UPDATE: The winner is…ButtonsMom2003!
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This is my end-of-month wrap-up (like you’re really interested 🙂 ), but I need to do it because maybe I’ll work a little harder knowing someone is watching…

August

Here’s what I accomplished…

Work-related:

1. I revised and republished “What a Wolf Wants” — an erotic short story set in my Dark Realm world—after I offered it for FREE for one week to my readers.
2. I completed 5 editing projects for other authors in August.
3. I wrote the first chapter of my next Brotherhood Protectors story! Progress! (I know that’s not much writing, but those editing projects really killed my schedule!)

Health-related:

1. I did not climb back aboard the Weight Watchers wagon until August 29th. However, I continued to maintain my 25 pounds of loss since January. I have a theory that my body has “reset” its starvation thermometer, so hopefully, I’ll experience a nice first week drop before I plateau again. At least, I’m hoping my theory is right. LOL
2. As for physical activity, I swam every single day (except for one stormy day), and half of the month, I swam twice a day! Have to make the investment in those pool chemicals worth it, dammit.

Happiness-related: 

1. I was knee-deep in planning activities with my local art guild. I mingled with real people. I attended one “art day” at the center and the monthly meeting.
2. I inventoried all the art I have already that I can offer for sale at the Festival of the Arts in September.
3. I worked on pieces for this year’s Festival. Nothing wonderful yet, but I’m a little out of practice.
4. Here are a few of my recent pieces…

 

September

  

For work-related, I plan:

1. To complete a story set in my sister’s Brotherhood Protectors world, Guarding Hannah!
2. To revise and compile the Danger Zone trilogy into a single box set/print book bundle and publish it in September!
3. To plot and begin writing Hard Knox, my first We Are Dead Horse story!
4. To complete 4 editing projects in September!

For health related, I plan:

1. To continue counting those points for my Weight Watchers diet (I hate that word) and hopefully shed at least 5 pounds, remembering, as always: Slow is good!
2. To swim as often as I can! Mid-September is when the water starts getting a little too nippy…
3. To begin some low-impact aerobics. I’ll dedicate myself to doing more housework, too, because my art room is a disaster!

For happiness-related, I plan: 

1. To produce at least four finished pieces of art every week!
2. To blog about art (on my Emerald Casket site) just to keep myself honest! (No one actually has to read it! No one except my pal Susan does!)

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…

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

UPDATE: The winner is…Claire Reed Warren!
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If you’re anything like me, you have a stash of notebooks sitting in a drawer or on a shelf that you haven’t used and have probably forgotten that you even own. I get notebooks from family members because they know I hoard paper products and office supplies. I’ve never been able to pass by the $1 aisle at Target and not pick up some cute notebook. And yes, I do use some of them. Every purse I own has a notebook stashed inside for times when story ideas hit, but I still have sooooo many sitting around. The kids know this and hit me up for sketchbooks all the time. I love being their favorite “store”—but those requests don’t make a dent in my stash. The picture above is of notebooks I had stuffed into the bottom of my inbox tray!

So, I thought it might be fun to create a list of ways to use up my stash and give those lonely notebooks a purpose!

1. 🎁 Birth dates and gift lists
2. 🤶 Christmas lists
3. 💻 Computer app passwords
4. ✨ Happy thoughts and sayings
5. ⚰️ List to help family sort your stuff when you die, also who gets what!
6. 🖥️ Blog ideas
7. 🛍️ Grocery/shopping lists
8. 🎨 Craft/Art project ideas
9. 📚 Story ideas
10. 🗒️ To Do lists

Wow, that made me think. Now, I’m going to hit up my daughter for labels for my notebooks!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, share another idea for using up those notebooks!

Open Contests

1. Romance Trope Word Search! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Michal Scott: Hiding in Plain Sight: Belle da Costa Greene (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Favorite Heroes Word Search! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Saturday Puzzle-Contest! — Win an Amazon gift card!

Another of those throw-away holidays no one knows about. And it’s a cryin’ damn shame.

You wouldn’t know it to look at me, but back in my youth, I was the girl in bellbottoms and embroidered headbands. I was sent home from school to change when I appeared wearing peace signs on my blue jeans. When I was a young woman, the thing I wanted most from my nation was for the passage of the ERA—the Equal Rights Amendment. It’s long, long overdue. Can you imagine if our equality under the law was guaranteed? Sure, we’ve had piecemeal protections put into place, but depending on the flavor of government that exists, those can disappear with the stroke of a pen.

Not to get political, and I don’t think this example is, but can you imagine if we used that amendment to make sure that government dollars going toward research for things like for heart disease had to pay equal attention to a woman’s pathology as they do men’s? Maybe doctors would actually have a better understanding of what happens when WE have heart attacks and better advice for prevention.

