a week of ups and downs

It was a week of up’s and down’s.

I finally got up the nerve to check on my 401K. With the pandemic and the economy tanking, everyone has been losing money on their investments. I’ve been scared to look up my numbers, fearing I’ll have to keep working full-time for three or four more years. But, luckily, last year, in hopes of retiring within the next few years, I put most of my investments in low-risk markets, so I only lost around eight thousand dollars.

The second exciting thing is that we took our camper for a ride Friday to see how the new truck handles with it. I made Hubby let me drive it home and when we got in the yard, I actually backed it up myself. I was so excited. I don’t know about any of the rest of you, but it seems like guys have brains which are wired for backing up a trailer and girls don’t. For twenty-five years, they have all been telling me how to do it (“turn your wheels in the direction you want to go”, “turn the opposite of what you think you should”, “use your mirrors”), and it never clicked until Friday.

I wish Hubby would have gotten a video of it.

Off to go camping last year, with the old vehicle. 

 The bad news is that one of the tires had gone completely flat by the time we got it home, and it took the entire morning Saturday to get it changed.

Anyway, I don’t know what else is new. Here’s what I had hoped to do this week and what I actually got done. Highlight in green for each item accomplished, yellow for those at least attempted, and red lettering for an item which did not happen.

WRITING     

1) Continue updates on “How Chris is Coping with Corona” three times a week. Three days for 631 words.

2) Post three times to “The Dino Chronicles.” Only posted twice. It was too long a day on Tuesday at the day job to write a mid-week post.

3) Post here once. Yes.  

4) BONUS. I started working on the memoir of my sister Pat. I think I’d like to try publishing by late fall. 

Speaking of camping and my sister Pat, here we are cleaning the first used pop-up we bought in 1996.

REACHING

1)              Write a blog post about the idea behind my novella “To Find Justice”.  Nope. Not sure why I can’t get this done.

2)              My novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”.

a.     For starters, I am still having stress over the accuracy of the very first scene. I finally added a mere three words and I’m going to call it good.

b.     Work on the front cover. Have not.

c.      Work on the back cover. Have not.  

d.     Finalize the thank you section. Pretty much done with it.

e.     Update my biography. Pretty much done with it.

f.       Get headshot pictures for the back cover. Will have to wait a couple more weeks to get a haircut first.

g.     Format it for both e-version and paper version. Not yet.

h.     Think about marketing for its release. I’m always thinking about, just not doing anything about it.

READING

1)              Read six other blogs and comment on three of them. Read six and commented on four.  

2)              Start reading Beth Camp’s latest novel, “The Seventh Tapestry.” Have read 40% of it. Beth always does so much research for her novels, which makes it easy to fall right into her stories.   

REMAINING

1)              Work on my family tree two days. I think so.  

2)              Send out three thinking-of-you cards. That’s’ another story, but I’m going to just pretend I did it.  

3)        Camping – Finished what we needed to do on the camper.

a. Put up the pop-up camper. Done.

b. Clean out the camper. Done.

c. Fix the refrigerator in it.  Done.

d. Take it for a ride so Hubby can practice backing it up. Done. Read about my success above.

e. Change that unexpected flat tire. Done. But now we have to change the one on the other side, having inspected it and found it will be equally as flat as its partner very soon.

This will be a short work-week. I’m taking off on Thursday, so that I can go to a cabin up north with my oldest sister. She has been needing to get away for quite some time (like, since her husband was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer 13 months ago). I know that she is going to drive me nuts – we actually don’t have a lot in common (I don’t know how she is going to make it two days without watching her soap opera, she stays up until 10:30 to 11 every night and I’m in bed by 9 at the very latest, etc, etc.). But it will still be good to get away from the house for a few days. 

The resort we are going to. 

Which means I should have lots of time to write! Or that’s my plan. I’ll have to see how needy my sister is and how much I will have to entertain her.   

WRITING     

1) Continue updates on “How Chris is Coping with Corona” three times a week.

2) Post two times to “The Dino Chronicles.” Since we won’t have internet at the cabin, I’m thinking I won’t get a third post in this week.  

3) Post here once.

4) Work on my next novel, “Ice Cream Spies”.

5) Work on my memoir – the one about the sister who passed away so won’t be at the cabin with us this weekend.

REACHING

1) Write a blog post about the idea behind my novella “To Find

 Justice”. 

