Let’s get over that.

I’ll be writing more (possibly exclusively) to encourage sponsors here in the future, but in the meantime, I want to encourage you stop putting it off and offer a relatively painless plan for getting back on track, starting today.

I’m making some assumptions for the sake of brevity, so feel free to tailor these ideas to your needs.

1. Find one or two digital photos of you or a family member doing something that your sponsored kid might find interesting. You don’t have to find it especially interesting (I’m sending photos of my toddler eating). Start with just a few photos so you don’t get overwhelmed. You can always do more once you get in the groove.
2. If you’re already planning a trip to someplace like Walmart in the next day or two, plop those photos on a USB stick (or with Costco, you can upload them online) and get them printed while you’re there. If not, upload them to a service like Snapfish that will print them and mail them to you. The key here is convenience… don’t pick a method that will let you put it off. And either way you go, you’ll only pay a few bucks.
3. Today, write your letter. Make it easy on yourself and write about the pictures you’re sending. Explain any background information and talk about what you like about the photo. You don’t need to wait for the photos to be in your hand because you already know what photos you’re sending. If you know of specific questions your kid has asked, go ahead and answer them, but if not, don’t put off writing. You can always write another letter if you later realize you forgot something. It’s more important to get it sent than to get it perfect.
4. Get the letter ready to send. Fold it up, make sure any relevant sponsorship details are on it (Compassion wants the child’s ID along with the sponsor’s), address and stamp the envelope. The goal is that when you have the photos, you can write the sponsorship details on the the back, stuff them in, and get this thing moving.

I’ll write more in the future about what to put in a letter and other ways you can be a good sponsor, but my fondest hope is that if you’re a sponsor with a letter-starved kid, you’ll take action today. I did.

photo credit: orangeacid

I’ve slowly been building up more and more resistence to my daily update post (as evidenced by its recently-spotty appearance), so I’m going to try something else for a while.

You’ll notice that there’s a couple of new sections on the sidebar: one is my list (now maintained at my favorite online list site, Remember The Milk), and the other details my reward and progress. The idea is that it will be even easier to update these things (I can even update my RTM list from my iPhone) so maybe I won’t put them off.

We’ll see, but it’s worth a shot.

Most Important Tasks

• Tweaks for one client
• Write back to theme-creation inquiry
• Tweaks for another client

The reward

Subscription to All You magazine, which I’ve been tempting myself with for several months.

photo credit: moonhouse

It’s the dreaded first business day of the month, which means… invoicing day. Oh, well. As much as I hate the paperwork, invoicing (sometimes) means getting payments, so there you have it.

Had a fun weekend, am feeling much better (and hopefully will be sounding good enough to sing this weekend—it’s our band’s “on” week). Just did one of my new yoga DVDs and am happy I purchased it—I think it will help with labor and delivery (assuming I keep doing it! ).

Never heard back about the pumpkin contest, so that’s an assumed “no.” Was hoping it would pay off, but in the end it was really just a $7 gamble (well, you know, plus the hours and hours of carving but those were fun).

Most Important Tasks

• Invoicing
• Style my small WordPress-based gallery plugin
• Make a couple of small client-requested tweaks

The reward

Play time with colors, themes, and Twitter backgrounds. Or sewing.

photo credit: t.e.m|photography|

Every day feeling a little better. Still napping like a… um… cat. Aren’t you glad I just have a cold and not something actually serious? I could be moaning about that for months!

No word yet on the pumpkin contest but they were expecting some entries to come in late last evening and to do the judging this morning. Sounds to be some other entries that are very good, so we’re definitely not a shoo-in.

No big plans for Halloween. I’d thought about wearing basketball clothes and painting my belly as a ball, but after something like 13 consecutive days of having something to do every night, I’m ready to just lay low and do nothing. We have candy to hand out and I’ll just concentrate on not eating that.

Most Important Tasks

• Respond to a particular client email
• Start to create a small WordPress-based gallery plugin

The reward

Play time with colors, themes, and Twitter backgrounds.

Marginally better today, but still feeling exhausted.

The one potentially exciting thing about today: Leanna and I carved a pumpkin for her apartment’s contest, and it’s being judged today. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place each get a month’s free rent, so we’re really hoping. We went the “kiss-up” route, which is kind of a gamble, but might pay off.

Most Important Tasks

• Finish front page for client theme (a different one than yesterday)
• Read an email from a client that I’ve been resisting

The reward

More napping.

photo credit: sunshinecity

Meh. Still feeling distinctly like I’ve been hit by a bus. Didn’t sleep well at all, so I’ll probably be working between naps.

Most Important Tasks

• Finish first draft of front page for client theme
• Clarify color expectations with another client

The reward

Can’t bring myself to care at this point.

photo credit: Sappymoosetree

Had a good weekend, but feel like death warmed over this morning. I’m coming down with either a sinus infection or a head cold, and I’m just glad to be working from home. Too bad self-employment doesn’t provide benefits like sick time.

Going to keep it light today and see if the brain fog dissipates after a while…

Most Important Tasks

• Call the City of L.A. and try to figure out why they’re demanding thousands of dollars in taxes from me (despite the fact that I’m, you know, in Idaho)
• Finish and launch the new theme for TweetStyle
• Pay my outstanding bill to one of my designers and get him started on/prepared for the next project (depending on whether or not the client got me their materials over the weekend)

The reward

A nap.

photo credit: Cláudia*~Assad

Still alive despite the carrots (and added them to today’s smoothie, too). I can tell you’re relieved.

You might have noticed from my last few rewards that I’m kind of on a crafty kick. I go through phases, and it seems that I am doing the “nesting” thing that pregnant women do, it’s just manifesting in sewing cute little things rather than, say, house cleaning.

My Amy Butler book arrived yesterday, so I got fabric for a project out of that book instead of the hat and booties pattern (which hadn’t shown up yet, so I didn’t know how much to get). I’ll post pictures somewhere when I’m done with it—and unless I screw it up royally, you’ll probably die of cute overload.

Most Important Tasks

• Get Leanna going on WordPress upgrades
• Code the front page for TweetStyle based on the design I created yesterday
• Do a yoga workout should one arrive by 3pm (expecting three DVDs, one from Netflix, two from Amazon, but need to be clean and at the church by 5:30 to sound-check for our big weekend)

The reward

Free time to work on the sewing project.

photo credit: kathryn_rotondo

I’m so brave. I’m sure you’ll all be tremendously impressed to learn that I put some cooked carrot in my protein smoothie this morning, despite being irrationally afraid of veggies. This was my mom’s suggestion, and so far, it hasn’t killed me (should probably consider that statement “pending” for 24 hours or so, though ).

I thought I had found the perfect solution to my non-veggie-eating diet with the V8 v•fusion juice—the one where they mix fruit juice with veggie juice (from sweeter veggies like carrots). But with the high glucose levels, my doc specifically told me to lay off soda (which I rarely drink) and juice. So now I’m being more intentional about eating broccoli (the one veggie I like) and trying things like the carrots in stuff.

Truly, I’m six years old.

Most Important Tasks

• Be available to help Leanna recover her dead hard drive and reinstall everything on the new one
• Make any requested quick changes on the client theme I’ve been working on
• Create a layout (design only, not code) for TweetStyle based on the awesome new bird character Pasquale made me

The reward

Buy the fabric I need to make two sets of the patterns I bought yesterday.