Things Are Coming Up GREEN

I. READING

A. Weekly goal

1. Read my assigned blog posts as a ROW80 sponsor.  I think I did this.

2. Read ten hours a week in one of the books I am reading.  I started reading “Crooked Lines” by Holly Michael. I am also still working on the manuscript that a friend of a friend gave me to review. The woman called me the other day and left a message for me, asking how it was going. I called her back and left a message for her that I apologize that I am only half-way done reading it. I talked to the initial friend who gave it to me and she says that her friend really hopes to publish it. It needs soooo much work, though, I really don’t know how to tell the woman that.

B. Goals for the Round                           

1. Have finished reading five books.  I am still at four.  “The Boy at the Museum”, “Years of Stone”, “Sell Your Book Like Wildfire”, and “The Two-Edged Sword”.     

II. WRITING

A. Weekly goal

1. Work on my novel, “Tale of an American Woman”. I didn’t work on it again this week.

2. Edit “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”, the second book in the Bible Stories in 40 Days series. I finished editing it yesterday afternoon, adding 750 words in the last ten days. I needed a word count of between 10,000 and 11,000, and came in right at 10,495.  Yeah! Keep reading, it gets better.

 3. Write two blog posts here and three posts to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles. I blogged here twice and three times in the Dino Chronicles.

B. Goals for the Round.  

1. Have finished the first round of edits for “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”. Finished!

2. Start editing my novel.   To be honest, I don’t know when this is going to happen.

III. REACHING

A.      Weekly goal.

1. Promote either one of my books on one other site or in person. I didn’t technically do this, but am going to have my books available at the flea market today (see below).

2. Comment on my assigned blogs for ROW80. I think I may have missed one.  

3. Research markets for an hour. No, I did not.

4. Walk several streets of town, taking pictures and blogging about it.  Walked three times, actually, and then my camera jammed up on Tuesday which completely threw me for a loop. Luckily I got it going again, but not without eating half an apple pie for dinner.

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have submitted three pieces somewhere. Still at two submssions.

2. Have sent a copy of “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days” to my clergy-friends for their input. So, believe it or not, I finished the round of edits Saturday afternoon and immediately printed off two copies. I took one to church last night, on the off-chance that we would have the visiting pastor who had read the first one. You guessed it! Both he and his wife were there and both seem excited to read my latest devotional!

3. Have finished walking every street in my town.  I think I have decided that I will concentrate on finishing the city streets in town, and worry about the outlying residential neighborhoods come spring. Do you think my faithful followers will mind?

IV. PERSONAL

A. Nonprofit – Tumaini Volunteers – Today we are taking our stuff to a flea market to sell. We were going to go yesterday, but the forecast was for rain. I also have an idea for posting our own challenge to the internet, but haven’t heard back from our board members as to whether or not they think it is a good idea. 

B. Sewing -- Finish one project this Round. Yes! Sewed one dress.

C. Church – Get addresses for our college kids and find them all mentors.  We have nine college students and I have addresses for all but two. I have three kids matched up with their mentors. This is way better than I have done in previous years. 

If you were with me earlier in the week, I was lamenting about the ALS ice bucket challenge. On Friday, the hubby and I pulled off an awesome photo shoot with Dino the Wonder Dog. I could not have been happier with the results. If you follow me on Facebook, check it out. If we aren’t friends, these few pictures will have to do. 

A whole lot of nothing

I feel like a whole lot of nothing has happened since I posted last. I know that no writing got done, but I did walk after work on Monday. A former co-worker tagged along, so it was good to catch up, even if I did blow out my sandal.

On Sunday I was also nominated for the ALS ice bucket challenge. Has that gotten completely out of control or what? And being the writer that I claim to be, I feel I could be more creative than dumping a bucket of water on my head. But I kind of choked. My saving grace is that I nominated my dog, not that I mean to put the pressure on him, but some days it seems his creative juices flow as much as mine. (Oh, really? That wasn’t creative juices, that was dog gas?)

