Chipping Away

Sunday I posted a picture of the Zamboni, the only picture I had of an ice skating rink. Today I stumbled upon a Hockey Duck. He was only a buck so I just couldn’t pass him up. I was pretty excited. Now I have to continue with the skating theme, even though I don’t have any words of wisdom to go with it.

I have one huge revelation! I actually started working on my novel again. Maybe it’s not as exciting as I claim it is, since I only wrote 830 words, but those are 830 words I didn’t have last week.

Other than that, I am holding my own this week. Chipping away at those goals, like a frustrated hockey player chipping away at the ice. Ha! I knew I could find an ice hockey analogy.

Have a good week, everyone, and a safe and happy Thanksgiving. The family will be coming over tomorrow and I am thankful that I am able to accommodate them and that my husband does the mashed potatoes. 

Being a writer means never having to say you're sorry

 “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Really? Do you remember that line – used twice – from the sappiest movie ever made? I think I even read the book, thinking, somehow, it just had to be better than Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw mooning all over each other. Have I ever told you that the one genre I can’t stand to read is romance? Surprise.

But this is what I at least have learned – or at least what I have stolen – from that piece of literary fodder. “Being a writer means never having to say you’re sorry.” Which means, no more apologizing for not coming close to reaching my goals. We all do the best that we can in any given week, and all those things we don’t accomplish, we just leave out at the ice rink as the snow slowly falls. (You all have seen the movie, right? It’s been a long time, so correct me if there really was no scene like that.)

(I don't have any pictures of an outdoor ice rink, but the solitude of the Zamboni driver must come close to what Oliver was feeling, right?)

I. READING –

A. Daily goal

1. Read two other blog posts a day. No, I don’t think so.        

2. Read in at least one of the many books I am reading. No, I don’t think so either.     

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have finished reading five books. I am holding my own at four books so far.   

II. WRITING

A. Daily goal

1. Work on something for two hours a day. Definitely not.   

a. Work on “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”, the second book in the Bible Stories in 40 Days series. No.         

b. Write on my novel. Still, no.  

c. Write my blog posts. Here is a record, I missed not one, but two blog posts, one in each of my blogs.      

B. Goals for the Round.

1. Have published “The Christmas Story in 40 Days”. YES.

2. Have finished the first draft of “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”. No.   

3. Have finished my novel.  No.

III. REACHING

A.      Weekly goal.

1. Have promoted either one of my books on one other site or in person. I got “The Christmas Story in 40 Days” into another local bookstore. The manager was actually very excited about it. I also personally sold ten copies of “The Christmas Story” and two copies of “A Time for Every Purpose” this week.

2. Comment on two other blog posts. I think so.   

3. Research markets for an hour.  No.     

4. Keep up on social media, responding to all messages.  Yes, just barely.    

5. Have contacted one organization about a speaking engagement. No.

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have submitted three pieces somewhere.  Umm, no.  

2. Have booked three speaking engagements or book signings.  Umm, no.  

IV. PERSONAL

A. Exercise

1. Continue to run outside as weather permits or on the treadmill at least three times a week. I ran three times on the treadmill.

2. Continue exercising three times a week. I exercised three times.   

B. Nonprofit

1. Continue working on Tumaini Volunteers, Inc. Ok, so if you want to know what I did all week, this is probably where most of my time went. I set up all our Kenyan goods at my work on Wednesday. I sold a whole bunch of stuff. Yesterday, I set it up again at a craft sale in my hometown. I didn’t do as well, but I got the word out about Tumaini and got some ideas for making the craft show next weekend go over better. Besides the time setting up and taking down both these days and spending the entire day there yesterday, I spent a few hours making signs, pricing items, packing items, etc.  

                C. Sewing

1. Finish three projects by the end of the year. No, not yet.     

D. Church Christmas Program

1. By December 21, have written, organized, rehearsed and held our church’s Christmas program. Today I really need to start calling people to get them signed up.  

                E. Armageddon

1. By the end of the year, have gotten together supplies for most any conceivable crisis, natural or man-made, which could cause life as we know it to come to a crashing halt. Still a work in progress.   

With the holiday this weekend, and a few days off of the day job, I might get something done this week. And I will not apologize to anyone on Thursday if my turkey doesn’t turn out. 

Baby steps are better than no steps

My first book has been out for nearly a year. I finally decided it was time to dissemble the board of Post-it notes which kept me on track during the two years of writing it.

I really just needed the board for something else, but now what am I going to do with the Post-it notes? They don’t take up much space. Can’t I keep them? Baby steps.

