And that's all, folks.

Ok, this is it, my final tally for the Round.

READING

·         My reading goal is to finish four of the books that I started reading a while back. I finished reading, “Decoding Daniel”, “The Deer on a Bicycle” and “Deception”, as well as starting and finishing “Standing Stones” and “The Fault in Our Stars”. I only have one chapter left of “Sell Your Book Like Wildfire”, but I just couldn’t get it done.

WRITING

·         Finish my novel.  I’ve written through chapter 24, and though they say the average novel is 40 chapters, I think mine will come in around 28 or 30 chapters tops.    

REACHING

·         I will get back on track with my blogging, twice a week here and three times a week on my other blog. I was pretty faithful on my blogging.

·         Submit three pieces each Round.  I sent a piece to Our Wisconsin Magazine and one to The American Journal of Nursing. To complete my goal, I sent a picture of my cat Fred to the Page-A-Day Cat Calendar contest. Is that stretching it?

Picture of Fred, but not the one I submitted.

·         Walk and document streets in my hometown once a week. Have only gotten in a few streets, but have written four blogs, so I feel I am off and running – er – walking. And I also finally got a map scanned into the computer so I can document where I have walked.

Map of Tomahawk, with the streets I have walked already in green. There are more outlying streets to be walked, but will tweak the map when I walk them.

HOME AND FAMILY

·         My daughter and I are still working on our nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers. We are planning a “friend-raiser” for June 21. That is my goal with the nonprofit this month: help with and attend the “friend-raiser”.  Had the friend-raiser picnic last weekend and now my daughter is already planning another one for August. It never ends.

·         Running. Had been averaging three short runs a week, but now haven’t run in over a week. I don’t know. I’m not going to kick myself, but keep trying to stay in some sort of shape.

·         Sewing. I think I only sewed that one scrub top, hemmed my brother’s pants and patched my husband’s shirt. Oh, well, it is summer now and no time for sewing til fall.

My new scrub top for work, covered in flamingos, beach balls and flip-flops. 

 And that’s it folks. See ya in July. 

One Busy Weekend

Yesterday we held the “friend-raiser” picnic for my daughter’s nonprofit organization, Tumaini Volunteers. Amazing to me how a four-hour long event can take up an entire three days of my time. I spent most of Friday shopping for food and preparing food with my daughter. Started packing the vehicles at seven yesterday morning, got to the park at 9:30, didn’t leave the park until 4:30, unpacked the vehicles and left the mess all over the house. So, today, I need to clean up the mess.

The sad part is that with all the time invested in this, we only had five new people show up. We did take in enough in donations and sales of Kenyan items through these people that we paid for the food and still have some money left over to put in the back. But that wasn’t the point of this. The whole idea was to spread the word and get more people involved.

The weather started out pretty dreary yesterday, very overcast and cool until about three, when the sun finally came out and it got instantly hot and humid. Also, because it was the first day of summer there were a lot of other events going on around town.

We continue to tell ourselves that we are still new, that it will take time to get the community behind us. So we will keep plowing ahead. Our goal is to take a group of five or six volunteers to Kenya in the fall of 2015. That gives us more time to plan (and also time for the tensions in Kenya to settle down). We also do have three, possibly four, people who are committed to that time frame. That’s exciting.

For now it is time to let the nonprofit rest and regroup for the next event. In the meantime, here is where everything else stands.

READING

·         My reading goal is to finish four of the books that I started reading a while back. Still at three out of four.

WRITING

·         Finish my novel. Still so very close, have only maybe three or four chapters left.   

REACHING

·         I will get back on track with my blogging, twice a week here and three times a week on my other blog. Pretty much stuck with this.

·         Submit three pieces each Round. Still at two out of three.  

·         Walk and document streets in my hometown once a week. Started this late in the Round, but have done three blogs on this so far.  

HOME AND FAMILY

·         My daughter and I are still working on our nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers. We are planning a “friend-raiser” for June 21. That is my goal with the nonprofit this month: help with and attend the “friend-raiser”. See above. 

·         Running. Have definitely decided to not run in any 5Ks. Have pretty much stuck with running one to two miles three times a week. Am happy with that.  