I’ve been thinking of a way to get a challenge like that to go viral for our nonprofit organization. I think I will do something on conserving water, and challenge everyone to post a creative way that they save water. I need to bounce it off our board of directors , I suppose, or at least get them to be the first ones to post a challenge.

With the long Labor Day weekend coming up, it would be nice to get a lot done, but unfortunately I have overcommitted myself again. I need to bake and deliver those baked goods to town by ten Friday morning for a fundraiser for Kinship, spend a few hours Friday sorting through the items we have for sale for the nonprofit, go shopping with the hubby, then Saturday morning leave the house by seven am to go to a flea market to sell our nonprofit goods, be home in time to usher at church Saturday night, go to town Sunday morning to help with the bake sale for Kinship. I think that’s it. That’s all. Not much. And spend Monday with my daughter and her fiancé. Maybe. Unless she comes up with other plans. Oh, and back up to Friday – I’ve decided to start coloring my hair again. I know, but it’s not even covering the grey so much, as that the hair color actually softens my hair and makes it not so course-feeling. I just don’t know what else to do with it, it is like straw.

Ok, so that’s it. Until next time. 

What Path Am I Wandering?

I. READING

A. Weekly goal

1. Read my assigned blog posts as a ROW80 sponsor.  I think I did this.

2. Read ten hours a week in one of the books I am reading.  I’ve been reading when I can. That’s the joy of the Kindle, I can carry the two or three books that I am reading with me everywhere.    

B. Goals for the Round                           

1. Have finished reading five books.  I have finished four!  “The Boy at the Museum”, “Years of Stone” and “Sell Your Book Like Wildfire”, and yesterday I added “The Two-Edged Sword” to the list.    

II. WRITING

A. Weekly goal

1. Work on my novel, “Tale of an American Woman”. I have written through chapter 31, but got bogged down this week and didn’t get more than that done.  

2. Edit “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”, the second book in the Bible Stories in 40 Days series. I have edited the first 30 days, 10 more to go!

 3. Write two blog posts here and three posts to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles. I blogged here twice but only twice in the Dino Chronicles as well. That’s just how it goes.

B. Goals for the Round.  

1. Have finished the first round of edits for “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”. What does that come out to?  75% finished?

2. Start editing my novel.   To be honest, I don’t know when this is going to happen.

III. REACHING

A.      Weekly goal.

1. Promote either one of my books on one other site or in person. I am pretty sure this did not happen.

2. Comment on my assigned blogs for ROW80. Yes, I did this.

3. Research markets for an hour. No, I did not.

4. Walk several streets of town, taking pictures and blogging about it.  Walked one night, and it was only a few streets, but I took a ridiculous 40 pictures. Thank goodness for digital photography. 

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have submitted three pieces somewhere. Still at two submssions.

2. Have sent a copy of “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days” to my clergy-friends for their input. No, but hopefully I can get it out in the next week or two.

3. Have finished walking every street in my town.  Maybe I am halfway done. Which wouldn’t be so bad, but have you noticed that summer is almost over?

IV. PERSONAL

A.      Get in Shape – Let’s not even keep track anymore, let’s just say no.

B.   Nonprofit – Tumaini Volunteers – Haven’t done much and now that my daughter is starting to plan her wedding for next year, her head is just not even on Kenya anymore. I hope to start on our business plan next week.   

C.   Sewing -- Finish one project this Round. Yes! Sewed that adorable dress, and then last night it dawned on me that I have a wedding the end of October that I should sew another dress for. Am I craaaazy?  

D.   Church -- Our college kids are leaving for school and I still haven’t gotten their addresses or gotten them mentors. I need to get on this, don’t I?

For those of you who read my post on Wednesday, I had my appointment with my nurse practitioner on Friday. As we all know, there are no easy answers to female problems. We are going to try a few hormones as well as Bio-Feedback. I think most of us realize what we need to do – relaxation, deep breathing, all that – but I think a person needs to go to someone who knows what they are doing and leads you down the right path instead of letting you go wandering down any path that looks good.

 And sometimes the path we wander is filled with flowers and sometimes it is filled with weeds and thorns. This was at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, where we were this weekend. A good chance to just unwind.

