What to do for CampNaNoWriMo

I cannot believe that I signed up for CampNaNoWriMo for the month of April. Can anyone tell me what I was thinking?

Today I am driving my kids to the airport (five hours away) so they can fly to Kenya for two weeks to work on the first project for my daughter's nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers. The whole time they are gone, I won’t be fretting over them, but I will be checking Facebook and my cell phone and all manner of social media to see if they have posted anything. I also will be checking the weather and the local Kenyan news to make sure I haven’t missed anything. I also feel like I should be checking the email for the nonprofit, in case my daughter doesn’t have internet access enough to check it herself. And I should even check the post office box a few times. I talked to my son on line last night and he’s like, “you need to stop stressing about everything!” I think it is more stressful seeing them go than when I went myself.

But that’s not all. Hubby and I leave for a week’s vacation on Saturday. We had this planned before the kids decided to go to Africa this month, or I would not have scheduled time off right now. So we aren’t going far, only about a five hour drive away, to a resort that looks kind of relaxing. As if I will relax.

Lastly I have a convention for my career as a medical assistant the weekend of April 23. We are setting up a booth to sell our Kenyan merchandise, so as soon as the kids get home on the 14^th, I need to inventory and price everything they bring back.

Yes, I know I need to turn some of all this work for the nonprofit over to someone else, but no one else has stepped forward to do it.

I also just signed up to be a ROW80 sponsor. I was a sponsor a year or so ago, and it really is no big deal. My thought is that it will keep me on track. BICFOK (butt in chair, fingers on keyboard). We’ll see how it goes.

So in between all of that, I am going to start and finish a writing project for CampNaNoWriMo. The one I had chosen was about the juvenile prison my husband works at. I have an idea for three of the kids incarcerated there, but even though I see them in my head, they haven’t told me much of their stories. And when I went online to a baby name website to try to pick names for them, my laptop freaked out, beeping at me and flashing a warning that a virus was trying to get into my system. I freaked out right back, closed out of everything, logged off line, and shut the computer down. I went back later and turned it on just to run a virus scan. That came back clean, but now I am thinking that I’m not meant to write that story just yet.

My other options are: 1) write the novel about the Alexian Brothers Novitiate 2) do a thorough edit of my novel Coming Home 3) finish putting together and editing my second memoir 4) write the story of my sister and me.

I have another day to figure it out.

I did however finish this scrub top for work on time, before Easter. Feels like the only thing I have accomplished lately.

Wish me luck!

rumor has it...

Rumor has it that this is the last Sunday check-in for this Round. Wow, where does the time go? And since it is only the 20^th, does that mean I get a reprieve for a couple weeks before plowing into the next Round?

1) Finish the new power-point presentation, “Kenya for Kids” and present it at the Assisted Living place. Done.

2) Write 1,000 words on the second memoir. Nope, didn’t even look at it.

3) Start the new novel. I think this week I want to write bios on my three main characters. Started working on two of these bios.

4) Blog twice here and three times on the Dino Chronicles. I didn’t even get this done, skipping one of the posts on the Dino Chronicles.

5) Read eight ROW80 blogs and comment on four of them. I think I read six and commented on four, so close.

6) Update my author website. Yes, holy cow, I actually did something this week.

7) Meet with the president (my daughter) and the treasurer of our nonprofit and see where we are financially for the trip coming up in just a few weeks. Met with them and discussed finances. We set up a new Schwan’s Cares campaign. Are still about $800 short of our goal for the trip, which is in a week and a half!  

8) Walk/run three times for 20 minutes each day. Only ran on the treadmill twice.

9) Find something inspirational this week. Nothing jumps out at me.

(See me in the middle?)

 I guess all I can say I accomplished last week was the presentation at the Assisted Living Home, which went okay. The projector I had borrowed was kind of sucky though, so the residents couldn’t see the pictures very well. But they did ask lots of questions and I feel bad that I had to run out on them because I had to get back to work (even though I had asked for the day off, long story).

(My first ever quilt, as small as it is.)

I also, as you know from Wednesday’s post, finished the mini-quilt I had started months ago.

Let’s see what I can get done this week.

1) Write 1,000 words on the second memoir. I’m going to get this done by the end of the month so that I can start my new novel in April.

