Tag Archives: goals

Land Ho

I missed blogging last week for a (in my opinion) very good reason: I was in Tennessee, looking at land. Our first scouting trip for our anticipated move sometime in the next few years. My husband was out of town on another trip, so I went with a friend who lived in the area for many years.

We looked at ten properties, and most were quite beautiful. I also learned a lot.

Our car is at the bottom of that hill – and I’m only halfway up!

My husband has this fantasy of being able to go hunting on his own land, for which he needs (preferably) at least 40 acres. That means living out in the country, which I’m fine with to an extent, so that’s where I focused my efforts in looking at land. Closer in to Knoxville means out of our budget on something that size (and very few options to begin with).

But the main thing I learned is you can’t get a feel for distance, as in drive time, from maps. Not even Google Earth and Street View. You can see that the roads are curvy, but you can’t really see how curvy–or how narrow. Some of them were downright scary, going up into the mountains.

Pretty, isn’t it? But what’s not in the picture is the litter from neighbors who made this their 4-wheelin’ playground.

The other thing maps don’t do justice is the grade. Some of these places were up in the mountains, and although I could see that on Google, I couldn’t get a sense of how steep some of them were. Definitely not something to drive a Camaro up! So those properties are out.

But the biggest thing I learned is that I just don’t want to live out that far. A half-hour drive or more to restaurants, shopping, and health care is a big no–I’m talking it was a twenty-minute drive to the nearest carryout from most of these properties. So we’re going to have to re-evaluate what we want–perhaps a much smaller, closer-in lot that still has a country-like setting, and a separate property for him to hunt on. I have already found some very promising lots online, so I see another trip in the near future. The best part about this one? I had a great time with my friend, and some fun times with her friends in the area. So it was also a much-needed vacation!

I returned home to more excitement: we’re getting ready to begin work on our kitchen remodel! So I have tons of packing to do. Luckily, we have a good friend who works at a restaurant, and has supplied us with a plethora of boxes. I have about half packed up now, and DH is going to start demolition in a few days, so I need to hurry and get it done.

What I’ve been reading: I’m only halfway through the novel I’m currently reading, so I’ll discuss it next week, along with how our kitchen remodel is coming along!

ROW80 Update: Last week, I knew I would be traveling and wouldn’t have much chance to write, so I set my goals low: 2 scenes edited. I made that goal, and set a higher goal for editing this week. But between packing and headaches (literal), not as much got accomplished. Part of the problem is this editing stuff just isn’t much fun–I want to get back to new writing. But I need to get through it first. So this week’s goal is one scene per day, for a total of seven.

What about you–ever find something to be much different than you expected? Do you have any big distractions going on in your life? (Hoping they’re good ones!) How are you doing on whatever goals you may have, whether writing or not? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Frustrating

This has been one of those weeks with very little progress, as far as the writing goes. No life rolls or anything like that either, just no time and/or energy for it. And that’s with my adrenal fatigue being better lately.

For example, DH and I went out for dinner for our date night, as we do every week. We did our usual: go to a bar and grab something to eat, play trivia, and hang with friends. It was a good time. But I don’t get home from work until around 6, and barely had time to change clothes and do my after work routine before we left. We didn’t get home until after 10, and by then, I was too wiped out to write. I know, writing is just sitting at a computer and making stuff up, but that takes mental energy, and my fatigue is mental as well as physical.

The day after that, we finally got in all the rent checks from our apartments, so I had a good couple hours’ worth of paperwork to do in preparing the deposits. And after that was done, I had food prep to do, as I’m doing a cooking day today. This was also a work day, so by the time that was finished, it was again 10PM, and I was beat.

Yesterday was Saturday, and you’d think I’d be able to come up with some time to write. But noooooo, I had errands to run, some of which DH couldn’t do or he would have. Then I had to finish a few food prep things I didn’t do the night before. After that, I had two loads of laundry to do–normally, I do that on Sunday, but I’m cooking today so that won’t work. Then I spent about an hour doing my weekly Home Blessing, and just general tidy up because we had friends over for dinner. We had a great time (and some great food, which DH fixed), but by the time I’d cleaned up and our guests left, it was–you guessed it–10PM and tired.

