A Time For Everything

I'm sure you can guess / imagine how I did with my goals in the third quarter.

Not very well.

Not that I was really focused on them since Mom took a turn for the worse and then died.

I'm giving myself a complete pass.

The only two things that got done were reading and sending postcards to my grandma, including the terrible news that Mom--Grandma's only daughter--had passed. Yeesh.

But as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I had/have pondering to do. And boy have I been pondering.

In reality, a majority of my 2022 goals were things other than writing. Okay, barely a majority, but still a majority. Six of ten, to be precise. So most of them can and should remain in play. 

I'll still write to Grandma.

I'll definitely be working on getting our eating habits back on track. 

I'll be (sloooowly) working on trying to fit exercise back into my routine. Recently it's consisted of upping my average daily steps count and pulling weeds, but as the weather finally cools off I may want to spend less time with the weeds.

And housework ... better / more housekeeping is always the intent. I'm slowly, slowly getting things done again. There's no real schedule, which I need, but now that I have a few extra hours at home every day, I have the time and energy to get things done.

I'll always be a reader. Always.

I definitely won't get the Etsy inventory doubled as planned, but I'll keep plugging away at making new patterns. I'm not sure it's worth all the work to be honest, as least as far as the hockey jerseys are concerned. My best seller is still the Harry Potter Spells Sampler... I can create a hockey jersey to order in a day or two, so spending my time on those will probably come to an end. Little to no return on that investment of time.

* * * * * *

As far as the writing--that's really where the pondering comes in. I recently watched a YouTube video by one and only guru, Becca Syme, of the Personality Strengths for Better Faster writing and other things. And what she said...completely true and in context of her topic...is that most books don't sell.

Now her topic and specific point are of no consequence, but the fact that most books published don't sell at all or don't sell at a sustainable rate is important in my decision making.

Do I want to keep writing? Do I want to keep spinning my wheels for little or no return?

To date, I've published twelve individual books and one box set of three books. I've spent close to $4000 on all twelve between cover art, editing, and ISBNs. I've also paid for conferences and travel. I've bought SWAG and taken out advertisements. I've paid organizational dues. At this point, I'm still $650 in the hole after first publishing in November of 2017.

At this point, I'm not planning to attend anymore conferences. There's not enough ROI to justify them. If I do events, they'll local with minimal costs: gas and maybe a small fee, depending on the event & venue. But there's still no ROI for my time and I've discovered that if I don't have physical, print books for these events, then I make zero sales. If I decide to invest in print copies...well that's racks up my expenses amount, doesn't it?

My expenses are at a minimum this year and I'm making enough monthly, that I might bring in just enough to finally break even by the end of the year. Except I'm sure there are things I've paid for or bought that I missed in my original calculation... But neither here nor there.

Do I still have books I want to write? Yes. I'd at least like to finish the two series in progress. That's four more books, two in each. After that...I'm just not sure. My process isn't working as well as I'd like, which has been an issue for a few years. Unless I improve the process some way, some how and make it a little smoother and easier, I'm not sure I'll want to keep going.

I feel like there's a switch on something that needs flipping. But where that switch is or what it turns on--I have no clue. Which is a bit of a problem.

But maybe I can catch up on all my reading / watching / listening to blog posts, podcasts, and webinars about the craft of writing for enough light bulbs to go off that I'll feel comfortable and ready to keep writing after those four books are written and published.

* * * * *

As an aside, I bought my 2023 planner a little early. I wasn't planning on buying it until November-ish, but I couldn't wait. The upcoming year is a clean slate with a few things already lined up to look forward to. I haven't done much but log family birthdays, though, because those are never gonna change. It's still a little too soon for much else just yet. But I just wanted it...

* * * * *

In other news, the annual encore showing of the stage production of Frankenstein starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller is coming along in a few weeks. DH and DD have agreed to go (it's the night of DH's birthday, so I asked if he'd be interested and he said yes! So then I asked DD so we could make an evening of it, and she said yes as well. So yay! I hope they enjoy it as much as I do. This'll be my third viewing... :0)

And that, my friends, is all I've got.

