Losing my mind

I didn’t post an update last Sunday. I had gone to Minnesota with a friend to visit another friend, and though we got back early enough in the day, I hadn’t worked on many goals during the week, so had little to say.

We had another five or six inches of snow earlier this week and between 14 and 16 last night! I feel like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. “Here’s Johnny!” Like this winter is causing me to completely lose my mind! (Click this link for proof.) We even last power for six hours over night, due to the freezing rain that hit before the snow. Hubby and I have been talking about taking a vacation later this winter, but we were hedging because there is so much going on. This morning, I decided that we are going someplace where there is something other than white on the ground and I don’t care about anything else. So, I’ve put in a lot of hours planning that trip.

So here are my goals for January, February and March. If it is a goal which I accomplished, and it is done for the Round, I’ll highlight it in blue. If it is a goal which was accomplished this week, but which I will keep working on, I’ll highlight it in green. A goal at least worked on is highlighted in yellow and red lettering is not even attempted, a complete fail.

WRITING

1)    Finish the edits on “The Truth Beyond the River”. Finished.

2)    Finish the proposal for “The Truth Beyond the River”. I worked on it a little bit more.

3)    Write nine chapters in “Old New Spies”. Not started.

4)    Continue posting three times weekly to “The Dino Chronicles.” Yes.   

5)    Continue posting here once a week.  Nope, missed last week.

REACHING

1)    Submit the query/proposal for “The Truth Beyond the River.” No, but I did research some more agents, so I’m not beating myself up on this one.   

2)    Submit four pieces somewhere. No, none.

3)    Redo my website. No.

4)    NEW GOAL. I really need to try to do something each week, or at least twice a month, to promote my writing. I posted a new picture of my books on my author Facebook page so am going to count that.

READING

1)    Finish reading “The Secret Garden”. Finished last weekend.

2)    NEW GOAL. Started reading a new book, “Once Upon a Road Trip”, so want to get 25% through it this week and finish it by the end of March.

3)    Finish reading “All the Place to Go”. 82% done. I better finish it this week.

4)    Read an average of five other blogs per week, commenting on three of them. Since I didn’t do much last Sunday and I know I didn’t read anyone’s post on Wednesday, I really need to say this was a fail.   

REMAINING

1)    Empty half the box of old pictures in my office. Scanned only a few more pictures into the computer.

2)    Finish my family tree. Worked on it, still on those cousins I’ve never heard of.   

3)    Clean six closets in my house. Cleaned the front hall closet, the desk in my office, and the piles of Christmas decorations in the basement. But I really need to do another three, so I’m upping this goal to a total of six.

4)    Finish the 30-Day Yoga Challenge. I finished this particular one on Friday. And yesterday morning started a new one. If you haven’t done yoga before and are wondering how to start, look up Yoga with Adriene on YouTube. I love her yoga videos. They are easy to follow and you can choose from low-key to advanced. And Adriene is a sweetheart and so funny. I love her!

5)    Tumaini Volunteers Nonprofit

a.     Get the tax-deduction letters out to our donors by the end of January. Done.

b.     Hold a meeting after the team returns from Kenya. We rescheduled today’s meeting to March 9. Stupid weather.  

c.      Work on the Procedure Manual. Our secretary and I still have to come up with a time to do this.

d.     Sign up for two craft sales this spring. Signed up for one! Will probably sign up for another one next weekend (gotta talk to someone about it first).  

That’s it for now. Just praying for an early spring and no flooding when this snow starts to melt. 

My garage this morning. I don't know how it's not going to collapse before this is all over. Trying to get someone over to shovel it off, but as you can imagine, every able body is already overworked. 

And It's Snowing Again

We had a ridiculous amount of snow this past week; I have lost track of it. (And it is snowing again right now.) Hubby took me to work once or twice, as he wasn’t going to be driving school bus and he seemed like he wanted to drive somewhere. I got off of work earlier than usual most days, thanks to the weather, so I should have gotten a lot done on my list of goals. In addition to everything below, I also worked on planning our vacation for later this spring. I kind of obsess about those travel plans.

I guess I didn’t do too bad. Looking ahead, however, I’m hoping to go out of town on Friday for the weekend, so I may not get much done. Unless I am a rock star after work every night. Depends on the stupid snow, too. There’s another 5 to 8 inches in the forecast for Tuesday.

So here are my goals for January, February and March. If it is a goal which I accomplished, and it is done for the Round, I’ll highlight it in blue. If it is a goal which was accomplished this week, but which I will keep working on, I’ll highlight it in green. A goal at least worked on is highlighted in yellow and red lettering is not even attempted, a complete fail.

WRITING

1)    Finish the edits on “The Truth Beyond the River”. Finished. I also emailed my editor that final chapter which I had to almost totally rewrite.  

2)    Finish the proposal for “The Truth Beyond the River”. I finally worked on it a little bit, added the comps – comparable books – and edited a few other things.  

3)    Write nine chapters in “Old New Spies”. Not started.

4)    Continue posting three times weekly to “The Dino Chronicles.” Yes.   