I forced myself to spend 15 minutes or so writing, but it wasn’t fun or easy, because I was so tired. So this week, instead of the ten scenes I’d hoped to edit and fix? I got one and a half done. So frustrating!

What I’ve been reading: I did have time to read, as that’s something I can do when I’m tired–it doesn’t take much mental energy to enjoy someone else’s creative work. This week I read Star Nomad, by Lindsay Buroker. I’ve been meaning to try her books for some time now, and this one’s the first by her I’ve read. It was a really good, fun, science fiction adventure. If you like Firefly, this is a must-read, because it really reminded me of that (though not in a rip-off sort of way).

I also finished a very long, nonfiction history book by my friend from high school, the one who gave me a copy of “my” yearbook for my birthday. He has not been able to find a publisher for it, and I’ll grant that it’s a niche topic (military aviation history), but it was very well-written and mostly kept my interest. I say “mostly” because it went into exhaustive detail–but I am not the primary audience for this book, and I believe those who are, will love this level of detail. I’ve been reading this book on my treadmill for the past six months, and I only use the treadmill when the weather’s too cold, hot, or rainy to walk the dog, so it’s taken a while. I am trying to get him to self-publish it, though he has a bit more work to do for that (finding pictures and getting permission for them, getting a Foreword written by someone known in the field, etc.).

ROW80 Update: As noted above, I didn’t even come close to meeting my goals last week. And this week doesn’t look to be much better, as I have a lot going on. So I’m going to shoot for getting one scene fixed/revised. Anything more than that will be a big win.

What about you–do you get frustrated when you don’t have the time (or energy) to do the things you want? What’s the one thing you don’t sacrifice? Have you read any good books lately? And whether or not you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing on whatever goals you may have? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Victory!

Finally, I’ve been able to sleep this week. Or when I didn’t, it wasn’t because of noisy birds. The sparrow trap did its job. I’m not sure if we caught Mr. Noisy or not, but he stopped hanging out in the space between our house and the neighbors once we set it out–mainly because he was hitting on the chicks in the trap. I thought we got him Wednesday, but my husband said the male in the trap didn’t sound like Mr. Noisy. After a few days of that, we stopped putting the trap out, and he seems to have stayed away. I think I heard him a street over while walking the dog–fine with me!

What I’ve been reading: Smith’s Monthly #20 by Dean Wesley Smith. This was a short one for me, as the novel in it was one I’d already read in serial form, so I skipped it. But the stories were good as always. It amazes me how he writes this much every month, usually all the stories to fill the magazine plus a novel. And that’s usually not all he writes. He does this on top of being the CFO of a publishing company and owning that plus three retail stores. All this at the age most people think of retirement! His blog is a great learning resource for any writer.

ROW80 Update: I’ve had a couple other victories–one is that Time’s Dilemma released this week! If you’ve thought about giving the Saturn Society a try, this is a great one to start with. My publisher decided to call it Book 3, because some of the events overlap with Book 2 and Time’s Best Friend, which they are now calling Book 4, so I guess that makes sense. But this one is not only standalone, it’s about 1/3 the length of the other Saturn Society novels, so not as big a time commitment to try it out. It’s on sale at all retailers for $0.99 through July 7th, and you can get it for $1.00 on Smashwords throughout July. More info and buy links are here.

My other victory is that I got more done on my next WIP than I expected–definitely a win! Which brings us to ROW80. Monday begins Round 3. My primary goal for that is to finish the rough draft of this WIP, which will be Saturn Society Book 5 and returns to Tony and Violet, the characters featured in Book 1 and 2. I have Book 5 about half-written, but finishing will be no easy task, as what I have is a mess. So I’m going back through and fixing what’s there. I’ve gone through 11 scenes so far, and would like to go through another ten this week (yes, this is going to be another long one).