Here's to a great week. Catch you on Thursday.

I'm a bit behind in regards to this sentiment, but I hope the transition from 2021 to 2022 was all you wanted it to be--whether that was a glass of champagne, watching the ball drop on TV, or sleeping through it. My New Years was fine. Busy selling a record number of fireworks (for a New Years Eve). :0) Even got see a few fireworks on my drive home.

As I mentioned, my goals list needed some adjusting after the decision was made that my mom was coming to live with us. We've all got some adjustments ahead of us--not just physically in the house, but socially and emotionally and financially as well.

My original list for 2022 had grown to twelve goals, up from the eight of the last couple of years. With the new dynamics around the house coming, that's not feasible any longer, so this list will contain fewer goals. Maybe eight, maybe fewer, but not twelve!

And so, with further ado...

1. Send postcards to Grandma in Denmark. Still gonna try to get 100% on that. Considering this is my mom's mom, maybe having my mom here in the house will be the kick in the butt I need to finally make this happen monthly.

2. Continue to exercise regularly. Someway, somehow I need to up my game even though my home gym will be sharing space with hubster's home office. Of course I usually exercise in the wee hours before he's awake, so maintaining (ahem--getting back to...) my exercise schedule shouldn't be a problem at all.

3. Continue to cook / eat healthy / adhere to a food plan. With Mom coming and her health issues, there's really no choice about this. It's gonna be to everyone's benefit. But a food plan to accommodate her needs is now in the mix as well.

4. Housekeeping. Gonna stay on track with a schedule & routine. With another person in the house, it'll be even more important.

5. Keep up with my writers group duties. I do have to create a report for the monthly meeting, but I tend to let some of the other duties slide for months on end and then spend hours getting caught up. This year, I’ll endeavor to spend whatever time is needed keeping everything on track in real time.

6. Publish the one book that's ready to be published & then do my best to finish the second Christmas book and get it out on the world. That's it. No pressure. And if the second Christmas book doesn't happen, it doesn't happen.

7. Hone / learn my craft. I paid for two virtual conferences (2020 (half price!) and 2021) and have three year access to all videos--so I'm going to spend the time to watch any and all that interest me. I've also been receiving blog posts via email from an author whose information / idea resonate with me, so I'm going to make my way through all those posts I've been saving up as well as poke around her website.

8. Double my Etsy inventory--which isn't as hard as it sounds. It's mostly a "file / save as" endeavor and then change a few details. It's just time consuming and tedious, but something I can do while listening to podcasts or watching TV.

9. Read, read, read a lot of fiction to replenish the well. My Goodreads Challenge is at 36 books...that's three a month and, quite frankly, I can easily read two a week, so I might need to go raise the bar a little.

10. Keep up with / solidify the Goodreads habit. This is more of an author thing with specific tasks to do on the back end of my profile. And which I can do in those early morning hours in place of the writing.

Okay, so that's ten, but they're all low-key, low pressure items. For example, the Goodreads thing is maybe once a week, and I'd be doing #9 anyway, just not as much of it. I'd also being doing #5, just not in a keeping-up-with-it sort of way.

Now gone from the list: complete a household project; deep dive into my personality strengths; finish 2 books, publish 3 books.

The weight's been lifted already, to be honest. I don't know what's to come with Mom being here. I imagine other weights are gonna come and go, but many of the things on this list need to be done anyway, so maybe they shouldn't be here. On the other hand, I'm trying to raise the standard of some of them, so there they are.

Take care and here's to a better 2022.

Have a great week.

The year is coming to a close and, as I've done every year for the last handful (at least), I’m going to grade myself on the accomplishments of the goals I set for myself.

I’m giving myself a pass or fail, but I’m not judging myself too harshly. We were (and still are, of course) living in a COVID world and the fallout from everything hits everyone at different times and in different ways.