2) My novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”. (Down from eight items to five.)

a. Work on the front cover. I will keep checking in with my friend who is an artist. 

b. Work on the back cover.

c. Get headshot pictures for the back cover.

d. Format it for both e-version and paper version.

e. Think about marketing for its release. (Seems like a long

 list.)

READING

1) Read six other blogs and comment on three of them.

2) Finish reading Beth Camp’s latest novel, “The Seventh Tapestry.”   

REMAINING

1) Work on my family tree two days. 

2) Send out three thinking-of-you cards. 

3) Relax while at the cabin Thursday through Sunday. Crazy that I have to put that on my to-do list! 

My sister is loony for loons which is why she picked this resort.

Hope that you are doing well and are able to make plans to get away this summer. Get outside at least and soak up some rays!

Returning to Normal, whatever that is

I had a much better week this week. Trying to spend more time relaxing and taking deep breaths. Also, any time spent outside, in my yard or anywhere else for that matter, is time spent well.

Here’s what I had hoped to do this week and what I actually got done. Highlight in green for each item accomplished, yellow for those at least attempted, and red lettering for an item which did not happen.

            1) Blog three times on my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles.”  Done.

2) Blog here once. Done.

3) Write in my Coronavirus Chronicle five days. Wrote three days for 962 words.   

4) Spend an hour (and only one hour!) working on my family tree. Done. It may have been more than an hour, but I didn’t totally get sucked into it.  

5) Finish the spring yard work. Let’s spell this out:

a) clean up the last of the tree stumps. Did the best I could. All that dirt, sawdust, and mulch is impossible to beat into submission.  

b) finish putting up the raised garden beds. Done.

c) plant the garden. Done.  

d) put up the pop-up camper and clean it for camping. Nope. The weather was too iffy for rain.  

6) Send thinking-of-you cards to three people. Done, even though it’s a stretch, because two were actually thinking-of-you cards and one was a very belated Mother’s Day card to my mother-in-law.

7) Drive out to my mom’s land to check on it. No, forgot again.

8) Put flowers on my sister’s grave.  Yup, first thing this morning.

9) So, my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”. It is set just after the fourth of July in 1974, so it dawned on me that I should release it around the first of July. So, that’s my new goal. I’m going to stick to it.

a.  Skim through it one more time. I re-read the first chapter, and that’s all the further I got. I’m kinda stumped on it (see next week’s goals).

b.  Work on the cover. I did hear from my friend, the artist. She read the manuscript and really liked it. She’s hoping to get on the cover artwork soon but didn’t give me a timeline.  

c.  Finalize the thank you section. Nope, didn’t look at it.  

d.  Work on the whole formatting thing. Nope, didn’t look at it.

e.  Think about what else I need to work on for its release. Thought about it, like, when I couldn’t sleep at night. Does that count?

I think I have gotten my head back in a better place as far as my goals, so I am going back to my four categories. See how returning to that system works for me.

WRITING     

1) Continue updates on “How Chris is Coping with Corona” three times a week. From what they are saying at my clinic, the goal is to be done with the pandemic by the end of June. Not quite sure how they can predict that at this point, but my goal then is to wrap up my journaling by then too.

2) Post three times to “The Dino Chronicles.”

3) Post here once.

REACHING

1)              Write a blog post about the idea behind my novella “To Find Justice”. 

2)              My novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”.

a.     For starters, I am still having stress over the accuracy of the very first scene. Being as it is the very first scene, if it’s not exactly right, I’m afraid I’ll lose readers right off the bat. The scene is a skirmish during the Viet Nam War, so if anyone has fought in one of those, let me know, and I’ll send you that chapter and see if you find what I think might be inaccurate. Otherwise, I did send it to my son who has a plethora of connections and knows someone who knows someone.

b.     Work on the front cover. I will keep checking in with my friend who is an artist.  

c.      Work on the back cover. I think I know what I want to say there, just have to put it together.

d.     Finalize the thank you section.

e.     Update my biography.

f.       Get headshot pictures for the back cover. Yikes! I gotta get a professional haircut, somehow, before that. For the last three months, I’ve been trimming the front, top, and sides myself, which is making it start to look like a modified mullet. Yea, I know, yikes, right?

g.     Format it for both e-version and paper version.

h.     Think about marketing for its release. (Seems like a long list.)

