A Time For Everything

Well, the year is just about over. It's time for a final recap of my goals, which can be found just to the left.

1) Do more crafts--lots of cross stitching done and then some other random things for Christmas.

DONE!




2) Self-publish a book--I wrote one, but lost confidence and interest in getting it revised.

NOT DONE :(

3) Research degree programs--never got past the "yeah, I should do that" phase

NOT DONE :(

4) Work on the yards--um...we hired a guy. Does that count? They always look nice now.

DONE!

5) Ramp up the proof-reading business--I did great through May. Then I lost interest in it. But the goal was technically accomplished.

DONE!

6) Clean up/clean out the house--did some random things, but not enough that I count this as accomplished.

NOT DONE :(

7) Get healthy and well--considering where I was last year at this time and well into the new year, I count this goal met.

DONE!

8) Writer 2500 words a week--despite the book I wrote and the fan fic I wrote in November & December, I fell way short of the mark.

NOT DONE :(

9) Read 3 million words--yes, yes, and OMG, YES! Final tally came in at 13, 497,481. I reached the 3-mill mark some time in February. Yeah I did A LOT of reading last winter and throughout the year.

DONE!

10) Reach the 120lb. mark--alas, I waited too long to get serious about this. This past Monday morning I weighed in at 135lbs. I have a ways to go, but the progress I've been making for the last couple of months will carry me forward into the new year.

NOT DONE :(

So I had a 50% success rate. But I feel pretty good about everything and that's the point. The things I didn't accomplish, well... the blog title is "A Time for Everything," so...just not time yet??

What about you?? Did you have goals for the year? If so, how'd you do??

Have a fun and safe New Year's Eve!!

I participated in my first ever NANOWRIMO attempt. I know I mentioned it last month or something. Anyway, Monday was the last day and I'm here to report.

The NANO goal is 50K words. I don't normally have that kind of word count in me in that time frame, so I tweaked the program to suit me.

I'd signed up to participate in a fan works exchange which was due Nov. 23. My goal was to hopefully bang out 8K to 10K words based on information from my assigned recipient. The stars aligned and characters met plot met premise and I was off to the races.

Man, I poured words onto the virtual page and it was an exhilarating feeling. I did little else, not much TV, barely any visits to social media, just wrote. When all was said and done, I'd written 37,295 words and the story isn't even finished.

I got the story to a logical ending place for the exchange and submitted it on the 25th, but I kept writing and I'm still writing and I'm hope for 80K when all is said and done.

Who participated in NANO? How'd you do??

Have a great weekend.

Sadly, our flag is becoming offensive to many, though they have no qualms about accepting all that our flag stands for and offers. Our country is being denigrated and made a laughing stock from within and from the top rungs of leadership. It makes me really sad.

I'm waiting and hoping for the day to come soon when the real reason we have the Second Amendment comes into play and America's citizens say no more. It'll be a scary time, but our country needs us.

Now go out and celebrate what's left of our freedom before it's gone.

Well, we're a quarter of the way through the year, and I thought it a good time to check in on how I'm doing goal wise...My list is to the left and down...so starting at the top...

1) do more crafts -- um, no, not so much at this point, although I did make some chocolate bath salts for a friends birthday in February...

2) self-publish a book -- not as of yet, although I did get back into the writing groove, original fiction wise (as opposed to fan fiction), and have been cruising along getting words on the page; it feels good...

3) research degree programs --  nope, not yet...

4) work on the yards --  sorta kinda -- that is to say the DH has started mowing and weed whacking on a weekly basis, but nothing extra like trimming the holly or planting flowers or whatever...

5) ramp up the proof reading business -- have had fairly steady jobs since the beginning of the year, so yes, but time to go send out some more ads and notices into the universe for the second quarter...

6) clean up/clean out the house -- I've done a little cleaning out, not too much cleaning up; I was gonna wait till the dog was gone, but she's back for good so time to get off the pot; I did bring the mop and bucket home from the office, so floors will get a mopping very soon...

7) get healthy and well -- trying, but it's slow going; I'm not feeling entirely 100% yet, but making progress...

8) write 2500 words a week -- so we're 14 weeks into the year, which means I should have written 35K words by now; in reality, I've written 27.5K at this point; so I'm a little behind...

9) read 3 million words of fiction -- blew that away by the end of February; I'm interested to see where I'll be by the end of the year...

10) reach the 120LB. mark -- haven't really worked toward this at all yet; things just haven't been conducive to me putting in the effort, although I do walk on the treadmill every weekday morning without fail; I really need to get back to proteins and salads...


And there you have it!

How about you? Have you made progress on your goals?

According to the legend, we're supposed to have six more weeks of winter. Phil apparently saw his shadow on Monday.

Obviously I don't rely on a rodent to predict the weather, although he certainly can't be any more or less reliable than the evening news...

Six more weeks of winter here in Texas is relative. At least I don't live in Boston or Buffalo or Madison or anywhere else they've gotten piled on.

But I'm not fond of the chill and the nip and the frost, so I'm certainly hoping that Phil is wrong this year.

A week ago Monday, I shared my goals for the year. I posited that the reason I failed so spectacularly in achieving more than three of my ten goals last year was because I failed to plan, to outline the tasks that would help me reach said goals.



I've spent some time in the last two weeks looking at my various goals and coming up with action items that will ultimately help me reach my goals. Now it's time to share them out here in cyberspace so you can hold me accountable.

