Out with the Old...

So here is where I ended up for the Round. I took out my daily and weekly goals, just because I wanted to keep it short and simple. Turns out I have more yes’s than no’s. Yeah me.

I. READING – Goals for the Round           

1. Have finished reading five books. YES.     

II. WRITING - 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- Goals for the Round.

1. Have submitted three pieces somewhere.  YES.

2. Have booked three speaking engagements or book signings. No.  

IV. PERSONAL – Goals for the Round.

A. Exercise - Continue exercising three times a week. YES

B.  Tumani Volunteers – Have applied for tax exempt status. No.

C. Sewing - Finish three projects by the end of the year. YES

D. Church Christmas Program - By December 21, have written, organized, rehearsed and held our church’s Christmas program. YES       

E. Armageddon - 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. No, but I will blame that on the hubby, since this was a joint project.

I will be thinking of what to do next, how to make my goals more attainable or what goals I really should cut out for next year so that I don’t have a coronary.

Think that my hubby will have to get me a new board next year? Maybe not my best picture, but I really couldn't believe the hubby had this made for me.  

Winding Down and Checking Off Goals

I. READING –

A. Daily goal

1. Read two other blog posts a day. Na, I don’t think so.            

2. Read in at least one of the many books I am reading. Again, I don’t think so.       

B. Goals for the Round                           

1. Have finished reading five books. YES.     

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. No.     

c. Write my blog posts. Yes.

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. No, I have not. I am bummed out because sales are down on both books, but I really haven’t been doing any marketing on either one of them.  

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

3. Research markets for an hour.  Umm, 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.  YES. For the Round I submitted my book, “A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven” to the Xulon Press Writers Contest. I submitted my snow poem to Wilda Morris’s monthly poetry challenge. (I heard back already, by the way, and I did not win this month’s challenge.) And today, I submitted my piece about my angel encounter to “Chicken Soup for the Soul”.

2. Have booked three speaking engagements or book signings. No.  

IV. PERSONAL

A. Exercise - Continue exercising three times a week. I exercised three or four times. I got this totally crazy idea to run in a Mudder this summer. It is an obstacle course with running, ropes, climbing, crawling through mud. It sounds like fun but they say it is both a physical and mental challenge. I have to think on this some more and really get serious about training if I am going to do this.  

B. Nonprofit - Continue working on Tumaini Volunteers, Inc. No, but Izzo, our Kenyan contact, finally was able to get a Visa, so he is coming to the states this week. We hope to get together with him somehow, somewhere.  

C. Sewing - Finish three projects by the end of the year. YES. I sewed a scrub top for work this week (pictured below), as well as several teeny tiny Christmas projects.      

D. Church Christmas Program - By December 21, have written, organized, rehearsed and held our church’s Christmas program. YES. The program was last night and I have to admit it went off without a hitch.       

E. Armageddon - 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. I did buy a few supplies for the box. As soon as the hubby and I have a day off and no Christmas stuff going on, we will get this done.  

The new scrub top

The Christmas Program

“When life hands you garbage, write about it”

I really want to share the long story of the car accident I had the other day, but you really are going to have to check on my other blog in a few days, where I plan to post all the sordid details when I have the time. Or if you follow me on Facebook, some of the story is there too. But what do we do when life hands us things like this, we write, right?

I. READING –

A. Daily goal

1. Read two other blog posts a day. Probably close.           

2. Read in at least one of the many books I am reading. Also probably close.      

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have finished reading five books. YES.     

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. No.     

c. Write my blog posts. Yes.

d. Write a piece to submit somewhere. YES, two if you can believe it! See III.B.1 below. I also wrote a parody of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” as a going away present for a co-worker.   

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. Hmm? I don’t remember.

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

3. Research markets for an hour.  Technically not really but I did revisit the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” website about submitting an angel encounter piece.

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.  Can you believe that for the second week in a row I submitted something? A friend of mine puts out a poetry challenge every month and I have submitted to it in the past, though I admit I am no poet, but I think that it is a great way to hone those writing skills. The challenge this month was to write about snow. Now, doesn’t every one want to write about snowflakes falling softly and gently and use all these metaphors and clichés? Of course and how boring is that! Well, Thursday night I got in a car accident – I know. I plan to blog about that on my other blog next week – but the accident did inspire me to write a poem about the incident and even though the snow wasn’t a factor, it was there at the scene of the accident and was one of the things I noticed as I was standing about in the freezing cold waiting for the police to show up. See, we writers have to take any and all inspiration we can. So there. And I also wrote the piece about angels which I plan to submit this week to “Chicken Soup for the Soul”.

2. Have booked three speaking engagements or book signings. No.  

IV. PERSONAL

A. Exercise - Continue exercising three times a week. I exercised three or four times.   

B. Nonprofit - Continue working on Tumaini Volunteers, Inc.  I honestly don’t remember doing anything on the Nonprofit this week.

C. Sewing - Finish three projects by the end of the year. Ha, ha, ha, I need more material like I need another bowl of ice cream, but I bought some snowmen fabric to make a scrub top for work. I know that doesn’t count, but it is more inspiration.       

D. Church Christmas Program - By December 21, have written, organized, rehearsed and held our church’s Christmas program. Tomorrow morning, I will drop off the final draft of the program for our church secretary to copy. Then Wednesday I will do another walk-through with the gal who is helping me. Then all I can do is hope and pray everyone shows up and that they know their parts.       

