Pictures and Projects

 As I am writing this, I look out my window and see a ga-ton of snow. We had four inches Thursday night and another four last night. All on top of the two feet or so we already had. Spring cannot come soon enough.

(That's my window with the circle around it.)

Since I’m not into winter sports, just take a walk through my woods every day, this winter weather should at least keep me busy at my computer, right? Once again, I don’t know where the week went. Getting up at four this morning was the only thing that saved me, as I powered through a bunch of stuff.

Here are last week’s goals. Green highlight is goal accomplished, yellow highlight is goal at least worked on, red lettering is goal not even attempted.  

A. WRITING

1. Finish the chapter by chapter summary of “The Truth Beyond the River”. The main thing I did when I got up at four this morning, but I finished it.

2. Finish writing the proposal for “The Truth”. Finished the rough draft of it. Was originally going to give this a yellow highlight, but the rough draft isn’t too bad, shouldn’t take too much more work.

3. Write three posts on the “Dino Chronicles”. Done.

4. Outline the newest project I have had in my head. I wrote up a few notes on it, can’t really call it an outline.  

5. Bonus: Wrote a poem for Voices on the Wind poetry journal. Deadline isn’t until April 20 and the theme is voices on quandary.

B. REACHING

1. Read five other blogs and comment on three of them.  Read seven other blogs and commented on four of them.

2. Send that finished proposal to that chosen literary agent. Just finished the rough draft on Friday, so want to let it ferment a bit more before sending it off.   

3. Promote “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” in one totally painless way. Once again, I sent a blurb on the book to my new followers on LinkedIn. I also asked three followers to write a review, which by the way, they have yet to do for me.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Somehow, I got a day behind on this. Oops.

2. Daily read “Paw Enforcement”, a light novel I picked up a while back. Yup. But, man, I read so slow. I should have powered through this book by now, but I’m not quite half-way done.

3. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. Yup. I got myself in the habit of reading it before I even get out of bed in the morning.  

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Do something physical twice every day. I was good some days, and others not so much.

b. Cut back on sweets. Same as the exercise thing.

c. Increase water intake. I really tried, and that’s all a girl can do.

2. Home fires

a. Snap pictures of two dozen old photos.  I got the pictures in my computer, but I can’t say I finished this task as I haven’t labeled or organized them.

b. Finish the small sewing project I started the week before. Done. And is a success, as pictured below.  

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Work on the procedure manual. Nope.

b. Post two items for sale on Etsy. Posted one.

On to next week.  

A. WRITING

1. Finish polishing the proposal for “The Truth”.    

2. Go through “The Truth” again, as I am sure there are still typos.

3. Write three posts for the “Dino Chronicles”.

4. Work on the next project, whether it is the one I started to outline last week or one of the four others I have started previously.

B. REACHING

1. Read five other blogs and comment on three of them.  

            2. Send that polished proposal to that chosen literary agent.  

3. Promote “Where the Sky Meets the Sand”. Let’s work on this some more.  

            a. Message each new LinkedIn contact about the book.

            b. Ask three followers to write a review.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible.

2. Daily read “Paw Enforcement”. Get ¾ of the way through it. Am currently about half.  

3. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. 

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Do something physical twice every day.

b. Cut back on sweets.

c. Increase water intake. 

2. Home fires

a. Snap pictures of two dozen old photos. 

b. Finish yet another small sewing project I started yesterday.  

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Work on the procedure manual.

b. Post a blurb on all our social media.

Other than that, I’m just going to wait for the snow to melt. The highs are supposed to be in the thirties most of the coming week, so let’s hope.

I sewed a travel bag for our rainmate air purifier. 

It's also doubles as white noise when we're sleeping, so is a must-have in a hotel. 

The bag includes pockets for the bottles of smelly stuff too. 