I think I got hit with some depression and worry over the course of the year and that had an effect on my efforts. But there were other factors as well. Some within my control, others not. Having to prepare for my conference was also a problem.

But let’s get going, shall we?

1) Learn about and harness the power of my personality strengths.
--> Big fat fail. Just didn’t have enough brain power for it.

2) Actively cook 1 meal per week; work up to 3 per week.
--> Pass! Doing okay here. Still at it.

3) Lose the 3 pounds I gained.
--> Pass! I’m back within the four-pound swing I have.

4) Publish 3 books.
--> Big fat fail. One project got derailed because of another, and I just couldn’t get things back on track before prepping for the conference got in the way.

5) Get my home gym completely kitted out.
--> Pass… Now, I didn’t get new ceiling fans. But I have all the equipment I want / need, including a TV, so it’s usable and I’m satisfied with it for now.

6) Get a handle on my housekeeping.
--> It took the better part of the year, but I did finally make a list of tasks I wanted to be doing on a regular basis and am making progress with getting those few things taken care of each weekend. There’s still work to be done, but so far, so good.

7) Brainstorm characters and plot arcs for new series.
--> Big Fat Huge Fail! I started off with the detailed character worksheets. I got a worksheet created for all the main characters of a specific series. I was missing a lot of information for each person after the first pass, but I’d planned to revisit each worksheet a couple of times and flesh the characters out more and more with each pass. But I never went back to a single one. I sketched a basic plot for exactly one book. And now I’m not sure I’m ever going to write any of those six books I’d planned for the series. I learned that that’s not a good process for me to follow.

8) Send a postcard to my Grandma in Denmark monthly.
--> Fail. I managed maybe once a quarter rather than the once a month I was aiming for. Part of the problem is—not much happens around here, which is why I went to post cards in the first place.

There you have it. I passed half, I failed half. Not great, but better than I expected going in.

I started thinking about my 2022 goals back in November, and I made a huge detailed list. It’s been a work in progress, but I’ll share the ones that made the cut next week.

Have a super holiday weekend, and I’ll catch you in the new year!

It hasn't been a bad year. In fact, it's been quite good in many respects if just plain busy--too busy for my liking. It sped by much too fast, as I've whined about often. But I'm glad it's coming to a close if only so that I can plan for being less busy at some point in 2020.

In years past, I've graded myself on the accomplishment of my goals as listed to the right, but I'm not going into details this year. I'm giving myself Ds and Fs across the board. I didn't do well at all at much of anything.

Now, I'm not sure if I post my goals for the new year prior to or following New Years Eve & Day, but this year they're coming after. I've been thinking about them, but I haven't got the specifics nailed down yet, so probably next week. I know--you can't wait. :0)

My Christmas was good, how about yours? As we do, we gathered at my in-laws home for Christmas Eve. Food was delicious as always, company was a treat, and gifts were awesome. I got the two things I wanted most, so whee... Thank you to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law for those.

And then, I got a thing I would have wanted had I come across it myself. Whether I would have bought it for myself depends entirely on the price, although I'm thinking, considering the giver, I could afford it.

Anyway, it is priceless gift for several reasons, and one I'll love and treasure for years.

Are you curious?

Okay, well, here it is:


In case it's hard to tell, it's a matted collectible photo of Sidney Crosby--my absolute favorite player--three-time Stanley Cup champion, kissing the Stanley Cup in June of 2017. That was the second of back-to-back titles--the Penguins also won in 2016. That was the first time it'd happened since 1997/1998.

Thank you, Kayla, for this gift--you're a girl after my own hockey-loving heart. 

 So dear readers, may the new year bring peace, joy, and prosperity to you and your families.

See you in 2020.

I'm thinking about trying the Bullet Journal system for being more organized and more productive. It looks to be the advanced version of my general list making and requires a little more pre-planning and forethought and organization.


That's not a bad thing, but is it going to be more trouble than it's worth? I have one friend who uses a physical journal but has tweaked it to suit her needs and I have another friend who is more electronically minded.

