Pauline Evanosky

Thursday, April 2, 2026

A Writerly Exercise

Created by Pauline in Canva

To set the story for you about how I’m feeling right now. First of all, my health is fine. I had a scare with some low blood sugar readings, which is being solved now. So, that is being addressed.

Have you ever been so wound up with concern and worry that you have unconsciously braced yourself for impact without really knowing that’s what you’ve been doing? I think that might have happened with me, just now.

It’s Saturday, and like any other day, my tasks are to write two articles today. I spread these around for this website, TalkingtoSpirit.com, my legacy website that’s been around since 2001, and my two writing platforms on Medium.com and Substack.com. I try to write in advance for future publication, which is nice. That way, I’m not faced with any “Do It TODAY deadlines”. I try.

During February and March of this year, I didn’t get a great deal of writing done because I was first worrying and then deep in the mire of financial sorting as I prepared our paperwork for our tax lady.

Even though it appears we didn’t make any money last year, we did not want. If this continues, well, we’ll see what life is like. For now? It’s fine. I’m accustomed to being poor. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been much more than that. Why worry now?

The other thing was my blood sugar scare. I have not been able to sleep well for a very long time. I didn’t know why other than I am an older woman. I thought that was supposed to happen. I can remember my mother-in-law telling me she couldn’t sleep, and that’s what happens when you get old. Accompanying the sleeplessness were night sweats, sometimes brain fog, and sometimes dizziness, even to the point where I ricocheted off the walls as I made my way from our bedroom to the bathroom. Also, unsettling dreams. Altogether, I relied on naps in the afternoon to help when I got tired during the day. As I said, all this has been going on for a long time.

There was something else going on. It was the weather. We had a week of hot weather. It was in the 90s F, which would put it around 32°C. For years, the heat has bothered me. I swell up. My feet, my ankles, and my fingers. I also feel miserable. I was attributing my current round of being uncomfortable at night to this. It also always takes me a few days of cooler weather to get back to normal.

What happened a couple of weeks ago was that I woke in the wee hours. I think it was 2 or 3 am. I didn’t stay tossing and turning in bed but got up. I figured I might as well get something done rather than lying in my bed unable to go back to sleep. I could always have a nap the next day. However, I was slow. I was so slow that I noticed it. I mean, though, who wouldn’t be slow at 3 am? I took a blood sugar reading. It was low. It was 53. Now, that’s not too low, but, yes, it is low. A few days later, it was 44. Now, for me, that’s low. I had been told that when it hits 40, you’ll be in the hospital. So, yes, 44 was scary. This was at 5 am. I went into the kitchen. Time to eat.

I had a banana with sugar and milk. I tested again at 5:25 am, and my blood sugar had risen to 53. I went back to bed, and some three hours later, my blood sugar had risen to 120.

The progression with a low blood sugar episode is to either shovel a couple of teaspoons of sugar in your mouth, have some glucose tablets (I couldn't find mine), or suck on some Life Savers (I wonder if that's why they are called that?). You test ten minutes later. If you are not yet up to 70, then you repeat step one. Test again ten minutes later. If you are up to 70, you need to have something with both carbohydrates and protein in it for a sustained higher blood sugar. Cheese and crackers or a ham sandwich does the trick.

Then, it happened the next day. That was the day I awakened at 3 am. My blood sugar was 37. I couldn’t believe it. I fumbled my diabetes monitor and couldn’t get it to come back on again. I fumbled the strips that go into the monitor. This is me on a blood sugar low. Fumbling, fuzzy, just not with the program. I’m thinking to myself that by rights, I should be dead at 37. I was able to calm down and took another sample of my blood (just a drop) for another test, and ten minutes after being 37, it rose to 44. I had not eaten a thing. What was going on? Was my monitor broken? I went into the kitchen and ate something. Twenty-five minutes later, at 3:45 am, my blood sugar had risen to 64. I went back to bed, and when I got up at 7:20 am, I tested at 150. So, things were fine.

This is when I began putting the pieces together, and since Google is my friend, I went there first. There is something called nocturnal hypoglycemia, generally between the hours of 2 am and 4 am. That is when I thought to myself, “Could this have been happening to me for all this time?” I’m talking years.

I contacted my doctor the next day. She wants bloodwork and labs done, which I’ll do in a week or so. I stopped one of my nighttime medicines on her advice yesterday, and you know what? I didn’t wake up at all last night. I slept easily through the entire night. Could you say I am relieved? Yes. I am. As the results from my labs reach her, there will be a discussion about altering some of my medicines, but I am relieved.

Could this, coupled with the relief of having done our part in our taxes, be contributing to my off mood this morning? I think so. It’s the only thing I can think of.

So, what do I do about it? Sit here and watch cartoons (that would be a movie or stuff on YouTube).

No. I want a solution. Who better to experiment on than yourself? As a writer, I need to stay in touch with my own feelings, at least that’s what I’ve always thought. As a psychic, I also need to stay in touch with myself. Why? Well, to be the best writer and the best psychic I can be.

So, what is the solution? Wait it out? Eventually, I will feel better?

No, I want something quicker than that. What the solution is going to be, I just don’t know. Waving a magic wand around would be nice, but I don’t have a magic wand. I could have another cup of coffee, I suppose. Maybe, if I were to just go out on my patio to enjoy the morning air and sun, and maybe read my current book (space adventure – Craig A. Falconer – The Earthburst Saga). Yes, I think that’s the ticket. Which brings me to another book. I haven’t read it in a long time, Focusing by Eugene Gendlin. My body just sighed. My body just gave a little. That’s what focusing does. You ask yourself what’s wrong. You have this silly little conversation with yourself about what’s wrong. Then, you go relax. I mean, you could lie down on your bed if you wanted to. You drift a little and let your body tell you what’s wrong. How do you know it’s the right thing? Your body just relaxes. Read the book, and you’ll figure it out.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate the support. I’ve listed a bunch of places where I am on the internet.