Finding More Time

I finally decided what I am doing for Lent, you know, that thing Catholics used to do (or do they still do it? I haven’t talked to any Catholics who give up something for Lent anymore). You can read about it on my other blog here, but in a nutshell, I’m cutting way back on my time on Facebook. It is such a time-drain for me, almost an addiction. I can spend an entire evening just mindlessly scrolling through the feed and before I know it, it is time to go to bed and I have accomplished nothing. Hopefully, I can now be more productive. I know I’ve been reasonably close to reaching my goals each week, but I really need to work on getting “The Truth Beyond the River” published.

Here are last week’s goals. Green highlight is goal accomplished, yellow highlight is goal at least worked on, red lettering is goal not even attempted.  

A. WRITING

1. Finish the chapter by chapter summary of “The Truth Beyond the River”. Worked on seven chapters.

2. Start writing a proposal submitting “The Truth”. Yes, started.   

3. Write three posts to the “Dino Chronicles”. Yes, done.

B. REACHING

1. Read five other blogs and comment on three of them. Read seven and commented on five.   

2. Query a literary agent about “The Truth”. Still working on that proposal, but I have chosen the first agent I’m going to contact.    

3. Promote “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” in one totally painless way. I sent personal messages about the book with my twelve newest LinkedIn contacts.  

C. READING

1. Read daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Yes.

2. Daily read “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”. Yes, or I had until I got to the end of a chapter on Thursday, when I decided to give it a rest and read a lighter book, and then I read that one every day.  

3. Read daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”.  Yes.

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Do something physical twice every day. Hmm? Again, I came pretty close.

b. Cut back on sweets. Nope, not really.

c. Increase water intake.  Every day at work, but when I am home that water bottle is not in front of me and I forget.

2. Home fires

a. Snap pictures of two dozen old photos. Yes.

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Decide when and who will be going on trips this year.  My son Nick plans on going back to Kenya sometime in April. Right now no one else has offered to go with him, so if he doesn’t find someone, I guess he is on his own. Still not sure if I will be going in the fall. The people I have talked to all want to go in spring of 2019.  

b. But I did contact those people, sending them information and answering their questions via email.

c. Work on the procedure manual. Nope.

d. Post two items for sale on Etsy. Posted one item.

And what about next week.

A. WRITING

1. Finish the chapter by chapter summary of “The Truth Beyond the River”.

2. Finish writing the proposal for “The Truth”.    

3. Write three posts to the “Dino Chronicles”.

4. Outline the newest project I have had in my head. I know, what am I thinking? I know what I’m thinking – I’m thinking that a new group of characters have set up residence in my head, wanting me to tell their story and at least if I get something about them on paper (ok, in the computer), they will stop haunting me at night.  

B. REACHING

1. Read five other blogs and comment on three of them.  

            2. Send that finished proposal to that chosen literary agent.  

3. Promote “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” in one totally painless way.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible.

2. Daily read “Paw Enforcement”, a light novel I picked up a while back.

3. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. 

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Do something physical twice every day.

b. Cut back on sweets.

c. Increase water intake. 

2. Home fires

a. Snap pictures of two dozen old photos.  

b. Finish a little sewing project I started last week. 

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Work on the procedure manual.

b. Post two items for sale on Etsy.

That’s it. How about you? Are you tweaking your goals? Are you finding new ways to be more productive?

This is the best find of the whole year.
My sister Pat, on the left, on her eighth birthday, me the admiring baby sister on the right. 

Roller Coaster Week

The whole week was one big long roller coaster ride that I don’t need to revisit here. Time to just move on.

Here are last week’s goals. At least, with all my turmoil, I have a variety of color, maybe even leaning a little to the green. Green highlight is goal accomplished, yellow highlight is goal at least worked on, red lettering is goal not even attempted.  

A. WRITING

1. Finish the chapter by chapter summary of “The Truth Beyond the River”. Up to chapter 36, still have a way to go.

2. Start writing the other stuff I need for submitting “The Truth”, such as marketing plan and query letter. Nope.

3. Write three posts to the “Dino Chronicles”. Yup.

B. REACHING

1. Read five other blogs and comment on three of them. Read five and commented on three.
2. Choose a literary agent to query.  Am still researching agents, there are more out there than a person realizes.

