Time to Gear up for Thanksgiving

The cold that attacked me three weeks ago and which seemed to have totally abated, came back with a vengeance last Sunday. Either that or a different virus attacked me while I wasn’t on my game. Whatever the case, I called in sick to work on Monday and mostly laid around getting caught up on old episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles. I’m mad at myself for not rallying enough to get at least a few things done on my to-do list, but, hey, I was sick, right?

I remained punky most of the week, so missed my church meeting Tuesday night and the church service Wednesday night. Again, Chris, you had enough time to get more done this week. Then Thursday was my boss’s 25^th year anniversary of working for the organization, so I got it in my head to go into work an hour early to decorate his office. I don’t know what came over me. I hate that kind of stuff. Plus, payback stinks and I do not abide by it, so now I feel I have to watch my back. You know?

Anyway, here is how I did on my goals for the week:  

1) Post three times to my other blog, the Dino Chronicles. Done.    

2) Read five of the blog posts that other ROW80 participants post and comment on three of them. Read five but only commented on one. Sorry, guys.

3) Spend one night working on my short story “Where the Dogs Bark”.  Yes.

4) Read six chapters in my novel “The Truth Beyond the River”. Yes.

5) Spend one night working on my family tree. Nope.

6) BONUS: Since I have pretty much decided to self-publish “The Truth Beyond the River” on Amazon, I need someone to make a cover for me. I had come up with this one, as a working version. The picture is from the location which inspired the story, but the building needs to be changed. So, I messaged a friend from high school and she agreed to work on it. I sent her a copy of the manuscript to read so she gets a better feel for it. I’m pretty excited about that. I’m sure she’ll do a fantastic job. She’s very talented. I’ll keep you posted.

This week, of course, is Thanksgiving. Right now, there will be fourteen around my dining room table. Possibly fifteen.

My brother-in-law and his wife from out of town will be coming up and spending the night Wednesday. Then an old friend from out of town will be driving over Thursday morning and spending Thursday night. I have to work Friday morning for a couple hours as well as Saturday until eleven. Sounds exhausting. We’ll see.

Here's what I’m going to try to get done. It appears my goals have been attainable so far, so I really need to start upping my game. Maybe in another week, though, huh?

1) Post three times to my other blog, the Dino Chronicles.  

2) Read five of the blog posts that other ROW80 participants post and comment on three of them.

3) Spend one night working on my short story “Where the Dogs Bark”. 

4) Read six chapters in my novel “The Truth Beyond the River”.

5) Spend one night working on my family tree.

6) Survive Thanksgiving dinner.

Last year's turkey, resting before he is destroyed. 

Once again, too busy

  Ok, let’s see what did I do this week? Hmm? I can’t remember.

I know I baked cookies one night for a potluck at work the next day. I also worked Friday morning, which used to be my day off, but now I have to work at least a couple hours every other Friday. Yesterday, I attended a “Fall into Wellness” event using essential oils, but we also did some yoga and practiced a little meditation. I’m glad I went to it.

It sure seems like I did more this week. My printer died so I was emailing back and forth to the company about it, and they decided to send me a new one, an upgrade even, because the old one was still under warranty. The new one arrived via UPS on Tuesday, but I didn’t get it hooked up until Friday afternoon. I was excited about that.

Oh, and lastly, I sold my old digital camera on the Facebook marketplace, so I delivered that Friday night. I was glad to get rid of it and I think it went to a good home.

But on to my goals:

1)    Post three times to my other blog, the Dino Chronicles. Done.   

2)  Read five of the blog posts that other ROW80 participants post and comment on three of them. Read four and commented on two. So close.

3) Spend one night working on my short story “Where the Dogs Bark”. Done. I used to keep track of word count but have decided to not worry about that for now.   

4) Spend one night working on my novel “Old New Spies”. Nope.

5) Spend one night working on my family tree.  Yep.

6) Read six chapters in my novel “The Truth Beyond the River”. Read nine. Yeah!

This week might not be as productive. I have a church meeting Tuesday night and church itself Wednesday night. I’ll be off all day Friday but have to start deep cleaning house for Thanksgiving. How is it possible that Thanksgiving is only ten days away!!!

Because next Saturday is the opening of the gun deer hunting season here, there are craft shows all over the area for non-hunting women and men, or those just starting their Christmas shopping. For many years, I was one of those selling at the sales; we had a table for our nonprofit, selling Kenyan-made items to raise money for our projects. We decided to cut back on that, so I finally have this weekend off from that. So, I told my sister I would take her to some of the craft shows around her town, and I just got off the phone with my daughter and invited her to join us. She wants to make us appointments for pedicures that day – yikes! I don’t know about that, but we’ll see.

 

Yup, a lot going on in the coming week. I will still shoot for most of the same goals, though, and we’ll see what happens:

1) Post three times to my other blog, the Dino Chronicles.   