So looking at my list of goals, let's just take a few in no particular order...

--> read three million words

That breaks out to a 58k word book a week and 8500 words a day. I'm including my proofreading jobs twice as I generally read them twice, and I'm also counting any and all fan fiction or writing contest entries that I judge. Looking at that 8500 words a day makes me nervous, but I'm pretty sure it's not really going to be a problem.

--> ramp up my proof reading business

Unfortunately, this is one of those things that I can't just decide to do. What I mean is, I can advertise and touch base with previous clients and offer specials to encourage business, but I can't actually make anyone hire me.

But to that end, I've already placed my first ad and will work on finding places I can advertise for free--author forums and the like. And keep my fingers crossed!

--> clean up & clean out the house

Now that all the kids are gone, it seems like a good time to go through closets and cabinets and get rid of stuff we just don't use anymore. I also want to repaint DD's old room at some point and make it a guest room/sitting room. DH wants to get Sonshine's old room turned into a home office. I'm not the greatest housekeeper in the world either so I'm going to pick a room every couple of weeks and hit the dusting, sweeping & mopping and then try to stay on top of it.

--> do more crafts

Almost anything will equate to more, so this one will be pretty easy to accomplish. I used to do rubber stamping a lot, which I really enjoyed and would love to start again. Maybe I'll make my own Christmas cards--I have eleven months. I have some sewing projects in progress that I want to finish. And who knows what interesting things I'll find on Pinterest!

--> work on the yards

We--I-- talked a lot about my back yard last year, and as for as my goal was concerned (work on the back yard), I'd say I accomplished it. But I have nothing to really show for it. This year I want to have at least two things I can point to and say, "I did that." I'm still debating and determining specifics, so we'll have to revisit the yard another day.

How about you? Do you have your goals written down somewhere yet?? And have you thought of how to achieve them?

In 2014, I took the Goodreads challenge for the second year in a row and, again, technically missed the mark. Both years, I pledged to read 52 books--one per week. I'm a fast reader. Completely do-able.


Unfortunately, I missed officially completing the challenge by eight books in 2013 and eighteen in 2014.

But, but, but... I **know** I read enough fan fiction to cover the short fall both years. Unfortunately, I can't key those titles into Goodreads and get credit for the challenge.

So for 2015, I'm changing it up a bit. On Monday, I pledged to read three million words. Yes, you read that right. Three *million* words. That equates to one 57K word book a week, but gives me the flexibility to read fan fiction and include any proofreading jobs that don't get published or show up in Goodreads. I'll still pledge to read books via the Goodreads challenge, but I'm going to reduce it to 26 real "published" books and cover the other 26 books with anything and everything else I consume.

So what about you?? Have you taken the challenge before? How'd you do?

It's time once again to make goals for the brand new year...but let's revisit last year's goals first. I had ten goals. I achieved three of them. Came close on one other and completely missed the mark on the rest. I gotta admit, that's not a great track record.


The biggest problem, I think, is that I didn't make decisions on how to achieve the goals. In other words, stepping stones. For example, I wanted to ramp up my proof reading. But did I do any advertising? Nope...

Today, I'm going put the goals out there, and in the coming weeks, I'll work on figuring out how to achieve them and share a few with you.

So without further ado...

1) reach the 120lb. mark
2) read 3 million words
3) write 2500 words a week
4) get healthy and well
5) clean up/clean out the house--now that the kids are gone, gonna go through closets and cupboards and get rid of all the stuff that we don't use, don't need, don't want...
6) ramp up the proofreading business
7) work on the yard--this is vague and I'm going to decide what I want to do so that I have something specific to work towards
8) research degree programs
9) publish a book
10) do more crafts

Ten seems like a nice number, although I had ten last year and completed three and made progress on others. But as the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. So taking that to heart, I'll work on a plan...


What about you?? Any goals you'd like to share before we hit the ground running in 2015?

My list of goals for 2014 are just there on the left. I updated you on them two month ago. Nothing's changed except that I have gotten closer to my goal of 120lbs. I cleared the 130lb. hurdle and have settled comfortably in the one hundred twenty range. I'm very happy with that. Next year will be more about toning what's left.

Anyway, it's time to look ahead to 2015, to determine what I want to accomplish and make plans and set goals.



I've gone round and round with myself regarding writing for publication. I've had conversations with DH and several friends on the matter and have to come to a few conclusions, none of which I'll bore you with at this point. I have friends who are supporting themselves with their writing. I have friends who aren't. Yesterday, I met a teenager who'd made a bit of cash throwing a few things up on B&N. If he can, why can't I? Follow through. Yeah, a huge problem of mine. So maybe smaller, concrete goals that I can reach and check off the list along the way. Some serious thought on this is in my near future.

My proofreading business...I don't get a lot of return customers. I've gotten positive feedback from almost everyone. No negative feedback to me directly. I'm not super-expensive and I don't feel I'm super cheap either. I'm not sure where the disconnect is. I'd really love to have a small cache of clients who avail themselves of my services consistently. I have a simple listing on one author site, but I suppose I ought to consider advertising regularly. Something else to think about.

My house and back yard will be ongoing, but I'll think about specifics. Re-decorating DD's room will definitely be on the list.

Of course reading will be make the list again, as will getting healthier.

All right. So. There are the generalizations for next year. I'll be thinking about them for the next little while and will determine specifics.

I challenge you my friends and readers to look ahead and do the same. We can meet back here at the new year and compare notes.