Long Overdue Update

   Yes, it has been a very long time since I posted anything here. Since I originally started this blog to chronicle my writing, I've not shared anything here because there is nothing to share.

As with most people, the past fifteen months or so have been brutal. The pandemic has changed so many things for so many, and on top of that, there are the usual pains of life in general. Most of those around me realize I've fallen into a bit of a funk. Two months ago, I finally gave in and started on an anti-depressant. They seem to be helping; I'm even sleeping well most nights, but still, life goes on, and no pill creates miracles.

Even though I haven't been writing anything except twice weekly to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles, I have been busy with so many other things. Working on both my family tree and my husband's. Researching potential places to vacation. Logging all the best campsites at all the state and county parks in my state. Planning actual trips – four so far between now and July. Oh, and hoping to make that trip to Cambodia this fall.

But most happily, yesterday, we brought home Carlton, the camping trailer we purchased in December but left in storage until now.

I talked to a friend last week, and she said she noticed I wasn't posting to The Dino Chronicles as much and that she missed reading my updates. It was nice to hear that someone had noticed, and I'm trying to keep her words ringing in my ears to inspire me to get back at my novel. Then I see all that is coming up – yard work, trips, summer deep cleaning in the house. And there are still sewing projects I want to tackle.

I've given up on retiring within the next year. Right now, hoping for June of 2022. And so the list of things I want to do continues to grow, and the time to do those things keeps getting pushed out. I guess I'll have to keep taking those anti-depressants.

Sending you all love and virtual hugs. Chris  

My Average Goes Up

 I appear to have had a pretty good week. Nothing too exciting, no extra activities, only an eye doctor appointment which went well.

A. Writing

1. My novel, “Rewrite the Now”.

a. Re-read what I’ve written so far, as it has been a while since I’ve looked at it. Finally started reading it, but only got through chapter 13, or 66 out of 99 pages. 66% 

            2. Other writing.

                        a. Write an entry in my Covert Corona Chronicles. Yes. 100%

                        b. Write three posts on my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. Yes.                            100%

c. Write a weekly update on this blog. Yes. 100%

B. Reaching

1. Submit that poem to “Voices on the Wind.” Yes, I did. I’ve submitted poems to this journal in the past and the wonderful thing is you always hear back within a couple days. Sooo, yes, it was accepted and will be in the February issue. Yeah! 100%

C. Reading

1. Read four blog posts by other people. I think so. 99%

2. Read eight chapters in the book of Genesis. Read six chapters. 75%

3. Read a daily devotion. I once again forgot quite a bit. It’s one of those things which I have to figure out how to add to my routine so I can’t forget; like the devotional has to be in the middle of the kitchen floor so I trip on it three times a day. We did order a new book of devotions, which came in the mail yesterday, so maybe just that newness will help me remember. 70%

4. Pick another novel to read and read 20% of it. I started reading “Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie and have read 23%. 115%. (I am really starting to embrace this percentage tracking.)

D. Remaining

            1. Sewing.

a. Finish the sixth sweatshirt throw. Done. 100%

2. Clean and purge.

a. Clean one kitchen cupboard. Done. 100%

b. Clean out one drawer in my office file cabinet. Wow. Totally forgot about this, but I did clean out my underwear drawer . . . E for effort. 80%   

            3. Remaining house.

a. Call our contractor about our home repair projects. No. Was waiting to get that cupboard cleaned, I guess. 0%

            4. Family tree

a. Work on my family tree one night. Hmm? Just for a few minutes.                     31%

b. Scan twenty old family pictures. Yes. Scanned like 32. 100%

There it is. If I average that, it comes out to 75%.  Which is a tick better than last week, so assigning each goal a numerical value and averaging it out, I think is a success as far as meeting my goals.

 This coming week, I need to cut back a bit. I have a trip planned for out of town to visit an old friend. Of course, with the pandemic, nothing is set in stone. Plus it is winter here in the upper Midwest, so there is always that as well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, though, that this works out.  

 A. Writing

1. My novel, “Rewrite the Now”.

a. Finish re-reading it.    

            2. Other writing.

                        a. Write an entry in my Covert Corona Chronicles.

                        b. Write three posts on my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”.

c. Write a weekly update on this blog.

