2) Make one scrapbook page a day, and try to keep the making of it to 20minutes or less because there is going to be writing to do soon. 

3) Start to read 'What if?"

4) Play Adventure Ring every day. Research and print one new recipe to try. Research a farm for getting chicken/beef from. Maybe a meat CSA?

Still getting into the groove after vacation. That means a lot of jetlag and sleep at weird times. Still, things are getting done in a slow and steady way. Also, thanks the stars for coffee.


AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
Goals:
1)  Started to catch up on ML related activities. This has a lot more to it than it normally would since NaNo has a new website this year that is... lackluster at best and problem causing at worst. Still I made a post on the chat window, updated the links to the actual forums so they were easily findable/readable, updated the picture for the landing page, and updated the intro post on the forums itself.
 
2) Small steps here. Getting everyone from the group to post pictures to the shared Google Drive Folder. Two people have done this already and three more are approved to submit to that folder. Even without those pictures I should be able to start working on the scrapbook this weekend with the 1.5k pictures I took.
 
3) Finished one more book. Kinda feel silly about this progress since I dropped the book more than completed it. But it wasn't working for me, the main characters were bland at best and I wanted to know more about the world and magic system, which I could tell we weren't going to get by the midpoint of the book.
 
4) I managed to pick up groceries and have made at least one meal a day at home. I've been catching up on sleep, so I've been giving myself room to grab a breakfast sandwich or piece of pizza when appropriate. Soon enough I'll get around to completely home cooking, with new recipes.
 

INTENTIONS/MINI-GOALS
Goals:
1) Next up is to start interacting on the forums and crosslinking forum posts on the FB group. Also see about getting my outline printed and start fleshing it out into scenes with scene beats. Probably don't have the time for much else than that.
 
2) Start the scrapbook for Japan. Not sure if I wanna get five pages made, or start working on a more general outline for the whole book before getting into the nitty gritty of the photos and descriptions. It will probably depend on weekend brain power.
 
3) Read the first section of "Feeling Good", one of my personal development books for the quarter.
 
4) Walk eight miles Sat and Sun. (I was walking at least 7 miles every day on my trip and would like to keep up the momentum.) Try one new recipe. Look into that one farm that delivers milk to houses and see if our house can get milk delivery. Also see if they deliver or offer other foods. (No action needs to be taken on that, just initial research.)
 

Hello everyone,

I'm back from my amazing vacation and getting into the groove of things. I basically am missing most of October between traveling and then the recovering from traveling. Then there's the holidays plus NaNo. Thus I know that I can't do my normal 7-8 goals, so I'm aiming for a set of 4 goals that are more reasonable for my time budget.

The goals are currently a bit broad, I'm sure I'll have some more specifics by the next check in. For now I wanted to get them on paper and then out into the world!  

Goals:
1) NaNo - Write 50k novel and be a great ML.

2) Make scrapbook for Japan trip, calendar for Grandma, and then other crafting from already owned materials.

3) Read four books, at least two that are personal development. (This completes my year goal of 52 books.)
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4) Health - gym, home cooking, meal prep, try new recipes, find new/local sources for food.

Cheers,
Shannon