Our LaLa graduated yesterday! Our company is on the way to the airport! The house is quiet. As soon as I bid farewell at the door and had the house to myself, I turned on the TV, put my feet up, and watched The Thing. Not the cool one with Kurt Russell, but the newer remake. Horrible actually. Didn’t care. I was mindless.

Now, I’ve stirred. This blog is done. I’ll rejigger my plans for the next week’s hustle. Then I’ll find something else awful and mindless to watch. Maybe I’ll take a nap in the middle of it.

One down, two more to get through high school…

UPDATE: The winner is…ButtonsMom!
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This week is all about LaLa! Our graduate has so much going on that the entire family is involved. Today, there’s an award ceremony and a “signing” ceremony where she declares her college of choice. We’re all looking forward to Saturday’s commencement. So, I thought I’d devote today’s puzzle fun to her.

Solve the puzzle then share a memory about your graduation day or a family member’s day for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

Open Contests

1. Story Cubes: Tell me a story (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
2. IN ONE PICTURE: RHONDA LEE CARVER’S “BROKEN TRUST” (CONTEST) — Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Saturday Puzzle-Contest & Open Contests — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. IN ONE PICTURE: AVA CUVAY’S “SNAFU—SITUATION NORMAL, ALL F***ED UP” (CONTEST) — Win an Amazon gift card!
5. All About the Bass — No, that song’s just stuck in my head (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
6. IN ONE PICTURE: SUKIE CHAPIN’S “CLEAR TO ENGAGE” (CONTEST) — Win a FREE book!
7. IN ONE PICTURE: NATASHA MOORE’S “WEATHERING THE STORM” (CONTEST) — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…BN!
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This week is all about my girl, LaLa. She graduates from high school this weekend! Yay! In the leadup, there are sooooo many activities. There was a banquest last night where she got an award for being a honor’s student for three years. There’s the Senior Signing where you do a symbolic signing with the college you’re headed to. LaLa’s headed to my local alma mater. There’s the Senior Walk-out where the seniors, en masse, walk out of school days before everyone else gets to call it quits for the year. I hope they play “We’re not going to take it” as they do.

Then there’s family coming in on Friday, so a dinner that night. Graduation Saturday morning, then dinner again, that night.

All to celebrate getting our girl across the finish line. And we get to do this two more times…

It’s been fun to watch. I have no idea what the customs were when my peers graduated way back when because I dropped out to go to college. I don’t feel like I missed out on anything, because dropping out got me to Europe faster. That was my big goal—The Grand Tour—which the Army paid for by sending me there for my first assignment.

Anyways, we’re up to our eyeballs with spring cleaning, cleaning cars, rushing around to buy things. They are anyway. I’m up to my eyeballs with THREE sets of edits to complete this week, plus my own book to finish by Friday. I’m just a wee bit stressed.

So, I’ll leave you with one more photo of my girl…

And a question. For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me something about yours or some significant person’s graduation!

The winner is…Diane Sallans!
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With less than a month left of school for the kids, we’re already planning how to spend our summer.

It gets hot in Arkansas. I mean, fry-an-egg-on-the-driveway hot. So, finding things we can do comfortably in the heat is a challenge. When the full heat arrives, we swim in the morning and sometimes at night with the tiki torches burning. We set up an outdoor projector to shine against the pale siding of the chicken coop, bring out the lounge chairs, and watch movies under the stars. The bats come out at night to keep the mosquitoes at bay. No kidding. They’re fun to watch, too.

Things like playing soccer or hiking have to be done early in the day. Things we can do indoors, like flea marketing, are musts.

I’ve made a list of things we’re planning. Perhaps you can add some ideas of your own! Let me know if any of mine appeal!

Contest

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle (it’s fun and good for the old brain!), and comment below!

Psst! Just a quick reminder that there are contests ongoing over on the Delilah’s Collections website!

This Tuesday was a hard starter. (Is that even grammatically, correct? I don’t care!) I soooo wanted to stay in bed. My daughter even encouraged me last night to sleep in. She was up bright and early and already had the girls’ lunches packed (that’s my job!). I wasn’t needed. However, there are only so many hours I can lie in bed before … 1) I have to pee, 2) no position —back or sides (never on my tummy)— feels comfortable, and 3) I have to see everyone.

Besides, I have a very full day ahead of me, and if I don’t start early, I won’t finish! My To Do list for today is 18 items long. That sounds nuts, but I put even little things on it, like watering plants, so I don’t forget…because I do. I’m a lister. Always have been, and you’ll know I’m not well if I don’t have one sitting in the middle of my desk. I list what’s important (writing goals, edit goals), then put things in between those that make me get up and move around (like watering those pesky plants, cleaning Loki’s fish tank, or sweeping around the bunny’s cage).

No contest, no game today. I have to start work now! But remember, there are open contests you can find by scrolling down my blog page or following the link to the Collections site, so be sure to go play! If you want, give me a kick in the butt to get going—some encouragement. I’m already thinking I need a nap.

