summertime distractions

Considering that I only worked the day job Tuesday and Thursday last week, I am really disgusted with myself when I look at these goals. Oh, well, it is summer and the lure of my deck and the sunshine are too tempting to avoid.

Accomplished goals are highlighted in green, worked on are in yellow and didn’t work on it at all are written in red.

Writing –

1) My novel

a. Do one more edit, typing up an outline for each chapter as I go. Work on it every day. Worked on it four times. .

b. Spend three hours per week working on a pitch for publishers and agents. No.

c. Decide on a title. Had pretty much decided on “Where the Sky Meets the Sand”. Then on last week’s blog, Denise had commented that I could shorten the title to “Where Sky Meets Sand” which I instantly liked better. But now that I’ve thought about it, I’m not sure. “Where Sky Meets Sand” implies any sky could meet any sand, while “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” stands for that African sky meeting that African sand. However, half the story takes place in the US, and even though there is no talk of sky meeting sand there, meetings still take place. Am I overthinking this????

d. Bonus Goal. Ask my friend who went to Kenya twice to read it and let me know if she thinks the African details are accurate. Done.

2) Blog twice a week here. Done

3) Blog three times a week on the Dino Chronicles. Done. From July 29 through August 14, I am celebrating the ten year anniversary of my first trip to Kenya, so am reposting the blogs I wrote in 2010 about that trip. Maybe not new material, but it still is time-consuming finding the proper old post, editing it and sending it to social media.

Reading –

1) Finish reading three books - “Little Bee”, “More Than a Story” and “My Maasai Life”. Read in “My Maasai Life” almost daily, so that is on track.

2) Read three ROW blog posts twice a week. Read four from Sunday, but I don’t remember if I read any from Wednesday. Where is my mind?

REACHING –

1) Update my website once a month. Nope

2) Submit three pieces. Not yet but I did find a market for a flash fiction piece I wrote many years, before “flash fiction” was even a think. I just liked writing short, short stories then. The publication is currently taking a summer break, so is not accepting submissions until August 1. Tomorrow!

3) Once a week post something promoting my books or myself on each of my social media. Yup. I am using that ten year anniversary of the trip to Kenya for all its worth.

Personal –

1) Physical

a) Lose ten pounds. Nothing.  

            b) Stop eating junk food and stop snacking between meals. Been trying and failing

            c) Work out more faithfully

1- Exercise four mornings a week. Done

2- Lift weights and/or run four nights a week. Only did twice

2) Spiritual

a) Read my Bible every night. I read my Bible I think only three or four nights

b) Read a devotion every day. This was probably five or six nights.

NONPROFIT –

1) Start planning our next trip. Nope

2) Sign up for the fall round of craft shows as fundraisers. Nope

We are going on a short camping trip this week, so am going to limit my goals to finishing those edits on my novel. I’ve done up through chapter 25, so only have 14 left. Also will be without the internet during that time, so I won’t have that distraction. Wish me luck!

Soon will be my home away from home

that evil voice

I am only working the day job on Tuesday and Thursday this week, so you would think that I am getting all kinds of writing and other things done. I can’t say I have been dismal at working on stuff, but I haven’t had an amazing boost in productivity either. I have no idea where Monday went, except that I went to my daughter’s around 2 and then, well, we were only somewhat productive as well before we went down the rabbit hole I wrote about on my other blog.  And today I had to take my mom to a doctor’s appointment. Granted that only took a total of three or so hours, but it was smack in the middle of the day, so I felt I couldn’t start anything in the morning and then the afternoon seemed pretty shot by the time I got home. Then Hubby’s uncle died yesterday, so we have to go to visitation on Friday and the funeral on Saturday. The upside to that (I am so sorry to even think there is an upside to someone’s death) is that Hubby then gets Friday and Saturday off for grieving leave (or whatever it’s called), which means we will have time to get stuff ready for a camping trip next week. But it is all leaving my head spinning!

I have worked on my novel. Have re-read and outlined it up through chapter 23. After I finish that I had myself all psyched to submit it, but now the evil voice in my head is filling my brain with things like, “this isn’t accurate, you know?” and “you really are not an expert on this culture you are writing about” and “you really can’t let that character die that way, no matter how mean he was” and oh, my gosh, it just goes on and on. Then the little pyscho voice even says, “what if you do find a publisher and now your inaccuracies are in print forever and someone is going to hate you for it?”

