Holly Needs Her Groove Back

Well, it’s the first day of school. I’ve got to tell you, I haven’t been looking forward to it. I know I’m probably considered weird by most of my friends since I haven’t joined in on the “kids are finally outta my hair” dance.

Truth is, they weren’t really in my hair too badly this summer. Maybe because they’re older now, or maybe because my daughter is 16, has a job, a social life, and a car to use so she was gone a lot. But whatever the reason, the kids didn’t fight much this summer and when they were around I enjoyed hanging out with them for the most part. (The 24 hours following a sleepover being the exception!)

And, as I mentioned at the beginning of summer, I loved the freedom from routine. The hassle of getting different kids to different locations for different things all occurring at the same time was making my eye twitch. The break from all that was nice. Real nice.

But on the other hand, when I look back at how sporadically my writing projects progressed all summer long, I can definitely see there were some benefits to the ol’ routine. I sort of lost my writing groove over the summer.

Even though I’d planned to rise at 6:00 a.m. all summer long to work on my writing, well, if one stays up until midnight to look at the stars, roast marshmallows, play board games…c’mon. It ain’t gonna happen! I got up later and later, started working later and later, thus my work hours got shorter and shorter. (Because, of course, I still made time to enjoy the benefits of summer spent with the hubby and kids.)

I’d created a business plan at the beginning of the year, but you can imagine what happened to the record of my achievements over the past couple of months.

Now with the start of school for the kids, I’m looking at a re-start of the work year for myself. I need to get my groove back. I’m going to pull out my goals, give ‘em a fresh look and update as needed. Then I’m going to go at my work full steam ahead. I’m keeping my butt in the chair, fingers to the keyboard.

Even though I can hear the cicadas humming and see the sunshine beckoning.

Yep, here I go.

Um…maybe I’ll do my editing outside today. But I will keep focused and stick to the routine, bearing in mind the words of Robert Bach, “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”

How about you? Does the start of the school year inspire a re-start in pursuing your own goals?

Okay, that’s it for now. I’m going to have The Young Rascals play me out….

"Groovin-The Young Rascals"