Having Realistic Goals

I've been setting myself up for failure, and I just now realized it.

My life is full with wonderful pleasures, and there's hardly a spare moment to sit and breathe. My baby dinosaur (i.e., my baby girl who roars like a dinosaur) is happily roaring next to me as I type, her little feet and toes playing on my arm. I am content, happy, and fulfilled.

And every evening when the kids have gone to bed and I have an hour to myself, I write.

I'm currently working on the third book to the Perilous series (can I get a "yay!"?), a book I had set a goal to finish by the end of September. My plan was to write 3000 words every night.

And each night for the past week, I've written between 50-300.

I can't reach that goal of 3000, and I've been beating myself up for it. Instead of blaming myself, I've decided to blame the goal. It's too high. If I'm struggling to reach 500, how can I do 3000?

So I'm changing my goal to 500. That's lofty for me. It's not a lot, but it's more than what I've been doing. It's a reach. And I can do it. And I will reward myself generously for doing so.

The bottom line is, I think having a realistic goal will help me more in the long run than having one I consistently fail at. Who knows? I just might write more than that from time to time.

Self-esteem goes a long way, baby.

What are you working on? How do you feel about your goals?

My Gift to You

Deliverer is finally available!

This book, a novella told from the point-of-view of the villain from Perilous, is my gift to you. If you are already a fan of the Perilous series, hopefully you will be delighted to learn the unexpected story behind The Hand. If you've never read any of the Perilous series, this should be a great introduction.

The book is only available via Amazon for Kindle. There will be no print book. Deliverer is just for fun, just for your reading pleasure and to expound on the background of the series.

And for the next three days, it's free. So click on the cover to go directly to the download page, and enjoy!

Bathing your Cell Phone

It turns out, folks, that smart phones aren't meant to take a bath. I'm not sure how you're supposed to clean them behind the ears, but dumping water on them isn't the way to do it. As my children learned the hard way.

Luckily for the phone (and the children), the rice trick actually works. The sad, cracked phone that isn't up for an upgrade until November is functioning again. It rings. It dials. I hear people and they hear me. But it's got one weird little quirk: other than ringing, the sound doesn't work. No texting choo-choo. No Pandora. No Netflix (the children are saddest about this). No clickety-clack when typing.

(Those aren't my phones. I had a hard time taking a picture of my phone with my phone, so this is generic. I guess I could've used my husband's phone but I didn't think of it before he left for work.)

Weird, huh?

I'll take it.

Keep your phones dry... all it takes is a few drops and you'll have to watch Netflix with subtitles.

Of mushrooms and sushi

My whole life, I've hated mushrooms. No matter how they were prepared, I didn't like them. 

But anytime I put a food item in front of my child, I always make them taste it, even if they know they don't like it. Because you never know when that might change. 

Well I have to live what I preach, right? So I've always made myself try any mushroom dish that's put in front of me. I still never liked them. 

Until one day I did. 

I remember the day. My husband and I were out to lunch for our seventh anniversary. I was 30 years old. I ordered a chef salad and it came with raw mushrooms. I tried one, just like I always do. 

And to my surprise, I liked it. 

Now I can't get enough of those funny little fungi. 

My BFF couldn't stand sushi. But she kept at it. A year later, it's one of her favorite foods too. Yum!

The moral of the story is: just because you didn't like it once doesn't mean you will always dislike it. 

Do you have anything you like now that you didn't use to?