In which I analyze my recent experiment in isolationsim...

Successful? Unsuccessful?

Can I be forgiven if I practice a little indecision?

I don't really know. But I can lay out the facts of my weekend and let YOU decide.

Fact One: I missed my family as soon as they walked out the door. Okay, I missed them so much, I refused to help Jake pack that morning to leave. At first...I relented after a while knowing that I was going to enjoy my weekend alone.

Fact Two: I ate less, not having to make sure little mouths were fed. So my time with meal preparation was drastically reduced - hence the lack of my own need for sustenance. Seriously...mothers gain most of their extra calories because of their kid's need to eat. (That's fact.)

Fact Three: I got some major exercise in, which is great seeing as I have only one more MONTH to prepare for Tough Mudder...for which I am drastically underprepared. My muscles hurt, but boy do I feel good.

Fact Four: I wrote 7070 words this weekend...not counting this post of course. Some of those words were facebook posts and messages to the outside world - which really don't count toward anything but my NaNoWriMo goal. (Okay, and building relationship with people even in the midst of my isolation.) As to the novel writing, I managed a whopping 3283 words toward its completion. Yep...that is an epic fail for a weekend retreat where writing was my main goal...

:(

Fact Five: I slept a lot more than I have in weeks which is an EPIC success. When my family returns from their weekend away, I will be rested enough to deal with the crazy goodness. :)

Fact Six: I cleaned, FINALLY put away laundry, and managed to get the house looking a little less lived in - which will last all of five minutes after the kids get home. So I'd say that was successful.

Fact Seven: My writing inspiration dropped considerably when my family left. I can plug out a good 3500 words in 2-3 hours when they are home...seeing as that is the collective total of my novel writing progress this weekend (72 hours to be precise) I think I need them around to inspire me to write.

Go figure...

So did I succeed? Did I fail? Not sure...that it really matters! I enjoyed my weekend time to myself and THAT matters to me...

I missed my family enough to want them back. That seems like a good conclusion to my experiment.