Speaking of baby steps, I took a few this week. Looks like I might be back on track.

I. READING –

A. Daily goal

1. Read two other blog posts a day. Yes, maybe, I think so.       

2. Read in at least one of the many books I am reading. Yes.     

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have finished reading five books. I finished reading “The Glass Castle” so I feel I am doing pretty good, having read four books so far.   

II. WRITING

A. Daily goal

1. Work on something for two hours a day. Really? With all the computer time I log in, I certainly had to come close this time.  

a. Work on “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”, the second book in the Bible Stories in 40 Days series. Yes! Can you believe it? I finally worked on it the other night, writing two days of devotions.                  

b. Write on my novel. Still, no.  

c. Write my blog posts. Yes, I finally got back on track with blogging.     

B. Goals for the Round.

1. Have published “The Christmas Story in 40 Days”. Let’s just leave this with a big YES. And I have sold, um, twelve so far from my supply. And my publisher tells me that they are selling on the internet.

2. Have finished the first draft of “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”. I should figure out an estimate of where I am with this. Let me look. Ok, so I have 25 days out of the 40 at least started. It all naturally will need a ton of editing and revising, but I am 25/40 there.  

3. Have finished my novel.  How about if I become realistic and say, “Have looked at my novel at least once in the last six months.”.

III. REACHING

A.      Weekly goal.

1. Have promoted either one of my books on one other site or in person. I took “The Christmas Story in 40 Days” on a tour of local bookstores. The first store took six copies on consignment. The second store was going out of business. The third store had a big sign in the window saying “Building for sale by owner”, so I didn’t even go in. (I am not kidding, it was pretty disheartening.) The fourth store had a big sign in their window saying, “No Solicitation”, which probably means more like “Don’t come peddling your girl scout cookies here”, but it was enough to crush my spirit. I want to support the brick-and-mortar stores and I want them to support me, but it didn’t happen last week. Maybe next week.  

2. Comment on two other blog posts. Yes.  

3. Research markets for an hour.  Kind of. A friend sent me a link to a book contest, so I looked into that. That counts, right?    

4. Keep up on social media, responding to all messages.  Yes. I had one person e-mail that they are thinking about signing with my publisher, so they had lots of questions for me on my experiences. And a writer-friend from out of town called with the same questions and was gracious enough to ask me to mail her my first book as she hadn’t read it yet.   

5. Have contacted one organization about a speaking engagement. No.

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have submitted three pieces somewhere.  Hmm? I don’t know if I can pull this off.

2. Have booked three speaking engagements or book signings.  I know I won’t be able to pull this off.

IV. PERSONAL

A. Exercise

1. Continue to run outside as weather permits or on the treadmill at least three times a week. I ran three times on the treadmill.

2. Continue exercising three times a week. I exercised three or four times.   

B. Nonprofit

1. Continue working on Tumaini Volunteers, Inc. Our board met on Monday and looked at the IRS form 1023 which we need to get filled out to apply for tax exempt status. That form is horrible. We really need to get a professional to help with it, so my daughter has been working connections for that. I signed up for a craft show here in Tomahawk on the 23^rd and I am setting up a table at work this Wednesday. If anybody wants to buy Kenyan crafts, let me know. Supplies are limited.

                C. Sewing

1. Finish three projects by the end of the year. I finished that top for work a while back, but that is it.    

    D. Church Christmas Program

1. By December 21, have written, organized, rehearsed and held our church’s Christmas program. I have the program pretty much written. Hope to start roping in some of the older kids this week.

                E. Armageddon

1. By the end of the year, have gotten together supplies for most any conceivable crisis, natural or man-made, which could cause life as we know it to come to a crashing halt. As mentioned in my last post, my husband and I have started making lists and putting together our food, water, tools and other supplies.  

Now it is on to the next week! Full steam ahead!

Hump Day Humph

On Sunday’s post I mentioned that I might add two more personal goals. Here are the stories behind each of them.  

First of all, I got roped into working on the Children’s Christmas Program for church again this year. I knew that I would, so I don’t know why I wasn’t working on it months ago. I met with our teacher last week and she gave me some potential programs and I had already looked on the internet and through some books I had found at church. Historically we have always had poor participation at rehearsals, plus we will have maybe a dozen elementary age kids and about the same number of junior high and high school kids. And no budget. Meaning we have to keep it simple.

Last Friday night I talked on the phone with the mom who is going to work on this with me and we at least came up with a theme. I sat down last night, looked at all the material I had gathered so far and said, “I just have to write this myself from scratch.” So that’s what I did until 11:00 last night.