Now I'm all for electronic but there's something to be said for grasping a concept with a physical book, tweaking it to my needs, and then going virtual. Possibly. Depending on my needs and the tweaks--going virtual might be "out of sight, out of mind." And I'm thinking this might also help me get back on track with daily tasks.



I have yet another friend who uses the happy tracker. She has a physical notebook with printed pages, sorted into various categories, and she rewards herself with stickers on the days / for the tasks she completes. I did that for a while and it worked for me as well, so I'm thinking I could combine the concepts.

Which means going virtual might not be the best option because if that journal--whatever form it takes, and right now it's a composition book I had lying around--is not in front of me, reminding me to open it, to read it, to look ahead, to plan, and to reward with stickers, then it might not happen. And that would defeat the whole purpose.

This year has flown past and the beginning of next year is going to be busy, busy, busy, and I feel like I could use some help in staying on top of all the moving parts.

And so here is the beginning of my journal...



I doubt I'll get too artsy with it...some people like to do decorate their journals, and whatever works for them. But for me it's wasted time. I'd rather be reading. :0)

It's an interesting concept and we'll see how it works for me.

Have a great weekend...

I've lamented the passing of the year before. I thought I'd have more time to relax and breathe, but that hasn't been the case and 2020 is looking to be just as busy.

It seems that now that the kids are gone, there's less ebb and flow to the year. No summer without the school-year-routine to look forward to as a time to do less.

Now it's just one thing after another after another and how did this happen?

Well, mostly it's my fault because I say yes to things that maybe I shouldn't, but part of it seems to be the reality of various aspects of life and the things I've chosen to do with it.

For example...I'm a hockey fan. I've chosen to be a season ticket holder which means attending up to 41 games each year. Which is too many and I've mentioned that before, so I've opted to sell my tickets to many of the weekend games. But I like the perks of being a full season ticket holder, so I'm on the fence about going with a smaller package. And there are other things that go along with it and it's a way to spend time with and bond with DD.

As a writer, my goal is to write and publish books. Now I'm not aiming to be a USA Today Bestseller but I would still like to publish at least two books a year. That means writing and planning and all that good stuff.

As a writer, I'm also a member of a writer's organization...which means monthly meetings and being involved. I might be a little over committed this year, but after August when I pass the torch, I'll have one job and the following year...I'm taking the year off. I deserve a break.

As a writer, there's also writer's conferences. I've limited it to just the one unless the national organization of my writers groups has one in Texas, but that's not happening again for a few years, so I'm safe. I know a lot of authors do several each year, but I don't make enough money from my writing to support that, so no.

As a person, I have friends and family...

So life gets busy and if you're not paying attention, another year whooshes by.

I'd like to be a little less busy, so I think I'm going to work towards that.

Take care and have a great weekend.

On this last blogging day of 2017, it's time to do a final review on the goals I set at the beginning of the year. I've done quarterly check-ins, but now it's time for a final grade.

1) Write to my Grandma in Denmark every six weeks or so. I'm going to fail myself. I've not sent my dear Grandma a letter since the summer. Bad Jen. I'll be recycling this goal for sure.

Grade F

2) Call my moms every month or so. Didn't quite hit every month, but most of them. This goal too is moving on to 2018.

Grade C

3) Cook/eat better. Didn't do as well as I wanted to on this one either. Finances make it harder to eat well, because healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy food. But we'll keep on keeping on with this goal too because DH is ready to make progress on his weight loss endeavors now.

Grade B

4) Clean out and organize my writing room. I did a couple of things a couple of times, but there was no major overhaul here. Is this task important enough to carry over into 2018? Nah. The state of my writing room isn't bothersome, so...

Grade D

5) Re-institute the cleaning plan. I thought about it in context of my quarterly goal updates and at no other time. I still really want to do it, so this goal carries over as well.