UPDATE: The winner of the GC is…Cindy!
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Another month flew by! How does that happen? And while I accomplished a lot in April, I dragged my feet on a lot too! Which will make May a very, very busy month for me!

April

Work-related:

1. I compiled the boxed set of Danger Zone stories, and I published it! (I hope you got your copies! For now, it’s FREE in KU!)
2. I’m 3/4 of the way through my Silver Soldiers short story.
3. I, along with the other Silver Soldiers authors, have been posting “Getting to Know” blogs on the Collections website to get readers ready for the release on May 9th!
4. I began work on Cold Hard Cash.
5. I completed only 3 editing projects for other authors in April.

Health-related:

1. My hand is mostly healed from the recent break. I still have some nerve problems and have to do physical therapy to improve my hand’s function.
2. I had an ultrasound and EKG done of my heart. Not great news there. I have Moderate Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (a thickening/stiffening of the heart muscle), which is likely caused by my high blood pressure.
3. I restarted Weight Watchers in the latter part of this month to help with my heart and blood pressure issues and have severely limited my salt intake. I managed to gain weight back, but after my diagnosis, there’s not any room for procrastination. I’m down 3.9 pounds as of today.
4. As for physical activity, I’m still not doing enough. I’m feeling tired all the time. Which I know has to do with my weight, my heart, and inactivity. All my issues are interrelated. I just need to get my fat ass off this chair and move more often, along with the dietary changes…

Happiness-related: 

1. The family is trying to do fitness-related outings, which include me. We hiked a local trail to the bluff overlooking the river. It wasn’t a long trail, but we all enjoyed it very much. We also did a couple of shopping/flea market outings, which helped with steps.
2. I am still participating in the #the100dayproject online art challenge. As of today, I’m on Day 66. Here are a few of my April pieces…

May

For work-related, I plan:

1. To complete my short story for the Silver Soldiers anthology.
2. Publish Silver Soldiers on May 9th!
3. To complete and publish Cold Hard Cash, the first of the We Are Dead Horse series.
4. To complete 4 editing projects in May!

For health related, I plan:

1. To continue counting those points for my Weight Watchers diet and hopefully shed at least another 5 pounds, remembering, as always: Slow is good!
2. To continue to reduce salt, processed food, and incorporate foods good for blood pressure (spinach, broccoli, bananas, red wine).
3. To continue working on getting the pool ready for swimming!
4. To begin walking and counting my steps.
5. I’ll re-dedicate myself to doing more housework, too, because my art room is a disaster. And cleaning is exercise, ahem.

For happiness-related, I plan: 

1. To attend the 18-year-old’s high school graduation!
2. To continue producing some small piece of art every day as part of #the100dayproject. I’m volunteering several times a month to sit in the Art Center to keep it open.
3. To blog about art (on my Emerald Casket site) just to keep myself honest!
4. To work toward re-opening my Etsy store! I just about have enough art to do so!

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 May…
Like I said, comment on anything for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Beckie!
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Yesterday was fun. I had an ultrasound scheduled at the VA in Little Rock.

Those two sentences don’t seem to go together but hear me out. We dropped the girls at school and then headed to Little Rock early, hoping that if we arrived early at the VA they’d take me. And they did! Which meant we had all this time we thought we’d be waiting there to do something else before we had to be back to pick them up from school.

How to spend all that time?

Our first thought? THE INDIAN STORE! We’ve been dying to restock the pantry and freezer with chutneys, samosas, and naan bread. But alas, when we got there, we realized we had an hour to wait before they opened. What else could we do?

Barnes & Noble was just down the street. Once inside, Kelly headed to the chicken coop books, and I headed to the art section. One watercolor book about birds and a collection of skin-tone ink markers later, and we were ready for what was next—which was Trader Joe’s right next to B&N! I’d never been inside one so, of course, we had to go! Everything Bagels, tea tree oil shampoo, and shampoo bars later, and we were done!

Next was Target! (Don’t laugh, but Target is a treat in a Walmart-only small town!) Only, our goal was to be in and out fast because we knew we could spend some major time there, so we limited ourselves to the 5-dollar section of the store. What fun we had! I have a small watering can I don’t need and some small chalkboard signs I also don’t need.

So, it was lunchtime by the time we left Target. Indian grocer or Indian restaurant? Our stomachs won. Little Rock actually has one of the best Indian restaurants I’ve ever eaten at. We were first in the door before the lunch crowd, ordered our Chicken Tikka Masala and Lamb Korma with veggie samosas, and anyone sitting next to us would’ve been uncomfortable listening to us moan over the food. We took a doggie bag back to the car with enough leftovers we could stretch it with naan and samosas to feed the kids and us again later!

So, at last, we headed to the Indian grocery store. We know it well enough we were in and out inside 15 minutes with our incense, hot pickle, naan bread, samosas, and curry sauce.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC, what would your perfect day be like?