Midlife Musings

Several days ago, Laura from Organizing Junkie posted about her blogging notebook. I mulled that post over for several days. In fact, I left the tab open and I looked at it almost every day for a week. At roughly the same time, I reread an article on editorial calendars that I had read a while back, and suddenly things began to gel. Once I had figured out all the things I needed to keep track of I put pencil to paper. This is my second week on the notebook method, and here is what the set of pages I have used this week looks like. I took the picture this morning, as I was planning my day, after I decided that today’s post would be the notebook.

You can see it gets pretty messy by Friday, LOL. But I have to tell you, I have gotten more work done this week that I have in the past month, just because I am no longer spinning my wheels wondering what I am supposed to be doing.

On the left is a list of reviews and blog posts I need to write, across all my blogs. Beside this is my to-do list. I know that it looks like I have not done a lot of it this week, but I can assure you that the checked off items were biggies, and took several hours of sustained effort each. On the right are my daily trackers. I use that side to keep track of: which girl is cleaning the kitchen today, which boy is cleaning the small bathroom, what three household chores are the priority, how much money I make (hey, I’m keeping it real), the daily posts on my three main blogs, which other blogs I am posting on, what’s for supper, and my daily calorie and saturated fats count. I decided recording the number of potty runs was a bit much, though if I ever get to go alone, I may note it. In the back of the book are lists of post ideas for all my blogs. When I read, it is beside me so I can take notes. The notebook goes where I go, except to bed, because when I go to bed, it’s to sleep, not work.

I do think that I will make some weeks up in advance, probably by running a block of Monday through Friday across the top of the left hand page. That way, it won’t be such a hassle to note when the next post is due on the non-daily blogs (that’s what is making the review and posts column so long). Any questions?

Not me. Actually, I am buzzing around this morning kicking butt and taking names. It’s a good day, LOL. But the other day, my sweet husband, who has been doing field service for many, many years looked at me and said “I’m tired. I never thought I would say it, but I am tired of driving around, tired of the road, and I am ready for a simple job that I can go to one place, put in my time and then come home.” Truly, I never thought he’d say that either. But he did, and he’s putting in applications to that end. Of course, that’s going to change our financial situation yet again. With the price of gas, which we are paying mostly out-of-pocket, I am not sure if it’s going to be better or worse, but in any case, it’s time to get our financial ducks in a row. His friends are beginning to retire, and I’m thinking he’s probably going to want to do the same sooner rather than later.

Anyway, I took a financial test online, and it wasn’t pretty. We aren’t needing Debt consolidation or Debt relief so much as we are needing to plan for the future. And the future just got a lot closer than I thought it was with his announcement last week. And because he is older than I am by quite a bit, we will not be retiring together, so I am also needing to look at finances over an even longer period to make sure that when I am ready to retire, I have what I need to avoid a financial crisis. The cold hard truth is that I will most likely spend the bulk of my retirement years without my husband. If I need Debt help, I’ll have to rely on my children, and I don’t want to have to do that. Nor do I particularly want to be thinking about this prospect at 41. It certainly seemed a lot further away at 25 than it does today. Today, it’s a little bit scary, and I am trying to squeeze all I can from every precious day.

Well, boys and girls, it’s time to start thinking about September. See, in September, I am going on a trip. I am going to Orlando to hang with people I like and try to avoid people I don’t, and right now, I am not quite sure how many of each there will be, but I am sure that the wonderfulness of being with those I do will outweigh the stress of seeing those I don’t. How’s that for a round about thing??

Anyway, the big decision is how to get there. I was going to ride wih a friend, but now I am not sure if she’s still planning to drive, so I am looking at flights and comparing them to car rental. I’ll have to calculate the cost of gasoline into the occasion, but that may be a possibility.