READING

1)              Read six other blogs and comment on three of them.

2)              Start reading Beth Camp’s latest novel, “The Seventh Tapestry.” Can’t make promises on how far I will get on it until I’ve read a little of it. I am a slow reader, so I don’t know exactly how slow I will be until I get a feel for something.  

REMAINING

1)              Work on my family tree two days. 

2)              Send out three thinking-of-you cards. A month ago, I wrote up a list of 21 people I wanted to send cards to; I have 11 left.

3)        Camping

a) put up the pop-up camper.

b) clean out the camper.

c) fix the refrigerator in it.

d) take it for a ride so Hubby can practice backing it up.

  

I’m rereading this post and trying not to lose it over my lack of consistent formatting. Just so you know – I would never leave an article that inconsistent on something that I actually published for sale. And I’ll make sure I don’t have this big a mess next week. Ahh, another goal!

Hope that you are doing well, staying healthy and busy, just not too busy. Have a great start to summer and start to return to normal. 

Garden ready to plant and then with the tomato plants in. 

STRESS

Oh, goodness, it was another stressful week, so very stressful, so very, very, no-wonder-I-have-chest-pain stressful week. Yeah, I got shortness of breath, but it’s just my heart, people, it’s not corona.

But seriously, I am just going to get through the next four days at work, and then I have four days off, work three days, three days off, work three days, then another four days off. That’s kind of how my summers usually go. Well, or life, just looking forward to those days off.

I need to stop before you start to worry about me. Here’s what I had hoped to do this week and what very little actually got done. Highlight in green for each item accomplished, yellow for those at least attempted, and red lettering for an item which did not happen.

1) Blog three times on my other blog, The Dino Chronicles. Only blogged twice. What in the world happened to me?    

2) Blog here once. Yes.

3) Write in my Coronavirus Chronicles five days. I chronicled here six times for 3,580 words. Yikes! I need to come up with this kind of plot for my next novel!   

4) Spend an hour (and only one hour!) working on my family tree. Yes, only I somehow ended up down the rabbit trail of my ex-husband’s family. Long story.   

5) Do a little yard work every day. Pretty much. I forget. All I know is it seems like I spent every minute doing something in the yard. It’s a never-ending task.

6) Wash two more kitchen cupboards. Nope, I don’t know what I was thinking with doing any extra work inside the house when there is so much to do outside!

7) Send thinking-of-you cards to three people. Yes, sent them to three people.

8) Drive out to my mom’s land to check on it. Nope, I totally forgot this was even on the list.

9) Run to the cemetery where my sister is buried and put flowers on her grave. Nope, I totally forgot this one too.

10) Contact the two people I sent my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”, to for their thoughts and also the woman who was going to do the cover. I messaged them just before I started writing this. Yikes. Just under the wire.  

           

Oh, goodness. What can I possibly get done in the upcoming week?

            1) Blog three times on my other blog, The Dino Chronicles.           

2) Blog here once.

3) Write in my Coronavirus Chronicles five days.        

4) Spend an hour (and only one hour!) working on my family tree. 

5) Finish the spring yard work. Let’s spell this out:

a) clean up the last of the tree stumps.

b) finish putting up the raised garden beds.

c) plant the garden.  

d) put up the pop-up camper and clean it for camping.

6) Send thinking-of-you cards to three people.

7) Drive out to my mom’s land to check on it.

8) Put flowers on my sister’s grave.  

9) So, my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”. It is set just after the fourth of July in 1974, so it dawned on me that I should release it around the first of July. So, that’s my new goal. I’m going to stick to it.

a) skim through it one more time. I don’t have time to read it again and it has been edited enough already, more just want to look at how it looks.

b) work on the cover, in case my friend who was to have started it around the first of the year doesn’t yet come through for me.

c) finalize the thank you section.

d) work on the whole formatting thing.

e) think about what else I need to work on for its release.

Hope that you are doing better than I am. I know I’ll snap out of this; I’ve lived through stress before. I still have more good things going for me than I do bad.

Take care of yourselves and have a good week. 

My son sent me this picture for mother's day. I only like posting pictures that I shot myself, but sometimes, a girl just has to steal one off the internet, I guess.

a busy week and a good-looking yard

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mums out there. Hoping all your kids figured out a way to virtually wish you a happy day.