So, the program is 90% written. It needs some tweaking and my music director is going to have to help us pick out what songs to use, but otherwise I think it is ok. The rest of the goal from now until December 21, the night of the program, is to pull it all together.

Second new goal, and now I might lose you. My husband and I have been talking for a few years about getting our emergency supplies together. We want to be prepared for anything, from the realistic (we are hit with a huge blizzard, the power is out for days, we can’t get out of the yard, much less into town, what do we have on hand that we can live off of, can we keep the house warm, etc.) to the barely remotely possible (the US is under nuclear attack, the Twin Cities is targeted, we need to travel as far north as we can to avoid radiation fall-out, do we have stuff ready to throw in the car, do we have enough gas, how fast can we be ready to move out, etc.) to the paranoid sci-fi (the country has made it mandatory that we all have computer chips implanted to be able to do any financial transactions, seek medical treatment, make any purchases, my husband and I are committed that we will not bow down to Big Brother in this way, how long can we last holed up in our house, with the supplies that we have, what is our contingency plan, etc.)

Saturday we started working on our lists and gathering our supplies. My goal by the end of the year is to have everything together and ready for any kind of catastrophe, holocaust or crisis that might bombard us. Anybody else sharing that wavelength with me?

You might also be thinking that these two goals are counterproductive. I am planning a Children’s Program at the same time I am planning for the end of the world? My husband’s rationale is that no matter how much faith a person has you still have a will to live. I don’t know. I believe it is all in God’s hands, but I just rather die warm and cozy with a full belly. 

You can never spend too much time with a teen-age girl.

Can I give you my list of excuses for this week? On Monday, I worked until seven; on Tuesday, I had a meeting of our women’s group at church until almost nine; on Wednesday, I met with our Sunday School teacher to discuss our Christmas program; on Thursday, I went to a Pampered Chef party until eight; on Friday – my glorious day off – I took my mom shopping and to a doctor’s appointment in the city 40 miles away, came home dropped her off, picked up my kinship kid and took her back to the same city 40 miles away to buy her a dress for next Friday’s dance. Oh, but that was the highlight of my week, seeing that beautiful 15-year-old modeling the most beautiful dress. Don’t know why I didn’t get her picture. If she doesn’t send me a picture on Friday when she is all dressed, with hair and makeup, waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up, I will have to disown her.

Bowling with the Kinskid a couple weeks ago. We have to savor every moment with our teen-agers before they are gone. 

So, here, instead of my list of accomplishments, is my list of failures this week.

I. READING –

A. Daily goal

1. Read two other blog posts a day. Yes.       

2. Read in at least one of the many books I am reading. Yes.     

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have finished reading five books. I finished reading “Out of Mormonism” bringing my total to three books this Round. I am almost done with “The Glass Castle” and have started reading “Tessa”.  

II. WRITING

A. Daily goal

1. Work on something for two hours a day. Nope, I didn’t come close on this one.

a. Work on “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”, the second book in the Bible Stories in 40 Days series. I didn’t even look at it.    

b. Write on my novel. When is the last time I looked at my novel? Three or four months ago? I am so bad.

c. Write my blog posts. No, I didn’t even do this. I once again missed my Thursday post on my other blog. Argh. I need a swift kick in the back side.    

B. Goals for the Round.

1. Have published “The Christmas Story in 40 Days”. I am still waiting for my supply of copies to sell, other than that I would say this is completed, since both the print book and the eBook are available on all the major websites.

2. Have finished the first draft of “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”. I don’t know about getting this done. I know I have plenty of time, just lacking the motivation.

3. Have finished my novel.  Umm, no, see A1b above.

III. REACHING

A.      Weekly goal.

1. Have promoted either one of my books on one other site or in person. No, not really.

2. Comment on two other blog posts. Yes.  

3. Research markets for an hour.  NO.   

4. Keep up on social media, responding to all messages.  Yes.  

5. Have contacted one organization about a speaking engagement. No.

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have submitted three pieces somewhere.  Hmm? I don’t know if I can pull this off.

2. Have booked three speaking engagements or book signings.  I know I won’t be able to pull this off.

IV. PERSONAL

A. Exercise

1. Continue to run outside as weather permits or on the treadmill at least three times a week. I ran twice on the treadmill.

2. Continue exercising three times a week. I exercised three or four times.   

B. Nonprofit

1. Continue working on Tumaini Volunteers, Inc. Two developments here. One bad – the craft show we were going to have a table at yesterday was cancelled, so no income this week. One good – our website is up and running, no thanks to me, but I will take what I can get.

