Back from vacation and jumping back into work

Back home again and what a vacation!  We had just the best time.  It was beautiful weather the whole time we were away in the Dominican Republic, hot sunny days, no clouds, clear night skies filled with stars, warm ocean breezes blowing in the evenings.  We ate way too much, enjoyed teas in the lobby and cocktails before dinner, talked, laughed and best of all took lots of naps. I spent literally days in the sea, body surfing on the waves, paddling around in the turquoise waters, smiling and swimming with my guy.  We left the resort for a little shopping and mostly just relaxed.  I found that I was much more stressed than I had realized and enjoyed the time to unwind and get refreshed.  I even found some time to journal a bit about the cookbook and do some planning.  

And a good thing that I did.  Yesterday I sent a note to the publisher of my cookbook and found out that they have a 4-6 lag time between receiving the final version of the book and the time when it will be available on Amazon and other sellers.  So in order to hit a spring release date, I have to have the cookbook finished for March 11!  I only have three weeks left to finish it in order to hit the target release date that they have established.  Yikes!  I have still have so much left to do.  Last night I was a bit overwhelmed but I have started to figure out exactly what is left to do and how many hours I have to spend each day working on the cookbook (when I am not at work, cooking, cleaning etc, never mind just spending time with my guy) in order to have it completed on time.  I will have to call Lesley to see where she is at with the pictures and Todd to see when he is available to help me with the layout.  I still have to register the business, get my copyrights and ISBN numbers, set up bank accounts, oh the work is ahead of me.  But I am determined to get it done!

Add to this work on the cookbook the fact that we have our house now and spent Sunday and yesterday working on it, taking down ceilings, stripping off walls, getting ready to paint and generally starting to work on the house!  My guy has a shopping list his arm long of things to buy for the renovations and decorating but it looks like this weekend I will have to devote the whole two days to working on the cookbook, 8 or 10 hours each day!  He is pretty understanding about the cookbook and I think he secretly likes that I will be preoccupied with the cookbook; keeps me from bossing him around with ideas about the house!  It will be a busy three weeks, jump aboard with me, let’s see if I can do it!