B. Reaching – no plans for this week.              

C. Reading

1. Read four blog posts by other people. 

2. Read eight chapters in the book of Genesis.

3. Read a daily devotion.

4. Read up to 75% of “And Then There Were None”.

D. Remaining

            1. Sewing – not this week.

2. Clean and purge.

a. Clean out one drawer in my office file cabinet. The one I’m thinking of has a ton of papers that are now completely irrelevant.  

            3. Remaining house.

                        a. Call our contractor about our home repair projects. 

            4. Family tree

a. Work on my family tree one night.

            5. Drive to my friend’s, have a nice visit and drive back, safe and sound.

 Looks like it should be an easy week. We’ll see. Have a great week, stay safe, stay healthy, stay sane! Chris

Throw number 6

Old picture of a sunset. Sometimes those old pics scan well and sometimes they look - surreal. Sometimes that works, sometimes not. 

Had to add one of my son's senior portraits from 2004. He was a handsome boy at one time . . . not sure what happened . . .

 

A New Color-coding Scheme

   Here we are, half-way through the first month of the new year. How is that all going with everyone? Me? Not so good. I’m going to try to focus on whatever good I can. Even the bad things going on in my personal life (which I can’t write about here) have some bits of positive. I just need to find them and focus on them.

One last thing before moving on. I did get my first COVID vaccine on Friday. Oh, yea! One of the perks of being a health care worker. I wasn’t truly excited about it and had thought long and hard before getting it. Luckily I have had no side effects. Yet. We’ll see when I start growing extra fingers or get a weird kind of cancer in ten years. But it’s worth that sacrifice if it means we are all closer to getting rid of the masks and going back to hugging each other.  

Back to goals. I mentioned last week that I was going to try to grade my success each week, instead of just highlighting them. Let’s see how that works out for me.

100% - blue highlight; 80% to 99% - green highlight; 30% to 79% - yellow highlight; less than 30% - red highlight. (I had to totally change my color scheme, because, well, just because.)

A. Writing

1. My novel, “Rewrite the Now”.

a. Re-read what I’ve written so far, as it has been a while since I’ve looked at it. Have yet to look at it. Bleah! 0%  

            2. Other writing.

a. Write an entry in my Covert Corona Chronicles. Yes, two actually. 110%

b. Write three posts on my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. Yes. 100%

c. Write a weekly update on this blog. Yes. 100%

B. Reaching

1. Research markets to submit short pieces or poetry to. I looked at a few websites, somewhat without commitment. Then this morning, I pulled up “Voices on the Wind” online poetry journal, where I have submitted to in the past. This round’s theme is challenges, as if I haven’t had any of those in the past eleven months. As luck would have it, the deadline for submission is the 20^th. I am on this. 100%   

C. Reading

1. Read four blog posts by other people. Yes, more I think, and commented on several. 100%

2. Read eight chapters in the book of Genesis. Yes. 100%

3. Read a daily devotion. Hmm? I missed more than a few days. 50%

4. Finish the novel I’m currently reading, “Afraid of the Light” by Cynthia Ruchti. I finished it just before writing this post. I had an hour or two this afternoon and was debating about finishing this book or reading my WIP. This one won out. 100%

D. Remaining

            1. Sewing.

a. Finish the next sweatshirt throw. Finished the fifth one and started the sixth. 110%

2. Clean and purge.

a. Clean one kitchen cupboard. Not a cupboard, but did clean out the DVD shelf. 80%

b. Take a load of stuff to Goodwill. Yes, took three boxes. 100%  

            3. Remaining house.

a. Call our contractor about our home repair projects. Nope, did not. 0%

            4. Family tree

a. Work on my family tree one night. Only for a few minutes while I was talking to my brother on the phone. 20%

b. Oh and then there are the pictures! I didn’t mention in my long-year long list that I need to scan and dispose of old family pictures. Argh! Who am I kidding???? 0%  

There it is. If I average that, it comes out to 71%. Yikes! That’s dismal! Ok, so that basically tells me I need to get it together.

A. Writing

1. My novel, “Rewrite the Now”.

a. Re-read what I’ve written so far, as it has been a while since I’ve looked at it.  

            2. Other writing.

                        a. Write an entry in my Covert Corona Chronicles.

                        b. Write three posts on my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”.

c. Write a weekly update on this blog.

