Writing Wednesday: Nearing the End

If my current WiP was actually finished at the 80,000 words I had planned for, I would have finished it this morning. But, I still have about 5 scenes left to write. So, it looks like it will be done by tomorrow or Friday. So, I will still make my end of the month deadline at least.

• Write everyday. I’m aiming for around 8000-9000 words before next Wednesday. Then, I’ll just have to split the rest between the last 2 days of the month. And of course, if I don’t meet that, nothing tragic is going to happen.

I have definitely met this goal. Thursday morning I slept in until almost 6. That’s almost unheard of for me. But, that was a day my kids actually slept in(also just about unheard of), so I was still able to get a good chunk of writing in. Then, I slept in again Monday morning, but still got a lot of writing done. My numbers for the last week: Thursday: 1603, Friday: 2045, Saturday: 873, Sunday: 1069, Monday: 2026, Tuesday: 2731, Wednesday: 1310. That makes a total of 11,657 for the week. And I;m getting so close to the end. Excited to finish writing it, but not looking forward to saying good-bye to these characters. But, that’s okay, because they’ll be back for more stories. 🙂

• Finish An Appointment with Murder

I finished this last week. Haven’t started another one yet though. I actually made it through my to-be-read list, so now I need some new books.

Only about 3 weeks left in this round, and I think I’m on track to meet just about all of my goals. How is everyone else doing?

Family Friday: Camping

As most of you know, the kids and I went camping with my dad and stepmom. We stayed at a private campground in Ohio in their RV.

sitting in the loft bed with her “friends”.

Eating breakfast in the RV

There was a playground there, and that is where Hayleigh wanted to spend most of the time.

 

climbing up the ladder to the little kids’ slides

 

standing at the top of the little slides

going down one of the little kid slides

hanging on the monkey bars

going down the big slide

attempting to climb the chains

she didn’t like the way these moved when she stepped on them. So, I had to hold onto her sides until she got to the top, just enough to steady her.

 

climbing up the steps

Getting ready to go down

I thought he would stop when he got to the bottom of this one. Yeah, he didn’t. And then Hayleigh had to tell everyone at the playground that I didn’t catch him. 🙂 But, he got back up and headed right back for the steps to the top.

climbing over the jungle gym

At first, she kept getting scared when she got to the top of this. And I’d have to help her the rest of the way. She finally figured out how to move her hands and feet to get over it though. Then, she started on the monkey bars.

 

going over the monkey bars

and this is my cautious child

She kept going over these, and I was trying to be a good parent and not hover. And then she slipped. There was another parent near by and he caught her just as she did. So, she took a bit of a break from the monkey bars.

standing at the top of the big slide

He seemed to prefer these slides to the little kid ones.

making a necklace

wearing her new necklace

making a bracelet

They had a kids’ craft time at the campground on Saturday. Hayleigh made a necklace(with 2 purple hearts because she suddenly decided pink is no longer her favorite color, purple is). Nathan made a little bracelet with my stepmom.

Saturday night, we made a campfire and roasted marshmallows for s’mores. A fun but messy experience with two little kids.

watching the campfire together

roasting marshmallows

She wanted to roast them herself, but wouldn’t get them close enough to the fire.

eating a s’more

his first s’more

On Sunday, we went swimming before lunch then off to the water park after Nathan took a little nap. Hayleigh loves the slide at the kiddie pool. She must have gone down it at least two dozen times. Even when she was shivering so bad(the water was freezing even in August) that she could barely walk, she wanted to go down again. Nathan went down a few times, but he had trouble keeping himself upright on the turns, so he didn’t like it quite as much.

At the top of the water slide.

 

hanging out in the kiddie pool with Mommy

We roasted some marshmallows again Sunday night and headed home Monday morning. It was a fun weekend, but I was glad to get home. To get back to our own routines and schedules and back into our own spaces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing Wednesday: Catching Up

I had a really good time camping this past weekend, even if, like I figured, I didn’t get all that much writing done. I am glad thought that I took a notebook along because I did get some writing done around going to the playground, swimming, going to the playground, roasting marshmallows and making s’mores, going to the playground, going to the waterpark, going to the playground(can you tell where my daughter wanted to spend most of the time?) We got back late Monday morning, so I’ve been trying to get caught up on everything since then.

• Write every day, even if it’s only 100 words on paper.