2) Work on the bios for my three main characters in my new novel. Get ready for CampNaNoWri starting the first of April.   

3) Blog twice here and three times on the Dino Chronicles. Actually I hope to blog more on the Dino Chronicles, as it is Holy Week and I usually post more times, following the last days of Jesus.

4) Read four ROW80 blogs and comment on them all. .

5) Walk/run three times for 20 minutes each day and do upper body exercises three times.
6) Sew my new Easter scrub top for work, coz – um – I need to wear it this week yet, don’t you think?

7) Find something inspirational this week.   

That’s kind of a short list. I should be able to get that done, don’t you think. How about you? Are you close to reaching your goals for the Round? 

all i know

Here it is Wednesday already. I had the last two days (well, three and a half if you count Sunday and Saturday afternoon) off from the day job and had hoped to get so much done. I feel like such a failure, well, no not really, I am just lazy. My greatest accomplishment yesterday was baking a pan of brownies and polishing them off. Ugh. Then had a belly ache the rest of the day. 

I did accomplish one other thing and that was finishing the mini-quilt I started last summer. I started it for a co-worker and since today is her last day of work, I thought I really needed to finish it and give it to her. 

What else? I finished the new power-point presentation for my presentation on Friday. I updated my author website. On Monday I helped my daughter with her taxes and helped her send in her e-visa for the trip to Kenya. They leave in two weeks!

I ran once on the treadmill and I think that is it. See, lazy, lazy. And I work on Friday - my normally most productive day. I'm not so happy about that, as I had asked for the day off to do my presentation at the Assisted Living Home, but instead the boss-lady says she will work around it and let me take a long, late lunch. Argh. 

That's about all I know. 

coming to a close

And another week comes to a close. How many weeks (or days?) are left in this Round anyway?

Good thing I am just focusing on my goals on a week-to-week basis:

1) Work on a new power-point presentation, “Kenya for Kids”. I worked on it some. Did I mention yet that my first talk for this new show is going to be this coming Friday? I need to get on this!

2) Write 1,000 words on the second memoir. No

3) Start the new novel. I haven’t started it, but I did sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo for the month of April. What am I thinking?

4) Blog twice here and three times on the Dino Chronicles. Yep

5) Read eight ROW80 blogs and comment on four of them. So close, my board shows that I read seven and commented on four. Oh, so very close.

6) Update my author website. Nope.

7) Contact five new people for donations to the trip to Kenya. Yep, and I heard from one who said the check is sitting on her kitchen counter. We also got, I think, three donations this week from people we hadn’t personally hit up.

8) Walk/run three times for 20 minutes each day. Yep. And each of the three times was outside. So psyched!

9) Find something inspirational this week. Yep. Blogged about it on the Dino Chronicles.

Well, now that I added some color, that list doesn’t look so productive after all. Oh, well. This coming week I am off from the day job on Monday and Tuesday, so I am going to knock these goals out of the ballpark this week.

1) Finish the new power-point presentation, “Kenya for Kids” and present it at the Assisted Living place.

2) Write 1,000 words on the second memoir. I’m going to get this done by the end of the month so that I can start #3 the first of April.

3) Start the new novel. I think this week I want to write bios on my three main characters. I got some good inspiration on them just now.  

4) Blog twice here and three times on the Dino Chronicles.

5) Read eight ROW80 blogs and comment on four of them.

6) Update my author website. I really need to make this happen.

7) Meet with the president (my daughter) and the treasurer of our nonprofit and see where we are financially for the trip coming up in just a few weeks.

8) Walk/run three times for 20 minutes each day. I also want to get more serious about upper body the other three days of the week. I know, there are seven days in a week, but can I take one off??

9) Find something inspirational this week.

 Here's one more inspiration I ran across last week. Hubby and I took a ride Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful day. 

ready to run

The weather here in the Northwoods has been unseasonably warm. Though I still have a backyard full of snow, most places around town have bare ground. I also have a bare road past my house (but not a bare driveway), so have taken the dog for a run down it twice this week already. What a great feeling that is. Getting to actually stretch my legs instead of keeping them in the confines of the treadmill. The noisy clunky treadmill. Getting to hear the stillness in the tress and smell the damp fallen leaves, feel the cool air on my cheeks. How I survive the winters locked inside my house is beyond me. Oh, except for those two or three times a week walks around my little patch of woods. Not quite the same as the open road however.