That's kind of how gloomy it was most of the day.

The geniuses trying to put together the signs.

 Our team, looking like ants, while they draw on the road in chalk, putting down arrows pointing the way.

Molly our secretary on the left and daughter Val our chairman of the board on the right.

The hubby and me, relaxing before it was time to pack up and go home. 

The Train Heading into the Station

How many days left in this Round? I think the train is chugging into the station. But even better than that, I am feeling really good about where I am at with my goals right now.

READING

·         My reading goal is to finish four of the books that I started reading a while back. I am still at three of those original four books, still plowing through “Sell Your Book Like Wildfire”. Have however, started and finished two different books, “The Fault in our Stars” and “Standing Stones”. Both were good, but I am just in love with Beth Camp’s saga. I almost didn’t want to finish reading it because I didn’t want it to end. I can’t wait to read Beth’s next book.

WRITING

·         Finish my novel.  I am so close. Believe it or not. Sunday night I wrote the pivotal scene which leads to the whole thing being wrapped up. So excited. The fingers couldn’t type fast enough.

REACHING

·         I will get back on track with my blogging, twice a week here and three times a week on my other blog. Blogged on schedule so far this week.

·         Submit three pieces each Round.  I am still at two things for this Round.

·         Walk and document streets in my hometown once a week. I know I told you about this Sunday, but I thought I should put it in as a regular goal. I did walk a few streets last night and will post them on my other blog tomorrow. Unfortunately, being the klutz that I am, I tripped and fell so cut my walk a little short. Didn’t really get hurt, a little scrapped up, but thought I should take it easy.

HOME AND FAMILY

·         My daughter and I are still working on our nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers. We are planning a “friend-raiser” for June 21. That is my goal with the nonprofit this month: help with and attend the “friend-raiser”.  Promoting the friend-raiser on-line and at work. Hoping for good weather!

·         Running. I ran tonight, for the first time since the weekend. I think I am going to stay at the one mile mark and work more on improving my pace. Coming home without panting. 

Hopefully your train is still heading to the station and not gathering moss. 

Writing, walking, blogging, oh my.

On this blog I write about the goals that I come up with for each Round of Words in 80 Days. I also have a separate list of goals for the entire year. I call it my 40 things in ’14, coz I couldn’t come up with 50 things, and this had a nice ring to it anyway.

One of those year-long goals is to walk every street in my town, taking pictures and then blogging about it. I have wanted to do this for a while, ever since I started following Matt Green’s blog here. I thought wouldn’t it be cool to get this following of people, all walking and blogging about the place where they live and it could be a “thing”. You know?

Well, the “thing” hasn’t happened and I am so bad at promoting stuff and just need to concentrate on my already long-enough list of things to accomplish. But I have started the blog posts about my own walks in my own town, hoping to walk the streets once a week. And that’s just how it’s going to be.

And here is what else I did this week.

READING

·         My reading goal is to finish four of the books that I started reading a while back. As already shared, I have finished three of these books. The fourth one, “Sell Your Book Like Wildfire”, is a thorn in my side; I find it depressing because I cannot fathom using any of these techniques to sell my books. In the meantime, however, I started two other books last week. Then, on Friday, I suggested to my Kinship Kid that we should go to a movie today, and she wanted to go to “The Fault in our Stars”. She had read the book, loved it, cried through the entire second half of it, so naturally wanted to see the movie. And I naturally wanted to read the book before seeing the movie, so immediately downloaded it to my Kindle and finished it in a day and a half.  

WRITING

·         Finish my novel.  I did write three sections. Am on Chapter 23. I don’t know if I will be able to finish writing it this Round or not. Ok, realistically, there is no way I will finish it. But I will continue to dream on it.  

REACHING

·         I will get back on track with my blogging, twice a week here and three times a week on my other blog. Once again, believe it or not, I blogged twice here and four times on my other blog. I really need to lower the bar or all of this blog writing will be the new norm.

·         Submit three pieces each Round.  I am still at two things for this Round.

HOME AND FAMILY

·         My daughter and I are still working on our nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers. We are planning a “friend-raiser” for June 21. That is my goal with the nonprofit this month: help with and attend the “friend-raiser”.  Promoting the friend-raiser on-line and at work. Hoping for good weather!