Throw me a Life Line (Warning: graphic subject matter)

I managed to finish chapter 30 in my novel and edited five more days in my devotional. I also have continued to document the demolition of the old hospital in our town. Over all, I should be feeling pretty good about things, but instead I have turned into a mud puddle.

The affliction I talked about last month has returned and has not abated as it should have. The physical ailment is not nearly as bad as the emotional one.

Ok my apologies to any males reading this, or any females who feel this is too delicate a subject. I am reminded of the New Testament story where a woman had a bleeding disorder for many years (Matthew 9:20). I know the Bible doesn’t say what kind of problem this was, but I am firmly convinced that she had menorrhagia, the medical term for heavy periods. I tell myself that if this happened to women two thousand years ago, why shouldn’t it happen now? But why should it happen to me? 

And at 52 years old, I also remember that women just a few generations ago were put in insane asylums when they went through menopause because their hormones made them so crazy that no one knew what to do with them.

I went for five months without a period, and was feeling pretty good that I was cruising into menopause without any of the hormonal roller coaster. I was even in such a good mood at work, that everyone was noticing and asking what was up.

Then, boom, the rug got pulled out from under me and the ovaries sought their revenge. Not only did they tell my uterus to be a jerk, they went straight to my brain and said "be a bitch".

So I made an appointment with my nurse practitioner for Friday. I know that she won’t have any instant cure for me, but maybe knowing that they are not sending me to the insane asylum will help. And I know there are some good drugs out there, I just hate the side effects and what they do to your body in the long run.

Sigh. Thanks for listening and I hope I haven’t offended anyone – no, I don’t really care. If we all have to watch all those commercials for erectile dysfunction, you can hear about my issues too. 

The End is in Sight

Woof-da! All I can say is that it is time to start highlighting my list of goals in green for the accomplishments I can cross off my list for this Round. And how much longer is this Round?

I. READING

A. Weekly goal

1. Read my assigned blog posts as a ROW80 sponsor.  I think I did this.

2. Read ten hours a week in one of the books I am reading.  I am switching off between “The Two-Edged Sword”, by Caye Bartell, and “God Called . . . He Wants Your Answer”. I just liked that title. It is pretty good, but I just wish I had a title like that for my WIP.  

B. Goals for the Round                           

1. Have finished reading five books.  I am still at three, “The Boy at the Museum”, “Years of Stone” and “Sell Your Book Like Wildfire”, but should be able to finish another one this week.   

II. WRITING

A. Weekly goal

1. Work on my novel, “Tale of an American Woman”. I have finished chapter 31, and started crying as I typed, which I hope is a good thing, as I was crying for my protagonist and not for myself. I had cheated though and still have to go back and write chapter 30, then it is about two more chapters and I am DONE! I also added a prologue. I know that some publishers (some readers too?) don’t like prologues, but I think I need it to really pull the reader in. And because it is in a different time and place from the rest of the beginning of the book, I don’t want to make it chapter one. I guess we will have to see what editors and important people think about it when the book is finished. 

2. Edit “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”, the second book in the Bible Stories in 40 Days series. I have edited the first 15 days, 25 more to go!

 3. Write two blog posts here and three posts to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles. I did this. And let me tell you a little about my other blog. I usually write a devotion or something else inspirational on Sunday, and then blog about whatever pops into my head on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Seeing as it is vacation season, a lot of my recent posts have been about – duh – vacations. But I also have a summer goal to walk every street in my town and blog about it. I have been striving to do that once a week, because I still work fulltime and need to sleep once in a while. But on top of that, they are tearing down our old hospital and I have somehow gotten myself all wrapped up in chronicling that. So, my other bog, for at least the next few weeks, will be all about the little city I call home.

B. Goals for the Round.  

1. Have finished the first round of edits for “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”. What did I say? Like 37% finished?