2) Read five of the blog posts that other ROW80 participants post and comment on three of them.

3) Spend one night working on my short story “Where the Dogs Bark”. 

4) Read six chapters in my novel “The Truth Beyond the River”.

5) Spend one night working on my family tree.

6) And all the other stuff I mentioned above 😊 .

How are things going with you? Still working on NaNoWriMo? Or planning a big Thanksgiving dinner?

Whoa! How'd I get this much done?

Well, here’s a surprise – I didn’t get much accomplished this week. As if anyone thought I would.

The last three days, though, I visited with six different friends or relatives in four different locations. Came home last night and told Hubby that if I ever think about cramming this much into one weekend again, that he needs to stop me.

Had good visits with everyone. Some of them needed it more than I did – you know, being the supportive friend and such. But sometimes I do need to get out of my house and be with people other than co-workers and clients at work. Exhausting though.

Here was my to-do list from last week.

1)    Post three times to my other blog, the Dino Chronicles. Done.  

     2)    Read all of the blog posts that other ROW80 participates post. I did quite a few. I shouldn’t use the word “all” here; that is asking for failure.

     3)    Spend one night – yes, just one night! – writing something, anything on one of my multiple works in progress. Again, this was a little vague. I’m kinda feeling like vague is my new modus operandi. Anyway, I did write on my short story, “Where the Dogs Bark” for one night.  

     4)    Spend one night working on my family tree. I had been gung-ho about that last spring, but just haven’t done much since then (kinda like the rest of my life). I did spend several hours last Sunday night working on the Hubby’s family’s tree.

     5)    Re-read my novel “The Truth Beyond the River” in anticipation of self-publishing it on Amazon. Read through chapter 6.

Riding way back in 2011. 

Whoa! That looks like I did all right. It sure didn’t feel like it. Guess that’s why we make lists. I guess for now it’s better to take baby steps and at least feel like I’m getting something done.

So for next week, let’s keep it simple again.

1) Post three times to my other blog, the Dino Chronicles.   

2) Read five of the blog posts that other ROW80 participates post and comment on three of them.

3) Spend one night working on my short story “Where the Dogs Bark”. 

4) Spend one night working on my novel “Old New Spies”.

5) Spend one night working on my family tree.

6) Read six chapters in my novel “The Truth Beyond the River”.

This week my work schedule doesn’t look bad, or at least it didn’t when I left for the weekend on Thursday. Anything may have happened between then and tomorrow morning.

Wishing you all a happy and productive week.

The struggle is real

Speaking of the day job, here I am with my co-workers
as Care Bears for Halloween. 

I was hoping that I would have a big revelation for you today. An unveiling of the new and improved goals for me for the rest of the year.

But, alas, nothing new to report. Argh! I wish I could figure out what is wrong with me, why I have no ambition and get nothing done all day (when I’m not at the day job, that is).

I’m going to cut myself some slack for the past week, as I have been battling a cold. Because I rarely get sick, I just don’t do well when I am coughing and hacking and sneezing and holding a Kleenex to my nose 24/7 as it continuously drips. Maybe I need to get sick more often, so that I know how to handle this. I pretend I’m not sick at all and power through day after day, but psychologically my brain is mush and – well – my body is shot.

But to not beat myself up too much, here are some of the things I did do last week.

  1)    Wrote and posted three blog posts to my other blog, the Dino Chronicles.

  2)    Read and commented on two blog posts by other ROW80 participates.

  3)    Spent a couple hours last night working on my husband’s family tree.

  4)    Sewed two quilt squares.

  5)    I almost forgot the real achievement. I submitted two inspirational reflections to my employers 2020 daily calendar. The deadline was the end of September, but they sent out another email last week that they hadn’t gotten nearly enough submissions and were begging for people to send them something. So I am pretty much a shoe-in for this, but it is still a creative blip that I put out there.

So, moving forward. Let’s just at least try to get something done this week.

  1)    Post three times to my other blog, the Dino Chronicles. I’ve been writing about my recent trip to Kenya, so at least I have a plethora of things to write about.

  2)    Read all of the blog posts that other ROW80 participates post.

  3)    Spend one night – yes, just one night! – writing something, anything on one of my multiple works in progress.

  4)    Spend one night working on my family tree. I had been gung-ho about that last spring, but just haven’t done much since then (kinda like the rest of my life).

That’s it. Baby steps and keeping it simple.

Am I just chicken to get published?
(I realize it's a rooster, but you get it.) 

The other thing I have been thinking long and hard about is my second novel, which has just been sitting in my computer collecting dust and probably even mold by now. I’ve had a few agents turn it down, not sure that traditional publishing is ever going to happen. I’ve been tossing around the idea of just biting the bullet and self-publishing it on Amazon. I might work on that process in the next few weeks, too.

How about you? Have your publishing goals changed? How do you handle that?