More Ups Than Downs

Wednesday already. Here is what I have checked off my list.

• Return to blogging three times a week on my other blog, The DinoChronicles. I have blogged twice this week, Sunday and Wednesday, as scheduled.

• Read five other blogs and comment on three of them.  I lost track, I know I read three or four and commented on one or two. I mark down everything else I do, I don’t know why I forget to track this one. Oh, well.

• Finish reading “The Lutheran Ladies Circle”. One more tale of woe – I dropped my Kindle for the second time in a week, and this time it is really dead. I really need to bite the bullet and order a new one. In the meantime, Hubby was gracious enough to loan me his, so I was able to finish reading this book on Monday.

• Submit that piece which I wrote last week. Not yet, but I swear I will do it yet this week.

• Write two entries in “The Early Ministry of Jesus”. I’ve actually written three entries already.

• Run on the treadmill three times and increase my time to at least 20 minutes.  I’ve only run once this week so far, for 20 minutes. That is what having a migraine for two days can do to a person.

• Really and truly finish the business plan for Tumaini Volunteers. I really and truly finished the most recent edit of the business plan but there are still a couple sections that are beyond my scope.

• Finalize the volunteer packet for Tumaini Volunteers. Haven’t worked on it, but I have a person out there who wants a copy, so I best get on it.

My internet has been working great! I am so pleased. You read above that my Kindle does not have me pleased. Oh, well. And I did feel a headache coming on Sunday which turned full-blown migraine overnight, so I called in sick on Monday. I thought about getting a lot done on that sick day, but, um, no, I felt like crap. So I watched a few movies and actually laid low till early afternoon when I got a few random things taken care of.

And here is that scrub top that I finished last week, now that my internet is behaving so well.

it doesn't pay to despair

And I was doing so good, checking off my goals, anxious to share with you my progress. Then Friday, my modem bit the dust. Elsewhere on the World Wide Web, I have shared that whole wretched story, so I will not repeat it here (as easy as copy and paste is). It has thrown off some of my goal-keeping, but has helped in some other areas.  

WRITING GOALS for the ROUND

·         Finish writing “The Early Ministry of Jesus in 40 Days” – I’ve got eleven days written and notes on seven or eight more entries.

·         Edit 20 chapters of “Tale of an American Woman” – I’m up to 18 chapters. I think I might get the whole thing edited this Round. I am just doing a quick grammar edit, more or less. I think I am going to have to start over and really weed it out next time, but for now I am just going through it, which is why I am going through it at such a good clip.

·         Submit three items for publication – Haven’t submitted anything, but I do have that Big Excuse regarding internet access.    

As far as my goals for last week:

• Continue to blog daily to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles, to fulfill the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  It took some fortitude, but I only missed one day last week. With my internet unreliability, I don’t think I am going to continue this commitment. I don’t need more stress.  

• Read five other blogs, commenting on three of them. Good thing I had already accomplished this goal before my internet pooped.

• Finish reading “Kisses From Katie” I even managed this before my internet died, not that it mattered, because I actually have this as a paper book. I did not tell you that in addition to my World Wide Web woes, I dropped my Kindle last week, and though it is working, it is pretty persnickety. 
• Write a short piece for submission I got it written and edited and have a market in mind. Once my internet is again reliable, I will get it submitted. Isn’t it horrible how everything circles back to that. What a sad world we live in.

• Write three entries in “The Early Ministry of Jesus” I haven’t written any total entries but I did write notes for several days. It has been hard to keep my focus because . . . . stop! I cannot use that excuse this time!  

• Edit four chapters in “Tale of an American Woman” I believe I edited four, I thought it was more than that, but I guess not.  

• Run on the treadmill three times this week I did run three times last week.

·         Finish the business plan for Tumaini Volunteers We finally heard back from someone with experience in writing a business plan and she had wonderful input for us. I still need to make those edits and fill in a few more holes.  

I also did manage to sew the scrub top which I cut out over Thanksgiving. It is a winter top, so I really should have finished it before now, but I told them at work that I really don’t care. I am going to wear it until the snow melts. (And it doesn't look like my internet connection will let me post that.)

So what can I get done in the next week:  

·         Return to blogging three times a week on my other blog, The Dino Chronicles, as it is almost the end of the month and I have given up on the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I am shooting for Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, because that is going to work into my schedule better, even though two of those days I post here as well.  

·         Read five other blogs and comment on three of them, because that still seems doable.  I want to shoot for reading two blogs each day and commenting on one of them, but want to wait until I have reliable internet again to try that.

·         Finish reading “The Lutheran Ladies Circle”.

·         Submit that piece which I wrote last week.

·         Write two entries in “The Early Ministry of Jesus”.

·         Run on the treadmill three times and increase my time to at least 20 minutes.  

·         Really and truly finish the business plan for Tumaini Volunteers.

·         Finalize the volunteer packet for Tumaini Volunteers. 

what grosses you out?

I can never believe how quickly Wednesday gets here. I should be happy about that because then I only have to work on Thursday and then I get three days off from the day job.

I won’t go through my whole list of goals, I’ll save that for Sunday. Let me tell you about just one.  