I know that just because I have been to Kenya three times and have met quite a few Maasai, as well as having read everything I could find on their culture, does not mean I am an expert. I just need to find someone who is an expert in the Maasai culture to read it and let me know if some of the premises will fly. The problem with the Maasai is that they make stuff up themselves (many of them still swear that they have killed a lion with their bare hands. Really?). So they are the last ones to ask for advice on how they live and think. But some of the stuff I’ve found on the internet, written by supposed experts, I do know is wrong because I do know a few things.

Anyway, I think I need to break down and force my daughter into reading it. I know she has no interest in it, and I don’t mean that in a my-daughter-is-a-self-centered-brat-who-hates-her-mother kind of way. She just doesn’t read novels and she really doesn’t read anything from a Christian worldview. She also doesn’t have the time, working two jobs as well as running our nonprofit.

I need to just get a grip, I think. I just need to go camping and let it all rest for a week, right?

How about you? What nasty things does that voice in your head tell you and how do you get it to shut up?

 This white-tailed deer I saw the other day is kind of how I feel. He's not supposed to have a white face but he does, and just because the voice in my head says I'm not supposed to write about Africa doesn't mean I can't. 

everything's coming up hollyhocks

Here is my tally for the week. Accomplished goals are highlighted in green, worked on are in yellow and didn’t work on at all are written in red.

Writing –

1) My novel

           a. Do one more edit, typing up an outline for each chapter as I go. Spend one hour a day on it. Worked on it four hours.

b. Spend three hours per week working on a pitch for publishers and agents. Not at all.

           c. Decide on a title. These are the contenders, with my favorite highlighted:

The Way Home

Finding the Way Home

Where the Sky Meets the Sand

When Family Happens

Returning Home

Family Matters Most

A Mother Like That

Just Like That

2) Blog twice a week here. Done

3) Blog three times a week on the Dino Chronicles. Done 

Reading –

1) Finish reading three books - “Little Bee”, “More Than a Story” and “My Maasai Life”. Read in “My Maasai Life” almost daily, so that is on track.

2) Read three ROW blog posts twice a week. Done

REACHING –

1) Update my website once a month. Nope

2) Submit three pieces. My goal for the year was originally to submit 18 pieces this year. I am at FOUR. That is so far behind I don’t even want to think about it. But I would still be happy with 12 for the entire year, so that is attainable. Nope, none

3) Once a week post something promoting my books or myself on each of my social media. Yup

Personal –

1) Physical

a) Lose ten pounds. Haven’t lost an ounce.

            b) Stop eating junk food and stop snacking between meals. Been really trying

            c) Work out more faithfully

1- Exercise four mornings a week. Done

2- Lift weights and/or run four nights a week. Only did twice

2) Spiritual

a) Read my Bible every night. Umm, I read my Bible four or five nights

b) Read a devotion every day. This was so close, I would fudge it, except, really? I’m pretty sure I was at six days, but no green, because lying is a sin! J

NONPROFIT –

1) Start planning our next trip. Nope

2) Sign up for the fall round of craft shows as fundraisers. Nope

At the end of the week, when I feel like I have been nothing but a lazy slug, I look at the color I added to my goals, and it doesn’t look quite so bad.

 The first picture is the hollyhocks I transplanted to a bed by my garage last year. They seem to be doing really well. The second picture is the original bed behind my house, where the hollyhocks compete with some lilies and irises. I don’t know if that is why they are a different shade than the ones by the garage or not. I sure didn’t plan the color-thing, but I may have found the answer. 

As you can tell by my color-coded goals, sometimes color is planned, sometimes it’s not. 

no dents yet

Here it is Wednesday night already. When I posted my goals for this Round on Sunday night, I was so proud of myself for coming up with such a concise list. And here we are a couple days later and I’m wondering what I have to show for myself.

I have done some editing on the novel, up through chapter 8, only 31 left to go. But that’s really about it. I hoped by Wednesday to have something big and exciting to share – ok, maybe not exciting, but something so I can say, “ah, ha, look at what I got done.”

