One Marathon is Finished

My handsome kids at the wedding last night. 

I knew that once again I would have a week where I just wouldn’t get much done. The wedding marathon is over now, at least, three out-of-town weddings three weekends in a row. Uf-da. I get to stay home next weekend, well, not really, but at least I don’t have to go out of town. Just work Saturday morning and a church event Sunday afternoon – but that’s a week away, so I shouldn’t be fretting already.

So here’s the sorry list of goals. If it is a goal which I accomplished, and it is done for the Round, I’ll highlight it in blue and then drop it off the list next time I post. If it is a goal which was accomplished this week, but I will do it all over again next week, I’ll highlight it in green and keep it on the list. The usual yellow highlight is goal at least worked on and red lettering is not even attempted, a complete fail. If there is no color at all, it’s a goal I just couldn’t work on for whatever lame reason. If new goals are added, they will be clearly marked as NEW GOAL.

A. WRITING

1. Write three posts for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”.  Done.

2. Write a chapter on my new novel, “New Old Spies.” Not done.

3. I want to read through my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”, one more time before I send it to my editor November 4. Read seven chapters.

B. REACHING

1. 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.). Published a Facebook event for my book signing on November 16 at the First Street Coffee Shop.  

2. Contact three businesses about doing book signings or speaking engagements. None.

3. Secure three book signings or speaking engagements. None. Except for November 16, but I don’t think I should count that as it was scheduled before I came up with this goal. We’ll see.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Actually am two days behind. Even botched this assignment.  

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

3. Read five other people’s blog posts and comment on two of them. Read three and commented on one.

4. Finish half of the next book I started, “Till the Storm Passes By.” Finished it Sunday evening.   

5. Start reading another book, to be determined. Started reading “The Great Alone.”  Am up to chapter 4.

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake, averaging 60 ounces per day.  Still working on it.

b. Exercise five mornings a week and three evenings. Hmm? I think it was four mornings and two or three evenings. My back has been out for about four weeks now. When it hangs on this long, I know I really need to go to the chiropractor, but my chiropractor retired recently, just about the time I got different insurance which has a huge co-pay. So, I guess I suffer.

2. Home fires

a. Scan 20 old pictures. Nope.   

b. Sew my Halloween costume. I put in a lot of time on it on yesterday and the day before. I’ll have to finish up tonight. Just kidding, no way I can finish sewing it tonight.    

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Promote TV on all of our social media. I posted an update on our Schwan’s Cares campaign. Also, sold a piece of art work on our Etsy page, which was none of my doing, but still should count for something.

b. Work on the Policy and Procedure Manual. NEW GOAL.

Hoping for a better week, or at least until next weekend. Again.  

Costume - just a t-shirt - easy-peasy - right? But I putz. 

Maybe My Brain is Froze

On our way to the wedding yesterday. Yikes!!! So not ready for this kind of weather!

I only have a general idea of where I am at with these goals. What in the world happened to me this week? We went to a wedding out of town yesterday, came home this afternoon. But you think I would have some recollection about the rest of the week. Good thing I write down these goals and like when I actually do something on the computer, there is a time stamp or otherwise I would have no clue when I do anything. Maybe my brain is just frozen.

So here is what I may have gotten done last week. A reasonable estimate anyway. If it is a goal which I accomplished, and it is done for the Round, I’ll highlight it in blue and then drop it off the list next time I post. If it is a goal which was accomplished this week, but I will do it all over again next week, I’ll highlight it in green and keep it on the list. The usual yellow highlight is goal at least worked on and red lettering is not even attempted, a complete fail. If there is no color at all, it’s a goal I just couldn’t work on for whatever lame reason. If new goals are added, they will be clearly marked as NEW GOAL.

A. WRITING

1. Write three posts for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. Just two.

2. Write a chapter on my new novel, “New Old Spies.” Yup, just one. Don’t know how that happened. Oh, yea, last Sunday afternoon.  

3. I want to read through my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”, one more time before I send it to my editor Nov. 4. NEW GOAL.

B. REACHING

1. 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.). Hmm? Pretty sure I did not. I was going to do a Facebook event for my book signing on November 16 but couldn’t come up with a picture for it.

