Sunday Update - 2026 Week 29?

 I think it's Week 29, but I'm too lazy to check.  Anyway...

I wrote 8379 words this week.  That's writing 6 out of 7 days.  Woot.  I skipped Wednesday because I was frickin' tired.  I was frickin' tired Friday night, too, but I made myself sit down here and at least try, and I got 875 words down, so yay.  Old Magic is now up to 15666 words.  :muppetflail:  Last night, my brain decided to shift the title to a series title and try thinking up other titles.  I amused myself by remembering an old Bugs Bunny cartoon where he mixes magic words up... ABRACA-POCUS!  HOCUS-CADABRA!  So maybe I'll use one of those.  Teehee.

Marketing... Meh.  I did it, but it didn't result in too much movement.  Only 17 copies of WIOH went out the door, which sucks.  WIOH usually moves more copies than that.  :shrug:  This month, sales started out really well and went downhill fast.  I don't think I'm going to market anything this week.  I'll focus on writing instead.  Let's see if I can't get over 10K words out this week.

In baking news, I made a loaf of Banana-Raisin Bread.  Yum!  I also did another batch of OCCC.  And I did a vat of pulled pork.  Life is good.

On the activity front, I wasn't really all that active - mostly watering the greenhouse garden - then I did some cleaning yesterday and I moved some furniture.  I haven't weighed myself.

On the subject of moving furniture, basically, I rearrange the dining area.  I like what I did, except for the artwork.  When I moved the table, the big painting over it didn't look right anymore, so I put a couple smaller pieces up there, but it still looked wrong. Today, I might rearrange the living room.  We'll see.  

As for the greenhouse, it's still doing okay.  I'm watering every other day to keep everything happy.  The heat means I'm not currently getting produce, but the plants themselves are green, so that's a win.  We'll see what happens when the weather starts to cool again.  Last year, I got my best output from the tomatoes after it shifted toward fall.  Fingers crossed.  Oh, and I moved my last few redbud trees back out onto the deck.  They didn't enjoy being in the garage - mostly because I kept forgetting to water them.  They seem happier outside again, the rat is leaving them alone, and they're growing new leaves.  Yay.

The fawns are getting bigger.  Lumpy still has her adopted kid, which is still weird.  But it seems to continue to thrive, so :shrug:  Our little foxes are still coming around.  They're so funny.  We'll look out the window and one of them will just be sitting there in the yard, staring at nothing or scratching, and then it'll wander off.  It's so cool that they're comfortable here.

This morning, I clipped Sawyer's claws.  He was being a turd and trying to push me out of my chair.  Well, I usually let him do that, so I can't complain, but this morning I didn't want to give up my chair.  I grabbed him up and went to put him on the floor when something startled him.  He ended up perforating one of my boobs and an arm.  I swore a great deal and bled a little.  After I applied anti-bacterial cream, I wrangled him up and clipped those stilettos of his.  Later, I'll do Finn.  Ah, the joys of cat ownership.

Okay, I think that's all I've got on my hit parade.  How's things in your world?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 28

 Well, it's morning.  I feel like someone beat me with a stick, and I didn't even really do anything yesterday.  =op

This was a banner week for writing.  I got an idea, I ran with it, wrote for 4 days straight and ended up with 7287 words I didn't have before and a brand new story.  I'm feeling pretty good about it.  Last night, I hit a wall physically and, instead of writing at 9pm, I went straight to bed.  I have been writing from like 9-10 or 11.  It's good work, but this gal is not used to staying up late. That first day, I also did two writing sessions during the day, which is weird for me, so I didn't do any other day sessions.  Night time is the right time... or the write time, I guess.  ;o)

Marketing this week didn't not go well.  Since I was staying up late every night, I wasn't getting up early and early marketing is the best kind.  Thus, I only moved 13 copies of Accidental Death.  :sad trombone:  Not sure what I'll do for marketing this week, if anything.  :shrug:

Let's forget about reading for the time being.

In baking news, I made another batch of OC³ (Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies) and one night I did stuffed chicken breast for dinner.  Yummers.  I'm thinking about teaching Hubs to make the cookies so I don't have to, but I'm a control freak in the kitchen, so probably not.

