Shrove Tuesday, enjoy a pancake

Shrove Tuesday, pancake day!  I love pancakes and today is the perfect excuse to enjoy them.  I remember being a child and getting up early on Easter Sunday to attend a sunrise service.  We used to trek to the top a big hill in town, where in winter we would tobbagon, but at Easter, the congregation would climb the hill at seven in the morning and have an Easter service atop the hill, our songs ringing out in the early morning light.  Afterwards, we would walk back to the church and in the church basement have a pancake breakfast, complete with pancakes, syrup, sausages, juice, toast and coffee.  It was a great time and I remember going back time and again for more lukewarm pancakes served in great silver chafing dishes on the buffet tables, syrup poured from plastic jugs, and orange juice from urns.  It was a great morning where you could eat as much as you wanted and not a single adult told you to mind your manners or told you that you had had enough.  Well, tonight I stuffed myself with pancakes again, drowning them in real maple syrup and sliced banana washed down with a glass of cold milk.  Delicious.  Just the way to start my night before sitting down to write more reflections and to figure out just what I have left to complete before this version is complete.  I could almost feel sad that this part of the journey is coming to an end but have to remind myself that more adventures are to come!

Time has slowed peacefully down

It is amazing how long these days are, and not necessarily in a bad way.  I feel like time has slowed down and I can feel every minute of every day.  I think it might be because I have so much to do but it might also be because I have to so much to concentrate on, yet only one thing to concentrate on. It is a bit summer holidays from school, when each day seemed like an eternity and the summer seemed to stretch on forever, maybe precisely because there was nothing to focus on except enjoying each moment, playing with friends, swimming in the sunshine.  I had a productive night last night and tonight looks like to be the same.  I am really enjoying having something passionate to focus on.  And although the minutes are ticking by slowly, it is in no way unpleasant, boring or stressful. Rather it is like it has slowed down enough that I can notice time as it passes.  A nice feeling, and certainly a rare one!

A refreshing break has made all the difference

Yesterday was a full day.  We got ourselves up early and headed out the door to the hardware store.  When we were getting married, we had a themed engagement party that was focused all on decorating and cleaning our new house.  We didn’t own the house at that point but it seemed a great theme so that we would have some things towards making any new house we bought our own.  Well, yesterday we had some of those handy gift cards in our hands as we headed out to the hardware store.  The weekend before we had used a bunch of cards towards paint, crown moulding and all the paraphernalia that is required to get those jobs done.  We did the same yesterday.  We picked up seven new door handles to replace some of the interior door handles, we picked up samples of trim for doorways, more paint for painting the doors, rollers, brushes.  Pretty quickly the total ran up and I was even more grateful to all those family and friends that gave us those gift cards.  In fact, the bulk of what we have purchased so far has been with gift cards from that engagement party.  One of our other engagement parties was a stock the wine cellar party; we will enjoy that wine once we have moved in and the house is finished!

We went to the house in the afternoon for a couple of hours and painted my new office!  It looks great and between the two of us it didn’t take very long.  Now all three bedrooms upstairs are painted, the ceilings and crown moulding complete.  Just have to do the finishing touches to the rooms and they will be move in ready.  It felt great painting the office, I could see myself working on the cookbook or perhaps the next one in that little room with my Mac.  Friends stopped by while we were there and we all discussed how to renovate the kitchen. It got me excited but despite all the dreaming in the world, I am pretty sure those renovations will have to wait.  The bank accounts are drained!  All in good time.

We had to leave the house early.  Last night we headed out of the city to have dinner and a theatre show for my sister-in-law’s seventieth birthday.  It was called Nanny’s Naughty Knickers!  Dinner was a buffet which was pretty good, although I have to admit I have never seen meatloaf served on a buffet before and the show was funny.  We gave Jill a pair of naughty knickers as a gag gift for her birthday, which gave her a good laugh.  The show passed quickly, a bit over-acted but funny all the same.  It was nice to be out with family and honestly it was nice to have a break from constantly thinking about the cookbook and the house renovations.  It has refreshed me to hit the skids again today and make big progress on the book.  I have about one hundred reflections written out by hand for the cookbook so I think today’s job is to get them all typed into the draft and see what is remaining to do on the book.  I think I am almost done, suddenly.  Last couple of weeks seem like  blur but now I feel much better about getting it done on time and completed the way I want it.  The publisher wants a draft but there is still a chance to change anything I want after I get back the proof so I am hoping it will be exactly as I want it by the time it is final and locked at their presses!  Today, my goals are the cookbook and get the laundry caught up!!! Oh, the exciting life I am leading.  

