| |
Archive for the 'Real Life' Category
Thursday, August 31st, 2023
UPDATE: The winner is…Sandy Pennese!
*~*~*
August
Work-related:
- I began work on Book #2 of We Are Dead Horse, MT — Hard Knox!
- I completed 4 editing projects for other authors in August.
Health-related:
- I’ve been swimming almost every day. Sometimes, twice a day.
- Through medicines and some diet tweaking, I’ve managed to keep my blood pressure down to 130-150. There’s been an occasional spike, but it’s so much better.
- My appointment with my heart doctor went so well I don’t have to see him again for 6 months!
Happiness-related:Â
- I helped get the kids ready for the school year, including the 19-year-old who began college this month! In fact, she made the Pom Squad!
- I have been working on and making more great progress organizing my art room, getting ready for the next push for art shows and reopening my Etsy store. I have accumulated the supplies I need to begin painting in encaustic wax.
- I finished the Inchie Challenge! These are tiny 2×2-inch paintings. Here are a few examples…
September
Â
For work-related, I plan:
- To complete writing Hard Knox, the next in my We Are Dead Horse, MT series which releases on September 12th!
- To release my short story from Silver Soldiers—“Ripples”—in a special giveaway the first weekend of September!
- To complete (taking a deep breath) 6 editing projects in September! I’ll be a complete zombie by the end of the month!
For health related, I plan:
- To swim at least once a day—as long as the pool remains warm enough!
- To restart counting points for my Weight Watchers diet and hopefully shed at least 5 pounds, remembering, as always: Slow is good!
- To continue to reduce salt, processed food, and incorporate foods good for blood pressure (spinach, broccoli, bananas).
- To begin walking and counting my steps (once the weather cools).
- To do more housework because my art room isn’t finished! Cleaning is exercise, too.
For happiness-related, I plan:Â
- To spend quality time with the family—movie nights, swim-time, making fun meals together!
- To visit my sister in North Arkansas for a “writers’ retreat.”
- To work on art and jewelry-making to get ready for the Art Festival in October!
Contest
Comment on anything you’ve read in this post. Tell me what you’re doing to make yourself happier and healthier. Tell me what you plan to read in September…
Like I said, comment on anything for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
Tagged: contemporary romance, Dead Horse MT, Motivation, planning Posted in Contests!, Real Life | 19 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Mary McCoy - Jennifer Beyer - ButtonsMom - Gail Siuba - Delilah -
Sunday, August 13th, 2023
Welp. This card isn’t helping me decide how my week will go, or am I wrong?
First, just looking at the card, what does it represent? This is the goddess Aphrodite. Her origin story is kind of grisly. Cronus castrated his father Uranus and tossed his testicles into the sea. The foam that erupted produced Aphrodite. You can see her stepping out of the foam. The goddess of Love is the embodiment of feminine beauty, but also the embodiment of all those stereotypical “female flaws” like jealousy, laziness, vanity, and deceit. Lovely, right? What does that have to do with me? Aphrodite is holding one golden chalice—the Ace of Cups. The Ace of anything represents the powerful “first” raw meaning of a suit. So, before I check the book, I think this means I may be looking at an emotional week. One filled with love, or the “eruption” of love, and one filled with events that will have me demonstrating all those feminine flaws. I have the kids heading to school this week, so I’ll lovingly push them out the door with their backpacks prepared and their lunch bags filled. I’ll feel regret that I don’t have them under my roof. I have a ton of work in front of me, and I may wallow a bit in my feelings while I try to tackle the stacked-to-the-ceiling tasks I have in front of me. So, I think that’s what this card means for me. I don’t like it, but I will embrace the positive meaning and hope I can tamp down my “weak” feminine faults to slog through the work.
Now, to the book. It boils it down, saying, it “heralds an outpouring of feeling” although “not yet differentiated” and can often be “overwhelming.” *sigh*
Why do I start my Sunday mornings with a tarot card? I guess I could just dive into my calendar, calibrate how many pages I have to write and how many I have to edit to get to The End, but I like adding an element of the divine to my day, whether drawing a card or placing my hand into my bowl of crystals and gemstones and pulling out whatever my hand finds compelling. The mystical and the pragmatic can reside in the same heart.