Advantage is offering up to a 50% discount on luxury and convertible car rentals. I’ve always wanted to drive a red convertible. Too bad that I would look like Broom Hilda before I hit the highway. Unless I wore a head scarf, which is an idea, but somehow doesn’t sound quite as fun and freewheeling. They have other car rental discounts, too. Too bad I’m not in Florida his very minute wanting to get to Ang. I could do that for a buck a day!

Back in November, when Ang. and I finally met in person, it was a totally awesome thing. I know I didn’t blog much about it, but, it was because I had a very difficult time finding the words to say. We had grown to know each other so well over our years of internet friendship that being in the same room together only meant we got to give our fingers a rest and jack our jaws instead. We even said BRB now and again. And when we got home, we agreed that we should not wait such a long time before having another IRL meetup, and we discussed meeting this spring in Pigeon Forge. I used the HotelsByCity website tonight to try to find cheap hotels and I was pleased to see that we can get a room for about 65 bucks a night during the first week of May. We could get them even cheaper if we go right now!

Unfortunately, that isn’t financially possible for either of us, but if I could anywhere I wanted to right now, it would be Pigeon Forge with Ang. I’ve had a miserable 2 months, and I need a get away. In fact, I probably need a good cry, too, and I know she won’t laugh when my mascara runs. I know they say only time can mend a broken heart, but coffee with a friend can go a real long way.

Today, I have stuff to do! I have one basket of stuff to deal with from my desk, and then it will be clean. I plan at that point to begin tackling the massive to-do list that I made a couple/three/six weeks ago. Also, I will be grabbing some freshly sharpened pencils and begin filling in my new calendar. I really dislike using pens in my calendars, because I don’t like scratching things out. I’m a check off done and erase changes/errors kind of girl. See previous discussion of my anal tendencies for more on that. I apologize in advance for any folks who land here from a search engine and don’t get the eyeful you were hoping for, but a girl takes her traffic any way she can get it.

Ok, so that’s my day. Plus laundry. There’s always laundry.

Now, whatever you thought when you read that, my motives are pure. I want to know how you remind yourself of upcoming events for which you need to prepare and plan. For instance: church socials, youth events, children’s choir performances, pack and den meetings, holidays -both fixed and flexing (whoops, I’ll try not to go off on a tangent there), family events and so on. Tell me how you keep your finger on the pulse of your life.

In the past, I have used card files, and that worked pretty well for me. You may remember that I use a version of the hipster even now to help keep myself on track. Well, I mean I have a stack of 3×5s though I usually don’t carry it with me. The problem with the little file box is that it occasionally meets a sudden and brutal organizational demise at the hands of the current toddler.

I have also used huge calendars, and by huge I mean month and week at a glance and page per day. These things functioned like an external hard drive for my brain. If I could think of it, there was a place to write it down, BUT–they were pretty cumbersome and got left at home a lot, which led to a million slips of paper with jotted notes that had to go in the calendar once I got back home.

In the end, I think I am going to end up with a combination of cards and calendar, and make a date with myself on a regular basis to set up todo lists. Heh. Ya’ll I used to have it all together, really I did. Life was was smooth. I aim to attain that level of performance again, and I aim to do it p.d.q., because that’s where I am comfortable. My current method of “what’s hot today” is more and more unsatisfactory. I’ve added so much to my plate that I can no longer tolerate having to serve the tyranny of the urgent. There is not a single thing I am doing that I want to give up, and so therefore I must find a way to make it all fit.

So! Tell me how you keep it all together, how far in advance you plan, and when you move an event from slow simmer to fast boil.

Well, apparently the wait is over. Google had delivered it’s slaps and is now patting other folks on the back. Long term paid bloggers got bit in the butt, along with a bunch of A-listers who don’t take paid posts but are heavily networked. My thoughts are that the algorithm was changed to discount blogrolls and that all those who were dependent on those for the majority of their backlinks got zapped. Otherwise, why would Problogger or Copyblogger take a penalty? I thought that was what was happening a couple of months ago, when I noticed my backlinks disappearing over on the backlink checker. The sites I knew were heavily blogrolled dropped more proportionately than the ones that had been linked to in posts. So if you love me, forget the blogroll idea. Just give me a nod in a post and move on.

