How I Roll

As I mentioned on Sunday, the next two weeks are going to be “no-goal” weeks. Because I have one goal and one goal only and that is prepare for and attend my daughter’s wedding on August 8.

Work on her dress is coming along. I will definitely have it ready by Friday for her to try on before I sew the final pieces in. I have a new thought (a scary thought involving more work) that I need to bounce off of my daughter once the dress is on. Because I haven’t done quite enough remodeling yet. Argh!

It doesn’t help that after I got into this dress by myself, my sister (who has done alterations on at least two other wedding dresses) said, “I really could have helped you with that.” Double argh. .

Otherwise, I think that my fretting guests have settled down. My mom and my friend from Minnesota are going to share a hotel room, which means they will both be at the wedding, even if they don’t plan on partying all night (as if I am going to). My mother-in-law is excited and has plans to dance at the reception. No one has told her that there won’t be dancing, but she can dance to her own tune if she wants.

Progress on the dress. More like trial and error.

On the writing front, I actually wrote a piece of flash fiction Monday night. Don’t have a clue how that happened. The scene just popped into my head and I had to record it. It was still exciting, getting that creative juice out the tips of my fingers and into the laptop.

I also blogged here and on my other blog as scheduled, as well as reading and commenting on my quota of ROW80 blog posts from Sunday.

I think I am doing all right. We will see how I hold up by this weekend. On top of everything else, I am taking my niece’s daughter’s graduation pictures on Friday. Yup, coz that’s how I roll. 

Venting

Since I don’t think that any of my family reads this particular blog, I am going to vent a little bit here. Feel free to skip to the goal’s list to avoid my drama.

My daughter’s wedding is just under two weeks away. Since the planning stages, my mom has been worrying about how she will get there (the venue is about 60 miles from where she lives and she doesn’t drive), how she will get home, how she will get down the stairs to where the ceremony will be (the ceremony will be outside, on the backside of the restaurant, but in addition to the stairs there is a grassy bank on the other side of the building that we can wheel her down), what she will wear and a dozen other issues, the latest of which my sister shared last night, but I can’t share it here.  

Of course, my sister isn’t any help. Last night she asked, “Everything is going to be outside? What if it’s hot?” Really? My daughter, the crazy girl, wants it hot and it’s her wedding, so I hope it is hot that day. But my sister goes, “but I just can’t tolerate the heat.” So I told her she doesn’t have to come. Ok, maybe I snapped a little bit. But those aren’t the only two people I have bugging me!

My mother-in-law, who we brought on a plane to another grandchild’s wedding last month, now has excuses why she can’t come. But that’s my husband’s problem.

My best friend can’t find a dog-sitter, so her husband is going to stay home with the dog, and she won’t stay at the same hotel as we are because the rooms are too much ($99 a night!!!), so she doesn’t know where she is going to stay.

To which, I just want to say to all of them, “then don’t come! Just don’t come. I don’t want you there if you are going to be a bunch of whine-babies. And my daughter doesn’t want you there either. She only wants people showing up who are going to be happy and want to have a good time. And if you have to come up with these excuses I guess you don’t want to be there anyway. So stay home in your air-conditioned house with no stairs, with your dog and the clothes you’ve been wearing forever, but stop bugging me about it. Coz I have enough on my mind.”

Coz my daughter’s dress went from this last week:

To this, on Friday: 

When she told me she had cut the sleeves off, I kind of freaked out. It looks better on, except that we took out the zipper because she wants a corset in the back. But guess what she is the bride, so she can have whatever she wants and the rest of you can stay home!!!

Can you say: STRESS!

But look at this list of goals from last week.

1. READING

a.  Read and comment on my assigned blog posts as a ROW80 sponsor. Done.

b.  Read 50 pages of “Shantarm”. Close, read 42 pages.

c.  Finish chapter 1 of “Twelve Extraordinary Women”. Done.

2. WRITING

a. Write two blog posts here and three posts to “The Dino Chronicles”. Posted two here and once again only two to the other blog.

b. Edit 10 more entries of “The Early Ministry of Jesus in 40 Days”. Done.

3. REACHING

a. Post one writing update to each of my social media. Yes.

4. PERSONAL

a. Nonprofit organization 

i. Post three updates to my Go-Fund-Me page and share with social media. Posted two updates and shared them.

ii. Email the Go-Fund-Me site to the rest of my email contacts. Done. I lamented on Wednesday that I hadn’t gotten any donations from my efforts, but on Thursday I did get one. One.

b. Physical - Walk on treadmill three times a week. Walked twice.

c. Church -Send a letter to the parents of the other boy in the military. Got it at least started.

d. Wedding – Ok, I already ranted enough about this.

I have no idea where all that green and yellow came from. But I have come to my senses. Goals for next week: read and comment on my assigned blog posts for ROW80, because that is a prior commitment, it isn’t too time-consuming and I will be able to use that break from the rest of the chaos. Other than that, what gets done, gets done.