2. Start editing my novel.   Just a few more days and I can jump into this.  

III. REACHING

A.      Weekly goal.

1. Promote either one of my books on one other site or in person. I got a call from my publisher on Friday. They want to try something different with the e-version of “The Christmas Story in 40 Days”. It’s that whole pricing thing with Amazon. I told them to go ahead and we’ll see what happens. I am excited that they thought to do this for me and hope the book starts taking off as we roll into fall, because it really is an item that people only buy around Christmas, right? And the better that book does, the better my chances with the second book in that series.

2. Comment on my assigned blogs for ROW80. Yes, I did this.

3. Research markets for an hour. Yes, I guess, if it counts. I am still researching Splickety magazine group, reading what they have already published. I’ll count anything.

4. Walk several streets of town, taking pictures and blogging about it.  Yup, twice. Once around the afore-mentioned hospital, and once with my dog in the neighborhood where the dog park is.

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have submitted three pieces somewhere. Up to two submssions. One to that poetry challenge I did not win and one to Guideposts magazine.

2. Have sent a copy of “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days” to my clergy-friends for their input. No, just gotta finish those edits.   

3. Have finished walking every street in my town.  No.

IV. PERSONAL

A.      Get in Shape – Let’s not even keep track anymore, let’s just say no.

B.    Nonprofit – Tumaini Volunteers – More goals blown out of the water. My daughter, our   chairman of the Board, wants to forget about picnics and craft shows and little stuff like that. She wants us to concentrate on getting our tax-exempt status and writing our business plan.  I’m ok with switching gears, it is probably a good idea, since what we have been doing so far has not been working. Plus she has contacts who say they are willing to make large donations once we prove ourselves. I just think that in the meantime, we need to keep our presence out there.

C. Sewing -- Finish one project this Round. Yes! Sewed that adorable dress, and then last night I picked out some material for another project. Argh!  

D. Church -- Our college kids will be leaving for school before you know it, get them all mentors. I have four addresses, two mentors and one match all matched up. Only have four more kids to work on.

Ok, I guess I didn’t have that much green, so I added yellow for things I am getting close on. 

The hospital has been vacant for 11 years. It has become an eyesore, but it is still sad that they have to tear it down. 

When you don't have a rubber noddle

Since it has only been a few days since Sunday’s check-in, I always hate to go through my whole list of goals on Wednesday, preferring to concentrate on just one thing. Over the last three days, however, I have been whittling away pretty aggressively at those goals, so I guess I should share everything I’ve done.

As far as reading, I am holding my own, reading a little bit of everything when I can. Or so it seems. I finally posted the review of Beth Camp’s second book, “Years of Stone”. I am enjoying reading “The Two-EdgedSword” by Caye Bartell, so it makes it easy to grab my Kindle and read on it whenever I get a minute.

In the writing category, I am half way done with chapter 30 of my novel. I also have started editing “The Early Life of Jesus”. Got through Day 5, so that would be one-eighth of the way done with that project. I woke up at five this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so got up and wrote a flash fiction story.

I submitted a piece last night to Guideposts magazine. Sometimes I feel like magazines like that are too “big”, are too well-known and have too large a readership for me to ever break into, but then I hit myself over the head with a rubber noddle and say, “they gotta published someone, why not you?” I will let the short story I just wrote rest for a few days, and then hopefully submit that to Splickety magazine at some point.

It does make it sound like I am making headway. Maybe summer is starting to wind down and that is giving me the energy to refocus. Right? No more vacations to plan, just a weekend at the Renaissance Festival in a few weeks and a wedding in October (both trips to Minnesota by the way). Other than that, all I have to look forward to is hours and hours in my office, writing, editing, and plowing ahead.

Ok, I don't have a rubber noddle. I could hit myself over the head with a Snoopy. 

A Strong Finish after a Slow Start

I had made so little progress by Wednesday of this week that I didn’t bother to post anything. I am going to nip that in the bud.

I attended a writer’s conference yesterday and came home, as usual, all fired up. I’m ready to finish my novel and ready to edit my devotional. I’m looking at the calendar, thinking summer is almost over and I have a ton of stuff to get done before the end of the year.  