I wrote another 536 words(added to the 749 I wrote before checking in) on Wednesday for a total of 1285 words. For the rest of the week my numbers were: Thursday: 1142, Friday: 1463(301 of these while on the way to the campground), Saturday: 511, Sunday: 318, Monday: 375(about 275 written on the drive home), Tuesday: 1367, Wednesday: 1267. So that’s 6979 words since my last check-in. That’s a lot better than I figured I would do with a camping trip in there. I only have about 11,000 words left to go. Although it might be more. But, I’m hoping to have at least 80,000 by the end of the month.

• Finish Melt Into You

Finished this last week before we even left for camping. And started reading An Appointment with Murder by Jennifer L Jennings. I’m currently about 44% through it. Didn’t read a whole lot while camping.

• Have everything packed for our trip before 3 pm Friday(haven’t even started the list yet).

My stepmom changed plans and was going to be here at 1 instead of 3. So, I had our clothes packed Thursday. and I got everything else packed up Friday morning. Then, she got stuck in construction so it was closer to 2:30 before she got here.

Goals for next week:

• Write everyday. I’m aiming for around 8000-9000 words before next Wednesday. Then, I’ll just have to split the rest between the last 2 days of the month. And of course, if I don’t meet that, nothing tragic is going to happen.
• Finish An Appointment with Murder

Family Friday: 5th Birthday Party

“I love them” She said before opening any of them.

Hayleigh opened her gifts from us Saturday morning. And of course, her favorite was the cheapest one. A counting piggy bank that I got from one of the local Amish bent & dent stores for $2.50.

A set of books for her Tag Reader

putting some coins into her bank

I baked her birthday cake Saturday night. We got a Mickey Mouse cake pan from Cory’s aunt and were going to make some changes to it once baked to make it into a Minnie cake. Well, I forgot to spray the pan before putting the batter in it. And so, when it was done baking, it would not come out of the pan. We finally did get it out and it completely fell apart. Needless to say, I had a bit of a meltdown. We had also made cupcakes, but only 22 so I didn’t think that would be enough for everyone(it may have been close though).

So, Cory went off to Country Fair at 5:15 Sunday morning to get more cake mix, so she could still have a cake. I had no idea how we were going to have time to get everything done before the party though. But, the cupcakes frosted while he was at the store. Got it all mixed up and poured into two round pans this time. And guess what I did? yep, forgot to spray the pans. Thankfully, the cakes still came right out of them, only leaving a little of the top layer of cake in the pan. I frosted one pink with white polka dots. The other one Cory decorated to look like Minnie and we used two cupcakes for the ears. Can’t believe it, but I forgot to take pictures of the cakes before we were ready to eat them. And I finished doing the dishes and getting everything set out, just as people started to arrive.

Ready to blow out her candles on her pink cake.

The Minnie cake – not even touched at the party

some of the leftover cupcakes

Out of the four friends that we invited, only two responded that they were coming. And out of those two, only one of them showed up. But, she still had a good time. So, really that’s all that matters. Not my high stress level, or how the cake turned out, or even how clean the house was.

Ready for her party to start

Digging into her first gift

A new puzzle

A new painting book

Minnie Mouse Birthday Bowtique

More paint

A new pony to play with

Minnie Mouse placemat

A new coloring book

Minnie Mouse Happy Napper

“I love her”

blowing out her candles

Playing pin(or tape) the bow on Minnie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing Wednesday: Post-Birthday/Pre-Camping Update

I kept my daily writing streak going for 12 days. I’m sure that’s some kind of record for me. But, I didn’t get up before the kids on Saturday, and most of the rest of the day was spent prepping for my daughter’s 5th birthday party. So, I didn’t write at all Saturday. And even though I was up early Sunday morning, I had to do some rushing so everything could be ready for the party(due to a bit of a cake disaster the night before, we had to start all over). So, no writing then either. But, she had a good party, so it was all worth it despite my high stress level. As for how I did the rest of the week:

• Write every day to keep me on track for finishing by the end of the month. Right now that means writing at least a little over 1000 words a day. So, shooting for 7000 by next Wednesday.

Like I said, I didn’t write Saturday or Sunday, so have only written 5 out of the last 7 days. But, my numbers have been fairly decent over those days. Thursday: 1081, Friday: 1078, Monday: 1207, Tuesday: 1201, Wednesday: 749. I am hoping to add some more to today’s word count though. I don’t think I’ll be around during the ROW80 sprint today though, but I will have to add some more words sometime else during the day.