·         Sewing. As I posted on Wednesday (I think), I finished my scrub top and wore it to work this week. I also fixed a co-worker’s jacket.  

·         Running. I ran three times this week, only going between one and two miles each time. 

A Sidewalk full of spring seed-pods, along one of the many streets I have started walking. 

Mid-week checkin and Frustrated.

I am trying to write this post from work, on my lunch hour, of course. Our laptops are - how can I say it in a politically correct manner? - ok, our laptops, even though we all got new ones in the last six months, are running on outdated programs. Makes me crazy. True, most of our day-to-day work does not involve word processing or even surfing the web, but those are basic requirements on any computer in the year 2014, don't you think? So let me make this quick before I totally break down. What have I accomplished since Sunday's check in? I finished sewing my new scrub top for work and am wearing it right this second. I will have to take a picture of it and post it next time. I am half-way finished reading Beth Camp's book, "Standing Stones". And love it and I think that is why I have gotten so few other things done this week. I cannot put it down. I posted to this blog and my other blog as I should. But other than that I honestly cannot think of what other writing I have been doing. We have our local writers group tonight and I didn't even prepare a piece for that. Oh, well, I will get it together by the weekend. Promise. I also promise to only write my blog posts from the home computer from now on. Seeing as this one won't even let me make paragraphs!!!

Super Productive Week

Wow, is it possible I was this productive this week?

READING

·         My reading goal is to finish four of the books that I started reading a while back. I have finished three of them and am ¾ of the way through the fourth book. I also started reading two more books, because I am weak.    

WRITING

·         Finish my novel.  I did write one section of a chapter. I also had an epiphany of how I was going to end it, so I did some research into that. Most of the story takes place in 1996, and I never knew why, that was just the time it happened, I thought. Until an actual event around that time period came to mind and I can use that to pull it all together and even tie into current events of 2014. I can’t say more than that, I don’t want to give it away.  

REACHING

·         I will get back on track with my blogging, twice a week here and three times a week on my other blog. I blogged here twice and blogged not only three times, but four times on my other blog. I posted a “bonus blog” and even put it on my website. The marketing guy at my publisher told me how important it is to keep updating your website or you might as well shut it down. I hate to shut it down, so I better do some updates.

·         Submit three pieces each Round.  I have submitted two things so far this Round.

HOME AND FAMILY

·         My daughter and I are still working on our nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers. We are planning a “friend-raiser” for June 21. That is my goal with the nonprofit this month: help with and attend the “friend-raiser”.  Val is supposed to come up today so we can work on this.

·         Sewing. I am almost done with my scrub top, just the side seams and hem are left. I plan on finishing that today.  

·         Running. I ran three times this week, only going between one and two miles each time. I think I am going to just stick with that and skip running a 5K. I like the thought of competition, but I am my own strongest competitor, so all I have to prove is to prove it to myself.

·         Yard. I tilled the garden and planted some more grass in my new oasis area of the yard. All my veges are up, flowers in all the flower gardens are taking off and some of the new grass planted last week is coming up. I’m so psyched with my yard right now. Just waiting for the mosquitoes to burn off. 

This was my garden from 2009. I haven't taken a picture of it yet (hard to believe, isn't it?), but things are coming up about this much already. 

Beyond the Whining Stage

I am so freakin’ tired! I have been up since five a.m. It is closing in on 10:30 p.m. And yes, I have to be up by 6:30 tomorrow morning to get ready for work. I spent the entire night, ever since I got home from work, working on a submission. Ok, I talked to my mom and my daughter each for about half an hour, and I did actually eat supper and read our local paper, but still that leaves – like- three hours that it took to send in one manuscript. Do they make this so hard just to discourage people from submitting stuff? First you have to log into their website submission place, then you have to tell them all about yourself. And this was for a professional nursing journal, and since I am not a nurse, I had to make stuff up. Ok, I didn’t make stuff up, but you know how you have to figure out a way around the system? Know what I mean, fit yourself into their boxes without lying?

I am sure I haven’t accomplished any other goals.

READING

·         My reading goal is to finish four of the books that I started reading a while back. No progress.   