Open Contests
- Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Flea Market Finds — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
- Ava Cuvay: The End of an Era (Contest & Excerpt) — Win a FREE book!
- Gabbi Grey: Falling Down the Regency Rabbit Hole (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
- Flashback: Strokes, Vol. 2 (Contest–Two Winners!) — Win a FREE book!
- Saturday Puzzle-Contest: What’s he doing here? — Win an Amazon gift card!
Tagged: Motivation, planning, tarot Posted in Contests!, Real Life | Comments Off on Tarot Sunday & Open Contests! | Link
Saturday, August 12th, 2023
UPDATE: The winner is…Deb Brown!
*~*~*
It’s Saturday! The Saturday before school starts! The kids are ready! They’ve met their teachers, have all their clothes and supplies. Now, the nerves have set in. They’re planning their first day’s outfits, putting in their orders for their lunchboxes, etc. Our little town is having a “Back to School Blowout” tonight in the town center, complete with bouncy houses, facepaint artists, etc. Hopefully, there will be food trucks, too, for the parents as they herd their kids through the stations.
We’re ready (and NOT) for them to go back to school. Schedules will compress. Timing will be everything. (I’ll get back my quiet “alone time” to write and edit! Woot!) My daughter and I do hate the passage of time. We want to keep them little, but they’re eager to spread their wings. Same ole, same ole, I’m sure for most parents and grandparents.
Today, I had the 19-year-old clean my spaces. It’s such a big help. I can settle in my chair in my clean office and get some s**t done today. I hope. Until the next emergency—hopefully, not a power outage today. I noticed this morning, when I popped into town, that there were new power poles laid out all along the road to replace those splintered old things that keep falling every time the wind blows. I wonder if they’ll give us warning when they have to cut the power to install the expanse. Ha!
Anways, you have a challenge today. Solve the puzzle then tell me what this creature is doing. Or tell me what you would do if you were face-to-face with it! Comment for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card. Enjoy the puzzle and have a great rest of the weekend!
Tagged: game, jigsaw, puzzle Posted in Contests!, Real Life | 20 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Sara D - Gail Siuba - kerry pruett - ButtonsMom - Delilah -
Tuesday, August 8th, 2023
I’m posting late again. This time, it’s not due to my age-addled brain. We had heavy thunderstorms last night and lost power around 3:30 AM. It came back on around 5. Then went out again at 6 AM. Power did not return until after 6 tonight. I live in a rural area, so our service restoration ALWAYS takes last priority after more populated areas (even though our service is more expensive than for the townies).
How did we spend our day? We waited for a good five hours before digging the generator out of the shed. Usually, outages only last about four hours. So long as we don’t open the fridge, we’re good. We hunker down, eat sandwiches, and during the heat of summer, we open the windows to get a breeze flowing through the house. This time, it didn’t pop back on so we ran one cord to the fridge and used the second plug on the generator to run a coffee pot then charge our phones. It was hot and sticky. The house smelled. We smelled. When most of the others decided to head to town to eat dinner and sit in the AC, the 14-year-old and I stayed behind to walk and water dogs and SWIM in the pool. So refreshing.
Mostly, we hung out and napped. Our internet was down, but we could pick up a few bars by walking out into the yard to call the damn electric company. It would’ve been nice if they could’ve given us updates, but they don’t do that. All we got was the message that said there were outages in our area, and they were working on them. I feel for anyone who didn’t have a generator because no doubt they are emptying their refrigerators and freezers of spoiled food. I know in some places, somewhere, you can make a list of your losses and submit them for some amount of refund, but not here.
So, long story short. The power’s back on. I lost of day of work. I have a ton of emails to get through, and I’m burning candles and incense to freshen the air. Humidity + animals + human sweat = a stinky house. But we’re back! No contest today, and more than you wanted to know about my real life, but this space is mine and I over-share.