Not hugely active this week.  It's too hot for too much activity.  I did work in the greenhouse three days, but that's not really that active.  I also vacuumed the office, which involved moving furniture.  And I grocery shopped.  Weight: 179.0

In the garden, I've been trying to water at least every other day.  I repotted some stuff and moved some stuff around.  This isn't the right time of year for exciting gardening news.  It's too damn hot for anything spectacular to happen.  I've been watching a lot of gardening videos lately, and I have plans for a fall harvest, but that planting should be done at the end of July, so not yet.  I'm also thinking ahead to next year.  We'll see.  

The fawns are starting to come to the yard more often and they're getting more independent.  We know for sure we have four fawns, because we saw them all together.  Other than that, I think we might have at least a couple others.  If I were motivated, I'd take pictures of every fawn I see and compare spot patterns.  I am not motivated for that.

Other than that, not much going on.  The cats are well.  Hubs is well.  I'm well... well, other than being fat and achy.  :shrug:  This too shall pass.  Have a great day wherever you are.  Peace out.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 27

First off, Happy Independence Day!  A day late, I know, but it's still a valid sentiment.

The past week was one of my toady weeks.  I didn't write.  I didn't market.  I didn't read.  

I baked.  Earlier in the week, I made banana muffins.  Yesterday afternoon, I made a batch of Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Yeah, it was 90 degrees out, but Hubs wanted cookies... frankly, so did I... so I made cookies.  They were yummy.  And I have AC so what's the problem?  I also did a batch of BBQ pulled pork yesterday.  Also yummy.  

It was an active week, despite my toadiness.  I did yardwork.  I watered everything in the greenhouse a couple times.  We moved furniture in preparation for window installation, and then moved it back.  We tag-team mowed the yard.  Busy busy.  Not weight loss, however, which is kind of a bummer.  I'm blaming the heat and calling it water-weight gain.  So there.  Weight: 180.6

The windows were installed.  They did the big picture window in the front on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a bitch to get out, due to an abundance of silicon caulk.  (The previous owner/builder was big on silicon caulk.  He slapped that shit everywhere.)  Thus, by the time they got around to the broken window in the sunroom, it was already 5.  They took the storm window with them to fix at the office and off they went with promises to return the next day.  I took them at their word, and sure enough, they were there bright and semi-early on Wednesday.  While they were installing the window, I made muffins so I could give them some when they left.  They were very happy.  And I'm very happy because we now have no broken windows... well, except for that one in our bedroom, which I totally forgot about until after they were gone.  Oh well.  Next time.

The yard work was more of me de-weeding the front path.  It's about 75% done now, but now, it's too damn hot to want to finish it.  It'll get done.  Eventually.

Out in the greenhouse, things are going okay.  Despite the heat, the beefsteak is flowering.  Fingers crossed.  The other plants seem to be doing well.  The buckthorn is getting TALL.  I had to move it to the floor so it isn't hampered by the enclosure.  One of the peppers is also getting tall and was moved to the floor.  Fingers crossed I see some produce down the road.

I think that's about it.  It's hot.  I'm a toad.  Nothing new there.  Have a great day and an awesome week.  Peace out.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 26

 Halfway through the year.  Woot.  It's been a better year so far than a lot of years, even with the Iran thing, so I'm calling it a win.

Writing last week wasn't great, but it was better than the week before, so yay.  I ended up adding 2218 words to Shroudlands #2 (Song of Dream and Dragon?  Dream of Demon and Shroud?  Song of Mage and Shroud? Meh.), putting it at 40970 words total.  I'll try to do better this week.  I really need to stop overthinking it and just get the damn dirty draft done.

Marketing was lame.  FB started the week by being turdy.  And it didn't help that this week sucked for sleeping, which meant I woke up last every damn day, which makes getting those important first-thing-in-the-morning posts impossible.  Anyway, I moved 19 copies of Thicker Than Water.  :sad trombone:  I don't think I'll do any marketing this week.  

Don't ask me about reading.  

In baking news, I made a batch of Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies on Sunday.  We tore through those by Friday.  Yesterday, I tried a different recipe for cookies.  I tried halving the recipe, fucked it up, and ended up with what I'm referring to as Retard Cookies.  They're tasty and we'll eat them, but they're kinda like a cross between a regular cookie and a florentine.  I also made a pizza yesterday and the crust was not right. Not as far off as those cookies, but still.  It must've been brainfart baking day.