E. Armageddon - 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.

Ok, so sorry that I don’t have time to give you details about the car accident, but here’s pictures of my poor baby car. Luckily our body shop guy is a friend and I know he will take good care of her. 

What's the title of this blog again?

It just dawned on me that I named this blog "writing what I can when I can". That was probably for a reason. right? Go figure. 

I. READING –

A. Daily goal

1. Read two other blog posts a day. No, not a chance.          

2. Read in at least one of the many books I am reading. No, but close.      

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have finished reading five books. Let’s say this is a completed goal for the round. I need to start putting some color on this list. YES.     

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. No, not this week.    

c. Write my blog posts. Yes.        

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. Hmm? I’m sure that I did something….

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

3. Research markets for an hour.  Yes, I actually did this and found a contest to submit my book to. See B1 below.      

4. Keep up on social media, responding to all messages.  Yes, but I have an email hanging out there that I have to answer regarding my publishing experience. I need to get on that.     

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

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have submitted three pieces somewhere.  Can you believe that finally I submitted something somewhere.  I entered “A Time for Every Purpose” in the Christian Writers Award sponsored by Xulon Press.   

2. Have booked three speaking engagements or book signings. No.  

IV. PERSONAL

A. Exercise - Continue exercising three times a week. I exercised four or five times.   

B. Nonprofit - Continue working on Tumaini Volunteers, Inc.  I honestly don’t remember doing anything on the Nonprofit this week, but our IT guy updated our website, so check it out. Tumaini Volunteers, Inc.  

C. Sewing - Finish three projects by the end of the year. Didn’t I finish sewing one top this Round? The other night I sewed a super simply decoration, but I am counting that too.      

D. Church Christmas Program - By December 21, have written, organized, rehearsed and held our church’s Christmas program. It’s coming along. Two weeks to go. I have lots of time, right?      

E. Armageddon - 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. 

Two of the kids in my Christmas program want to do a piano solo of "Away in the Manger", so I am letting them. (Remember, they want to do a solo, not a duet.) "Silent Night" is the only thing I could play on the piano when I was their age. 

American Gothic - maybe not

Wednesday seems to come around awful fast. Considering that so far this week I have clocked in twenty-eight hours at work and four and a half hours at church I don’t know how I could’ve gotten anything else done. And I haven’t. Plain and simple.  I can’t think of a single one of my goals that I have worked on, except maybe the Christmas program which did eat up some of those hours at church.

And looking forward to Sunday’s post, I don’t think the facts are going to change much. I usually have Fridays off from the day job (the paying job!), but I have to work all day this Friday. Both the hubby and I have off on Saturday so we are toying with the idea of doing some Christmas shopping. That’s a crazy idea; Christmas is three weeks away! Heavens, why rush into things. I did get one Christmas present in the mail today, so I guess that is something I achieved. And while the hubby was at the post office, he bought postage stamps. I think he was hinting that Christmas cards should be written. That silly boy.

But, oh, well, life goes on. Remind me next year that I am taking the entire month of December off, ok?

 After a long Thanksgiving day. Apparently my week is getting just as long. 

Some days are diamonds, some days are stones

Had some ups and downs this week. But I guess that's how it goes, right?

I. READING –

A. Daily goal

1. Read two other blog posts a day. No, but I came close.         

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

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have finished reading five books. Last night I finished reading my fifth book, “Tessa – From Fear to Faith”, by Melissa Wiltrout. I suppose I need to finish one of the other books I am reading before I start another.     

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. Yes, yes, yes, finally!   

c. Write my blog posts. I think I posted to this blog twice and my other blog three times.       

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 took “The Christmas Story in 40 Days” into a local business on Wednesday. She took five copies. She emailed me on Friday and asked me to bring in another ten. When I took them in later in the day, she wrote me a check for all 15 of them, even though she had only sold two of them. She was confident she could sell the rest of them by Christmas.  

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 hadn’t run on the treadmill all week and by Wednesday the hubby was bugging me to help him carry it downstairs so our living room would have enough room over the holidays. I am pretty sure this goal will have a big NO the rest of the month.  

2. Continue exercising three times a week. I exercised three, maybe four, times.   

B. Nonprofit

1. Continue working on Tumaini Volunteers, Inc.

a. Work on the IRS form 1023 and other such paperwork. I worked for a couple hours on the 1023. What a horrible form. Everyone keeps saying we need to get a lawyer, but you all know what lawyers charge, right? So I think we are going to do everything on the form that we can and still try to find a lawyer who will look at it once it is finished and not charge an arm and a leg.

b. Work on Fundraising. Yesterday we sold our Kenyan goods at another craft show. Got rid of a lot of stuff and made a few bucks. Now we have enough money to send in our 1023 form, as soon as we get it finished.

                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. Have a few kids signed up, have to start working on more kids. The Sunday School kids have to participate, it’s all our middle and high schoolers that I have to bug.     

                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. I asked my kids what skills they had to bring to the Apocolypse Table. They thought I was crazy at first. The son is a good fisherman, so that helps. The daughter seems to think her greatest skill is repopulating the earth; I am so thankful that she hasn’t started doing that already.   

The daughter selling the stuff she brought back from Kenya.