Grade F

6) Publish six books by September 2017. Well, nope...didn't get six books by the ninth month. I did get four books out by the twelfth month though. No major extenuating circumstances to blame. Just ran into a bit of writing road block in completing the sixth book, so all deadlines and tasks required got pushed farther out.

Grade F

7) Reach 120lbs. to 125lbs. as a weight goal. Reached this one in October. I've kept the weight off. I only gained about 4 pounds on the cruise and lost that easily. I've been enjoying the holidays and will get back on the wagon come January 2.

Grade A+

8) Walk the dog three times a week. I reported that I'd started this back at the third quarter review, but got lazy about it rather quickly. This goal is definitely moving onto the 2018 list as it's become more important to the dog's physical health than it was originally. So yeah.

Grade F

Well-- I didn't do so hot this year, did I? Average grade is a D-. Gotta do better next year, eh?

Hope you have a safe and lovely New Years!

I dropped Sonshine off at the airport early Sunday morning...and yes I cried. Just a little. I hadn't expected to, but this years' visit seemed shorter and we didn't get any Mom/Sonshine alone time. But he did get to spend time with DH as well as one of his HS buddies, so that was definitely nice for all of us to just hang out.

We did go to a Stars game, so that was a fun experience to share with him. He is partially to blame for my newfound love of hockey so it seemed like a fitting activity. :) If only the STARS had won...


And so the real new year begins... Sonshine is back where he belongs (for now) and my leisurely start to the new year is over. It's time to get going on all my waiting endeavors.

I've thought of a few more things to add to my list...

The most important one being to start writing to my grandma again. She lives in Denmark in an assisted living facility and I haven't seen her in years. I haven't written more than a note on the flower delivery card in years either, although fewer years than since I've seen her. And I feel guilty about that, so along with the phone calls to the moms is a monthly letter to Grandma.



In addition to the writing group treasurer job, I am also paid to update the group's website. I'll admit I haven't been as diligent as I ought be about that, so...pledging to do better with that as well.

And as part of that weight loss line item, I'm adding "get healthy and well" back. Not so much emotionally, because I'm fine with that, but physically. I sit so much between work and home and my body just feels blah. It's hard to explain, but I know it's because (even though I walk on the treadmill) I don't use a lot of different parts of my body. All the other things I've planned on doing will help, but I'm adding the potty break calisthenics back in. For as little time as they take, they made a huge difference to me way back when I started this journey FOUR years ago. Going back to basics rarely hurts.

I'm glad to have the goals list a little fuller. It felt incomplete for some reason.

Time to get started!

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?

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.

Last year started off okay and got better toward the middle. We even hired two new employees, though one quit a few short months later. The IT industry is tougher than it sounds. Though, it was for the best that he left as cash flow slowed and we might have had to let him go anyhow. A few other things came to pass in the latter half of the year that weighed us down. But we got through it as we always do.

Personally, I had a few things I wanted to accomplish and unfortunately I have no real reminders of what those were. Not even a blog post from this time last year, though I have a sticky note in my Outlook for the first quarter of last year all in regards to writing. Did I accomplish those goals? Sadly, no.

One thing I do remember is my goal to reach a certain weight. Did I make it? No, but I'm closer than ever. Unfortunately, I seek comfort in food so when we had some things happen, I lost momentum and the willpower to say no as often as I should have. I did finally get and stay below 140 lbs. though--barely--which had been a huge marker to get past. Looking at my spreadsheet, I see I didn't do very well at all this year. An overall loss of only 5.2 lbs. Bummer. Next year will be better. I promise.

Writing wise, I changed focus from writing to proofreading in order to earn some extra money to pay off a specific credit card. Things went well until the uphill slide toward the holidays and people re-purposed their dollars. That's okay. The CC isn't supposed to be paid in full until June 2014, so I still have time to make that happen. And I did make progress, I'm glad to say.

So goals for 2014... Let's see...