3. Promote “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” in one totally painless way. I posted an excerpt from it on my other blog. And I also got a note from the lady I sold a book to. She wrote, “Thanks so much. Love the spacing of sentences. Easier reading. Cheers to your next book. Remember me.” What a sweetie, huh? I have her note tacked up above my computer for when I think I stink. 

C. READING

1. Read daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Yup.

2. Daily read “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”. I think so.

3. Read daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”.  Yup.

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Do something physical twice every day. Last Sunday, I started a graph to keep track of this, and then never got past marking it on Sunday. But I think I was pretty close to this goal.

b. Cut back on sweets. No, not really.

c. Increase water intake.  I really tried, as my right kidney area has been aching and I’m worried it’s another kidney stone.

2. Home fires

a. Snap pictures of two dozen old photos. Did 32 of them.

b. Get my son to fix the scanner so I can scan those pictures.  Nope, the creep didn’t make it to my house this weekend, though he was in town.

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Work on the procedure manual. Yeah! I got a pretty good start on it.
b. Sign up for two craft shows in the spring. Contacted two people regarding two shows.

c. Post two items for sale on Etsy. Nope, kind of forgot all about it.

We are having a meeting of Tumaini Volunteers today, so hopefully that will be productive. Other than that, I’ll be keeping the list pretty much the same for next week.

A. WRITING

1. Do fifteen more chapters of the chapter by chapter summary of “The Truth Beyond the River”.

2. Start writing a query letter for submitting “The Truth”.     

3. Write three posts to the “Dino Chronicles”.

B. REACHING

1. Read five other blogs and comment on three of them.  

            2. Choose a literary agent to query.  

3. Promote “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” in one totally painless way.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible.

2. Daily read “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”.

3. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. 

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Do something physical twice every day.

b. Cut back on sweets.

c. Increase water intake. 

2. Home fires

a. Snap pictures of two dozen old photos.  

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Decide when and who will be going on trips this year.   

c. Work on the procedure manual.

d. Post two items for sale on Etsy.

Not even worth it

I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what happened. All I know is that I did so horribly on my goals for last week that I am not even going to dredge them up here and splatter them with red. I think the only thing I accomplished from the list was reading and commenting on all of your wonderful blogs and sending out the tax-deductible donation letters for Tumaini Volunteers. I didn’t even post to my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles” or read the few things I want to read each day.

So here those goals are again, for me to try to tackle this week. 

A. WRITING

1. Finish the chapter by chapter summary of “The Truth Beyond the River”.

2. Start writing the other stuff I need for submitting “The Truth”, such as marketing plan and query letter.    

3. Write three posts to the “Dino Chronicles”.

B. REACHING

1. Read five other blogs and comment on three of them. 

            2. Choose a literary agent to query.   

3. Promote “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” in one totally painless way.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible.

2. Daily read “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”.

3. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. 

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Do something physical twice every day.

b. Cut back on sweets.

c. Increase water intake. 

2. Home fires

a. Snap pictures of two dozen old photos.  

b. Get my son to fix the scanner so I can return to scanning those pictures.  

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Work on the procedure manual.

b. Sign up for two craft shows in the spring.

c. Post two items for sale on Etsy.

Wishing I could be more low key next week and ease back into this list of goals, but here it is February and I gotta get it together. 

Picture from the 1980s, when I was living in Colorado.
I did get 36 of those old family photos in my laptop.  

The End of the Month. Almost.

Yikes! It’s almost the end of the month. Where did it go?

My daughter came up on Friday, the day I usually get the most done. But that’s okay, coz it’s more important to spend time with her. We did work a little bit on the nonprofit, though, so that was good.

I keep looking at how long these posts are and would like to make them shorter, as I know I don’t read really long blog posts. But I just have so many things going on and don’t want to cut anything out. All these different things keep me from getting bogged down. You know, like when one thing just isn’t speaking to me, I can go on to something else.