But what about my goals. Besides running twice, I have had one of my submissions published in the local paper. Ok, it was a sure-thing, but it is still there, in print. I’ve also got a date for another speaking engagement, but haven’t worked on the powerpoint for it. And the date is a week from Friday. Yikes.

I’ve blogged on schedule, but have slacked a bit on reading what other ROW80ers have had to say. I’ve mailed out five letters to potential donors for our nonprofit. And I had an inspirational experience yesterday, which I blogged about in TheDino Chronicles.

We are winding down on the first Round of Words 80 for 2016. How are your goals coming along?  

just a little inspiration

I don’t know how much time is left in this Round, but I didn’t have set goals for the entire Round anyway. These are my goals for the entire year and what I have accomplished so far, just to keep me on track:

1)         Finish editing my third devotional, “Early Ministry of Jesus” – I think I may ax this goal. My second devotional has not sold well and I don’t see spending any more time on this project right now.

2)         Finish editing my first novel, “Finding the Way Home” - Nope

3)         Write second African memoir – Almost half done with a super rough draft.

4)         Start writing my second novel, “The Novitiate” – I may ax this as well, since I am getting nudges to write a novel based loosely on some of the events my husband has going on at work.  

5)         Research getting an agent – Nope, but want to figure out #8 first.

6)         Submit 12 pieces – Have submitted three, so am right on track.  

7)         Have 4 pieces accepted – None yet

8)         Attend a writers’ conference – Have been researching. The one I want to go to (because they have a variety of agents in attendance) is so expensive and far away and I can’t get any time off from work. I need to pray on it.

9)         Blog three times weekly in the Dino Chronicles – Have slipped a few times, but in general am on track.

10)       Blog twice a week here – Again, have slipped a little, but usually on track.

I wasn’t going to color-code it, but I need that visual. The green finished goals and yellow worked on goals pop more than the red not-even-close goals.

So how did my week pan out:

1) Work on a new power-point presentation, “Kenya for Kids”. I have not worked on it, but heard back from the assisted living home and we just need to set up a day for me to do it.

2) Write 1,000 words on the second memoir. Not

3) Blog twice here and three times on the Dino Chronicles. Only posted here once, but did three times on the Dino Chronicles.

4) Read eight ROW80 blogs and comment on four of them. Done

5) Promote my books on social media once. No

6) Update the GoFundMe page for our nonprofit’s trip this spring. Yes

7) Walk/run on the treadmill three times for 20 minutes each day. Done

8) Find something inspirational this week. Umm, nothing sticks out.

We also had a meeting of the nonprofit yesterday, which didn’t turn out as productive as we had hoped. Long story, but the meeting actually didn’t even go well. Our team leaves for Kenya in less than four weeks, and maybe we are all just feeling the stress. I have also been working on updating my inventory list of items we have for sale yet, so that when they return with more merchandise I can more easily plug it in. And I guess that’s about it.

I am going to be more positive in the coming week. I am going to try, at least, but on top of everything else there is a new stress at the day job. I need to stop letting everything cause me to lose sleep.

1) Work on a new power-point presentation, “Kenya for Kids”. In addition to compiling it, I need to call our Sunday School teacher and the Kinship director to set up dates to give the presentation for their kids.   

2) Write 1,000 words on the second memoir.

3) Start the new novel. This is pretty ambitious, but three characters have stumbled into my head wanting their stories told.

4) Blog twice here and three times on the Dino Chronicles.

5) Read eight ROW80 blogs and comment on four of them.

6) Update my author website.

7) Contact five new people for donations to the trip to Kenya. We gave everyone at the meeting yesterday this assignment, so I really need to get on it.

8) Walk/run on the treadmill three times for 20 minutes each day. The weather is supposed to be warming up and the snow is off our road, so I really want to run outside at least once this week.

9) Find something inspirational this week.

Ok, not an exciting inspiration, but I have been looking for months for something to display our necklaces on at our sales. Came across this at Walmart yesterday. I was pretty excited.