Hey, Hey Good Lookin' - Whatcha Got Cookin'?

One of my goals right now is to cook more often, and so when I sat down to write this goals post the only I could come up with was this song. So of course I had to look it up...

Bring back memories for anyone? I'm not that old (not calling you old, calling me young :P) but my Daddy used to ask my Mom that question all the time, and even sing from time to time!

So how am I doing on my goals? Well...

Writing:
1. Five hours editing a week. I'm at 3:10 right now! I'm very happy with that. I'm actually ahead of the game! Granted, it's only by 10 minutes, but I was behind schedule last week, and never reached my goal, so this is super fantastic.

2. Blog on a regular basis. Monday: Giveaway post (go enter!), Tuesday: Creative Writing Post, Today: your reading it!

3. Write book reviews and post on GoodReads.com. Four so far! I'm not caught up yet, but at least I'm up to writing about the books I read this month! One of the reviews is in Monday's post... in fact it's the book I'm giving away! (hint, hint)

4. Read and comment on at least 5 other blogs. Check!

Life:
1. Put more variety in our diets. That above picture is last nights dinner. Left over burrito meat cooked up with some scrambled eggs and cheese, topped in salsa and olives, served on a tortilla (and rolled up, but this is prettier)! Super yummy. Tonight's dinner was a newish recipe (old favorite ingredients, new combination) but of course I forgot to take a picture of that!

2. Clean/Organize the house. I cleaned! A little bit. The house is still a mess in general, but the bathroom is clean! And a little bit of the mess is gone.

3. Exercise! I've been doing more stretching, and the cleaning is counting as exercise this week. Believe me, my knees are feeling it.

4. Take more pictures. I think the above picture of dinner is the only picture of any worth I've taken this week so far (the one's of my husband when I was picking on him don't count) but hey, that's one good picture. I'll take it.

See that pretty picture? Ok, so maybe it doesn't look so pretty to everyone else. Especially since I have gone through and blurred the text in the center. But that my friends, is the ready to go file for the second draft of Misfits!

Woohoo!

I finally finished the overly long process of taking all the changes I made on the paper copy and putting them in the new digital copy. This required lots of copy and pasting text, putting it in a different order (in many cases) than I wrote it, typing up the outline I created, typing notes into the text and highlighting them, and lastly, making sure all my references pages were in the new work-from file. Oh and for the heck of it I alphabetized, color coded, and labeled everything.

My OCD side was very happy when I was done.

It took way longer to do all this than I expected, but I figured out some more things about my story along the way, and I know the next phases of the the process are going to be much easier because of this phase, so I'm happy.

So what is next? Well I was going to tell you rewriting is next, but I realized yesterday that I need to do some more world building and character building before I tackle the rewrite. I started in on that today, and I'm not sure how long it's going to take me, but I know the book will be better for it in the end, so I press on!

How is your writing going?
~ Ruthie ~

Skyrim Anyone?

I have a confession to make - one of the many things that distracts me from writing lately is Skyrim! My brother-in-law bought it for us last week and I've been a bit addicted. Nowhere near as much as my husband though. Of course since we only have one gaming-capable computer I only play when he's at work, so that could be part of it. I'm doing my best to be a good girl though. I do honestly need some downtime right now because I've got a lot I'm working through emotionally, but I'm making sure I get some writing time too!

Here's where I'm at on my goals for this week so far:

Writing Goals:

1. Five Hours Editing a Week (Ideally an hr a day M-F) Currently at an hour and a half of editing. Not quite the 2-3 hr mark I'd like to be at, but considering I had no time to write at all on Monday (other than getting my blog post up) and didn't really sleep Monday night so I was exhausted Tuesday... Well, I'm happy with where I'm at!