Here’s what I had hoped to do this week and how it came out. I’m back to highlighting in green for each item accomplished, yellow for those at least attempted, and red lettering for an item which did not happen.

            1) Blog three times on my other blog, The Dino Chronicles. Done. 

2) Blog here once. Done.

3) Write in my Coronavirus Chronicles five days. Yup, five days, 939 words.   

4) Take a ride with my sister. The weather here was pretty chilly on Friday and Saturday, so my sister didn’t want to leave her house. I still drove down to see her and we just visited for a few hours. Made plans for a weekend getaway we have scheduled in June; hoping that it still happens.

5) Patch my son’s flannel shirt. Done and mailed it to him.

6) Spend an hour working on my family tree. Oh, my gosh. An hour!?!? More like four hours Monday afternoon and another four hours this morning.

7) Do a little yard work every day. I worked in the yard a couple hours three days. We had a couple trees taken down in the yard, so that was a big mess to clean up. Plus, I’m still working on redoing the vegetable garden.   

8) Wash two kitchen cupboards. Yup.

9) Send thinking-of-you cards to three people. Mailed cards to five people.

           

I guess I did pretty good on my new and not-really-so-improved list. Tomorrow we go back to our regular work hours at the clinic, so I might be back to ten-hour days. We’ll see how it goes, but this is what I’m going to try for in the next week.

            1) Blog three times on my other blog, The Dino Chronicles.           

2) Blog here once.

3) Write in my Coronavirus Chronicles five days.        

4) Spend an hour (and only one hour!) working on my family tree. 

5) Do a little yard work every day it’s not raining or freezing out. Come on, it’s May for Pete’s sake! I need to really get on the garden. Around here, the old-timers never plant their gardens until Memorial Day weekend, but that is coming up really fast.  

6) Wash two more kitchen cupboards.

7) Send thinking-of-you cards to three people.

8) Drive out to my mom’s land to check on it.

9) #8 reminded me. I gotta run to the cemetery where my other sister is buried and put flowers on her grave. My brother takes care of the rest of the family buried here in town, but our sister is ten miles south (too far for my brother to drive).

10) And the writing thing. I want to publish my next novel, “The Truth Beyond the River” by the first of June. I need to contact the two people I sent it to for their thoughts and also the woman who was going to do the cover.  

How are you doing? Are things starting to return to normal for you? Or at least the new normal?

 One tree down in a storm last year and one damaged. Both are now gone!

Starting with baby steps

I’m still taking baby steps in anticipation of taking the plunge back into full-on goals.

Here is what I did do this past week, in no particular order:

1)    Blogged three times on my other blog, The Dino Chronicles.

2)    Blogged here once.

3)    Added 1,024 words to my Coronavirus Chronicle.

4)    Took a ride with Hubby on Friday.

5)    Sewed Hubby a new face mask.

6)    Finished sewing new elastic on the N95 masks from work.

7)    Did yard work almost every day. Bleah!

8)    Washed four of my kitchen cupboards.

I think that sounds like I did a few things besides about 32 hours at my day job at the clinic.

What about the upcoming week? Right now I’m scheduled to work Tuesday through Thursday. I can take all day Monday off, but I’m going to go in for a few hours because otherwise the paperwork becomes overwhelming. In addition to that, here’s what I hope to do:

            1) Blog three times on my other blog, The Dino Chronicles.           

2) Blog here once.

3) Write in my Coronavirus Chronicle five days.        

4) Take a ride with my sister. We haven’t seen each other since February, and yes, considering her age and her medical condition, and the fact that I work in health care, I should keep my distance, but sometimes you got to pick your battles. It’s been just a year since her husband was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and she’s pretty lonely.

5) Patch my son’s flannel shirt.

6) Spend an hour working on my family tree.  

7) Do a little yard work every day it’s not raining (and there’s no rain in the forecast, so I’m not sure why I had to put that in). We are downsizing our vegetable garden and it’s a lot more work than I anticipated, especially since Hubby still has that broken arm.

8) Wash two more kitchen cupboards.

9) Send thinking-of-you cards to three people. We stay in contact with people so much via the internet, and even though that’s great, I think that people still like getting a card in the mail with a picture of a pretty flower or a hummingbird, along with an uplifting saying.

           

I was thinking this stream-lined list of goals would be less daunting than my old one, but this does seem like quite the list.

Best wishes to everyone