🌺 Pauline Evanosky

🌺My Links:

Talking To Spirit — my website
Talking To Spirit on Substack

Pauline Evanosky on Medium
Talking To Spirit on Substack

Pauline Evanosky — my author’s website

My Table of Contents for Medium — Updated Monthly
My Table of Contents for Substack — Also Updated Monthly

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References I recommend on your path to more psychic awareness from TalkingtoSpirit.com

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Tuesday, March 31, 2026

How I Keep Track of My Writing

My Writing Planner - the blank spaces at the beginning of the month were because
I had to take time to sort out our 2025 financial info for our tax lady.

Over the past few years, I’ve spent time each day recording what I’ve been writing. Currently, I write for Medium (Tues & Thurs), for Substack (Mon, Wed, Fri), for my author’s website PaulineEvanosky.com or PME (Tues & Thurs), and for my website Talking to Spirit, which I also call TTS (Sun & Tues). I’ve been trying to schedule the publication of these articles and build up a bit of a stockpile for myself. It’s so if I need a day off here or there or plan something to do that isn’t something I normally do, I’ve got a cushion.

This has resulted in a pattern of work in which, over time, I write at least two articles a day. Sometimes I can get three written in a day, like I'm doing today, and very infrequently I’ll get four done. But mostly, it seems to be two articles a day. I don’t want to stress out about it, but I do want to have a bit of consistency for readers if that’s something they like.

There are a couple of places where I write that I do not publish, like my journal which can sometimes run into the thousands of words and my daily motivational bits in my Do-Good File of 150 to 200 words. It was a long time ago that, in my retirement, I realized I had the luxury of having all day to write. In fact, if I were sleepless, I could get up at 3 am, write for a few hours, and then go back to bed. I never realized what a beautiful thing a nap can be in the middle of the day.

That’s my writing life. At one point, before I started tracking all of this, back when I wasn’t writing as much, I realized that it might happen that there would be a span of time when I didn’t get bupkis done. So, what was I doing? Playing solitaire all day long? Reading? Watching movies? The reading is essential for any writer. The movies could be said to be supportive of a writing habit. I could also argue that solitaire kept my mind sharp. None of that (except the reading) really and truly fulfilled the dream I needed. Which was to write. That’s what got me tracking stuff. Also, I would get confused about when I should publish stuff and end up double-publishing on some days. Which, I suppose, isn’t a bad thing either. And sometimes I still do that if I am moved by something. I’ve got my rules, and then I break them. It’s a system I’m comfortable with.

This is my Words Count Spreadsheet. There is another column to the right that keeps a tally of how much I've written that day, and another column for the month.
So far, even including today's work (3/23) it is at 50,742 words for the month of March, 2026.

So my system involves two spreadsheets and a daily planner I designed for myself in Excel. The one spreadsheet just counts words. I get a word count on every article (excepting the ending bits of thanks and here are some links), I count my Do-Good File which doesn’t get published, but often proves to be a springboard into publishable articles and I count my journal which does the same as the Do-Good File with the added benefit of being a soap box where I can holler to my heart’s content if that’s what I want to do.

The second spreadsheet is where I track the stats I can get from the different platforms I write on. In this spreadsheet, I record the articles I will publish. It gives me a good visual to see if I’ve forgotten to write something.

This is what I call my Medium Stats. That's just the first writing platform I wrote for. Since then I've added more pages to the workbook. What is pictured here is March, 2026 for this website. To the side you can see my tab for TTS (Talking to Spirit) and Substack. Medium is off to the side.

The last thing is the planner I made. It takes up two printed pieces of 8 ½ by 11-inch paper. The month gets laid out in a grid system with the schedule listed. This, by far, is a huge help to me. I leave it open on my desktop all the time because I’m using it all the time and will schedule in whatever article I’ve finished. It quickly shows me blank spots I need to fill. I also only print two months at a time, so that if something doesn’t seem to be working, I can delete it or even add something new to the schedule. The planner picture is at the top of this article.

When I worked for somebody else before I retired, they generally all told me what to do and when to do it. Now that I work for myself, well, that’s something I have to keep track of.

I know having regrets about something isn’t really a teaching moment for yourself, but you know? If I’d been doing an abbreviated version of this years ago, I think I could have rolled into retirement firing on all cylinders. As it was, it took me a good five years or more to get my ducks lined up.

If this helps anybody to give a thought to how they track their writing, then it’s a good thing. Also, if you are billing anybody, this might also help you to track how much time you’re spending on their stuff and if they are just sucking you dry, or if the business is good.

What is nice about my system is that I will soon alter it to include book projects. I've already written a three-book series for young people about finding work. I wrote it a couple of years ago, and it needs to be edited and published. I've got plans for other books too, and I'd like to see some work on them. Will something need to give in my schedule, or am I accustomed to it enough that I can just pile the new projects on? Time will tell.

Writing books is my life's work. I want it to mean something, and if what I've written here gives you some ideas, then I've done my job.

Thanks for reading. I’ve listed some more places where I am on the Internet. And, for the first time, I’ve created a Donate PayPal Button. Hey, if you don’t ask, how is it anybody will know you need some dough, right? Right.