So what’s changed, really? If you look in your toolbar, at the time of this writing, it reflects the old, higher PR. And when I searched for some of my keywords, I still come up in the same spot in the SERPs. So nothing has changed really except what Google tells me my writing is worth. What Google tells me my writing is worth. Frankly, I don’t rely on Google to give me value. I know when I am doing a crappy job on this blog, and I know when I am doing a good one. This piece of internet real estate is mine, not theirs, and if you look over there at the manifesto I’ve had in place since not long after this blog began over on blogspot, you’ll see that.

So this is where my rubber meets the road. I can sigh and moan and gnash my teeth, or I can blog like nobody’s watching. I can blog for me, and by extension, for you, and Google can go “put that in their pipe and smoke it” as we say down here in the land of the rednecks. My value lies elsewhere.

However, I am going to take the opportunity to create a “Blog Action Plan” as my friend Ann calls it. I’ve known Ann for a number of years, and she is a remarkably level headed woman with more common sense than Encyclopedia Brittanica has knowledge. I also want to give a shout out to Brett for an early writing of what I had been thinking. These folks are just able to get their thoughts together in written form faster because they don’t live with 8 interruptions marvelous and delightful gifts. I love them dearly, but my people always need something, and that siren call always comes right before my thoughts reach that jello-state where you can try to pin them down. Then I have to start over. That’s my circle of life, hehehe.

Okay, my BAP, agenda, manifesto modification, plan.

1)I’m going to write. I’m going to write until my whole thought is written. If it’s good you’ll stick around to the end, and maybe leave a comment. If it isn’t any good, shorter isn’t likely to make it any better, and it’ll keep nagging at me and I’ll have to keep writing but not writing about it, and let’s just go ahead and do it and be done, however much that takes.

1a)In as much as possible, while still meeting contractual obligations, I”m only going to write when I have something to say. That means there may be days without a post. Now, I need the traffic of having you come by here every day, but if you need to subscribe to the feed instead, go ahead, and I’ll understand. If my nefarious scheme brilliant idea fair and reasonable plan works as I think it will, then the search engine traffic will pick up, and I can have the best of both worlds–long term friends and new readers, too. If not, then I suck as a blogger and I get what I deserve.

1b)I’m not going to post here more than three times a day. More than that floods those who are on feeds, and also, I’m not sure I can have more than three good ideas in one day, yk?

2)I’m gonna get back into the conversation of the blogosphere. I’ve been so busy trying to pump the posts and net the works that I have become a blog hermit. I’m not having fun over here by myself, and I want to come out and play, so that’s what I am going to do. Everybody seems to think 5 is a good number of blogs to visit, and maybe it is. And I do plan to start visiting old friends again and chatting them up a bit. But I also plan to visit and comment on one new blog per day.

In short, I am going to do what I said up there and blog like nobody’s watching. And I think that’s what we all ought to do, whether yesterday and today left us as Google’s pet or their ho.

I got something today. It’s a large box, full of supplies for The Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t freak me out, since Rita had told me it was coming. But look closely at the picture. Do you see an actual address there anywhere? Yeah, me either. Now I know she put one on it, because she called to ask me for it. But evidently, it got pulled off, and what you see there is all that’s left on the box to indicate where it came from, or where it was going. And yet it was delivered. On time. Some things are just meant to be, I guess.

Here’s where we stand on donations and team members:

Not quite as exciting as the big box, huh? I’m hoping that i will get some last minute online donations, and that people who get the town newsletter will drop by, too. And I know the Alzheimer’s Association office in Raleigh is referring people who do not wish to play Volleyball to this walk. I got a late start as team captain, and an even later one as the walk organizer, so I will be happy with whatever I get, and I’ll start getting ready earlier next year.

This post is sponsored by The Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk

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