• Finish reading Football Sweetheart

I finished this on Friday. I kind of hate to admit the book I started next. A friend sent me a copy of 50 Shades of Grey, and I finally decided to start it. Put it off due to what I’ve heard about the writing. Struggled through the first chapter. And continued to struggle to read the second. And didn’t even bother picking it back up. I usually give a book more of a chance than that, but when I’m dreading even opening it, there’s no point to it. So, I went and started reading Roni Loren’s Melt Into You on Monday. Haven’t found a lot of time to read over the last couple days, but I’m already through Chapter 8 of it.

I’ll be gone from Friday afternoon until probably sometime Monday morning. I plan on taking a notebook and pens with me, but I don’t know how much actual writing I’ll get done while I’m gone. I’ll have to reevaluate my daily writing goal when I get back, so for now, these are my goals for the next week:

• Write every day, even if it’s only 100 words on paper.
• Finish Melt Into You
• Have everything packed for our trip before 3 pm Friday(haven’t even started the list yet).

How has everyone else been doing this round? Are you still keeping up with your goals or is life throwing obstacles in your way?

Knitting Wednesday: Finishing Projects

I didn’t post last week, but I have been getting projects finished during the last two weeks. The first of these was the slouchy toque I’d been working on.  It doesn’t look like it turned out all that slouchy though. Thinking I should have made it longer maybe.

Slouchy Toque

I also finished working on the Minnie Mouse hat last week. It turned out pretty nice. I even figured out a way to make the ears without too much trouble.

Minnie Mouse

I think I could have made the bow a little bigger, but at least my daughter likes it.

Even her brother likes it

I also finished another of my cause hats, this one a beanie with a cabled brim. I had to knit the brim flat then pick up stitches along the edge to start the hat.

Beanie with cabled brim

I have started another cause hat, but I only got two rows knitted Friday, and didn’t have time to work on it over the weekend as we were busy with my daughter’s birthday party. So, no pictures of it yet.

The other project I’ve finished this week is a crayon caddy. I found the pattern for this on Lion Brand Yarn’s website and thought it looked cute. You can’t fit a lot of crayons in it, there’s only 8 pockets(well, only supposed to be. I accidentally seamed 9 pockets). But, I think with some modifications, I could make it bigger and be able to hold more.

all laid out

Rolled up

From the top

Other than the new cause hat, my needles are actually all cleaned off. Of course, I have two other projects I plan on starting today, so I’ll have three different ones to work on.

 

Family Friday: Five Years Old

My baby girl is five years old today.

1 day old and already a daddy’s girl.

5 years later.

I can’t believe how fast the years have gone by. She’ll be starting her second year of k-4 in less than 3 weeks. In two days, she’ll be having her first ever “friend birthday.” Well, we invited four of her friends to the regular party, so it won’t just be her friends. And as of right now, only one of them is coming that I know of.

She woke up this morning, just before six, and came running out. “Today is my birthday.” Then, “But, I didn’t get taller.” Yesterday she said she was going to grow more on her birthday. So, I guess she was disappointed when that didn’t happen.

We’re having a low key day today. Tomorrow we’re probably having doughnuts in the morning and she’ll open her presents from us(unless her dad is home from work today before he has to go cook for Bingo at the fire hall tonight). And doing some baking for the party.

On Wednesday, my mom called and asked if we wanted to go to one of the local fairs. We had to wait for Hayleigh to get back from “little school”, the summer program she is in two days a week, once a month. So, we went and Hayleigh had a great time. And I had a good time seeing her have so much fun. Nathan wasn’t quite as impressed, but he also only had a short nap in the morning, and this was during his normal nap time. So, I’m sure that didn’t help.

She was actually laughing during this one.

waiting in line at one of the rides

waiting for the mini ferris wheel to start

up at the top

Not too impressed with the Dragon Wagon

Ready to go on the swing

On the merry go round

This was just before he started crying. Guess he wasn’t so sure Mommy wouldn’t let him fall.

We were waiting in line for the fun slide(the big one you slide down on a sack). Hayleigh was really looking forward to go down the “big slide”, but a storm was coming in, so they shut down the rides until it passed. By that time, we were ready to leave. But, we soothed the disappointment with an ice cream cone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing Wednesday: Chugging Along

I’m getting this written a lot later in the day than I normally do, but I was gone all afternoon at one of the local fairs with my family. We all had a good day, except that my daughter got really disappointed when she couldn’t go down the giant slide towards the end of the afternoon. We were waiting in line, but a storm was coming and they shut it down until it passed. Was able to soothe that disappointment with some ice cream though.