Being reminded why I am doing this

It is Friday afternoon and I am beat!  This has definitely been a week of ups and downs.  And I feel it in every bone of my body.  I am amazed at how much energy you can have for something you truly care about, something you truly want to accomplish.  I have been watching myself and have been continually surprised at how well I have stuck to my guns, working long after the point of being tired on reflections or recipes or layout, taking a breath and sorting out the issues with the business and reminding myself to be patient in waiting for the ISBN numbers.  When I actually take a moment to reflect on myself, this journey is really showing me my own depths of determination, of passion, of commitment, of attacking problems as they arise and solving and plumbing the depths of my desire to achieve this goal.  I am meeting tonight with Lesley the photographer to talk about the photos and to pick up my touched up images.  Lesley often talks about how her love of photography, her dream to give up her day job in an office and pursue it full time and how she would likely do it for nothing.  For the first time, I truly understand what she means. Pursuing this goal is work certainly but it certainly doesn’t feel like it.  Oh sure I am tired at the end of the day but by the next morning I have boundless energy to attack it again.  I am not sure if I will be successful in selling even a single copy but I am sure I will have given it my best shot.  Lots to do this weekend again but feeling confident I can tackle it.  

Big setback for the company today but rolling with it

Okay I had a huge setback today. I received  a letter from the government telling me they are disallowing my company name.  I was going to call my company, the George Henry Press, but they believe it contravenes a regulation saying you cannot have an individual’s name in the company name if it is not your own!  So I have had to re-apply for a different company name, which also means I have to change the name at my publisher, change my tax accounts and worst of all re-apply for ISBN numbers which is the thing which is taking the longest to be begin with and now I have to start all over from scratch!  Totally pissed off today but trying to stay positive.  Nothing I can do about it, just have to roll with it, and keep focused.  I made some good progress on working on the cookbook today so I am still going to just work one step at a time and keep going.  I have to reschedule working with Todd since I definitely won’t have the ISBN numbers by next week but I have to tell myself that all things happen for a reason and it will be all the sweeter when I am finally published and completed.  Big breath for me and keep going.    

I have received my copyright, hurray

Today I am feeling much better about my progress.  I have to admit the ISBN thing yesterday threw me for a loop but I am back on track.  I applied for a received my copyright yesterday and set up my tax accounts for my new little business.  Yes of course the government would like to be first in line to collect their share of my meager profits from the sale of any cookbooks.  I haven’t even made my first sale and already they are stepping up, hand open, looking for some money!  But such are the ways of business so I just accepted it as part of this journey, definitely not as tasty as a pan of chocolate drops but a necessity nonetheless. 

Today I have reminded myself that in each thing, step by step.  I still have lots of work to complete this week and weekend to finish the cookbook, reflections to write, a foreword to write, ordering of the cookbook and proofreading and typesetting.  I applied for the ISBN number and no amount of worrying, watching the clock or complaining will make it arrive any sooner so best to focus on what I can control. If it arrived today I would not be finished the cookbook, so self, keep working.  Head down, keep at it.  I am making progress but am probably only half done the reflections I am going to head each recipe with so still lots to do.  Focused, working, not too exhausted and occasionally seeing glimmers that this may all actually come together.  I got a note from Lesley that she has been working on the photographs and has worked her usual magic.  Seriously if you ever need a photographer, Lesley is your girl!  She is amazing.  I know the pictures will be perfect; we are going to meet to collect them on Friday night, over desserts of course.  So many people have helped me up this point, made their contributions with their talents and energies, it is now for me to pull through to the finish line.   

Ahhh feeling stressed, gotta remember to breathe

Okay I am starting to freak out.  Yup the crazy, lose my mind phase has started. I got approval today from the publisher to start registering my accounts online with them.  So happily I got started, only to discover I needed more information.  I then switched website and registered for the tax numbers for my new business.  Back to the publisher pages, on to the next thing.  Back to other websites to register for an ISBN number, the tracking number all books have assigned to them.  No problems registering for the account, only to find out the government takes five days to activate the account!  They don’t have the process automated yet, so they have to do a lot of it manually!  So now I am stymied again waiting on the government to finish their process.  Then I have to log back on to apply for the ISBN number.  Need this number before I can finish laying out the book; need to lay out the book next Wednesday night, eight days from now.  Oh what else can come up that will make me a crazy person!  And I haven’t done any work on the book today and I am out tonight at a friend’s farewell party from work.  I think I am only stopping for a quick drink and then I am out of there.  This is crazy. And I am slower at writing the reflections that I thought I would be.  Still worried that everything will come together, so many balls in the air right now.  Getting a wee bit stressed, okay a lot stressed.  I am doing things so fast I am not even sure if I am doing them correctly.  I am sure when it comes to tax time I will have done everything for the business wrong and so it will be a complete mess, I will get audited or something crazy and I will be writing cookbooks from a little concrete cell!  Okay take a breath.  I moved it ahead all I can; focus back on the book.  That is the most important part!  Breathe!