                C. Sewing

1. Finish three projects by the end of the year. Natta.   

I need more goals like I need a hole in the head, but is it too late to add two more things to my list? I am fully entrenched in our church’s Christmas program, and my husband and I have gotten back to getting our emergency supplies together. Let me dwell on these for the week and see if I add them by next Sunday’s check-in. I will give you more details then if I add these.

 Wish me luck this week! Sounds like I need it!

You can never spend too much time with old friends.

On Sunday, I posted that I spent the day Saturday at a medical assistant conference, where I was able to get caught up with friends from around the state. Friends which I only see at these conferences a few times a year. I took the scenic route there however, stopping at another friend's house just to visit for a few hours. I've known Susan since my first writers conference in 2010, and though we live only 40 miles apart, we only see each other at the Green Lake Writers Conference. Earlier in the week, I had emailed her and said, if you aren't busy Friday I am going to stop in. We had a great visit.

 

Then on Sunday, more old friends. Three of the women I worked with at my last job descended upon my house. Because they each work weekends, it's hard to find a day we are all able to get together. Last week when Linda called and said, we are all off on Sunday and we are coming over, what could I say? Again, it was another great visit.

 

The bottom line, not much reading, writing or reaching got done this week. But laughing and bonding with old friends is worth more than gold. I'm just sorry that I didn't take pictures of everyone!!!

This is yet another friend, Lisa Klarner. She spoke about social anxiety disorder at our conference on Saturday and it was great catching up with her too.  

Take time to connect with old friends.

I attended a daylong seminar yesterday for my profession of medical assisting. That bit into the goals, but I still did ok. It was also good to get out of town and reconnect with old friends. 

I. READING –

A. Daily goal

1. Read two other blog posts a day. Yes.       

2. Read in at least one of the many books I am reading. Yes.     

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have finished reading five books. Ok, I have finished reading two, and am half-way through “The Glass Castle” and three-quarters way through “Out of Mormonism”.  

II. WRITING

A. Daily goal

1. Work on something for two hours a day. No, not even close. 

a. Work on “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”, the second book in the Bible Stories in 40 Days series. I think I may have looked at it last Sunday but that is it.  

b. Write on my novel. I have decided that I am not doing NaNoWriMo. Who decided to do this novel writing challenge in November in the first place? It is probably the third busiest month, following December and whatever month in the spring (April or May, but sometimes not until June around here) that the weather turns nice. I think it is more realistic for my schedule to challenge myself in January.

c. Write my blog posts. Yes, I got these done this week, posting a day late on my Thursday post.   

B. Goals for the Round.

1. Have published “The Christmas Story in 40 Days”. The first print copy arrived in my mail box on Thursday. I showed it off to eight or ten people at work and another six or seven at my conference yesterday. Got wonderful feedback, so I emailed my publisher and said start the presses. I should have my supply in about ten days.

2. Have finished the first draft of “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”. Umm, not yet, but I might be able to still do this. I think I have 28 days started.

3. Have finished my novel.  Umm, no, see A1b above.

III. REACHING

A.      Weekly goal.

1. Have promoted either one of my books on one other site or in person. Hmm? I know that I did something, I must have, right? Just can’t remember what other than going crazy annoying my social media network that the book is finished. Also, as noted above, I promoted the book in person (and added that to this goal) and half a dozen people want to buy a copy as soon as I have extra for them. So I think that counts.   

2. Comment on two other blog posts. Yes.  

3. Research markets for an hour.  NO.   

4. Keep up on social media, responding to all messages.  Yes.  

5. Have contacted one organization about a speaking engagement. Yes, I emailed a fellow blogger who also hosts a radio show. She did get right back to me that her calendar is full until the first of the year. At least I heard back.  

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have submitted three pieces somewhere.

2. Have booked three speaking engagements or book signings.

  

IV. PERSONAL

A. Exercise

1. Continue to run outside as weather permits or on the treadmill at least three times a week. I ran twice on the treadmill. I even tried to get my dog to run on the treadmill. At least he doesn’t freak out being on, but he just doesn’t understand that he needs to stay on it and run instead of running up and over the frontend. He tries to make his mommy happy.    

2. Continue exercising three times a week. I think I exercised three times, twice for sure.  

B. Nonprofit

1. Continue working on Tumaini Volunteers, Inc. I continued posting to our Facebook page at least a couple times this week. I also got the information for another craft show the end of the month.  

                C. Sewing

1. Finish three projects by the end of the year. Natta.   

At my work conference yesterday. Julie and I go waaay back, probably to 1988. She's a sweetie.