Got through a rough week

I had a rough week. I can’t pin it on any one thing. Just – bleah! So hot and humid last weekend and now this weekend it has been cold and cloudy, started raining last night and doesn’t look like it will stop soon. No in between weather. Throws me completely off. It shouldn’t, but it does, so I got little done last week.

Here’s my list of goals for April, May, and June. Green highlight is goal accomplished (for the week at least), yellow highlight is goal at least worked on, red lettering is goal not even attempted. A Smiley face marks a goal completely done for the Round. If I didn’t give it any color, it’s because I couldn’t really work on that goal for whatever reason, and I just didn’t want to drag in another color. 

A. WRITING

J 1. Finish a final edit of my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River.”  Done, on April 5, but really? When is the editing ever done? I’m feeling I need to go through it again. Argh!   

2. Continue tweaking my book proposal / query, as needed for each literary agent I intend to contact next. Tweaked that query and first chapter and emailed it May 16 to the third agent on my list.    

3. Write eight chapters on my next novel, which I am giving the working title of “New Old Spies.” This is going very slowly, added just another 400 words, so up to 1817, and still just into the second chapter.

J 4. Write a piece to submit to the Guidepost Magazine Writers Contest (deadline June 10).  It’s written and edited. But see #1 above.   

5. Write three posts per week for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. Oops, coz of that bad week, I only posted twice. Thinking that I have enough going on and should think about cutting back to twice a week.   

 

B. REACHING

1. Continue sending that proposal / query to each next agent on my list. As mentioned above, I emailed another query to another agent on May 16. (Current agent tally - submitted to 3, rejected by 2.)    

2. Submit the polished piece to Guidepost’s Contest. Think I will read it through one more time today and send it out tonight.    

J 3. Submit a poem I wrote a while back to the next issue of Voices on the Wind Poetry Journal (deadline April 20). Submitted, accepted and published!      

4. Promote myself or a piece of my writing (whether it be promoting one of my books, submitting a piece somewhere, saying something brilliant about my writing on my social media, etc.) once a week. As a friend reminded me, sometimes the simple stuff works the best.  I posted this picture to my social media. It was one of the meals we ate on this last trip to Kenya, similar to what Jenny ate in my novel.    

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. A couple weeks ago I got way behind but have been trying to catch up. Had gotten so close but now have fallen another week behind.    

2. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”.  I broke down and ordered the new Kindle and it should be here Tuesday, so then I will get back on track. In the meantime, am being bad. Have not been reading another devotional daily.

3. Finish reading three other books. Read two books while on the trip to Kenya and still haven’t started another one.  

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake. One thing that the heat did last week was to force me to drink a lot, like to the point of being nauseous. Will I ever get things right?  

b. Cut way back on my sweets intake. Hmm? Definitely not so much.

J  c. Do whatever my specialist says to do that is going to heal my heel.  This is turning out to be a stupid goal. That’s all I can say about it. I think I will just say I am done with it. Ok, Chris, get a grip. So, I am wearing my expensive pair of shoes and expensive pair of orthotics at work and trying to wear the cheaper shoes with cheaper orthotics around the house, but in the summertime – ok, anytime – I just hate wearing shoes!    

2. Home fires

a. Clean out my mom’s papers. I found the important paper which I had lost but decided to bite the bullet and see a lawyer about getting this finished. It is all about her land, which is in the names of us kids already, but it sounds like it is a bunch of bureaucracy to get her name off the deed. Thought I could do it myself, but the papers are all in legal mumbo-jumbo, so I gave up. Otherwise, the papers are cleaned up, but after we see that lawyer I will give this one a Smiley face!

b. Do a major cleaning of one of my closets. Not yet.

c. Plant my garden. Flowers are planted, vegetable garden is planted.   

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Write the Policy and Procedure manual. Not started. 

J b. Host two merchandise sales. Have had three of them – all successful – since the first of April.    

J c. Return to Kenya this Spring! As you already know!

J d. Bonus – A new craft shop opened downtown and the owner invited me to sell some of our stuff there, so I dropped a few items off there yesterday.

I’m not making any projections for the week. It is summer and I just want to chill. Not going to put myself under any more pressure. This Round will be winding down soon, and I have had a fair amount of green goals here.

How about you? Do you find it impossible to be productive during the summer months? Or do you have more time this time of year to devote to your goals?