B. Reaching

            1. Submit that poem to “Voices on the Wind.”   

C. Reading

1. Read four blog posts by other people. 

2. Read eight chapters in the book of Genesis.

3. Read a daily devotion.

4. Pick another novel to read, I’m leaning towards one on my classics list. We’ll see. Those can be long and painful. Whatever I choose, read 20%. (I need to make these goals concrete and measurable.)

D. Remaining

            1. Sewing.

a. Finish the sixth sweatshirt throw.

2. Clean and purge.

a. Clean one kitchen cupboard.

b. Clean out one drawer in my office file cabinet. The one I’m thinking of has a ton of papers which are now completely irrelevant.   

            3. Remaining house.

                        a. Call our contractor about our home repair projects. 

            4. Family tree

a. Work on my family tree one night.

b. Scan twenty old family pictures.   

Hope you’re getting after your goals for the year. At least there’s still plenty of year left. Have a great week, stay safe, stay healthy, and mostly – stay sane! Chris

The finished fifth one, for one of Hubby's nieces. 

The sixth one, in the works. 

Ten Days into the New Year

   My first blog post here this year offered a long list of ambitious goals for this year. What was I thinking? I was thinking that – you know – this year is going to be better than last. How’s that working out for the rest of you so far? Me? Not so much.

But you know what? We are going to power through this. Let me start by paring down that big ol’ list into a weekly attainable plan

A. Writing

1. My novel, “Rewrite the Now”.

a. Re-read what I’ve written so far, as it has been a while since I’ve looked at it.   

            2. Other writing.

                        a. Write an entry in my Covert Corona Chronicles.

                        b. Write three posts on my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”.

                        c. Write a weekly update on this blog.

B. Reaching

            1. Research markets to submit short pieces or poetry to.  

C. Reading

1. Read four blog posts by other people.  

2. Read eight chapters in the book of Genesis. I finally looked this up. There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible, but let’s round it up to 1,200. It took me three years to read through the whole thing last time, so I’m sticking with that three year goal, which comes down to 156 weeks, right? Or again, let’s round up to 160. That all comes down to 7.5 (or rounding up again, 8) chapters a week. How hard could that be? A chapter a day and an extra one on Sundays, right?

3. Read a daily devotion.

4. Finish the novel I’m currently reading, “Afraid of the Light” by Cynthia Ruchti. I’m just over half-way done with it, so I might be able to make it.

D. Remaining

            1. Sewing.

a. Finish the next sweatshirt throw. I’ve finished four of them so far and am halfway done with the fifth one.

2. Clean and purge.

a. Clean one kitchen cupboard. I don’t want to get too crazy cleaning just yet.

b. Take a load of stuff to Goodwill. There are three boxes waiting in the basement already.  

            3. Remaining house.

                        a. Call our contractor about our home repair projects.  

            4. Family tree

a. Work on my family tree one night.

b. Oh and then there are the pictures! I didn’t mention in my long-year long list that I need to scan and dispose of old family pictures. Argh!  

There it is. A short, sweet list for the week. I also get my first COVID vaccine on Friday. Oh, yea! One of the perks of being a health care worker. I’m truly not excited about it and rather not get it, but if this sacrifice means we are all closer to getting rid of the masks and going back to hugging each other, I am on it.

Have a great week, stay safe, stay healthy, and mostly – stay sane! Chris

Second sweatshirt throw that I finished. Side note, in case I never shared this, when we cleaned out my mother-in-law's, we brought home 76 of her old sweatshirts (since then Hubby has found even more and I made him promise to never bring them home). I've started sewing them into throws for her sons and grandchildren. All the shirts are cut into squares now, I just have to finish putting the rest of them together. 

welcome to the new year, when things will be better, or not

 After having a few setbacks in the month of December, I had high hopes of hitting 2021 with a new commitment. Instead, I’ve feeling more like I should be committed.

 For the past ten or eleven months, all we’ve heard is, “I can’t wait for this year to be over; next year has to be better.” I realize that we are only a few days into 2021, but there’s not been a single improvement in things. Six people I know have passed away since Christmas day – four of my patients that I was close to and two others, a friend of my husband’s and a friend of my mom’s. There’s been a few other more personal crises already this week as well. Argh! I know that the turning of a page in the calendar doesn’t magically change anything, but I think we all need a break.

 I’m not sure where I’m going to go with my goals for this year. I think the greatest goal needs to be to keep the stress out of my life. If 2020 taught us anything it should be that life is short and we need to keep our priorities straight. But since life is short, we can’t spend our days being sluggards either. All about balance, I guess.