1) lose weight--get down to 120ish pounds (that's 16 lbs.)
2) pay off the credit card with proofing money
3) create bulb bed/plant bulbs on the side of the house
4) work on back yard
5) bookshelves in living room
6) ramp up proofreading
7) publish three more Romance Writer's Guides books
8) get my son graduated
9) read up on how to make the body work like it's supposed to and help my hubby lose weight and get healthy
10) to read 64 books in 2014, including 12 books on plotting (remember this post from the end of Nov?)

I think I'm gonna post these on the side bar so I can see them on a near daily basis and be reminded. I think that will also help keep me accountable. Plus updates will provide post fodder!

To a certain handful of my readers--thanks so much for your faithfulness. I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment. It really means a lot. And to the rest of you who read but don't comment, the number of you who are out there tickles me.

To you all:

Happy New Year to you and yours, and may 2014 be all that you want it to be.

I think. We're going into the weekend right before New Year's Eve. I don't really want to go down to the store before the 30th. I just want to relax and rest up for the 30th and 31st and get my house clean and the laundry done and prepare for the new year as best I can.

Before we get to what I received for Christmas, I heard some things I wanted to share.

1st) Norman Schwartzkopf died last night.
2nd) Radio City Music Hall celebrates 80 years, but more interestingly, its pipe organ with 4410 pipes and two keyboards is the largest pipe organ ever built for a movie theater
3rd) well, there is no third--I can't find the info anymore. ugh
and
4th) if you're the praying sort, please lift up Mrs. Carmen Bernal and her family; Mrs. Bernal suffered a stroke this past week; she's the mother of Sonshine's band director...

Now for Christmas...

We spent Christmas Eve at my mother-in-law's house with everyone present--including one of my sisters-in-law and both my nephews, and of course my Brown Eyed Girl. Many many years ago, somewhere around thirteen years or so (when Sonshine was around 4, best we can estimate), we'd taken a picture of five of the six grand kids. Well, those same five were back together and all grown up. So we piled them back on top of one another and took another picture. I'll share the before and after as soon as I get the before scanned.

Christmas Morning for the Brown-Eyed Girl and me started at 4:30ish am. Neither of us could sleep any longer so we got up. DH found us shortly after 5. By 5:30 we'd woken up DD and Sonshine and began the festivities. We were done by 7:30. Pretty sad huh??

Some pics of Christmas...





Knowing that bad weather was on its way, us girls were home by noon. Later that afternoon, we received a white Christmas as an additional little surprise.


So how was your Christmas?

And don't forget, goals for the New Year coming Monday--see you then. Have a good weekend.

First of all, happy new year. It's finally here. Last year was a vast improvement over the one before and I hope the trend continues. Hubby and I have already looked at our finances, both business and personal and made adjustments. We've also made a plan for getting out of debt. Let's hope 2012 is conducive to furthering that plan without too much struggle.

As I've already mentioned in the last week or two, diet and exercise are on the agenda. I'm getting older, no getting around that. I need to start taking care of myself. That's not a resolution, just a fact of life and a real necessity. I'm out of shape and have little stamina and even less strength.

I had to work Friday and Saturday night at our fireworks store. DD and I drove home at 12:30 Sunday morning. I had to. There was no way I could handle sleeping on a deflating air mattress a second night unless absolutely necessary. Thanks goodness it wasn't. Sleeping arrangements and apparatus will be addressed between now and July.

Sunday I did a few chores and relaxed. DD was gone and I had the house to myself ALL day. What a lovely treat. I was hoping to have the house to myself most of Monday as well, but that didn't work out. The men arrived home in the early afternoon, so there was a bit of chaos while we unloaded and put away. Then Sonshine was off to a friend's house for a while. The rest of us hung out and watched Bones all afternoon.

Today, we are back to work and back to some semblance of normal. Except . . . I have a couple of pressing events over the course of the next few weeks and one (a stressful one) just got added. Yeah, sure I could have said no, but I felt like I needed to do it if I could.