Y’all have a great evening. I plan to putter around a bit more, feed my traumatized betta, and get an early night. I have a lot of catching up to do tomorrow.
Posted in General, Real Life | 2 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Susan saxx - Delilah -
Monday, August 7th, 2023
Have you ever thought about doing something, then gotten distracted, and then thought you did it because you thought about doing it? Confused? Me, too. I thought about posting first thing this morning, began working on edits, then clicked over just now to check on my site—and wondered where the heck today’s blog was.
And you know what? They actually had a picture out there on my favorite photo site to describe what I call what happened…
Now that you’ve seen it, it can’t be unseen. Have a great rest of the day, folks!
Posted in Real Life | 2 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: ButtonsMom - flchen -
Saturday, July 29th, 2023
I’m posting late today. Sorry—no puzzle! And no, those aren’t my legs (obvi!), but the view is very similar to the one I enjoyed today.
We were up early this morning so we could hit the Caddo river with our innertubes before a mob arrived. Tubing is very popular around here.
Several years ago, I invested in rugged river tubes because it’s something we love to do in the summertime and renting tubes is ridiculously expensive for a family of six. I also bought a floating cooler-tube that we fill with water bottles and snacks. And although we bought the best SPF sunscreen we could find, I’m still a very pretty color of dark pink at the moment.
I’m worn out. I think I’ll blow off the rest of the day and sit under an AC vent with a big jug of water to play Charm King until it’s time to go to bed. I promise, I’ll share a puzzle tomorrow!
Here are some pics with my favorite people:
Posted in General, Real Life | 2 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: flchen - Delilah -
Friday, July 21st, 2023
UPDATE: The winner is…Elaine Howell!
*~*~*
This summer isn’t working out the way I’d hoped. I wanted to have a lazy-ish summer where I could enjoy the pool with the kids, paint some things, and dream about the stories I want to write. It hasn’t worked out that way.
I didn’t even make it through the second day of the art fodder challenge I was hoping to complete this month. Okay, so part of it wasn’t because of lack of time, it was due to lack of interest. The daily projects dropped, and I didn’t want to do them. Some of them were soooo time-consuming. I didn’t have an ENTIRE day to devote to making something I’ll glue on something else. I like quick projects, or at least projects where I can paint part of them and come back the next day to continue another part. The challenge wasn’t what I needed. I had a book to finish, which I did. Plus, I’ve had multiple editing projects, one after the other, some at the same time, to muddle through. So, there went my free time.
What I really want to do is start inventorying the art I have to see what else I need to produce for the Art Festival in October and the Christmas craft fair in December. Maybe I can tackle that a little at a time.
As well, I have some new products I want to try out. I’ve been collecting supplies for encaustic (wax) painting. I have an iron, a heating plate, a variety and many colors of wax, special brushes, scrapers, etc. Now, I just need to carve out an ENTIRE DAY to set up my space and experiment. I hope I love it. I hope I can get good at it. I love moving around mediums (watercolor, acrylic, collage, so far) when I get bored.
My daughter is getting a headstart. Here are a few of the things she’s completed so far. They’re so fun!
She hand-dyed the wooden beads and painted the sign for this pretty garland.
She’s been playing with polymer clay to make jewelry.
Â
Aren’t they cute? So, today, I’m hoping to complete one more set of edits. I finished another last night. Tomorrow, I carved out the day for Oppenheimer with my daughter and SIL. I’m looking forward to some “adulting,” movie popcorn, and some Cillian Murphy.
Next Tuesday, we’ll do Barbie with the girls. Yes, we’re doing the “Barbenheimer” challenge—just not all in one day. I need the T-shirt! 🙂
So, for a chance to win a FREE download of one of my books, tell me what you wish you had more time for—something you really, really want to do. Or tell me whether you’re planning to see the movies!
Tagged: arts 'n' crafts Posted in Contests!, Real Life | 8 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Jennifer Beyer - Beckie - Margaret - Elaine Howell - Delilah -
|