Oh, well, here we go with that long list. Goals fully achieved are highlighted in green, those attempted are highlighted in yellow, and those not even looked at are in red letters.

A. WRITING

1. Finish the chapter by chapter summary of “The Truth Beyond the River”. Taking longer than I thought. I’ve only done through chapter 22.

2. Start the other stuff I need for submitting “The Truth”, such as marketing plan and I can’t remember what else. Nope, not really.    

3. Write three posts to the “Dino Chronicles”. Done.

4. BONUS: I ran across a website for a magazine which sounds interesting and is taking submissions. I dredged up a story I had started years ago and wrote 564 words on it. The deadline, though, is the 31^st, so I will never get it done and polished in time. I will have to finish it and submit it the next time they have open submissions in June.

B. REACHING

1. Read four other blogs and comment on two of them. Read six and commented on four. (I think I could up the stakes on this goal.)

            2. Continue researching literary agents to contact.
            Have a list of three.

3. Promote “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” in one totally painless way so that I can stop feeling like such a loser about it. Apparently, it’s easier not to try.

a) I sent out copies to three different libraries in three different states, all to cities which are in the book. I don’t know if I’ll get any feedback, but at least that is three books in circulation (hopefully, if the librarians don’t just drop them in the recycling bin).

                        b) I sold two copies, one to a writer friend and one to a patient.

                        c) There’s another 5-star review of it on Amazon. Up to 22.

4. BONUS. My article on Smelt Fishing will run in the April/May issue of Our Wisconsin Magazine (see my previous posts).

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Up to date.

2. Daily read “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”. Yup, still only a third of the way through it though.

3. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. Up to date.   

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Exercise four mornings a week. Yup, 4 times.

b. Work out three evenings a week. Nope only twice, but shoveled snow twice, so that’s a workout. 

c. Do the two-minute drill at work eight times total. Only 6 times at work, but I did yoga three times with my daughter.  

d. Cut back on sweets. Nope.

e. Increase water intake. Doing pretty good at work, but not so much when I am home.

2. Home fires

a. Snap pictures of two dozen old photos. Nope.    

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Prepare the tax-deductible letters to send last year’s donors. Nope, my son swears he is going to do it.

b. Send the tentative itinerary for Medical Outreach in the Fall to the three people who have expressed interest. Nope, it dawned on me that I’m going to see them next weekend, so will wait.

c. Message the director of the volunteer organization we work with in Kenya about this possible trip. Yup, she thinks it sounds good.  

d. Post two items for sale on Etsy. Yup.

For the coming week:

A. WRITING

1. Finish the chapter by chapter summary of “The Truth Beyond the River”.

2. Start writing the other stuff I need for submitting “The Truth”, such as marketing plan and query letter.    

2. Write three posts to the “Dino Chronicles”.

B. REACHING

1. Read five other blogs and comment on three of them.  

            2. Choose a literary agent to query.   

3. Promote “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” in one totally painless way.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible.

2. Daily read “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”.

3. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. 

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Do something physical twice every day. (Breaking down exercise, work out and the two-minute drill during the day is getting lengthy, so am combing them all.)   

b. Cut back on sweets.

c. Increase water intake. 

2. Home fires

a. Snap pictures of two dozen old photos.  

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Make sure the tax-deductible letters went out, whether I did it or my son.   

b. Talk to three people about the possible trip next fall.  

c. Work on the procedure manual.

d. Post two items for sale on Etsy.

As the first month of the new year winds down, how are you coming along with your goals? Ready to tweak any of them? Best wishes with that.

The three dogs taking my daughter and I for a walk on Friday. 

Another week full of color

Once again, last week was a mixed bag, some wins, some loses, some super exciting news and somethings that stink. So, it is what it is.  

Here is how it panned out. Goals fully achieved are highlighted in green, those attempted are highlighted in yellow, and those not even looked at are in red letters.