I have a pattern of sleeping pretty good for a few nights and then just not being about to sleep for the next few. This has been going on for quite a while, but this winter has been complicated by the fact that my nose has been stuffed up pretty much all the time since that day back in October when I got my flu shot. Even though I work in the medical field I don’t swear by the flu shot, but I have to get one or my employer raising all kinds of cane. It just isn’t worth it. So I got my flu shot. I have never had a single problem in the past, but exactly two hours after getting it, my nose got suddenly all stuffed up and like I said already, it hasn’t cleared up since. A lot of my patients (and a friend who is a pharmacist) use a Neti-pot and believe it is a miracle. I finally broke down and got one in November. No, not a miracle. More a way to enjoy that wonderful sensation of drowning without even putting my head under water.

Ok so where was I going with this? Oh, not sleeping. So my usual pattern of sleep has been complicated even further by my nasal congestion. Coz once I am awake and can’t breathe through my nose, I should just forget about getting any more sleep. Such was my Monday night. So I finally got up a two A.M. I wrote a short piece telling a volunteer story for an upcoming edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul and then sent my daughter a volunteer proposal for our nonprofit.  So I got one thing crossed off my list (and then wrote a second thing on my list which I immediately crossed off). Not that I’m not working on the rest, but guess you will have to wait for Sunday’s check-in to see how that went. 

As you know, I always have to post a picture and almost always it is one which I took. 

Not today. 

I can watch the doctor cut a three inch cyst off someone's back. I can watch a doctor yank someone's toenails off. I can even flush gobs of wax the size of the end of my little finger, out of someone's ear. But this Neti pot thing? Water running out of someone's nose grosses me right out. Just Google Neti Pot images and you will get hundreds of pictures of real people doing this. All I could stomach was the cartoon person. 

And what picture will I find next time?

I’m not feeling as though it was a productive week. I dropped out of my Tuesday morning Bible Study and I skipped out on my Wednesday night women’s group. With all of that absenteeism, I should have gotten a lot done on my goals. Or maybe I cancelled those dates because I just needed the week off.

I did spend most of Friday afternoon at my daughter’s working on the nonprofit. I’ve also made a few connections there as well as finally mailing out our January newsletter. I need to remember to include the nonprofit in my goals for next week, huh?  

WRITING GOALS for the ROUND

·         Finish writing “The Early Ministry of Jesus in 40 Days” – I’ve got eleven days written and notes on two more entries.

·         Edit 20 chapters of “Tale of an American Woman” – I’m still at ten chapters.  

·         Submit three items for publication – Haven’t submitted anything.   

I’m afraid that submission goal is going to hang over my head like a big zit. Argh. I need to get after it.

As far as my goals for last week:

·         Continue to blog daily to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles, to fulfill the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  Blogged every day last week.  

·         Read five other blogs, commenting on three of them. I read at least five blogs, and commented on at least three.  

·         Read 35 pages of “Kisses From Katie”.  I think I read close to thirty pages.

·         Start a short story for submission. Still haven’t started anything, but have a list of five possibilities.  

·         Write five entries in “The Early Ministry of Jesus”.  I believe I wrote two of them and I know I wrote notes for two more. What I do is study the next entry , research it, type up notes on it, then sleep on it. The next time I pull it out, I hopefully feel inspired to write that day’s devotion off of those notes. It seems to be working all right for me. I have skipped ahead a couple days, though, so will have to back-track at some point.

·         Edit four chapters in “Tale of an American Woman”. I edited ten chapters last Sunday and that is where I stand. 

·         Run on the treadmill three times this week. I only ran on the treadmill twice this week. I will cut myself some slack; I need to work up to this one.

So how is next week shaping up? I don’t have to work late Monday night, like I usually do, so that should give me some extra time in the week, as well as not having to get up so early on Tuesday. I am going to go to our women’s group on Wednesday night and may run to my daughter’s again on Friday. Other than that, my week is pretty free. The hubby works second shift too, so I am usually more productive when he’s not around.

Goals for next week:

• Continue to blog daily to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles, to fulfill the Ultimate Blog Challenge. 

• Read five other blogs, commenting on three of them.

• Finish reading “Kisses From Katie” (because it is ridiculous that I haven’t finished it yet!)
• Write a short piece for submission (because it is ridiculous that I can’t just write something)

• Write three entries in “The Early Ministry of Jesus” (because I need to cut myself some slack somewhere)

• Edit four chapters in “Tale of an American Woman”  

• Run on the treadmill three times this week 

·  Finish writing the business plan for our nonprofit organization 

You most certainly are wondering what this has to do with anything. The answer is nothing. It has nothing to do with this blog, but because I always like to include a picture and didn't want to spend a lot of time trying to find one, I grabbed the first picture in the first file I randomly opened. We got him as a wedding present from a friend who was stationed in Italy at the time. Isn't he the cutest thing? 

Just Under the Wire

I am just getting this in under the wire.

WRITING GOALS for the ROUND

·         Finish writing “The Early Ministry of Jesus in 40 Days” – I am up to day 10, so that would be one-quarter of the way finished.