I just don’t know where my evenings go. I didn’t get home from the day job until 7:30 Monday night and 6:30 tonight. Last night, I don’t remember, but I did get home early enough and with enough energy left to run a little bit outside on my trails in the woods. That’s always refreshing. But tonight, besides being rather late, it was warm out. Comfortably warm and pleasant for sitting on the deck, but too humid for a lot of physical activity.

Anyway, I will somehow still power through this week and have great things to report come Sunday morning. Even though I am going out of town on Friday to work at a Compassion event. Life’s too short to just be wrapped up in my own meager goals. There is a bigger picture out there. What if I get one caring person to sponsor a Compassion kid in Uganda and because of that support, that kid is able to graduate from high school and go off to college and become a doctor and return to his or her entire community and improve the lives of hundreds of children. Who knows. It’s like a ripple on the water. It can only expand.

In the meantime, I will keep plugging along, making what dents in my list of goals that I can.

My Compassion girl, making as much difference in my life as I am making in hers. 

Finally out of the Gate

Wednesday I posted a somewhat rambling list of the goals I have come up with for this Round. They are reasonable goals, but I hadn’t made them measurable. So here is my list of measurable goals for the rest of the Round and I’m not beating myself up that it has taken me two weeks to get it together. I’m also not going to kill myself to make up for lost time. And even though I have worked on a few of these things last week, I am starting fresh today.  

 Writing –

1)      My novel

a.       Do one more edit, typing up an outline for each chapter as I go. Spend one hour a day on it

b.      Spend three hours per week working on a pitch for publishers and agents

c.       Decide on a title. I think I have this one figured out, but still want to bounce it around in my head some more. These are the contenders:

The Way Home

Finding the Way Home

Where the Sky Meets the Sand

When Family Happens

Returning Home

Family Matters Most

A Mother Like That

Just Like That

2)      Blog twice a week here

3)      Blog three times a week on the Dino Chronicles  

Reading –

1)      Finish reading three books - “Little Bee”, “More Than a Story” and “My Maassai Life”  

2)      Read three ROW blog posts twice a week

REACHING –

1)      Update my website once a month

2)      Submit three pieces. This goal just came to mind. My goal for the year was originally to submit 18 pieces this year. I am at FOUR. That is so far behind I don’t even want to think about it. But I would still be happy with 12 for the entire year, so that is attainable.

3)      Once a week post something promoting my books or myself on each of my social media

Personal –

1) Physical

a) Lose ten pound

                        b) Stop eating junk food and stop snacking between meals

                        c) Work out more faithfully

1- Exercise four mornings a week

2- Lift weights and/or run four nights a week

2)      Spiritual

a)      Read my Bible every night

b)      Read a devotion every day

NONPROFIT –

1)      Start planning our next trip.

2)      Sign up for the fall round of craft shows as fundraisers

There you have it. I am finally off and running. (The picture is of my goofy dog last night on the pontoon boat. Looks like he's ready to leave the gate.) 

time to declare my goals for this round - or not

I still don’t know what I want my goals to be for this the third Round of ROW80 2016. Maybe I should start at the bottom of my usual list and work up, ruminating as I go.

Personal –

1) Physical – a) Lose ten pounds. Even though my BMI says I am overweight, if anyone has ever looked at the BMI chart, only anorexic people are the ideal weight. I do not want to be anorexic. But I do have a magical number which I refuse to go above and when I weighed myself this morning, I was within a half a pound. When I think about people who are really overweight, I think to myself, “that didn’t happen overnight, that weight crept up on you.” And I can’t let that weight creep up on me. Sooo, I have got to get serious. How?

                        b) Stop eating junk food and stop snacking between meals

                        c) Work out more faithfully, exercise four mornings a week and lift weights and/or run four nights a week.

            2) Spiritual – Return to reading my Bible every night. I had been doing pretty good on that over the winter, but somehow just got out of the habit. A few weeks ago I also started reading a devotion each night, but already quit that, so I need to get back to that too.

NONPROFIT –

1)      We need to seriously start planning our next trip. Anybody want to go to Kenya with us for two weeks in late February or early March of next year? We are talking about building rabbit hutches and starting a rabbit production at the school where we started chickens in April. The cost should be around $2000, a little bit more if you want to go on safari or do other site-seeing one or two days.

