One advantage of not sleeping

I always write this on Saturday night before I go to bed so that I don’t have to stare at a blank screen on Sunday morning trying to get this together. As it is, as soon as I post this, I’m taking off for another craft show for our nonprofit. The forecast is for sun all day and highs in the 90s. Unseasonably warm for our neck of the woods. I hope that doesn’t keep the tourists away. This craft show is being held in conjunction with a car show downtown, so I hope I get lots of new people checking out our stuff.

Anyway, I didn’t think I had worked on my goals all week. It was a massively stressful week for me. I only slept a few nights and when I did sleep, I had crazy dreams and nightmares. Would wake up at two a.m. thinking it would be better not to sleep at all. Argh.

So, with all of that, it was at least good to see lots of green and yellow here. I guess the night I spent on the computer from 11:00 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. was good for something.

Here’s my list of goals for April, May, and June. Green highlight is goal accomplished (for the week at least), yellow highlight is goal at least worked on, red lettering is goal not even attempted. A Smiley face marks a goal completely done for the Round. 

A. WRITING

J 1. Finish a final edit of my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River.”  Done, on April 5.  

2. Continue tweaking my book proposal / query, as needed for each literary agent I intend to contact next. Tweaked that query and first chapter and emailed it to the third agent on my list on May 16.    

3. Write eight chapters on my next novel, which I am giving the working title of “New Old Spies.” I’m up to 1424 words and just started the second chapter. So, slowly pounding it out.

J 4. Write a piece to submit to the Guidepost Magazine Writers Contest (deadline June 10). Well, I wrote it, now just need to edit it some more (but still am giving it the smiley face).  

5. Write three posts per week for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. Done.   

 

B. REACHING

1. Continue sending that proposal / query to each next agent on my list. As mentioned above, I emailed another query to another agent on May 16. (Current agent tally - submitted to 3, rejected by 2.) 

2. Submit the polished piece to Guidepost’s Contest. Totally rewrote it actually from last week, but it’s done, just needs editing.    

J 3. Submit a poem I wrote a while back to the next issue of Voices on the Wind Poetry Journal (deadline April 20). Submitted, accepted and published!      

3. Promote myself or a piece of my writing (whether it be promoting one of my books, submitting a piece somewhere, saying something brilliant about my writing on my social media, etc.) once a week. I started sending a private message about my writing to each new contact on my LinkedIn account. It’s time-consuming and I don’t think it really helps much, but it’s at least something.   

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. A couple weeks ago I got way behind but have been trying to catch up. Just checked and I am only two days behind!    

2. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”.  Still don’t have my Kindle, on which I had been reading this. Trying to read the other devotional I found, but it’s just not working as well for me. Which makes me feel like such a schmuck. Here’s the problem. My Kindle has the light on it so I can read it in bed in the dark and also I can make the font as big as I need to for my nearly blind eyes. In an effort to power through this set-back, I am reading this other devotional with two pairs of glasses on – I kid you not! It’s that kind of stuff – that tiny sacrifice which, well, I don’t know. If Jesus is calling me, I shouldn’t complain and instead should do my best.    

3. Finish reading three other books. Read two books while on the trip to Kenya and still haven’t started another one.  

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake. Hmm? Not so much. Though some days are better than others.

b. Cut way back on my sweets intake. Hmm? Definitely not so much.

c. Do whatever my specialist says to do that is going to heal my heel.  I’ve been trying, am wearing my expensive pair of shoes and expensive pair of orthotics, but only at work. Have to behave more around the house.   

2. Home fires

a. Clean out my mom’s papers. Well, still working on that.  I still have not found that rather important paper which I lost, but I did go through all her papers yet another time. If I haven’t found it by Friday I will just have to get another one signed.

b. Do a major cleaning of one of my closets. Not yet.

c. Plant my garden. I planted my flowers, and am still waiting for someone to till my vegetable garden. Oh, I did turn over a small section of the garden, so I could get my peas planted.      

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Write the Policy and Procedure manual. Not started.