WRITING

·         Finish my novel.  No progress.

REACHING

·         I will get back on track with my blogging, twice a week here and three times a week on my other blog. Here I am blogging, so I guess I really did do something so far this week.  

·         Submit three pieces each Round.  As I whined about above, I now have a second submission in for the round. Not sure it was worth it, but whatever. Sleep is just so overrated.   

HOME AND FAMILY

·         My daughter and I are still working on our nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers. We are planning a “friend-raiser” for June 1. That is my goal with the nonprofit this month: help with and attend the “friend-raiser”.  No progess. Oh, I shouldn’t say that. One of my doctors gave me a nice monetary donation today and yesterday my manager gave me two boxes full of medical supplies the clinic can’t use any more that maybe we can send to Kenya.

·         Sewing. One seam. Oh, boy.

·         Running. Nah, this is not working out. No motivation, just achy joints.

Picking up the Loot

Once again, a road trip has thrown me off. This trip, however, accomplished a major goal.

Back in March, our contact in Kenya brought back 24 pounds of arts and crafts for our nonprofit to sell. These items, $100 worth which we can sell for 5 times that much, have been sitting at a friend’s house in a little town in Michigan. My daughter Val has been coming up with various ways to go get this stuff. Because it is almost straight east of us, it isn’t that far as the crow flies, but there is this thing called Lake Michigan which lies in between. A ferry runs runs across the lake, but it is expensive and takes almost as long as driving around the lake. Val even checked with a friend who owns a plane, but his pilot’s license doesn’t allow him to fly over a body of water that large. Of course, mailing it was an option, but that would be expensive too and a hassle to pack up for the person who has been stowing it.

Some of the loot I brought home.

Last week my work schedule allowed me to take some days off, so I said I am just going to drive up and over the lake and go get this stuff. My sister volunteered to go with. It was close to a thousand miles round-trip and because we are easily distracted, the drive was almost ten hours each way. 

Frankenmuth's river boat

We stayed in the picturesque little town of Frankenmuth for the night. I was able to meet up with a writer friend who lives nearby and gave us a tour of the town. All in all it was worth it, except that after we got back to my house, my sister still had to drive another 40 miles to get home and she hit a deer on the way. Totaled her car. She has hit a deer with almost every car she has ever owned so she took it in stride.

You would think that taking off for just two days wouldn’t have been so bad, but I have yet to get back in the swing of things. But as already stated I crossed a big thing off my list.

READING

·         My reading goal is to finish four of the books that I started reading a while back. I finished reading “Deception”, which brings my total up to three. And with that accomplishment, I started reading two more books. Yikes.   

WRITING

·         Finish my novel.  I didn’t write on it at all this week, but with the trip to Michigan, believe it or not, I squeezed in some research. I needed a town just big enough to have a cemetery, a public library, and a cardiology group, which is a half-day drive from Chicago, so we drove the streets of Saginaw to see if it would fit the bill. I think it might work.  

REACHING

·         I will get back on track with my blogging, twice a week here and three times a week on my other blog. I had plans to write some blogs before going on the road trip, but that didn’t happen. I posted once here and twice to my other blog. Not going to beat myself up over it.  

·         Submit three pieces each Round.  Still at one submission, but I promise myself I will submit something today. Really.   

HOME AND FAMILY

·         My daughter and I are still working on our nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers. We are planning a “friend-raiser” for June 1. That is my goal with the nonprofit this month: help with and attend the “friend-raiser”.  Today was supposed to be the friend-raiser picnic, but we cancelled it on Friday because the weather forecast was pretty bleak. Which turned out to be a good call, as it is pouring rain right now and doesn’t show signs of clearing. We have rescheduled to June 21.

·         Yard. I am trying to think. I don’t remember working too much in the yard this week. Last Sunday night the mosquitoes hatched by the millions, so you can barely walk out the door without being attacked.

·         Sewing. I did work on my scrub top this week. Hope to finish it today. With the steady rain, it is a good day to sew.

·         Running. I ran three times this week, twice for the full three miles. Ok, not that I really ran three miles, I still walked probably close to a quarter at that distance, but my time is pretty decent at that.