So . . . new event and first up: opening the concession stand Friday afternoon alone. The band director has to teach until 3:30PM--report time at the stadium is 2PM. She asked if I could go and open it. This includes inventory, something I'm notoriously bad at--except I think a lot of it has to do with her stressing me out. I may have to start cooking. That's okay, I think. I can get the grills going, throw on a few burgers and hotdogs. Maybe even get the cheese steak started.

I agreed with the request that I be able to leave early because . . . event #2 . . . I have about 10 people showing up at my house early Saturday morning for a writers group board transition meeting.

Event #3: Band Booster board and regular meetings on the 12th. Which means I have to mail out reminders late this week or Monday next at the latest and get prepped next week. Grrr...

Event #4: Our first chapter meeting of the year on the 21st, with me presiding as president. Oh joy.

I think life will normalize sometime after that. I hate being this busy. Thank goodness I have a lot of time available at my job to work on all these things.

I have a picture of the finished, but only just, Redneck Gingerbread House to share soon.

So, how's your 2012 shaping up?

The year started bad, was awful most of the way through, and ended bad. I can't recall ever feeling so relieved that a year was over. I have dubbed it the 'year from hell.'

Things can only get better right? (I suppose they could get worse, but we're thinking positively here.)

"They" say the economy is finally starting to improve, so hopefully some of that will trickle our way so that at the very least we keep our heads above water.

I don't have any real resolutions as the new year looms. Mostly to get back to eating better, cut back on the sugar and the carbs and eat more protein. And exercise. I need to start walking again, but when it gets too nippy around here--I hate being cold--then my motivation to do that drops to zero. I'll have to start up with our Wii again. There's an aerobics section--I can plug my ear buds in and listen to my music and do a little step aerobics. There's also some Yoga moves in there. I do some of those for stretching and conditioning purposes.

Of course, the biggest question is: when? When can I carve out 10 to 15 to 20 minutes to do this? Early morning does not appeal to me at all, though I do get up early every day. But that's my quiet writing time. By the end of the day, I'm ready to relax. So I guess that means lunch time...we'll see if I can arrange that.

So here's to a better, healthier, more prosperous new year for us all.

The new year is here. Life as I prefer it has returned. Hubby and son are home from the wilds of Central Texas. Christmas/New Years fireworks sales were pretty decent all things considered, so the girls can attend college for another semester, at any rate. And Monday morning back at work...

Saturday and Sunday were quiet as the boys hadn't returned yet. I had a movie marathon Saturday, watching Star Trek, Sweet Home Alabama, Lady Jane, and Dirty Dancing. I simultaneously surfed the 'Net and got some writing in--I'm the queen of multi-tasking. Sunday was spent in a Robin Hood marathon--I was able to watch the first nine episodes of season one. And I got to watch it on the big screen, which was quite a treat. Hoodie goodness up close and personal!

As for resolutions...none really. At least nothing I haven't been striving toward anyway: eating better, getting more exercise, getting more done in a day...

Hope your new year is full of health, happiness, and prosperity!

After brunch with a girlfriend, I spent the day alone...a nice little surprise,and I enjoyed it greatly. I generally don't make resolutions anymore, but I wanted to get the new year started with a clean house and yard.

So I alternately read and cleaned my house--I don't have the energy or stamina to go on a full-scale rampage any longer so I have to work then rest, work then rest, etc...

My main bathroom almost as clean as I can get it. It needs a little more scrubbing--I have a green tile floor and the grout is a lot stained and needs some TLC, but that was beyond me yesterday. Not that I didn't scrub and mop the floor, 'cause I did, but the grout needs some extensive elbow grease.

My kitchen, hallway, and living room was swept throughout the day. A (small) section of my backyard was raked and the leaves bagged for pickup today. And the patio, which could have won a Redneck-of-the-year contest, was tidied. I even did a few loads of laundry.

A another week's worth of days like yesterday would be a lovely way to get my new year started on the right foot.

My goals for 2009 include getting my kitchen and living room finished, and getting grass rather than weeds to grow in my backyard. On the writing front, I'd really like to finish another manuscript.

What are your goals for 2009?