What about you–have you had any victories lately, whether big or small? What have you been reading? If you’re doing ROW80, what are your main goals for the Round? Or heck, even if you’re not participating, what kind of goals are you working toward, whether writing-related or not? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

This Means War

This has been a good week for me, but a tired one. Not because I’ve had more to do than usual, but because I’ve not gotten enough sleep. And the number one thing to do to treat Adrenal Fatigue is–duh!–get a decent amount of sleep. This is tougher for us than for people with normal, healthy adrenal function, because part of our problem is that we don’t make enough cortisol–and what we do get, comes later in the day than for most people.

That means we’re really, really not morning people. Going to bed early doesn’t help, because we can’t go to sleep early. I also can’t take naps.

So earlier this spring, when the sparrows started congregating near my bedroom window, it became a problem when they’d wake me up at the crack of dawn.

I put some bird spikes on the wires close to the house, and that kept them off of those. But they were still partying in the tree. So I put a plastic owl up beside the bushes beneath my window, and that scared them all away.

Well, all except for one tenacious, male sparrow. Of course, this little cretin has the loudest, most obnoxious chirp of them all. And once he sits somewhere and gets going, he Never. Shuts. Up.

He even wakes my husband up. “God, I’m going to shoot that thing,” DH said after a week of this. He borrowed a pellet gun from a friend and almost got him once, but otherwise, Mr. Noisy has been elusive.

I tried a different route: a sparrow trap. I found this link with instructions on how to make my own. The hardware mesh cost me about $10 – much less than buying one!

I also read up on sparrows. Turns out gardeners and birders alike really hate these little pests. The House Sparrow (a.k.a. HOSP) is a non-native, invasive species that competes with native bluebirds and purple martins for nest space. Not only are bluebirds and martins appealing to the birders, gardeners love them because they are insectivores.

A Bird Party! All sparrows welcome.

Sparrows, OTOH, eat stuff from gardens. And they are the Russian Mafia of birds: if someone’s living in a house they want, they’ll take it by whatever means necessary. They don’t just run off the other birds, they kill them and destroy their eggs.

Which explains why I never see them in my neighborhood, even though they’re indigenous to this area. The place is overrun with sparrows. Both the federal government and all 50 states consider sparrows a nuisance animal (along with pigeons, starlings, coyotes, feral hogs, and Asian carp).

I made my trap and set it out last night with some nice, fluffy bread and a cup of water. In the morning, there were five sparrows inside! Unfortunately, not Mr. Noisy. But now we’re at war. Between my trap and DH’s pellet gun, we should be able to get some decent sleep soon.

What I’ve been reading: I beta-read a science fiction novel for a writer friend and enjoyed it very much. I’ll share more about it once it’s released.

ROW80 Update: My main goal for this week was to begin working on my next WIP, which is already half-written, but is a mess. I’ve gone through and fixed three scenes, which was what I hoped to get done. This week, I want to go through five. ROW80 Round Two ended this past Thursday, so it’s also time for a recap on quarterly goals.

My main objective was to do everything I needed to get Time’s Dilemma ready for publication. It releases Tuesday and is already up for preorder, so that’s a goal accomplished! I also wanted to start work on the next WIP, that’s done too (barely).

ROW80 Round Three officially starts on July 4th, so I’ll be back on the 3rd with Third Quarter goals.

What about you–what problem have you tackled lately? Did you know those cute, little sparrows were an introduced species, and a nuisance? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Father’s Day Goodies

This has been one of those weeks where I don’t feel like I’ve done much. A life roll hit in my family last Sunday, and took up way too much headspace. It’s not really worth discussing further here, other than to say that everyone’s OK.

One thing the life roll affected was my family’s plan for a Father’s Day cookout. My brother was going to host it, but we decided to not worry about it. Things settled down later in the week, and I decided I didn’t want to skip it, but my brother’s going through a life roll of his own and couldn’t pull it together this quickly. So I volunteered. After all, I want to see my dad on Father’s Day, and yesterday was my mom’s birthday. Don’t want to skip that, either. Thanks to Flylady’s system, I didn’t have much cleaning to do other than her weekly “home blessing,” which I do on Saturday anyway. I made a grocery run yesterday, and everything’s set.