Equality—when did it become a bad word? And why does the majority (women) put up with being less than? Okay, I’ll take a deep breath now and push down my former flower child into the deep recesses of my heart and wish you all a very happy, thoughtful Women’s Equality Day! ~DD

The forecast is for thunderstorms and rain throughout the day. We’ve been up early, preparing.

My dd and SIL fed and thoroughly walked dogs. We’re all charging devices.

I’m trying to get as much work crammed into the time we have left as possible. If you don’t live in a rural area where you don’t have buried power lines, you haven’t “enjoyed” the kinds of outages we experience when trees topple over lines (and we are a heavily forested area!). Some outages can last days, and we have a nice generator to keep the fridge cool and charge up our phones. However, running computers is a luxury. There’s no internet except for what we can get when we walk far out into the yard to get some bars. We have a propane grill and a charcoal smoker, so we can cook food. We won’t go hungry.

Hopefully, we’ll only go down for a few hours or a day.

Longer becomes a problem because we all like warm showers! The girls will be screaming about not being able to use their blow dryers getting ready for school, but that’s the trade-off for living in the country. Wide open spaces, trees, wildlife—goats—vs. “power insecurity”. We’re okay with that. I’ll charge up my laptop and keep it open so dropbox continues to update. I’ll pull out my paints and use daylight and then candlelight to play. My dd and her kids will pull out board games. It’s all good.

What about you? Do you suffer power insecurity from time to time?

UPDATE: The winner is…Terra Oenning!
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Yes, it’s a THING! And it’s the only kind of shopping I love! Hunting for treasure—what’s not to love? See my hauls from old “treasure” hunts!

The old-fashioned jewelry is perfect for mixed media projects (like pulls for tops of painted boxes!). See the letter holder? All it needs is a pretty coat of paint to update it and voila! The tin can be cut up for jewelry projects, too! The pretty bottle in the center is a large vintage hand-painted snuff bottle (which I collect!). It’s topless, but for a buck, I couldn’t resist!

My dd collects vintage Pyrex! I collect mid-century George Briard pieces (the gold tray). The trivet at the bottom of the photo will be great for pressing impressions in clay and paint! And I collect vintage vanity powder jars (see the swan?). And again, a tin to cut into jewelry dangles!

Lots of craft-worthy stuff here, too! Things to press, paint, glue!

Yeah, I know. Most of y’all would look at my hauls like they’re a bunch of junk, but there’s joy in DISCOVERY!

Help me celebrate National Thrift Shop Day by telling me about your favorite thrift or garage sale finds for a chance to win a download of a book from my backlist of stories!

Of course, I was working on other writers’ projects yesterday. Then my dd, SIL, and the 18-year-old went to a concert in Hot Springs, which left me with the little ones (9 & 13—so technically, not that little 🙂 ) to babysit. Because I would be away from my computer, I set up at the kitchen table to paint. It’s soooo relaxing, and I don’t get to do it often enough. I have an art show to prepare for that happens in September, so I guess this is really “work” but it sure didn’t feel like it.

This one is 6×9. Smallish. (My preferred size actually, because I can complete one quickly.) I played with the colors. Don’t you love that brown at the bottom? The color I mixed granulated as it dried. I tried to make the pot look like a pinch pot—you know, with the fingerprints showing on the side. Not sure that came across. Maybe it just looks blotchy. LOL

Then I painted a quick postcard with some shiny peach mixed with red paint for the flowers. My favorite part is the pot. I dotted the reddish peach on the side of the vase as the shadowed part. The colors are ones I love.

Anyways, you see what I do when I’m not writing or editing. I think I’ll be doing more of it. Practice makes, if not perfect, better.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

UPDATE: The winner is…Janie McGaugh!
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“Will you. Won’t you. Will you. Won’t you. Will you join the dance?”
~Lewis Carroll

I think about this quote when the 8-year-old and I are in the pool. She loves to use the time to be “creative.” She sings Disney and BTS songs while acting them out. She does what she calls “splash dance,” which is her splashing water with her hands while she sings. Sometimes, she makes me guess the song while she splashes in a rhythm, and of course, I can’t guess, so I give her the most ridiculous answers I can. I love to watch her eyes roll. When she joins her hands with mine and tries to dance or do some synchronized swimming routine that she has in her head, I get twisted up like a pretzel. It’s magic, of course.

No, we don’t look like this, but her expressions are just as fierce! LOL

I will hate the summer she decides playing with Nina is no longer fun. Heck, I was crushed when the three older kids got to the point where they weren’t dying to hit the pool every day. When she “outgrows” me, I’ll be the only “kid” out there, trying to come up with my own synchronized swimming routine. More like, I’ll add some water-aerobic exercises to my daily dozen. sigh

So, tell me what keeps you young at heart? Do you play with the kids/grandkids? Do you swim like an eel in the lake or pool? Do you swing on a hammock or practice aeromancy (cloud divination) or stare at the stars at night and imagine all the billions of strange worlds out there and what it would be like to visit them?

Comment below for a chance to win your choice of download from among my backlist of books!