A Time For Everything

Image courtesy of Pinterest.

It's that time again, dear readers, when I review the progress of my stated goals for the year. So without further ado, let's jump right in.

#1) For the first time in however many years, I can say that I am on track with sending postcards to my Grandma in Denmark!

#2) I haven't yet opened the Finders Keepers file, but I will starting in April. My annual writers retreat is in June this year and that's the project I'll be working on. And in preparation for the retreat, I'll be reading through what I've written so far, maybe making notes as to tweaks to make and scenes to add, etc.

As a side note, I'm "on track" with this--I hadn't planned on looking at this book until the second quarter to begin with.

#3) I'm not on track with exercising 3x per week... But I'm getting there. I was diagnosed with bursitis and prescribed PT as a result. Most of my "homework" on that front is basically yoga, so in order to keep my hips feeling fine and in actual good working order, I guess I'll be doing yoga for the rest of my life. I'll work my chair gym routine back into the mix and that will all come to fruition this quarter. 

Image courtesy of IMGBIN.

#4) I'm most definitely on track for reading 52 books this year, including those six non-fiction titles. According to Goodreads, I'm four books ahead of schedule in general and, as I mentioned at the beginning of March, I've read two, working on the third of my non-fiction books.

#5) I'm not on track for keeping up my writers group duties. I am mostly on track, I just haven't found the best schedule for staying current with it. Still working on that aspect of it.

#6) I added a non-hockey pattern right at the beginning of the year and haven't spent a whole lot of time working in this sphere of interest. I was for a while and then I had some higher priority things come up, but I am on track. I have the next three months to complete and list the next pattern or set of patterns...

#7) I'm definitely on track for self care. This encompasses a wide range of actions from watching TV to working on cross stitch patterns to doing my PT to hockey games to doing nothing. But I'm prioritizing it over many other things.

#8) I have not completed a home improvement project as of yet. I was hoping to do up the middle bedroom properly as the guest bedroom, and bought an actual headboard/bed frame for that purpose. But that project might have to be scrapped, but A) we'll see and B) I'm not technically off track with this either.

#9) I'm definitely off track with regards to reading / watching / listening to writers education. At least as far as my original intention went. I wanted to do something weekly, but as I mentioned, self care has been a priority which sometimes also means sleeping in rather than reading / watching /listening to something. I've done some--but not as much as I'd wanted by this point. The second quarter would be a good time to get this back into rotation.

#10) I am WAY OFF TRACK on the cooking / eating healthy / adhering to a food plan route. That is a priority in the second quarter as part of self care. But DH recently found an exercise plan of attack that will help with both this and #3...

#11) My housekeeping efforts are way off track as of right now. I did good for a while and then...I didn't. I've started penciling things back into my lovely little housekeeping planner.

#12) My blogging is most definitely on track...

#13) I have submitted one article to my writers group newsletter and am working on a second. So on track.

#14) I haven't gotten to the Personality Strengths books yet...

#15) Daily Bible reading / listening is on track. :0)

#16) Goodreads is up-to-date in terms of reading challenge data. This blog cross-posts there. I just need to pencil in the "ask-me-a-question" monthly or something.

Considering last year, I'm feeling fine about my progress. I'm feeling much better in general, both mentally and physically, but I'm still cutting myself some slack.

Hope you're all well. Have a great weekend.

Have you gone to the theater lately? I haven't.

National World Theater Day

To be honest, I can't remember when I last attended theater in person.

The last time I attended the theater by proxy was last October. Remember I saw Benedict Cumberbatch in an encore showing of Frankenstein?

Before that, it was either Cumberbatch as Frankenstein (the previous October) or Cumberbatch as Hamlet very pre-pandemic. A non-exhaustive search says 2015??? That's a tragedy for sure.

I do have very old blog posts about live trips to the theater...

A trip with Sonshine to see Miss Saigon at Casa Manana in 2013.

DD and I saw Carmen at Bass Hall back in 2009.

DH and I saw South Pacific and Chicago at some point, but I can't find those posts.

These days, of course, I'm into hockey which is a performance all its own and not unlike opera or so I've come to learn.

Are you a fan of live performances in performance halls and actual stage theaters?

Do share in the comments!

Take care and have a great week. Catch you Thursday.

Happy Birthday to the Child Most Like Me.