One of the speakers at the conference spent a lot of time talking about procrastination and ways to get things done when you have too much to do and your mind is all over the place. I might revamp my system of goals so that I get more done. A while back I did a thing like “deal-a-goal”, where I listed each goal on a card and then moved it to a different pile when it was accomplished. It seemed quite a convoluted system at the time, but I think I got more done that way. I may have to revisit that.

I. READING

A. Weekly goal

1. Read my assigned blog posts as a ROW80 sponsor.  I think I did this.

2. Read ten hours a week in one of the books I am reading.  I don’t think I did a lot of reading early in the week, mostly because I wasn’t reading anything that really pulled me in. Late in the week, I started reading “The Two-Edged Sword”, by Caye Bartell, a woman I know from another writer’s conference. It is much better reading than what I had been plowing through.

B. Goals for the Round                           

1. Have finished reading five books.  I am still at three, “The Boy at the Museum”, “Years of Stone” and “Sell Your Book Like Wildfire”.   

II. WRITING

A. Weekly goal

1. Finish writing those last three chapters in my novel, “Tale of an American Woman”. At the conference yesterday, I had a “ah-ha” moment which helped me finish chapter 29 last night. I know where I want to go now right up to the end, I just need to keep BICFOK (butt in chair, fingers on keyboard).

2. Edit “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”, the second book in the Bible Stories in 40 Days series. I got up early this morning and edited one day. I know 39 more to go!

3. Write two blog posts here and three posts to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles. No, I only wrote once here, but powered through three posts on the Dino Chronicles. I have my thoughts for topics going forward but nothing else written.

B. Goals for the Round.  

1. Have finished the first round of edits for “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”. No.

2. Start editing my novel.   No.

III. REACHING

A.      Weekly goal.

1. Promote either one of my books on one other site or in person. I had my books for sale at the conference yesterday. Unfortunately, I stuck with my track record, which has been buying other people’s products so that I just break even. Oh, well. I still told lots of people about both books as well as my daughter’s nonprofit. Gave out some business cards too.

2. Comment on my assigned blogs for ROW80. Being out of town both earlier in the week and late in the week, I wasn’t on line much, so I don’t know if I got this done.     

3. Research markets for an hour. Yes. One of the speakers yesterday was from Splickety magazine group. They publish flash fiction, which I thought – yeah, I can do that. So when I got home last night, I studied their website, and I still think, yeah, I can do that.  

4. Walk several streets of town, taking pictures and blogging about it.  Nope, I don’t think I did. I kind of hoped to run to town today, but as I write this, I can’t currently see that happening

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have submitted three pieces somewhere. Still at one submission, but I promise to get that article to Guideposts this week and I know what I am going to submit to Splickety, I just have to revise it some.  

2. Have sent a copy of “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days” to my clergy-friends for their input. No.  

3. Have finished walking every street in my town.  No.

IV. PERSONAL

A.      Get in Shape

1.       Continue exercising four times a week and running three times a week. Let’s just say NO.

2.       Keep off that five pounds I worked so hard to lose. I’m still going to say NO.

B. Nonprofit – Tumaini Volunteers

1. Host another picnic or other friend-raiser. We canned this idea. Everyone is just so busy and time is going so fast and now my daughter is all nuts making wedding plans, even though they set their date for one year from now and she insists she wants to keep it simple. I need to get her head out of the clouds.

2. Attend a craft show to sell our Kenyan crafts. Still shooting for the Flea Market on Labor Day weekend.

C. Sewing -- Finish one project this Round. Yes! Friday morning I finished the adorable dress which I wore yesterday, and which people could not stop talking about!

D. Church -- Our college kids will be leaving for school before you know it, get them all mentors. I got three addresses, two mentors and one match all matched up. This is a better start than I have ever had before. 

 The most adorable dress. Too bad I couldn't find a better model for it. 

 The dress is reversible, so it's like getting two-for-one. 

 My daughter and her fiance. She is obviously not focused here - just like her momma. 

 Attendees at the writers conference - all in their places with bright smiling faces. Almost. 

Our wonderful speakers. Dorothy was a little quiet, but the rest made up for her. 