One thing I bought and made was beef rollups. These are a great appetizer to share, and go over well at any kind of carry-in function. They also are a family staple, ever since Grandma Powell used to make them every Christmas eve. My husband apologized last night for already breaking into them. I said that’s OK, since they’re for Father’s Day, and he’s a dad. 🙂 Best of all, they’re super easy to make! Here’s how:

The Best Beef Rollups

1 8-oz. package of cream cheese
3 2-oz. packages of Carl Buddig brand smoked, chipped beef
1 bunch of green onions

Soften the cream cheese. I never remember to put mine out early, so I just put it into the mixing bowl and put in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Chop up onion tops, then mix into the cream cheese. Spread in a line across each piece of beef, fold, and roll up the beef. Chill for a couple of hours until the cheese firms up. Makes 25-30 rollups.

Worth noting is that taking a shortcut and using onion or chive flavored cream cheese isn’t as good, nor are they if you use anything besides Buddig’s beef. Now to see how many more my husband has scarfed… 🙂

What I’ve been reading: I’m currently beta-reading a science fiction novella. I’ll discuss it when it’s finished and released.

ROW80 Update: I didn’t do much with my writing this week, but luckily my publisher did. Time’s Dilemma is now available for preorder! It will release on June 28 for a limited-time special price of $0.99. I also still have some ARCs available to anyone willing to give it an honest review. Contact me here, and let me know what format you prefer, if you’d like one! I think this is the last week of ROW80 Round 2, and since my book is finally coming out, my primary goal is met. For next week, I want to dig into my next WIP that’s half-finished, evaluate what’s there, and come up with a rough outline of the rest.

What about you–is there a dish in your family that no one can resist? Have you ever tried anything like the beef rollups I described (I’m sure that recipe is far from unique)? How are you doing on whatever goals you may be working toward, whether writing-related or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

When the Work Pays Off

There was an opportunity for some Dog Shaming this week.

I didn’t do a whole lot this week besides the usual work and home stuff, and finished looking over my galleys for Time’s Dilemma. It should come out next week, and it’s great to see the work finally pay off.

My husband got a major payoff this week, too. For the past four years, he’s been working on a total restoration of the ’79 TransAm he bought right out of high school. As in, he took every single bolt off that car, completely rebuilt the engine (and modified it quite a bit), and restored and repainted the entire body. The only thing he didn’t touch was the upholstery, which is original but still in amazingly good shape.

This weekend he went to the Pontiac Nationals in Bowling Green, KY and raced it for the first time. He knew there would be a lot of tuning to do and possibly more work in tweaking things. He did do a bit of that, and finished in time for the main racing events on Saturday. He didn’t expect to make the finals, even though he knew his car was good. He just didn’t know how good, or how well he knew the car (which is really key). He didn’t just make the finals–he won runner up in his class! So proud of him. Four years of work finally paid off, and he had a great time too.

Restoring a car as a hobby isn’t unlike writing. It takes many hours of work that may never pay off. I’m fortunate in that I’ve completed now eight novels, and four are published, soon to be five, which is what I worked toward this week. It’s a great feeling. Even though Time’s Dilemma is 1/3 the length of my other Saturn Society novels, it was still a lot of work. Here’s the scoop:

Buy Now

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Time’s Dilemma

A Saturn Society Short Novel

About This Book

Never Tell

Time traveler Florie LeBeau follows the laws of the Saturn Society that protect people with her gift, but the handsome stranger who arrives at her Cumberland Gap farmhouse from the eighteenth century defies every one. From his very presence, two hundred years past his time, to the things he knows about her, everything about Zeke Allen breaks the rules–the rules of time travel, and the rules protecting Florie’s heart.