As for my goals:

• Write every day, shooting for another 7000 words by next Wednesday

I have written every day. In fact, I have written every day so far this month(10 days straight so far. That’s quite a streak for me). Thursday: 1118, Friday: 1023, Saturday: 806, Sunday: 160(and this after having more to drink than I normally would Saturday night at husband’s class reunion), Monday: 1753, Tuesday: 1009, Wednesday: 943. Haven’t quite hit the 7000 word goal, but do have 6812 words. I have less than 25000 words left to write for this WiP(appoximately, since I don’t know the exact number. If I can keep these numbers up though, I should still be able to finish by the end of the month.

• Finish Still Into You

Finished reading this one Wednesday night. Really enjoyed it, otherwise I wouldn’t have stayed up late to finish it.

• Read Bowlful of Bunnies by L.S. Engler

Finished this last week, I think on Friday. Really liked the stories. Then, I started Ruth Nestvold’s The Future, Imperfect. This was a collection of 6 stories. And I finished it Monday. Then, I started reading Tiffany White’s Football Sweetheart. Still working my way through this one, but I am a little over halfway done with it.

Goals for next week:

• Write every day to keep me on track for finishing by the end of the month. Right now that means writing at least a little over 1000 words a day. So, shooting for 7000 by next Wednesday.
• Finish reading Football Sweetheart

And I spoke to my stepmom this morning. Now, we’re looking at only camping through the weekend or maybe into Monday. So, that’s a little less time I’ll be away from the computer, so more days to get more words in.

Writing Wednesday: Rowing Downstream

It feels as if I’ve been rowing with the current lately instead of against it, which is a good thing. Definitely since that current may be turning on me this month. I was thinking this morning about something else9I think it was my daughter’s upcoming 5th birthday) and realized we have something going on every weekend this month. This Saturday night we have my husband’s class reunion dinner. And I think Sunday we are meeting with some of the classmate’s and their families at a local park. Next weekend is my daughter’s birthday party. The weekend after that we’re leaving for a camping trip with my dad and step mom and won’t be back home until that Wednesday. And that next weekend will probably be my niece’s birthday party. Then school starts the last week of August and that next weekend is Labor Day and also my son’s birthday. A lot going on, but I’m still determined to finish this WiP by the end of the month. Even with everything going on, I should still be able to get up and write first thing in the morning(which I don’t always do on weekends anyways). I’m not sure if I’ll take the computer with me on the camping trip, but I can take a notebook and still get some words down, even though my progress is a lot slower on paper than on the computer.

• Write every morning, shoot for 5000 words.

I ended up writing another 181 words last Wednesday. The rest of the week’s counts were: Thursday: 629, Friday: 714, Monday: 1687, Tuesday: 1690, Wednesday: 1041. So, that’s a total of 5942 words in the last week. If I write at least 1000 words every day, I could finish the WiP this month. I know I won’t write every single day, so I’ll have to readjust that as needed. But, for now it is my target for the day.

• Have edits finished on Stained Snow and do another read through

Finished the edits on Friday. Haven’t read through it again though. Think this will wait until I have finished the first draft of Slow Revenge. I’m actually thinking of adding more, possibly at the beginning. It ended up being right around 27,000 words I think. This is the first novella I’ve written, so I don’t know if shorter or longer is better. Would be open to any advice from those who’ve written novellas.

• Read Blindsight

I finished this last Wednesday. Read it in one day. Then I started Ruth Nestvold’s Shadow of Stone on Thursday. I finished that on Monday. Yesterday, I read SM Reine’s Death’s Avatar(a novella). And this morning I started Roni Loren’s Still Into You. About 25% through it right now. So, I’m up to 7 out of the 12 books I want to read this round(even though not all are full novels, I’m still counting them).

Goals for next week:

• Write every day, shooting for another 7000 words by next Wednesday
• Finish Still Into You
• Read Bowlful of Bunnies by L.S. Engler

For the rest of this month, I’ll mostly be concentrating on my writing goals. How about you? Are you concentrating on one thing? Or are your goals spread out(like mine usually are)?