I promise to post on Wednesday to let you know if any of my friends and relatives are still talking to me. 

picking up steam

As usual, not much has happened with my goals so far this week. It takes me a few days to pick up steam each week, hence Monday and Tuesday are usually a waste.

1. READING

a.       Read and comment on my assigned posts as a ROW80 sponsor. Done.

b.       Read 50 pages of “Shantarm”.  Read about 10 pages.

c.       Finish chapter 1 of “Twelve Extraordinary Women”. Done.

2. WRITING

a. Write two blog posts here and three posts to my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles” every week. One post here and one on the other blog.

b. Edit 10 more entries of “The Early Ministry of Jesus in 40 Days”. None.  

3. REACHING

a. Post one writing update to each of my social media. I don’t remember. For some reason I really struggle keeping track of this even though I have a white-board where I keep track of everything. Somethings are just a mystery.

4. PERSONAL

a. Nonprofit organization 

i. Post three updates to my Go-Fund-Me page and share with social media. Posted one update.

ii. Email the Go-Fund-Me site to the rest of my email contacts.       Done. I got return messages from I think five people, but no donations. L

b. Physical - Walk on treadmill three times a week. Walked twice.

c. Church -Send a letter to our other boy in the military. Not.

d. Wedding – Can’t say that I did anything on the wedding. I guess I am just waiting for my daughter to give me direction. It is two weeks from Saturday, but apparently we have all the time in the world to finalize stuff. Not my call.

We will see what the rest of the week brings. Hope that all is well with you and that you are checking off lots of accomplished goals, as well as enjoying your summer. It is rolling by way too fast. 

That's My Girl

Even though I finally shared my goals for the entire Round, I didn’t come up with any goals for the week last Sunday. By Wednesday’s post, I had been working on my trip to Kenya, so let’s just say that those were the goals for the week.

Have I done anything on that long list of goals for the Round?   

1.    READING

a.    Read and comment on my weekly assigned blog posts as a ROW80 sponsor. Yes

b.    Finish reading “Shantarm” Read another chapter or so. Have you ever seen this book? It is huge! 936 pages! I am about one-third into it, so I have made a good start.

c.    Finish reading “Twelve Extraordinary Women” This is for my Tuesday morning Bible study, it’s not like I should read the whole thing in a weekend. Last week we discussed the first half of the first chapter, so today and tomorrow I just need to read the second half of it.

2.    WRITING

a.    Write two blog posts here and three posts to my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles” every week. I posted twice here but only twice to my other blog.

b.    Finish writing “The Early Ministry of Jesus in 40 Days” and do one quick edit of the whole manuscript. I didn’t write those two last entries, but I did edit the first ten days of it. I am happy with that.

c.    Write a proposal for my novel. And name my novel! I haven’t looked at that novel, but I did meet with someone who read it and gave me some pointers. That is three people who have read it for me. Right now I am waiting for my husband to get on it.

d.    Write 10,000 words in my new novel and come up with at least a working title for it. Ok, I think that I am already going to change this goal. I think that over the next few months, I should continue doing research and write the bios for the main characters. I have this crazy thought in mind to do NaNoWriMo in November and churn the whole thing out then. Perhaps with the proper preparation I can make that work.

3.    REACHING

a.    Have submitted three pieces somewhere. Not even thought of it.

b.    Have posted weekly updates to one of my social media. Umm, umm, umm, I don’t know. I guess. See below.

4.    PERSONAL

a.    Nonprofit organization

                                         i.    Get enough donations to pay for my trip in October. I set up a go-fund-me page and have been sharing that on my social media every couple of days. I even emailed it to a list of email contacts. I thought that with pushing that on people, I shouldn’t be pushing anything else on social media.

                                       ii.    Finalize some sort of itinerary for my trip. I applied for a visit to my Compassion girl and they sent me back the date of October 12. Now am just waiting for them to finish processing the paperwork. Also, am waiting to connect with one of our contacts in Kenya. When I messaged him the first time, he was all excited and wanted to discuss things with me, but now he hasn’t gotten back to me again. But that’s how all of our Kenyan friends are. So many of us Americans are such tightly-wound Type A personalities, that it drives us nuts when others are so laid-back that they could be sloths. I’ve learned a lot about how to relax from my Kenyan friends. All I really need to plan for is that they pick me up at the airport in October and then we will just take it from there.

                                      iii.    Host a friend-raiser to get awareness out in the community. Don’t know where to go with this or what I was thinking.

b.    Physical

                                         i.    Work out–seriously- three times a week, in addition to my morning exercises. Walked twice this week on the treadmill. The bursitis in my hip has really settled down, so that I think I can do some long-range vigorous walking, but am going to curtail the running.

c.    Church

                                         i.    Get addresses and mentors for our college kids. I have until late August to really get on this.  