J b. Host two merchandise sales. Had two of them in April. And have another today, as you know.    

J c. Return to Kenya this Spring! As you already know! If you follow my other blog or follow me on Facebook, you may be reading more about it.  

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend.  

My artsy little pot with red, white and blue flowers in it. 

nothing major going on

It was a week filled with ups and downs, but nothing horrendous in my personal life in either direction. Just hanging in there, I guess.

Here’s my list of goals for April, May, and June. Green highlight is goal accomplished (for the week at least), yellow highlight is goal at least worked on, red lettering is goal not even attempted. A Smiley face marks a goal completely done for the Round. If I didn’t give it any color, it’s because I couldn’t really work on that goal for whatever reason, and I just didn’t want to drag in another color. 

A. WRITING

J1. Finish a final edit of my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River.”  Done, on April 5.  

2. Continue tweaking my book proposal / query, as needed for each literary agent I intend to contact next. Tweaked that query and first chapter and emailed it to the third agent on my list.    

3. Write eight chapters on my next novel, which I am giving the working title of “New Old Spies.” I wrote about 960 words, not much, but a start.  

4. Write a piece to submit to the Guidepost Magazine Writers Contest (deadline June 10). Yeah! I started it.  

5. Write three posts per week for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. Done.   

 

B. REACHING

1. Continue sending that proposal / query to each next agent on my list. As mentioned above, I emailed another query to another agent (hardly seems fair that I give myself two goals accomplished in green, when it is really only one. I guess that’s why I make the rules on this blog). (Current agent tally - submitted to 3, rejected by 2.) 

2. Submit the polished piece to Guidepost’s Contest. Got 1900 words on it, but it needs major editing.   

J3. Submit a poem I wrote a while back to the next issue of Voices on the Wind Poetry Journal (deadline April 20). Submitted, accepted and published!      

3. Promote myself or a piece of my writing (whether it be promoting one of my books, submitting a piece somewhere, saying something brilliant about my writing on my social media, etc.) once a week. Nope, really did not do a thing. But one tiny plus, I have another review on Amazon for "Where the Sand Meets the Sky". 

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Still trying to catch up.   

2. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”.  Well, my Kindle died around mid-week, and since this book is downloaded there, I haven’t read it in four days. Hubby has offered his Kindle to me and I found a different devotional to read until I decide what to do. So, kind of in the air right now on this one.  

3. Finish reading three other books. Read two books while on the trip to Kenya and haven’t started another one.  

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake. Hmm? Not so much. My goal is 60 ounces a day, and I know the last few days I’ve only been averaging 30.  

b. Cut way back on my sweets intake. Hmm? Definitely not so much. We had yet another ridiculous week at work. For being a medical clinic, we don’t follow the advice we give our patients.    

Jc. Do whatever my specialist says to do that is going to heal my heel.  The foot has started hurting the last few days; I think I really need to back off, wear my brace more or exercise it less. Yesterday, I did buy an expensive pair of shoes and an even more expensive pair of orthotics to stick in them. See if that settles the pain down.  

2. Home fires

a. Clean out my mom’s papers. Well, started working on that Friday and ran into a snag. It’s a long story, but I seem to have lost one rather important paper.

b. Do a major cleaning of one of my closets. Not yet.

c. Plant my garden. I bought my flowers and plan to stick them in the ground today. Also bought vegetable seeds. Just gotta get that garden tilled.    

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Write the Policy and Procedure manual. Not started. 

Jb. Host two merchandise sales. Had two of them in April. And have another scheduled for next Sunday.    

Jc. Return to Kenya this Spring! As you already know! If you follow my other blog or follow me on Facebook, you may be reading more about it.  

And that’s all I have for today.

Hope you have a good week and that you get to enjoy a long holiday weekend next weekend.