2. Contact three businesses about doing book signings or speaking engagements. Contacted one.

3. Secure three book signings or speaking engagements. I’m not really counting this, as this goal is for new events, but I do have a date and time pinned down for the book signing at First Street Coffee Shop. Hubby and I stopped in there Saturday morning as I’d never been there before. Which is why this is getting a yellow highlight.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Done.

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

3. Read five other people’s blog posts and comment on two of them. Read three and commented on two.  

4. Finish half of the next book I started, “Till the Storm Passes By.” At 90%, so will finish it tonight. Hopefully.

5. Start reading another book, to be determined. NEW GOAL.

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake, averaging 60 ounces per day.  Still working on it. . .    

b. Exercise five mornings a week and three evenings. I exercised five mornings, I am pretty sure, and three evenings.  

2. Home fires

a. Scan 20 old pictures. Nope.   

b. Sew my Halloween costume. Nope and yikes! I only have a week left to finish it!  

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Promote TV on all of our social media. I posted a reminder to go to the Schwan’s Cares page and click on our current campaign when you order from Schwan’s. Anyone reading this ever order food from Schwan’s??? Just asking. Would love your support, if you click here. 

b. Attend meeting last Sunday where we try to figure out how to raise more money or if this is even worthwhile anymore. Meeting went well. We got fired up to try some new things. Everyone is pumped. We’ll see what happens.

c. Review our Bylaws and Procedure Manual. NEW GOAL. 

Hoping for a better week, or at least a week where I know what’s going on.

hitting it out of the park

Two exciting things happened to me this week.

First, I found an editor for my newest novel, “The Truth Beyond the River.” I met her eight years ago, so she should know enough about me that she should realize what she is getting herself into. I’m positive she will do a fantastic job.

And second. I won’t go into any detail, because it would just take up too much space, but I was contacted by a woman asking if she could put me on the speaker’s bureau listing for her organization’s zone. I told you I won’t go into detail on it, and there’s only the smallest chance this will turn into something, but I still feel honored to be on a LIST.

 So without further ado, here are my weekly goals with the appropriate coloration. If it is a goal which I accomplished, and it is done for the Round, I’ll highlight it in blue and then drop it off the list next time I post. If it is a goal which was accomplished this week, but I will do it all over again next week, I’ll highlight it in green and keep it on the list. The usual yellow highlight is goal at least worked on and red lettering is not even attempted, a complete fail. If there is no color at all, it’s a goal I just couldn’t work on for whatever lame reason. If new goals are added, they will be clearly marked as NEW GOAL.

A. WRITING

1. Write two posts for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. Done, three actually. I had cut this back to two posts a week, so I could work on other things, but I have enough stuff to write about, that I think I can up it back to three a week.

2. Write a chapter on my new novel, “New Old Spies.” I wrote two chapters!

B. REACHING

1. 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.). I posted an event to my author’s Facebook page regarding a book signing I will be having on November 10.

2. Contact three businesses about doing book signings or speaking engagements. I emailed three churches and also heard back from the coffee shop I had contacted about a book signing. The book signing will be November 16 – yeah! I haven’t heard from any of the churches, but there is also the other news I posted above about the speaker’s bureau. But I will still keep contacting three churches or other businesses per week. Until . . .

3. Secure three book signings or speaking engagements. NEW GOAL.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Done.

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

3. Read five other people’s blog posts and comment on two of them. Read two and commented on one.

4. Finish reading “The Reunion” by Dan Walsh. Done.

5. Finish half of the next book I started, “Till the Storm Passes By.” NEW GOAL.

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake, averaging 60 ounces per day. Working on it.   

b. Exercise four mornings a week and three evenings. I exercised five morning and I believe three evenings. I’m going to up this to five mornings next week as I am usually able to get that in.    

2. Home fires

a. Wash the windows in my office. Ok, this is coming off the list next week. There is no warm and dry enough weather in the ten day forecast and by then we will be pushing into November already.

b. Clean my three drawers of the four drawer file cabinet in my office. Done.

c. Scan 20 old pictures. Not.
d. Sew my Halloween costume. Yikes! I don't have much time; good thing it's an easy one. NEW GOAL. 

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Promote TV on all of our social media. I reposted that lengthy blog post about our upcoming project and pleading for donations. Up to 700 views of it. We’ve gotten over $400 in donations off of it.  I also added a picture to our Facebook event of the craft sale we have a booth at on November 10.

b. Attend meeting today where we try to figure out how to raise more money or if this is even worthwhile anymore. NEW GOAL.

