Lest you harbor the illusion that I am spending this final week before my book deadline in a sparkling flow of devoted work that occurs with no distractions or deviations, I’m writing today to shed light on this, my final days before the book is due.

Monday, T minus eight days
Start the day by getting the house back in order after a big family dinner Sunday night and the departure of our weekend house guest.

Dishes, laundry, re-arranging, and all around tidying up.

Get to work on the book in the afternoon, finish another round of edits on all nine completed chapters, and start chapter ten.

Fix dinner, clean up, read, go to bed.

Tuesday, T minus seven days
Get woken up by my husband’s coughing (an ongoing back and forth issue in our household lately) in the middle of the night.

Decide to simply “go with it” and not resist the fact that I was wide awake. Put this time to incredibly good use by looking up old boyfriends on Facebook.

Go back to bed. Toss and turn until my husband’s alarm goes off, earlier than usual for a flight to the east coast.

Get up, drive him to the airport.

Return to find my home in the process of being taken over by scaffolding, the result of our hair-brained decision to re-paint the house. Walk inside to the high-pitched buzzing of power sanders and pressure washers going full blast all over our house.

Decide today is the day! To catch up on Etsy orders, run five errands, drag my easel back into my studio, iron, put away the laundry I started Monday, repair the back of a piece of framed artwork Tilda decided was tasty, clear out the guest bedroom closet, and start to re-assemble my giant bulletin board with inspiring images. Oh, and have an hour+ long Skype chat and two phone calls.

Crawl into to bed, and think about the fact that I’ve basically been awake since 2:30am, yet somehow never hit a wall of exhaustion. Watch episodes of Modern Family on Hulu and think about Ed O’Neill saying hello to Tilda outside our neighborhood grocery store (really!)

Notice anything missing from my day?

Oh right ~ that would be the book.

Wednesday ~ T minus six days
Get woken up by the Tilda Bear, roused from an incredibly deep sleep that likely would have gone on for at least two more hours.

Wonder how many responses I would get for a blog post offering a free puppy.

Pull myself out of bed, grab a blanket, and curl up on the floor while Tilda romps around, happy she got me up. Decide to give it up when she steps on my head.

Spend the morning catching up on emails, bills, and filing.

Also work on paperwork for upcoming trip to China. Steps needed to be taken: Print credit card authorization form, sign it, scan it. Scan driver’s license, passport, and front and back of credit card. Try emailing all images to travel agent at once, but server won’t allow it, so send each of the scans one at a time. Print out Chinese Visa application. Fill it out. Fill out online Chinese Visa application application (yes I meant to type that twice), print out, and get it ready to send to Visa Express with both forms, my passport and a 2″ x 2″ photo.

Send flight itinerary to travel agent, as well as full legal name.

During this time previously mentioned power sanders are being used right outside my window. High-pitched. Buzzing. Good times.

After some time, suddenly realize Tilda is nowhere to be seen. Walk out of my studio to find her chewing vigorously next to a bagel-sized half circle chewed out of the edge of our rug.

Wonder how many responses I would get for a blog post offering a free puppy.

Eat lunch. Take a shower. Play with Tilda.

Work! On the book!

Take Tilda for a walk.

Work! On the book!

Feel more inspired to go to bed than fix dinner. Write blog post while Tilda fusses and whines and begs for attention.

Husband returns. All is right with the world.

{To be continued…}