On the activity front, I did active things on 4 days - yardwork, cleaning, gardening, groceries.  (And making pizza counts as exercise, so there.)  Weight: 178.4 - yep, lost a pound last week.  Imagine if I could lose a pound a week.  I'd be at my target weight by the end of the year.  Heh, like that'll happen.

Hubs just came in from feeding the deer and informed me that we have 4 fawns down by the pans.  Yay.  I love fawn times.  

Gardening... I harvested Pedro this week.  He produced 6 small potatoes.  (We ate them, sliced thin and sautéed with chicken and mushrooms. Yum.)  I checked the other potato plants and no more potatoes.  Several of those plants got pushed back into the ground in hopes they'll continue to grow.  Fingers crossed.  Nothing else is ready to harvest.  Nothing is blooming at the moment.  I think I need to re-dirt the tomatoes or refeed them.  The peppers and the carrots are doing good, so yay.

My path project is coming along.  I'm about halfway through weeding the front rock path than runs along the flower bed.  Meanwhile, Hubs has been weeding the whole driveway and he's almost done.  He works harder than I do, but then again, he's a dude.  He said he'd finish my project when he gets done with the driveway.  ENABLER!  Anyway, that usually gives me the kick in the ass I need to get 'er done, so expect to see that in my update next week.  

And speaking of that, the day's not getting any cooler.  Time to get dressed, get covered in bug spray, and get digging.  Have a great day and an awesome week.  See y'all soon.  Peace out.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 25

Okay, so it's Week 25.  Imagine that.  It makes sense, though, since we're about halfway through 2026 and half of 52 is 26.  Look at me, mathing in the morning and junk.

I was a slug this week.  I only wrote once for 909 words.  I could make excuses, but meh.  Marketing also didn't go well, but even so, I moved 57 copies of DE.  People must not read much in the summer because my page reads are way down.  :shrug: I'm halfway between marketing a book this week and not bothering.  Tune in tomorrow to see what the choice ended up being.

No reading.

I made a batch of my Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies this week.  We finished them yesterday.  6 days for 2 people to demolish 35 cookies.  I might make more cookies today - only because I'm tired of paying for cookies.  Then I'll get tired of making cookies and go back to buying them again.  It's a vicious circle.

This past week, I did all sorts of active things.  I sewed the cover for the cat bed I made, took two walks, did stuff with the greenhouse garden, worked in the yard, and went grocery shopping.  I don't think any of that was particularly calorie-burning, though.  (Maybe the yard work.)  Weight: 179.4

I'm not sure if I talked about the cat bed I made a couple weeks.  I took a 'feather' topper for a queen-sized mattress, folded in half, and stuffed into a queen-sized flat sheet that was folded in half and safety pinned.  Well, one evening, Sawyer being Sawyer, discovered the safety pins and decided to attack.  I had to remove them so he wouldn't hurt himself.  The next day, I sat down and sewed the seams where the safety pins had been.  Then Hubs and I wrestled the topper back into it.  It looks good and the cats enjoy it, and now it's safe.

The greenhouse garden is chugging right along.  Still only two tomatoes - both of them ripened and we ate them.  I learned this week that carrots don't like it hot, and it's hot in the greenhouse, so there ya are.  The tops of the carrots are still pretty small and I'm not seeing the shoulders of the carrots yet, so I'm not harvesting, even though that pot has been growing since early March.  The potatoes... same.  The two surviving green peppers from last year that got munched... One is thriving.  The other is pathetic.  The three peppers I rescued from the feed store are doing okay.  Some of the trees are getting big, but I had to give the last rites to two oaks and a hickory.  I don't think pot life is good for those species.  The redbuds in the ground - Randy and Rudy - are trying to live, but critters aren't making it easy for them.

Working in the yard... Well, I had planned to go out and start digging up the rock paths to remove weeds, etc., but Hubs was out picking up sticks left by the last few storms.  I ended up helping him and then I got the idea that it was about time to prune back the cedars, so we did that.  Then we had to go around and pick up all those limbs.  By the time we did all that, I was tired, so the weeding project got put on hold.  We're starting that this morning - me on the paths and Hubs on the driveway.  Gah, the driveway... we haven't hit those weeds in years and it's so bad that you can hardly tell where the driveway is.  It all looks like yard.  None of this will be done in a day.  Tune in next week to hear how well we progressed.