You know her as Darling Daughter or DD. :0) 

Lots of picture homages to my children this month, but both the girls were born in March, so...

Without further ado, here she is.

Love you baby girl. Love you so much.

Our Buc-ee's road trip was fun and successful. DD and I ran into...Buc-ee himself at the Bastrop, TX location!

The drive south was lovely, with high clouds blocking most of the sun until the sun was high enough to not shine directly into the windshield. US Highway 77 veered away from I-35 at the tail end of Waco and I must say, the United States / the State of Texas is sooo beautiful. 

I love, love, love driving along the back roads, seeing the beauty of the countryside as well as the small towns dotted along the highways and byways.

Remember that $1M I talked about a few weeks ago? Yeah, I might invest it in the tiny town of Rosebud, Texas. Turn it into a location for writers retreats. Main Street looked like it could use a little revitalization. Although, I must say, the town is larger than it looks when just driving through.

There were quite a few charming towns along US-77.

As for the Buc-ee's locations--which were the main point of the trip...

First stop, Giddings, TX. Giddings is a small metropolis of approximately five thousand people and it seemed like a third of its citizenry were all at this very mini-location of our favorite rest stop. Okay, not really. But it was tucked in between a Starbucks and a Walmart and was smaller than my house. I'm guessing the chain hadn't quite gotten so famous when they first built it. But most disappointingly it wasn't large enough to rate having the magnets I collect created for it...

DD is going to work her Cricut magic at some point, though, and make me a facsimile magnet to go alongside the others.

Next stop, Bastrop, TX. This Buc-ee's was very much like every other Buc-ee's. Large and crowded. I used the potty and got my magnet and we headed for...

...the third and final stop of Day 1, Luling, TX. This was also a larger location, but so jam-packed it was a challenge just to get in and out of the parking lot. They're planning to build a new store across the highway that will become the largest store in the nation once it's done. I did get my magnet, however. :0)

Also on Day 1, DD and I visited the World Animal and Snake Farm Zoo, a small facility right along I-35. They had an otter exhibit, which DD loved. They also had a petting zoo with a llama. Sadly, I somehow deleted without saving pictures of those two things. I didn't mean to, of course, but devices were being uncooperative and I probably should have just waited until I'd gotten home.  (lesson learned)

On Day 2, we visited two more Buc-ee's locations, New Braunfels and Temple, and visited the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco.

A good time was had by all, even DH who was left behind and enjoyed having the house all to himself. He thought he was getting one more night alone, and was disappointed to find us home Monday afternoon rather than Tuesday afternoon...and suggested we take more trips. :0) A plan both DD and I are happy to carry out.

Hope you have a great week!

To be the published author I play on TV?

Me at GRL October 2018.

There's an author event at a local library in April that I've been invited to and that I actually signed up to participate in. It's a full Saturday during regular library hours.

I've done previous iterations of the event--evening, the romance genre only--and my biggest takeaway is that you have to have physical books to sell. The people who attend seem to want to walk away with something in their hands.

Of course, is anyone going to want to walk away with an MM romance? That's the first question.

Am I ready to really be an ally and represent the genre? Will there be people there who enjoy the genre as much as I do? But what book do I choose to showcase my work and the genre? That's the second question.

I finally picked two books and I worked for more than a week to format the MS Word documents appropriately to upload to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing so that I could order physical copies of the two titles.The covers ended up being more of a challenge, but I finally beat them into submission as well.

I gotta say it was as challenging and, more importantly, as tedious as I remember. Part of me was like "Eehhh, maybe I don't want to do this thing."

But five months out from all the heavy thoughts I was having about quitting writing...well, I don't feel like that's a path I'm quite ready to go down. I want to keep writing for a little while longer. I definitely want to finish my hockey series, but after that, I'm not sure what I want to write.

It's not that I don't have a list of ideas--I do--but they're not eliciting any spark of excitement in me at the moment, so I'll just have to wait and see what my mindset is when I have to make that decision.

Another thing I've determined that needs to happen is a revamp of all six books of the first series. In addition to new covers, I need to transition them to the more traditional third person, past tense point of view. Right now, they're second person, present or something like that.

That project might also be a good way to dip my feet back into the writer mindset and habits.

Between the time I drafted this and today, the day of posting, I got the physical copies--LOOK!

The covers need a bit of tweaking, but the insides look great.

Hope you're well. Have a great weekend.