·         Edit 20 chapters of “Tale of an American Woman” – I’ve edited a total of ten chapters. Wow that’s like half-way there.

·         Submit three items for publication – Haven’t submitted anything yet.  

That makes it look like I have been very productive. Why does it not feel that way?

As far as my goals for this week:

·         Continue to blog daily to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles, to fulfill the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  Have blogged every day so far.

·         Read five other blogs, commenting on three of them. I read at least four, if not five blogs, and know that I commented on three of them.

·         Read 35 pages of “Kisses From Katie”.  I think I read about ten pages. That’s pretty pathetic.

·         Start a short story for submission. Have not started anything.

·         Write five entries in “The Early Ministry of Jesus”.  I need to track this better, I think I wrote at least two or three.

·         Edit four chapters in “Tale of an American Woman”. I edited a total of ten chapters. Yeah!

·         Run on the treadmill three times this week. I only ran on the treadmill once so far this week. I have been coming home from work just exhausted, I don’t know why. Maybe it is the cold weather we have been having. I’m willing to cut myself some slack, but I really need to get moving.

We’ll see how much further I get by Sunday.

Looking pretty pathetic finishing my first 5K. This is why I need to run on that stupid treadmill all winter. 

Finally my concrete goals

I really haven’t pin-pointed my specific goals for this Round, so I think it is time I do that.

WRITING GOALS for the ROUND

·         Finish writing “The Early Ministry of Jesus in 40 Days” – Since I posted last, I have only written two entries. I will get it together.

·         Edit 20 chapters of “Tale of an American Woman” – I actually edited four chapters the other night.

·         Submit three items for publication – I was just now looking at my options. I don’t seem to have anything written which is screaming, “pick me, pick me”. So I think I am going to have to write something new, which takes time, coz it has to ferment after it is written and can’t just be sent off to the vultures as soon as it is given life. But I did research a list of markets and possible themes. I’ll work on this.

I think that for the other areas (reading, marketing, personal life), I am only going to chart weekly goals. I want to have things close at hand instead of always looking to the horizon. Also, life has gotten in the way quite a bit the last few months, so I want to see what is in front of me each week so that I can pace myself better.

So here we go. In the coming week I wish to accomplish:

·         Continue to blog daily to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles, to fulfill the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

·         Read five other blogs, commenting on three of them.

·         Read 35 pages of “Kisses From Katie”. (Doesn’t seem like much, but this book for some reason is dragging for me. )

·         Start a short story for submission.

·         Write five entries in “The Early Ministry of Jesus”.

·         Edit four chapters in “Tale of an American Woman”.

·         Run on the treadmill three times this week.

 I think that’s enough for starters. Let’s see how quickly I peter out. 

This picture is part of the inspiration for my novel, "Tale of an American Woman". Perhaps it all makes more sense if I tell you the original title was "Tale of an African Boy". What happened after that is just too long a story to tell here. 

Winter Road Trip

This is going to be super-short, because, holy cow, it has only been two days and I was out of town that whole time.  I did manage to post to my other blog, because that is the one I have tied to Ultimate Blog Challenge and I have a theme going there. Other than that, I gotta tell ya, I haven’t done a thing. Oh, except that the road trip I took Sunday through today was to see a friend of ours from Kenya who is visiting in Michigan. He is the African-end of our nonprofit organization, Tumaini Volunteers. So, we did talk a lot about that, and part of the drive (eighteen hours altogether) my daughter and I spent talking about the nonprofit.

I know that I didn’t have Tumaini in my initial list of goals on Monday, but it is an ever present goal as we try to move forward with fund-raising, trip-planning and volunteer-recruiting.

Until I get my act together, here are some pictures from the trip to Frankenmuth, Michigan. My sister and I had gone there last May, so I present to you the spring and winter versions of some of the sights of this picturesque town. 

An Early Start? Not Really.

I had most of the month of December to figure out my goals for this Round and here I sit, with nothing to show for it. I am writing this Sunday night because I am leaving first thing Monday morning for a quick road trip to Michigan, in sub-zero temperatures with ridiculous wind-chills. This trip is my daughter’s idea, well, not totally. I did feed into it, but every Mom needs to take a road trip with their daughter and it has been a long time.

But goals, man, I need to think about goals for the next 80 days.

To start off with I signed up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge, which means I am posting to my other blog every day for the month of January. Since I am leaving town in the morning, I do have two of those in the bag already.

I have started my third devotional in the stories in 40 Days series and am up to day 7. I hope to finish all 40 days this Round. I also want to finish editing my novel by the end of the year, so need to be through ten chapters this Round.

I continue to see the need to submit, submit, submit, so am sticking with three submissions each Round. Lastly, I have the itch to start something new, probably another novel. I have four different ideas in my head, so hopefully I can shake one out yet in the next couple weeks and get something concrete going.

Other than that, I wanted to focus on weekly goals, but since I am leaving town for a few days and have lots of housework to do when I get home, I may forego that for now.

See ya when I get home.  

My road trip destination, taken last May. It probably won't look like this now, huh?