5)    Continue posting here once a week.  Yes.

REACHING

1)    Submit the query/proposal for “The Truth Beyond the River.” No, not done with it yet.   

2)    Submit four pieces somewhere. No, none.

3)    Redo my website. No.

READING

1)    Finish reading “The Secret Garden”. 92% done. Maybe I can finish this week!

2)    Finish reading “All the Place to Go”. 66% done. This one is taking a lot longer. Maybe I should only read one book at a time. It continues to blow my mind when people read a book in a day or two. Do they have more than 24 hours in a day, or what?   

3)    Read an average of five other blogs per week, commenting on three of them. Yes, read five and commented on three.   

REMAINING

My mother's Aunt Margaret, her namesake, with her first husband 

1)    Empty half the box of old pictures in my office. Scanned another 15 pictures into the computer. Not even a dent, but it’s something. Everything I pull out of that box is such a gem. This could take a couple years!  

2)    Finish my family tree. Worked on it. My great-grandmother’s side of the family, traveling down the road of all the cousins instead of just going back through all the great-grandparents. Just like those pictures, everything is a gem.  

3)    Clean three closets in my house. Cleaned the front hall closet, the desk in my office, and the piles of Christmas decorations in the basement. So, that is three things, but I think I need to start over then with another three.

4)    Finish the 30-Day Yoga Challenge. I yogaed every day. Up to day 23. Almost done! But then I definitely am going to find another yoga practice to do every day, or even repeat this one.  

5)    Tumaini Volunteers Nonprofit

a.     Get the tax-deduction letters out to our donors by the end of January. Done.

b.     Hold a meeting after the team returns from Kenya. We will be meeting on February 24.  

c.      Work on the Procedure Manual. Our secretary and I still have to come up with a time to do this.

d.     Sign up for some craft sales this spring. New goal.  

That’s it for now. How’s your weather? Digging out from all the snow like we are? Or enjoying warm days filled with sunshine in some place closer to the equator? 

My driveway Monday morning

Looking Forward to Spring, Already

    Friday, my daughter, son-in-law and two others returned from Kenya. I had to pick them up at the airport, which is a five-hour drive from my house. I left early in the day, so that I could shop on the way and not be in the car for ten plus hours. Of course, even though their plane arrived a bit early, it took forever for their luggage, so I circled the airport at least twenty times waiting for them. Then we had to detour an hour out of our way to drop one of them off. My son-in-law had promised he would drive home, but he was too tired. I totally get that, I mean, they had just spent twenty-two hours in planes and airports. Didn’t get home until after midnight.

Then yesterday, we had to run my daughter’s vehicle down to her (our travel is always convoluted). I spent most of the rest of the day going through the several thousand pictures that they all took. And too much time dreaming about going back to Kenya myself.   

So here are my goals for January, February and March. If it is a goal which I accomplished, and it is done for the Round, I’ll highlight it in blue. 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. A goal at least worked on is highlighted in yellow and red lettering is not even attempted, a complete fail.

WRITING

1)    Finish the edits on “The Truth Beyond the River”. I think I finally made it! I don’t think I mentioned that I needed to rewrite most of the last chapter? I should not have let that bog me down so much. But it needed to be done and the entire book (hopefully) is better because of it.

2)    Finish the proposal for “The Truth Beyond the River”. Not worked on.

3)    Write nine chapters in “Old New Spies”. Not started.

4)    Continue posting three times weekly to “The Dino Chronicles.” I missed writing a post on Friday (see above).   

5)    Continue posting here once a week.  Yes.

REACHING

1)    Submit the query/proposal for “The Truth Beyond the River.” No, not worked on.  

2)    Submit four pieces somewhere. No.

3)    Redo my website. No.

READING

1)    Finish reading “The Secret Garden”. 71% done.

2)    Finish reading “All the Place to Go”. 55% done.

1)    Read an average of five other blogs per week, commenting on three of them. Yes, read five and commented on four.  

REMAINING

1)    Empty half the box of old pictures in my office. Not worked on.

2)    Finish my family tree. Worked on. Finished my great-grandfather’s side of the family back to the 1500s. I think sometimes that the people at Ancestry.com just make that stuff up. I mean, really? They kept records that far back??

3)    Clean three closets in my house. Cleaned the front hall closet and the desk in my office (okay, so not technically a closet, but it's still a space). 

4)    Finish the 30-Day Yoga Challenge I started on January 9. Even though my back went out the end of the week, I yogaed every day (that’s not a word, is it?).

5)    Tumaini Volunteers Nonprofit

a.     Get the tax-deduction letters out to our donors by the end of January. Yeah! I got them all out last Sunday.

b.     Hold a meeting after the team returns. I think we decided on February 23.  

c.      Work on the Procedure Manual. This is a new goal. Our secretary reminded me that we should get together one weekend to finish it.

That’s it for now. After two weeks of arctic blast, our weather is warming up. Maybe we will have an early Spring!  

My son, daughter, son-in-law and one of the others they went to Kenya with. My son took a different flight home, arriving back in the States yesterday, so that meant time on the phone hearing about his take on the trip.