 I’m not sure what I am going to be able to accomplish week by week, but I need to start somewhere. Here is my list of goals to keep in mind for the entire year.

 A. Writing

1. My novel, “Rewrite the Now”, which is a post-quel in the RASA series.  

a. Finish writing it by May.  

b. Self-publish it by August.  

            2. Next novel, which is actually book 1 in the RASA series.

a. Finish writing it by December. (Sounds lofty, but I am 14 chapters into it.)

            3. Other writing.

a. Finish my Covert Corona Chronicles, hopefully sooner than later, meaning this pandemic ends, right? 

b. Write three posts weekly on my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”.

c. Write a weekly update on this blog.

d. Write a few random short stories and poems. Hard to commit to this, not knowing what will strike me.

B. Reaching

            1. One month prior to publishing “Rewrite the Now”, begin promoting it.

            2. Submit ten short pieces to various markets.

C. Reading

1.  Read an average of four blog posts by other people a week.

2. Read up to one-third of the Bible. I just finished reading through it the end of the year, took me three years, so sticking with the fact that it will take three years the next time around.

3. Read four books considered “classics.”

4. Read a daily devotion.

5. Read two other nonfiction books, either as research for “Rewrite the Now” or writing advice.

6. Read twelve other novels.    

D. Remaining

            1. Sewing.

a. Sew four more sweatshirt throws from MIL’s sweatshirts.

b. Finish my Snoopy quilt.

2. Clean and purge.

a. Clean all the closets in my house.

b. Post as many things to sell on Facebook Marketplace as I can.

c. Dispose of the remaining junk either at Goodwill or landfill.

            3. Remaining house.

                        a. Remodel the kitchen.

                        b. Tile bathroom.

                        c. Fix dining room ceiling.

4. Family tree

a. Finish my family tree.

b. Finish Hubby’s family tree.

5. Travel.

a. Go to Cambodia in the fall. Big life-long bucket list goal, which was cancelled, naturally, in 2020.

b. Travel anywhere and everywhere else which time and money allow.

 It’s rather unnerving looking at the whole list for the year. YIKES! Hopefully by the weekend, I’ll be able to pare it down into one-week increments. Depending on what other chaos develops between now and then.

Hopefully you finished off 2020 with more cheers than jeers and here’s wishing you a wonderful 2021. Chris

bidding you adieu until the new year

 Okay, life really got in the way towards the end of the previous week, and I never was able to get it back together. First, Hubby and I went out and bought a new camping trailer. Weren’t really planning on it, but have been talking about it, and we found the right one, and were like – let’s just do this. Then there was another crisis which I can’t share. It’s all all right now, for now, and that’s all I can say right now (I seem to have used a limited vocabulary there).

 With all that being said, goals – and posting here – went by the road side. Which is why I didn’t post anything last Sunday. I put it in my head to post on Wednesday instead, but obviously that never happened.

 Here's what I did accomplish during the last two weeks. Green highlight is goal accomplished, yellow highlight is worked on and red lettering is a failure.

 A. Writing

1. My novel, “Rewrite the Now”.

a. Write three chapters or 4,700 words. Wrote 1,359 words and one chapter.

b. Do an hour of research. Yes, there is always something to read up on about the Civil War.

            2. Other writing.

a. Write an entry in my Covert Corona Chronicles. Yes, a couple.    

b. Write three posts on my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. Yes, three per week.  

B. Reaching – Nothing. Oh, I did sell two more books from the promo I started a few weeks ago.   

C. Reading

1.  Read blog posts by four other people. Probably.

2. Read up to chapter eight in Revelation in the Bible. Yes, to chapter 15.

3. Finish reading “Everything to Lose”.  Yes.

D. Remaining

            1. The sweatshirt throw.

a. Put the backing on #2. Nope, sewing on the backing is the tricky part and I think I need to practice on something else.

b. Start sewing together #3. Yes.  

2. Post two more items for sale on Facebook Marketplace. Nope, but I did sell one of the items already listed.

3. Family tree, work on it one evening. Wow, nope.

4. Call our contractor about the projects we want to have done on the house. Nope.

I have been thinking a lot about these goals over the past week. I think with the holidays coming up so quickly, I’m going to bid you all adieu or more like, jusqu'à plus tard (I was surprised to find a sprinkle of French in my family tree).  I hope to be back after the first of the year with new energy and tenacity.