Looks like it had been a pretty good week. I don’t know if I can keep this motivation going, but I will give it my best shot. How about you? Knocking those goals out of the park already? 

Oh, and if you don't follow baseball, my Milwaukee Brewers are in the playoffs. A few more wins and they are on their way to the World Series for only the second time in franchise history. 

Baby Steps and Small Victories

Want to read about any tourist traps in my state? 

Look at that, all organized and labeled. 

You know how some people collect beer steins, or Green Bay Packer memorabilia (that be my husband) or Snoopys (ok, that would be me). Well, I also collect, apparently, travel brochures. You know, those rack cards and city magazines and fliers they have in the racks in the lobbies of hotels and some restaurants? Well, I scoop those up like a crow on roadkill.  

A week ago, last Friday, I cleaned out a file drawer of just those things from my own state. I have two more file drawers full from the other 49 states! Someday I’ll get to those. In the meantime, this past Friday, I cleaned out the next drawer in that particular file cabinet, and it contained a plethora of my writing from twenty to thirty years ago. Found only a few gems. I might share them another time. But on to my goals.

Last Sunday, I posted my goals for the rest of the year, so I’m not going to repost them here now, maybe just the first of each month. My plan was to focus on weekly goals, which means, unfortunately, I have to add another color. Oh, man, this is getting so complex. I did not want to add another color! I did not want this to get complicated.

Ok, so this is what I’m gonna try. Below are my goals from last week. If it is a goal which I accomplished, and it is done for the Round, I’ll highlight it in blue and then drop it off the list next time I post. If it is a goal which was accomplished this week, but I will do it all over again next week, I’ll highlight it in green and keep it on the list. The usual yellow highlight is goal at least worked on and red lettering is not even attempted, a complete fail. If there is no color at all, it’s a goal I just couldn’t work on for whatever lame reason. Is that too convoluted to follow? I’ll try it this week and see how it works for me.

Except, oh dear, I thought of something else. If I am accomplishing goals which I drop of the list, I should be adding new ones, shouldn’t I? If that happens, guess what, no color, just a note that it’s an added goal. Yikes, don’t know if I can do this!

Goals for the week:

A. WRITING

1. Write two posts for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. Done, three actually.

2. Write a chapter on my new novel "New Old Spies". NEW GOAL. I have to start working on this!

B. REACHING

1. 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.). Hmm? Can’t think of anything. Ok, so I remembered something, and even though it was actually more than a week ago, I haven’t counted it on this blog yet, so I’m counting it now. A memory from a year ago bounced up on Facebook, where I posted pictures of cases of my novel arriving at my house. So, I shared that and someone saw it and asked to buy my novel. A little thing, but hey. And my sister, bless her heart, sold a copy of my memoir to some guy she knows. Baby steps and small victories, right?

2. Contact three businesses about doing book signings or speaking engagements. I emailed just one library but am still researching other places and adding to my list of prospects.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Done.

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

3. Read five other people’s blog posts and comment on two of them. Read six and commented on four.  And by the way, I love and support all the other ROW80 bloggers, but I’ve been trying to read and comment on blogs outside of the group too.

4. Finish reading “The Reunion” by Dan Walsh. NEW GOAL.

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake, averaging 60 ounces per day. Not really very much this week.  

b. Exercise four mornings a week and three evenings. Done, I’m pretty sure.   

2. Home fires

a. Wash the windows in my office. Are you kidding? With the highs in the low 50s and rain almost every day? I might have to forget about this one until spring, due to no fault of my own, except of course, that I should have done it in August.   

b. Clean the closet in my office. Yup, done! Along with those file cabinet drawers.
c. Clean my three drawers of the four drawer file cabinet in my office. NEW GOAL.
d. Scan 20 old pictures. NEW GOAL.  

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Promote TV on all of our social media. I wrote a very lengthy blog post about our upcoming project and posted it all over and asked those reading it to share it. It has had 483 views at last count. I don’t know what more I can do than that.

b. Talk to our board about contacting American Family Insurance offices in the area. Our nonprofit’s president and our treasurer both contacted people about that this week. Let’s me off the hook, I guess!

Well, that all looks pretty good for week 1 of the fourth Round. How about you? Have you started the Round out with a bang or a whimper?