Monday Check In

No post this week. Last week was a miserable one as I coped with a sudden crisis. I will be back next week with a normal update. Thank you for understanding.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

No Monday check in post this week. I hope you and your family have a fun and safe St. Patrick's Day. We'll be honoring my mother's Irish roots and having the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner. 

 

Monday Check In

Last week...

Writing Related:  I hit the 12k mark last week. Finally. The first few chapters of every book are slow going for me, but the writing of this book seems to be even slower than usual. I'm hoping to write 12k this week alone to try to make up for the first 12k taking longer than I expected.

Motivational Quote: "Life is not easy for any of us...We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves." ~ Marie Curie

What I'm Reading:  I'll start reading The Seven Year Flip by Ashley Poston tonight. This is the first book I'll be reading by Ms. Poston. I've heard good things about it so I'm looking forward to reading it.

Random Thoughts:  Last week flew by and even though I kept to my writing schedule and was able to get the usual household related chores done, I feel like I'm behind in everything else. My household project To Do list seems to be getting longer instead of shorter. Maybe because for every one thing I manage to do and cross off, I'm adding one or two things to replace it. I guess I need to stop finding things I want to do that don't necessarily need to be done until I get more things crossed off the list.

Random Photo:

Mrs. Green decided she liked sleeping in a cardboard box better than her cat bed so I added a couple of old pillow cases to the box and now it's her new favorite spot to take a nap.
 

 

Monday Check In

Last week...

Writing Related:  I worked on Garrett's book. I was able to keep to my writing schedule but didn't quite make my 12k goal by the end of week. I'm about 500 words short. I don't have any appointments etc this week so I'm hoping to get a significant amount of writing done to get back on track to meet the deadline to have the first draft written.

Motivational Quote:  "Courage, determination, and a single minded vision. These are the qualities the biggest achievers have in common." ~ Shah Rukh Khan

What I'm Reading:  I'm currently reading Great and Precious Things by Rebecca Yarros. This is a contemporary romance.

Random Thoughts:  Even though the official start of spring isn't for a few more weeks, I'm starting my annual spring cleaning chores. I have a few additional tasks this year. I want to go through our cookbook book shelf and donate any that we don't really use.  

Random Photo:  

                                           Homemade Chocolate Brownie Muffins  

Monday Check In

Last week...

Writing Related:  I worked on Garrett's book last week. I didn't get as much written as I'd hoped, but I should have at least 12k words written by the end of this week. 

Motivational Quote:  "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence." ~ Calvin Coolidge

What I'm Reading:  I started reading The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren yesterday afternoon. I'm also reading Now or Never by Janet Evanovich. This is the 31st book in the Stephanie Plum series. I'll write more about why I'm reading two books at once, which I very rarely do in the Random Thoughts section below.

Random Thoughts:  Regarding Now or Never, I keep picking it up, then putting it down after a couple of chapters and either going to do something else or reading something else because I'm having issues with the main character. I loved this series in the past, but the last few books have dimmed my enthusiasm for it. I just don't like how the Stephanie Plum character doesn't ever seem to learn from her mistakes or show any character growth, not to mention cheating on her boyfriend then excuses it because the guy she's cheating with is so hot that she can't help it.

Random Photo:

                                      How I've been feeling about writing lately. 😉
 

Monday Check In

Last week...

Writing Related:  I started writing the first book in the Eden's Crossing series. I'm going to refer to it as Garrett's book going forward because I rarely come up with a title until after the first draft is written. I didn't set a word count goal for last week but wrote a decent amount considering I had a lot of other stuff going on and the first few chapters usually take me longer to write than the rest of the book. 

Motivational Quote: "Do what you can do." ~ Mary Oliver, American Poet  This is good advice in general and for anyone feeling overwhelmed.

What I'm Reading:  I'm reading Track Her Down by Melinda Leigh. This is the 9th book in the Bree Taggert series. If you like suspense with a little bit of romance, I highly recommend this series. 

Random Thoughts:  Last week I mentioned getting a bread cookbook. I made the Vermont Cheddar Bread recipe yesterday. I didn't have high expectations because I've tried a number of different cheddar bread recipes and have always been disappointed. Either the cheese melts into the bread and can't even be seen, much less tasted, or the bread itself is really dense. This recipe came out well. I've posted a picture of it below.

Random Photo:

                                          The Vermont Cheddar Bread I made