Never Change the Past

Florence might not know Zeke Allen, but he knows her… loves her… and knows she’ll play a key part in the war that will soon involve her United States. But her four-years-older self swore him to secrecy, for Zeke revealing his knowledge could change things—with devastating consequences.

And Never, Ever Fall in Love

Though drawn to the captivating frontiersman, Florie denies her longing for him, as the Society forbids involvement with those from other times. But Zeke pushes her boundaries, determined to win her love, for he must ensure her visit to his time four years hence, or else it could cost her country their war, Florie her future, and both of their hearts.

Gain entry into the Saturn Society and meet the men and women who can cross time itself to follow their hearts into thrilling adventure and sensual romance today!

Available in ebook at major retailers – print coming soon!

Want a free copy in advance? My publisher has given me ten ebooks to send out to anyone who agrees to post an honest review on release (I’ll email you when that time comes). And yes, by honest, I mean it’s totally OK to say this book sucked like bucket of ticks if that’s your honest opinion (but hopefully you won’t think that). Just Contact Me and let me know whether you’d like a Kindle book, or an epub that can be read on Nook, Apple devices, and most other e-readers.

What I’ve been reading: Smith’s Monthly #19 by Dean Wesley Smith. Now I’m only a year behind in these LOL. The novel in this issue is Heaven Painted as a Free Meal, a Ghost of a Chance story. I love these, about an organization of ghosts who help people and occasionally save the world. Some really unique worldbuilding, how the ghost world works in these, like the ghosts still eat, sleep, and do other life-like things but with “ghost” copies that aren’t missed by the living. And there is a lot of good humor in them, and some romance. Definitely recommended if you enjoy paranormal!

ROW80 Update: My main goal was to complete my galleys for Time’s Dilemma, and that’s done. I also wanted to finish my re-read of what I have so far on the next book–finished that last night. This week’s goal is to outline the rest of the next book, since what I have needs a lot of work.

What about you–what have you put a lot of work into recently, and have you seen results? Have you read any good books lately? How are you doing on whatever goals you may have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Rolling Thunder

I had a good reason for being away from the blog last week: I was in Washington DC, in the Rolling Thunder ride.

Some of you may remember I ride myself, but not for this. No way. I sold my Harley a couple years ago because with writing and my health issues, I just did not have time to ride. My bike was not suitable for long trips anyway. For this, I rode on the back of my husband’s Harley, a super-comfy Ultra Limited touring bike, which is made for long trips.

Yes, we rode all the way from Ohio to DC on his bike, accompanied by a couple of rider friends. We were blessed with good weather the whole way there, and while we were there, and only encountered a bit of rain on the way home.

While there, we did some sightseeing, and I got to spend a night with a couple of my best friends from high school who live in the area. It was great seeing them and their little boy.

The parade, a.k.a. the Run to the Wall (referring to the Vietnam Memorial), was on Sunday. I met back up with my husband and our friends at the Pentagon, then did the ride through the city. Fun, but also really makes you think about the reason we have Memorial Day–to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.

This was the ninth year my husband has been to Rolling Thunder. He thought attendance was down from past years, but according to the official Facebook page, there were almost a million bikes there. Definitely a worthwhile and fun experience!

This Marine salutes for the entire duration of the parade – about six hours for all the bikes to go past. He never lowers his hand! This year, he had his bride with him.

Riding through downtown DC

What I read this week: I didn’t have time to write while away, but I did get some reading in. This week, I read Love and Oreos, by Elizabeth Bemis. This is a contemporary romance, which is not really my thing unless there’s suspense or a paranormal element. This had neither, but I had to check it out, as Elizabeth was one of my very first critique partners, many years ago when I just started writing. This was a cute, lighthearted story of a plus-size ad agency creative director and her hottie client who owned a fitness center. What was especially well-done about it was the heroine. She’s overweight, loves good food (like chocolate), and hates exercise. Wow, can I relate! But it was also nice to see how she learned to enjoy healthy food and some kinds of activity. What I really liked was that she had lost a little, realistic amount of weight over the course of the book, but wasn’t skinny by its end–and the hero loved her as she was. I had not read this book in any form before, but I will have read the next book in the series, Friendship and Fortune Cookies, as it’s one I critiqued. I’ll be interested to see how much it’s changed since then. If you enjoy contemporary romance, I definitely recommend these!