Home and needing to buckle down

I arrived home from Kenya last Saturday night, around ten, and on Friday I just first started getting my groove back. Jet lag usually doesn’t affect me this much, but I have not been able to sleep at regular times all week. You would think that since I was only gone a week, my body wouldn’t have switched to Kenyan time so readily. Our second night there, I slept eleven hours and after that, my internal clock was set to their time. Why can’t the same thing happen coming home? But alas, after a week back, my clock has just now adjusted. I’ve heard somewhere that our internal clocks more easily adjust to moving ahead in time and take longer to adjust to going back, for some reason. I don’t know. But whatever the case, my butt got whooped this trip. 

Anyway, we had a good time, got done what we needed to and didn’t have any incidents. Now, it is time to buckle down and get stuff done.  

Here’s my list of goals for April, May, and June. Green highlight is goal accomplished (for the week at least), yellow highlight is goal at least worked on, red lettering is goal not even attempted. A Smiley face marks a goal completely done for the Round. If I didn’t give it any color, it’s because I couldn’t really work on that goal for whatever reason, and I just didn’t want to drag in another color. 

A. WRITING

J1. Finish a final edit of my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River.”  Done, on April 5.  

2. Continue tweaking my book proposal / query, as needed for each literary agent I intend to contact next. Spent some time looking at it on Friday but need to decide on the next agent to send it to first, so I know what they want.  

3. Write eight chapters on my next novel, which I am giving the working title of “New Old Spies.” I wrote about 960 words, not much, but a start.  

4. Write a piece to submit to the Guidepost Magazine Writers Contest (deadline June 10). Not started.

5. Write three posts per week for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. Nope, just one this week. Still decompressing after the trip.  

 

B. REACHING

1. Continue sending that proposal / query to each next agent on my list. I spent a couple hours researching the next agent. Though I already had a list, it needs constant updating. I will try to pick one and submit it this week. (I should make a note somewhere with my tally – submitted to 2, rejected by 2.) 

2. Submit the polished piece to Guidepost’s Contest. Nope. Gotta write it yet.

J3. Submit a poem I wrote a while back to the next issue of Voices on the Wind Poetry Journal (deadline April 20). Submitted, accepted and published!      

3. Promote myself or a piece of my writing (whether it be promoting one of my books, submitting a piece somewhere, saying something brilliant about my writing on my social media, etc.) once a week. Nope, not a thing that counts this week. Oh, I suppose I could count that I shared the link to that accepted poem on Facebook.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. I managed to get about two weeks behind on this. Am going to really try this week to catchup by at least one week.   

2. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”.  Done.

3. Finish reading three other books.  Actually read two books while on the trip. “Rescuing Finley” by Dan Walsh and “The Body” by Stephen King.  

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake. Hmm? Not so much. My goal is 60 ounces a day, and I think I’ve averaged around 40 to 50.   

b. Cut way back on my sweets intake. Hmm? Definitely not so much. We’ve had a boatload of stress at work all week, so there is chocolate everywhere!   

Jc. Do whatever my specialist says to do that is going to heal my heel.  I was sure that all the walking I did on the trip, plus only wearing my ASO brace instead of the big CAM walker would have really screwed it up. But I saw my podiatrist on Wednesday and she turned me loose, said it was time to keep walking on it, working it, to strengthen it now. So, whoot, whoot for me!

2. Home fires

a. Clean out my mom’s papers. Not yet.

b. Do a major cleaning of one of my closets. Not yet.

c. Plant my garden. I couldn’t believe that when I came home from Africa, all of the snow was melted. Hopefully this week I can get the hubby to till the garden and then I can plant it by Memorial Day. Maybe I should buy the seeds this week.   

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Write the Policy and Procedure manual. Not started.

Jb. Host two merchandise sales. Had two of them in April. Now it’s time to start scheduling them for the summer.   

Jc. Return to Kenya this Spring! As you already know! If you follow my other blog or follow me on Facebook, you may be reading more about it.  

Wish me luck in the coming weeks. Spring is here and there is so much to do around the house and in the yard. It will be hard to keep my focus.

Has Spring arrived where you live? Does it make it hard for you to stick to your goals when it is nice outside? 

At the safari camp where we stayed while we were working with the villagers. I'm looking pretty serious here, aren't I? Just hard at work.