2. Blog on a regular basis:
Monday - Posted about these goals
Tuesday - Finally updated my blog (long over due) and posted about it.
Today - Duh :P


3. Continue to write and post reviews both here and on www.goodreads.com - Two book reviews done!


Life Goals:


1. Put more variety in our diets, try new recipes and cook more often. Done! 


2. Clean/Organize the house. First get things organized, then get on top of doing weekly chores. No progress.


3. Exercise! I actually have really good news on this front! I saw my physical therapist for the first time in a month and she was really happy about my progress. Of course this means she gave me harder exercises ... which are very uncomfortable for now... but it's still good to hear.


4. Take more pictures. Done!


All in all I'm happy with where I'm at right now at the mid-week point. I feel like I'm making good progress on most things, and considering other factors in life the last few days, I'm ok with not making progress in other areas.


Best of all? I'm very, very close to starting re-writes of Misfits! In fact, if all goes according to plan I should be starting tomorrow or Friday on the rewrites. Yay! I'm both excited and a little nervous...


How are you doing with your goals?


~ Ruthie ~ 

Can't Focus - But Still Setting Goals

Doesn't that look yummy? Among the many things going on in my life right now I'm trying to cook more. Tonight's successful experiment was a Boboli crust, Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce, chicken (fried up using a little pan spray, garlic, and oregano), minced garlic, diced green onions, and diced red onions. I love it! Mo even gave his approval, although he said he'd prefer a garlic alfredo sauce to a bbq.

Anywho... As you may have noticed from my sporadic posts lately, I'm having an awfully hard time focusing lately. There's some life stuff that has just made it hard to stay focused, and unfortunately there's nothing I can do about the "stuff" except give it time. What I can do is work on how it's affecting me.

For now, I'm working on spending a few minutes each day meditating, finding my center, that seems to help me focus and get done what I need to do. At least it did today :P We'll see how much it helps moving forward! I finally sat down today and made my ROW80 goals (a week late) so hopefully having those set will help with staying on track as well. I'm sure I'll mess up, but I'll keep trying, and that's what's important right?

You can see the goals I've set for myself on my goals page but I'll also post them into today's post. They are all pretty self explanatory, but feel free to tell me in a comment below if you have any questions :) I'll be talking more about each of the goals when I do my check in posts. 

Writing Goals:

1. Five Hours Editing a Week (Ideally an hr a day M-F)

2. Blog on a regular basis:
Saturday: Creative Nudge for the week
Sunday: Row80/Goals Post
Monday or Tuesday: My piece for that week's Creative Nudge
Wednesday: Row80/Goals Post
Friday: Book review
Any other posts are bonus!

3. Continue to write and post reviews both here and on www.goodreads.com

Life Goals:

1. Put more variety in our diets,
try new recipes and cook more often.

2. Clean/Organize the house.
First get things organized,
then get on top of doing weekly chores.

3. Exercise!

4. Take more pictures. (like the two in this post!)

I originally just was going to share my writing goals, but that's not who I am. I mean, yes, I am a writer, but every writer is so much more than just a writer, and each of those goals I posted are important to me, and the pursuit of each affects the amount of time and energy I have to spend on the others. So, as the weeks go by, I hope to keep sharing my love for writing and my progress on my book, but I'll also share some of my life, because after all, whether you write fiction or fantasy, every writer's life affects their work.

~ Ruthie ~ 

Bookmark Break Challenge 2012

I love to read. You should already know that - I posted earlier this week about how many books I read this last year (171!). Since I doubt I'll slow down any time soon - I'm joining on a reading challenge that I participated in (and won!) this last year.

The Bookmark Break Challenge take virtually no work other than the reading you'd be doing anyway, so it's an easy one to add to your busy schedule. Plus - if you read more books than the creator of this little challenge, you'll be featured on her blog! Cool huh? 

That's it for today - I'm fighting a migraine and my laptop screen is therefore evil. Fortunately I have some homemade soup to keep me happy. Yum. I love learning how to cook more - the disasters are frustrating (and sometimes comical) but when it works....!

~ Ruthie ~

Ps. If you want to keep track of my reading progress check the page at the top or go to this link; Books Read 2012.