A. WRITING

1. Type 5,000 words of “No Body Found”. I think I mentioned before that I have most of the story printed out from an ancient computer, so need to get it in my laptop.  Well, I don’t even remember where I put the old copy of it, and then I decided that the novel I just finished writing has sat for long enough, so I worked on that instead and . . .

2. BONUS: Start chapter by chapter summary of “The Truth Beyond the River.” As eluded to in #1, I was called to get this going instead.

3. Write three posts to the “Dino Chronicles”. Yes. And a bonus mid-week post on this blog.

B. REACHING

1. Read four other blogs and comment on two of them. Read five blogs and commented on four.  

2. Continue researching literary agents to contact. Yes. Found another one who might be good.  

3. Promote “Where the Sky Meets the Sand”. With all my good intentions, none of this really got done, except for Mail Chimp, which was still a bust.

a. Share an excerpt of the book on Social Media. No.

b. Put a quote of the book on one of my pictures from Kenya and share that on Social Media. Put a quote on a picture but never shared it.

c. Email that excerpt and quote to my email list. No.

d. Research Mail Chimp. Well, I signed up for it, but I do not anticipate ever using it. Way too complicated for me. I don’t have time for that. Maybe, I don’t know, maybe – no, I don’t foresee ever having time for that.    

4. BONUS: If you read my bonus post on Wednesday, you already know that an article I submitted nearly four years ago has been accepted and we are just waiting to see if the pictures I sent to go with the article will work.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Up to date.

2. Daily read “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”. Yes.

3. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. Up to date.

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Exercise four mornings a week. Exercised four mornings.

            b. Work out three evenings a week. Worked out two evenings.

c. Do the two-minute drill at work at least twice a day all four days I am at work, or eight times total. Did it six times.

d. Cut back on sweets and increase water intake. Oh, I was good some days and horrible others.    

2. Home fires

a. Pick out two dozen old pictures to scan. Snap a picture of them if I get a sunny day. Went a little nuts and organized about a quarter of the pictures. And took pictures of about 24 of them.   

b. Take down the Christmas tree. Undecorated it on Sunday and the hubby took it down Thursday.

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Work on the Procedure Manual. Nope.

b. Write a tentative itinerary for Medical Outreach in the Fall. Friday, I met two woman who are interested in a trip, probably spring of 2019, but talking to them at least motivated me to work on the trip for the fall. So, yes, I finally made up an itinerary.

c. Post two items for sale on Etsy. Nope. My daughter has all the stuff, so I told her she needs to take pictures of some of it for me to post.

Last week sure was a mess – good and bad. Let’s see if I can get down to an even keel this coming week and just plain have all green.

A. WRITING

1. Finish the chapter by chapter summary of “The Truth Beyond the River”.

2. Start the other stuff I need for submitting “The Truth”, such as marketing plan and I can’t remember what else.   

2. Write three posts to the “Dino Chronicles”.

B. REACHING

            1. Read four other blogs and comment on two of them.

            2. Continue researching literary agents to contact.

3. Promote “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” in one totally painless way so that I can stop feeling like such a loser about it.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible.

2. Daily read “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”.

3. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. 

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Exercise four mornings a week.

            b. Work out three evenings a week.

c. Do the two-minute drill at work eight times total.  

d. Cut back on sweets.

e. Increase water intake.  

2. Home fires

a. Snap pictures of two dozen old photos.   

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Prepare the tax-deductible letters to send last year’s donors.

b. Send the tentative itinerary for Medical Outreach in the Fall to the three people who have expressed interest.

c. Message the director of the volunteer organization we work with in Kenya about this possible trip.

d. Post two items for sale on Etsy.

 That looks like a mighty long list. Wish me luck. And best wishes on your own goals. 

 The scrub top I sewed the week before last and finally wore this past week. 

It was cut from a six foot square tapestry, hence the unique design. I love it!

The mess of old photos. 

 The beginnings of organization of said pictures.