REACHING –

1)      Update my website once a month. I revamped my website a month or so ago and really like the look of it, but I should post updates at least once a month.

2)      Once a week post something on all of my social media. And the rest of the time, stay off of Facebook – what a drain of my time that is!

Reading –

1)      Finish reading three books. I’ve just started “Little Bee” and will read “More Than a Story” after that.

2)      Though I didn’t sign up to be a ROW sponsor this time, I should read three blog posts twice a week, I think, sounds reasonable.

Writing – and the big one

1)      My novel is starting to give me birth pains. Seeing as I started writing it on January 17, 2011, five and a half years of being pregnant with it is probably long enough.

a)      I think I will go through it again and this time write up an outline as I go. I have post it notes on a big board, but I think they need to find their way into my laptop.

b)      Start work on that stuff which agents and publishers want – I am drawing a complete blank of what that’s called – but you know what I mean.

c)      Decide on a title. These are the titles that I came up with so far:

The Way Home

Finding the Way Home

Family Matters Most

When Family Happens

Returning Home

A Mother Like That

Just Like That

Where the Sky Meets the Sand

                        I came up with the last one just recently and like it the best. The main character, Jenny, lives in Chicago, but travels to Kenya three times during the course of the story. When I describe the open plain of Africa, I always talking about the wide expanse of ground and seeing to the very end of where the blue sky meets the tan sand.

2)      Of course, in addition to the novel, I will blog here twice a week and on my other blog, the Dino Chronicles, three times a week. 

Umm, so, okay, I guess I ruminated enough and came up with some goals. Let’s see what really happens. 

Saw this plaque when I was out of town last weekend. A reminder to never give up. 

Half way through the year

Ok, well I missed the beginning of the third Round of Words by a week. Not only have I not had the time in the last week to think about this Round, I haven’t come up with any goals for the next 80 (73 now) days.

I need to start somewhere though, so here is what I started out the year with for goals for 2016. Green means I’ve worked on that goal, red means I have not and purple means that goal is dead to me.

1)         Finish editing my third devotional, “Early Ministry of Jesus” Ok, I am going to slash this one right away. The first two books in this series met with less than stellar reviews, so at this point, I don’t think pursuing the third book is worth my time.

2)         Finish editing my first novel, “Finding the Way Home” Finished one edit, but in the back of my mind, I am now seeing things which I need to change.

3)         Write second African memoir I plowed through a very rough draft of it. It still needs a ton of work.

4)         Start writing my second novel, “The Novitiate” Not yet, I am still doing some background research on it.

5)         Research getting an agent Not yet, but I did do some research on a publisher (guess this goal gets a half and half)

6)         Submit 12 pieces To be on track I should have submitted six by now and am only at four.  

7)         Have 4 pieces accepted Again, I should be at two to be on track and have only had one accepted and even though I count it in my own pathetic head, since it was a sure thing that my local paper would print my yearly blurb about my church’s community Easter dinner, well, I shouldn’t count it in the real world.

8)         Attend a writers’ conference Not yet and since I have decided not to go the one in Green Lake this year, I have no prospects on the horizon.

9)         Blog three times weekly in the Dino Chronicles I’ve had a lot of slips, but let’s do the math to see how bad. I posted 71 times through the end of June. That is 26 weeks meaning I should have posted 78 times, so am only behind by seven, which is just over one short per month, and at 91 %, so I’m saying I have met this one. 

10)       Blog twice a week here Using the same bat-shit crazy math, I should have posted 52 times so far this year, and was only at 41 by the end of the Round, which is 78%. I really think my goal should be to post 80% of the time – just an arbitrary number, but I’m gonna say my goal had been 75% prior to right now, so I’m good.

Ok, so that means I have worked on four and a half of my goals for the year. I guess that is pretty good. I need whatever validation I can get! But as stated in number 10 above, I think that reaching 80% should be considered success.

Let’s just stop with the numbers. I’ve got to focus on something using letters and words instead!

But not today. You will have to wait with baited breath until Wednesday’s check-in. (Meaning, it’s going to take me a few more days to get it together.)

 

Ok, so one other goal since the first of the year was to get my hair long enough to french braid it. Done! But so much for Loreal covering up my grey!