See you then and in the meantime, have a safe and happy Holiday season.

Early Christmas present to Hubby and me. Too bad it will be storage now until spring! 

Moving Onward

  I hope you and your family had a safe and healthy Thanksgiving. It was just me and Hubby, and the dog and three cats of course. We planned on having movie day, but making our simple meal and other things around here took up more time than anticipated, so we only watched one movie, “Love Actually.” It was really good and I can’t believe we had never seen it before.

Anyway, here’s how this week’s goals turned out. Green highlight is goal accomplished, yellow highlight is worked on and red lettering is a failure.

A. Writing

1. My novel, “Rewrite the Now”.

a. Write three chapters or 4,700 words. I wrote 1,817 words, parts of two chapters.

b. Do an hour of research. At least an hour, probably more. I stumbled (via the internet) on the northern most confederate gravesite right here in my own state and totally went down the rabbit hole of its entire history. I definitely need to work it into my story.

            2. Other writing.

a. Write an entry in my Covert Corona Chronicles. Yes.

b. Write two posts on my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”.  Yes, three.  

B. Reaching

            1. I’m going to do a Christmas promo this year for all my books.

a. Send out an email on it to my subscribers. Yes. Sold one book via it.

C. Reading

1.  Read blog posts by four other people. Yes, I think so.

2. Read two books in the Bible, 2^nd and 3^rd John. Yes, read the book of Jude too.  

3. Read half of “Everything to Lose”.  Up to 52%.

D. Remaining

            1. The sweatshirt throw.

a. Cut out more squares. Yes, cut out as many as I’m going to until I sew the ones I have.

b. Start putting the next one together. Yes, laid out two of them and sewed one together. Putting the back on is the tricky part, so I’m putting that off.  

2. Post two more items for sale on Facebook Marketplace. Posted four total.

3. Family tree, work on it one evening. Yes, I think I kept it to one evening.  

Since this past week was deer hunting season and my mom practically beat it into us as kids to not go near the woods during gun season, I haven’t taken a walk in my woods for nine days. I’m looking forward to getting back out there in the morning, even if it means getting up earlier. I need my fresh air.

Other than that, I don’t think there’s much going on this week. My boss is off tomorrow, so hopefully work will go well for at least that one day this week. Checking the obituaries on-line, I see we have lost a boatload of patients over the last few days. So very sad. Not sure how many were COVID related as most of them were quite old, so it could be anything. Still, so very sad, considering none of them will be having funerals.

Well, there you have it. What about the coming week? I’m going to try to keep moving onward.

A. Writing

1. My novel, “Rewrite the Now”.

a. Write three chapters or 4,700 words. I really need to step this up. It appears to be the only goal I am really lagging on.

b. Do an hour of research.

            2. Other writing.

a. Write an entry in my Covert Corona Chronicles. 

b. Write three posts on my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”.

B. Reaching – I have no ideas for this week, but hopefully I come up with something!  

C. Reading

1.  Read blog posts by four other people.

2. Read up to chapter eight in Revelation in the Bible. If you’ve never read it, it is somewhat of a bear to get through, all that imagery and cryptic writing. It’s slow reading for me.   

3. Finish reading “Everything to Lose”. 

D. Remaining

            1. The sweatshirt throw.

                        a. Put the backing on #2.

b. Start sewing together #3. (I have a total of eight in mind, by the way. I’ve already told myself that they will not get finished by Christmas.)

2. Post two more items for sale on Facebook Marketplace. (I may only have two more things I want to sell there.)

3. Family tree, work on it one evening. And only one evening, as it is so easy to get sucked in to it.

4. Call our contractor about the projects we want to have done on the house. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before. Since we finally have enough money in the bank to put into the house, we’ve decided it’s time to redo the kitchen, along with two other small projects. We’ve been talking about it and looking up ideas on-line and my head is already spinning in anticipation of all the decisions to make. If anyone wants to swoop in and pick everything out for us (within our budget), I would be fine with that.

Hope you have a good week. December starts in two days, which is my official start of the Christmas season. Keep in touch with your loved ones especially this time of year in these difficult times. Chris

Hubby and I eating our Thanksgiving dinner. 

Throw #2. Family history and story in this one. 

Anyone want an adorable Precious Moments teapot? 

Our cupboard doors are only one of the problems in our kitchen.