                                        ii.    Get addresses and mentors for our military kids. I have the address for one of the kids. I promise to send a letter to the parents of the other kid this week.

So, that’s the whole shooting match. What about the upcoming week?

1. READING

a.  Read and comment on my assigned blog posts as a ROW80 sponsor.

b.  Read 50 pages of “Shantarm”.  

c.  Finish chapter 1 of “Twelve Extraordinary Women”.

2. WRITING

          a. Write two blog posts here and three posts to “The Dino Chronicles”. 

b. Edit 10 more entries of “The Early Ministry of Jesus in 40 Days”.

3. REACHING

a. Post one writing update to each of my social media.

4. PERSONAL

a. Nonprofit organization  

i. Post three updates to my Go-Fund-Me page and share with social media.

ii. Email the Go-Fund-Me site to the rest of my email contacts.  

b. Physical - Walk on treadmill three times a week.

c. Church -Send a letter to the parents of the other boy in the military.

d. Wedding -What am I thinking? My real priority this week should be helping my daughter with her wedding which is in less than three weeks. Last Friday we went dress shopping and the dress she found needed some minor alterations so this Friday I have to do that for her. I don’t know what else I need to do for her, she needs to tell me!

         

Best of luck on all of your goals and wish me luck with mine!

The dress we bought for my daughter, taken in the store's dressing room with my cell phone. After the wedding I will share pictures of how unconventional this whole wedding is. Hard to describe to outsiders or those not living in the woods of northern Wisconsin. Just so it is my daughter's dream wedding. The dress by the way was sixteen dollars at the second-hand store and she didn't know if she wanted to pay that much. That's my girl!

focus on one goal

I haven’t worked on any of my goals for the Round yet this week. Well, maybe I did. One goal was finalizing my trip to Kenya in October, so I have been doing that.

I sponsor a little Maasai girl through Compassion International and have started the process of taking a side trip to meet her while I am in Africa. For her safety and the safety of the other kids in her community, the organization needs to do a background check on me and the friend who is going with me. Then they need to set up logistics for her getting to me in Nairobi or me getting out to her home. So I understand why it is a process.

I also hope to talk to one of my friends in Kenya by the end of the week to see if he has some ideas for projects for us as well as what supplies might be needed for us to bring with.

On my other two trips to Kenya, I left all the planning up to someone else, so I guess that being the vice-chairman of Tumaini Volunteers means I have to step up to the plate.

I hope to get some writing done over the weekend. And not much before then.

The pictures are of some of the Compassion children we met in Kenya in 2006. Aren’t they all precious?

Trying to Start the Round

I apologize for not starting the third Round of Words in 80 Days on schedule. I'd like to get back on track, but am feeling bogged down. 

I have a ridiculous lot of stuff going on in the next three months, I had thought about taking this Round off, but before I thought that through I signed up to be a sponsor for the Round, which isn’t that much extra work, but I figure that if I am going to be involved I might as well jump in with both feet.

Before I list my goals, here is a list of what I have going on before the end of this Round:

1.    Take an overnight trip to Michigan.

2.    Survive my daughter’s wedding, after surviving the planning of it.

3.    Attend the Christian Writers Conference in Green Lake.

4.    Attend my cousin’s wedding out of town.

5.    Make final preparations for my trip to Kenya (I arrive in Africa the day the next Round starts, so don’t expect much out of me then.)

Wow, I’ve been freaking out about all of this, but that list doesn’t make it seem so bad. What do you think?

I suppose those five little items should be included in my goals, but I don’t know. Maybe I want my focus on stuff other than those five things.

I also want to go back to having reading, writing, reaching and personal goals so that I feel more well-rounded. I guess. So here they are:  

1.    READING

a.    Read and comment on my weekly assigned blog posts as a ROW80 sponsor.

b.    Finish reading “Shantarm”

c.    Finish reading “Twelve Extraordinary Women”

2.    WRITING

a.    Write two blog posts here and three posts to my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles” every week.

b.    Finish writing “The Early Ministry of Jesus in 40 Days” and do one quick edit of the whole manuscript.

c.    Write a proposal for my novel. And name my novel!

d.    Write 10,000 words in my new novel and come up with at least a working title for it.

3.    REACHING

a.    Have submitted three pieces somewhere.

b.    Have posted weekly updates to each of my social media.

4.    PERSONAL

a.    Nonprofit organization

                                         i.    Get enough donations to pay for my trip in October.

                                       ii.    Finalize some sort of itinerary for my trip.

                                      iii.    Host a friend-raiser to get awareness out in the community.

b.    Physical

                                         i.    Work out–seriously- three times a week, in addition to my morning exercises.

c.    Church

                                         i.    Get addresses and mentors for our college kids.

                                       ii.    Get addresses and mentors for our military kids – this is a new one as we haven’t had kids in the military before, but holy cow, they need mentors more than anyone.

That’s not so much is it? How are your goals looking? As good as my flowers?