Random motes of the mind.

It should come as no surprise that, on the end of Day Three of NaNoWriMo, with my word count at 14 500, everything else, and I do mean everything, is a mess. Big C is rehearsing for an important gig this weekend, so both of us are completely occupied in working, we're eating absolute rubbish (which I am not happy about, and resolve, again, to stop doing that and get back on track to get to my goal weight), and we're living in mess. I haven't replied to a single email since the beginning of this, two of which are very important and I'm being horribly rude in letting them just sit there. And the house... I'm at breaking point with the house, today is the day it gets tidied.

But reading: that's the worst. Since the beginning of November, I have read Leviticus, but only because I started it before I started my novel, and one and a half letters of Clarissa. I read a chapter of Northanger Abbey and was surprised that I liked it so much, and I managed a few pages of something else, what I don't know.

So today needs to be spent holding back a tiny bit. Of course, I will be thrilled if I manage to finish NaNoWriMo, but I'll be greatly less thrilled if I am a stone heavier with a frightening pile of laundry, angy emails, and an inch of dust. I'm ashamed to say Little G stole a sausage off my plate yesterday, and not only did I let him, but I have yet to pick up the remains from the rug. That is the mere tip of the iceberg.

I'm thinking in order for this to be a true success, in my mind, it is not only getting 50 000 words out at any cost, but also keeping together some general order of life. Of course my reading is going to be affected, but not this much. It's depressing me, actually. I'm sad, even though this is only lunchtime of day four, I feel horribly off balance.

Plans, then, for today: 

• Split a few logs
• Get the house in order (which, theoretically, could take me to teatime)
• Get up to 17 500 words for NaNoWriMo (writing 2 500 words in a day is less than 5 000 after all)
• Spend sometime online working out the Back to the Classics Challenge to right my muddled brain (working out reading challenges is one of my favourite ways to relax)
• Reply to those emails
• Be in bed at a reasonable hour with a good book. And, I have to say, this book will have to be easy because I'm telling you, my brain is mush.

So today is catching up and sorting messes out. I don't want to be in a position where, at the end of the month, I can't be happy about completing the challenge because everything else has fallen by the wayside. And, if I list my plans like this, I am more likely to do them!

(And if you're not doing NaNoWriMo and have a minute to spare, do a girl a favour and check out the books I own and tell me what to read to soothe my sore little brain! Edited: Going to stick with Northanger Abbey so that, at least, is sorted!)