ROW80 Update: Time’s Dilemma came back from the copy editor right after we returned home on Monday, so I dug into that right away. Completed my edits, and now it’s in the publisher’s hands again, and should be out in ebook form within a week! I’ll post an update here on the blog when it’s out, but if you’re dying of curiosity now, you can check out the book page. For this week, I need to go back over the next book in the series, which is Book Three in the linked novels. It’s about half drafted, and I need to determine what’s there that’s good, and what needs to go.

What about you–did you do anything fun or exciting over the holiday weekend? Or for those not in the US, any weekend recently? Have you read any good books lately? How are you doing on your goals, whether writing-related or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

I am Officially…

BD Party OLD. Yep, that’s why I skipped posting last week. Well, not really because of that, but because my husband threw me a big party last Saturday, and I was wiped out! Not from drinking, just tired.

My husband says I don’t look old, but sometimes I feel it!

The party was a lot of fun. I said “No gifts, please” unless they were gag gifts. He also did up our garage (party area) up right, with 50 black balloons, an “old lady” cane for me. And appropriately, a tiara. 🙂

Most people respected my request, though a few brought bottles of wine. I don’t mind those, 🙂 though I don’t drink much, so they will last me a good while. But probably the best (and most creative) gift was a copy of “my” college yearbook, from one of my best friends from high school…

My friend thinks I am really old LOL

…but there is my photo

I apparently knew some interesting people! – click to enlarge –

What I’ve been reading: I was pretty tired for several days after that, so I had time to read. I read the short stories from a Smith’s Monthly, then a book I’ve been looking forward to came out in the middle of the week: A Vampire Wedding, by Stacy McKitrick. This was a fun addition for those who’ve read any of her other vampire books, especially the one where the main characters in this book met. In this book, human Sarah does not want a big wedding, but agrees to go to Vegas with a few friends because it’s important to her vampire partner. There are a lot of humorous moments with secondary characters, and some real tension with her family, with a great come-uppance in the end (plus of course, a happily-ever-after–more than one!). I highly recommend this series if you like vampire romance, but read Bite Me, I’m Yours before this one.

ROW80 Update: I finished my latest edits of the novella, and it’s now off to the copy editor! This week, I need to do a print book layout for Mythical Press, and I have a lot going on later this week, so I don’t expect to get much writing done. I’ll be happy if I get the print book done, and manage to keep up with the Business in Writing workshop I’m currently taking. Most likely, I won’t be posting here next week, but be sure to stop by the week after!

What about you–do you have any advice or tips for me, now that I’m “old”? Or perhaps any funny stories to share? Have you read any good books lately? And how are you doing on whatever goals you may have, whether writing related or not? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

Why Didn’t I do this Years Ago?

Along with my recent decluttering has come some rearranging. A few weeks ago, I decluttered our first floor bathroom, starting with getting rid of the storage cabinet that was in there. Not only was the cabinet a bit beat up with the laminate peeling, it wasn’t needed. Most of the stuff in it was either really old, or was stuff we didn’t use or need. What we did use, there was room for elsewhere.

Which left the table linens and place mats. Why were those in the bathroom, you might ask? When we bought this house in 1993, I didn’t have a china cabinet, just an old, hand-me-down dinette set. The kitchen cabinets were full, so the bathroom cabinet was the only place for the table linens.

I got a china cabinet a couple years later, but the linens stayed in the bathroom. Until I got rid of the bathroom cabinet, it never occurred to me to move them into the non-glass section at the bottom of the china cabinet. Now that they’re in the room where they’re used, I can’t help wondering why I didn’t think of that years ago?