Genius or Not?

I came home from work Thursday night all psyched. I have the next six days off. Hubby had to work Friday but then he has the next five days off with me. So I made a long list of all the household chores I thought we should try to get done since we don’t have any other plans. There were three things on his list, two things on our joint list and like twelve things on my list. I know – how fair is that.

As he was leaving for work Friday morning, he said, “don’t do anything today, just take a day off.” He could have added, “I will help you with your list this weekend,” but he did not say that.

I got as much done as I could on Friday, but I think it was only four things, because then I had to take my mom to a funeral before the hubby got home from work. When I got home from the funeral three hours later – I could not get my mom to leave, she really needs to get out more – hubby had done one task which earned him the right to cross two things off his list. The poop.

We needed to pick up the pile of wood someone had cut for us a few weeks ago and the hubby needed to shore up the side of the dog’s pen so he didn’t keep crawling out from under it. So the hubby piled the wood in the dog’s pen. Genius or not? I can’t decide. But when we were gone to the wedding today, the dog didn’t escape. That’s all I’m saying. You help me decide.

I. READING

A. Weekly goal

1. Read my assigned blog posts as a ROW80 sponsor.  I think I did this.

2. Read ten hours a week in one of the books I am reading.  I finished “Sell Your Book Like Wildfire” finally. I also started the memoir by a friend of a friend. Her story is ok, but it needs A LOT of work. I don’t know if I am going to be able to get through it or not.

B. Goals for the Round                           

1. Have finished reading five books.  I have finished three, “The Boy at the Museum”, “Years of Stone” and “Sell Your Book Like Wildfire”.   

II. WRITING

A. Weekly goal

1. Finish writing those last three chapters in my novel, “Tale of an American Woman”. I took my laptop to my mother-in-law’s today, so I wrote in the car on the way there, a much more difficult task than I thought it would be, by the way. But I did manage to pound out one more section.   

2. Edit “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”, the second book in the Bible Stories in 40 Days series. Haven’t started yet. My publisher asked a while back when – and if – I would be sending him another manuscript. I suppose I should let him know where I am at.

3. Write two blog posts here and three posts to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles. I did, and right now I have one post written already for next week.   

B. Goals for the Round.  

1. Have finished the first round of edits for “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”. No.

2. Start editing my novel.   No.

III. REACHING

A.      Weekly goal.

1. Promote either one of my books on one other site or in person.  Umm, yes I think I actually did something this week, but now I can’t remember what – so I suppose it doesn’t count, does it?    

2. Comment on my assigned blogs for ROW80. I think I did.    

3. Research markets for an hour. No.

4. Walk several streets of town, taking pictures and blogging about it.  Yes, I did, and along the way down those streets I ran into three different people I had to stop to talk with. It’s surprising that I ever get anything done. . .

B. Goals for the Round

1. Have submitted three pieces somewhere. Still at one submission, but have received two rejections so far. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. Well, rejection is never a good thing, but at least both rejections were very kind to me, and a lot of times I never hear anything back, so it is still nice to hear SOMETHING.

2. Have sent a copy of “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days” to my clergy-friends for their input. No.  

3. Have finished walking every street in my town.  No.

IV. PERSONAL

A.      Get in Shape

1.       Continue exercising four times a week and running three times a week. I only exercised three times and ran twice.

2.       Keep off that five pounds I worked so hard to lose.

B. Nonprofit – Tumaini Volunteers

1. Host another picnic or other friend-raiser. We were shooting for August 17, but are kind of rethinking the whole thing.  

2. Attend a craft show to sell our Kenyan crafts. My sister is still working on signing us up for the Flea Market on Labor Day weekend.

C. Sewing -- Finish one project this Round. I cut out the fabric for this cute dress I want to make for next weekend’s writers conference.  

D. Church -- Our college kids will be leaving for school before you know it, get them all mentors. One of my moms is an overachiever. Last night she not only sent me the addresses for both of her college girls, she asked to be a mentor to a girl who is going to be a freshman this year. We only have about seven college kids in our congregation, so I am on my way.