Yesterday I decluttered the small file cabinet drawer on my desk. It too held mostly trash–albeit writing-related stuff: old rejection letters I used to keep in case the IRS came calling, notes from craft workshops I took years ago (and have never referred back to), old contest entries from even longer ago, project notes from freelance web design projects I did in the early 2000’s. The only thing I kept from there were contest win certificates, and those were easy enough to find a new home for.

I filled the now-empty drawer with paperwork from our rental properties, which had been in a huge, four-drawer file cabinet. That thing was useful when we owned a bar and had to keep all our daily and weekly paperwork, but we sold the bar over 7 years ago, and the file cabinet was empty, aside from the rental property stuff which only took up half a drawer. So now I can get rid of it! Better yet, with the paperwork now filed right in my desk, I no longer have an excuse to put off filing it–it’s right here at my fingertips. Why didn’t I think of that years ago?

What I’ve been reading: Still working on the novel in Smith’s Monthly #17, almost done.

ROW80 Update: I made my goal of reading over the outline of my next WIP and seeing what needs to be done with it (conclusion: what a mess!). I also started actually reading the book, to see what might be salvageable. So this week’s plan is to finish the read. I also got edits back from the content editors’ re-read of Time’s Dilemma, so I want to finish those and get that to the copy editor. There’s a lot going on here this week, so that may be a stretch, but I’m going to try.

What about you–ever have one of those “Why didn’t I do this years ago?” realizations? Do you have stuff that could be moved closer to where you need it? How are you doing with whatever goals you may have, whether writing related or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Lessons Learned

There have been a few of those this week, mostly having to do with cooking day. Yesterday, I spent all day making 15 recipes of two meals each. This is the third big cooking day I’ve done. As always, it was very tiring, but much went better than before, mainly due to my having learned these lessons:

Clean up as you go as much as possible. My first big cooking day ended with me exhausted… and my kitchen trashed. This time, the cleanup was much easier, and I realized it was because I put away everything after each recipe, including dishes I knew I wouldn’t need again going into the dishwasher.

Related to the above, reuse mixing bowls, pans, measuring cups/spoons, etc. as much as possible. In some cases I had no choice, as I only have one large skillet, but cleaning off the other things and reusing them helped tons.

Double check the grocery order. Meijer shorted us an item, though it was on my order. I didn’t notice until I needed it for a recipe, so DH had to run out and get it. Last time, I sent a printout of the order with DH when he went to pick it up, but didn’t this time. So I will definitely arm him with a printout next time, and also check the supplies before I begin to prep or cook.

Buy produce and cheeses already chopped/minced/etc. if possible. This was a major time-saver for Friday night prep, and for the amounts of cheeses, ginger, and garlic I needed, wasn’t significantly more expensive than buying whole and chopping on my own.

Slap-chop is better for chopping onions. That’s what I normally do. I tried using the food processor this time, but while it was faster, it didn’t do as well, leaving lots of big chunks.

Sometimes, you really do get what you pay for. This is especially true of freezer bags, and this was the main lesson learned yesterday. It was a good thing the kitchen cleanup was relatively easy, because I also had to clean out the refrigerator… for the third time this week (one time which DH did). I kept having mystery water leaking all down the bottom few shelves, and I finally figured out what it was: leaking freezer bags from meals I was making last week from last time’s cooking day. So this time, I used brand name bags for anything liquid.

What I’ve been reading: I read the short stories from Smith’s Monthly #17, by Dean Wesley Smith, and started the novel. As always, really enjoying it!

ROW80 Update: Another lesson learned here: sometimes, something we think is going to be difficult really isn’t once we sit down and just do it. Yes, I finally got my book descriptions off and out to the publisher. Waiting to hear back from them on how they are, but I think they came out pretty good. Now it’s time to jump into the next project while Time’s Dilemma is with the editors, so I plan to go over what I have on the next Saturn Society novel (it’s about half written), and figure out how to finish it.

What about you–any lessons learned to share, whether about cooking, writing, or anything? Have you read any good books lately, or cooked anything interesting? How are you doing on whatever goals you may have, whether writing-related or not? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!