The fawns are coming into the yard more often, but I keep forgetting to put out the trail cam.  Maybe I'll remember today, so I can post pics next Saturday.  

And I think that's about it.  Busy busy... or at least the illusion of busyness.  Have a great week wherever you are.  :hugs:

Sunday Update - 2026 Week... :shrug:

 I've been up for 2 hours and the coffee still hasn't kicked in.  This does not bode well for the rest of the day.  Anyhoo...

I wrote stuff early in the week and then I tweaked my wrist, which made writing ouchieful which got me out of the habit so after the wrist was better I still didn't write.  Still, I got out 2578 words out, which is better than nothing.  I'll try harder this week.

Marketing occurred.  Near the end of the week, FB started being less of a turd, so that was something.  I'm also trying to shift all of my marketing from my personal page to my business page.  The problem with this is that my personal page is shown as a top contributor to most of my marketing groups.  Starting over with my business page, without that 'top contributor' thing, means I'm climbing my way up from the bottom again.

Reading also occurred.  I'm making progress through Leadership by Rudy Guiliani.  Unfortunately, I've been reading this same book in tiny spurts for months now.  It's not the book.  It's totally me.

No baking.  It's too hot and I'm too lazy.

On the activity front... well, like I said, I'm lazy.  I did some gardening, some cleaning, and some shopping - but not nearly enough to make a difference in my health or weight.  I did weigh myself... Meh.  Weight: 180.0

If you were paying attention yesterday, the big news in my week was the broken picture window.  It hasn't fallen out yet, but Hubs has covered the front porch in plastic, so when it does fall, it'll be easier to clean up.  

In gardening news, I picked my first tomato.  It was a grape tomato, so nothing spectacular.  Not even enough for a small salad.  There's another tomato ripening out there that's bigger.  It might give us enough slices to adorn two hamburgers.  There are loads of tomato flowers, but no more fruits yet.  The taters are huge and bushy.  The carrots are growing right along.  I had to put two tiny oak trees out of their misery, but loads of other trees are still doing fine - including several of the ones that the critter munched.  Randy and Rudy Redbud are... wait for it... still alive!  Hubs was in the yard and noticed that while all their leaves were eaten, the stems were solid and now they're starting to grow new leaves!  Yay!  

Last night, we had a humdinger of a storm.  Actually, we had storms throughout the day, but last night's was larger.  And it came with two tornado warnings within minutes of each other - neither of which was actually close to the house.  Eh, it's better to be alerted about these things than get blindsided, so there ya are.  Between the day storms and the night storm we lost power probably 4 times.  I hate resetting clocks.  I hate flashing clocks more, though, so there ya are.

The does are all post-pregnant, I think.  I saw the first set of fawns yesterday.  Yay.  I still have no pics of fawns, though.  

And I think that's it for me.  Here's to a stress free week for us all.  Feel free to drop a comment and tell me how your week went.  

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 23

Well, here we are at the start of another week, which means wrapping up the week before.  Lemme warn ya, though, it wasn't that exciting of a week...

I did write.  I got out 3025 words over 3 days.  Then I fell into the lazy pit.  I think I have a title for the book now, though - Song of Dream and Dragon.  Although, that doesn't feel quite right.  The dream part feels right, but the dragon part... not so much yet.  And the song part?  Meh.  Dream of Dread and Dragon, perhaps?  We'll see.

Marketing went rather crappily this week as FB twisted the rack on me.  When I switched marketing images to one without the word 'dead' in it, things went easier, but for pitysakes, how does one talk about FB's forbidden subjects without using any of the forbidden words?  Nope, still don't have the funds to pay for marketing, so there ya go.

Not much reading this week.

In baking news, I made Irish Soda Bread, which is so insanely easy I wonder why I never tried it before.  Oh, yeah, buttermilk.  I never have buttermilk in the house and I thought making my own would be a PITA.  Turns out, it's not, so there ya go.  I made chicken stew to go with the bread.  Mmmm.  And yesterday, I made pizza.  Yum.

On the activity front, I was pretty much a toad last week.  We did get one walk in and I did some stuff in the greenhouse, but other than that, nope.  Weight:? - don't ask.

The inside of the greenhouse looks like a rainforest.  Still only two tomatoes, but plenty of flowers on all three plants.  I planted the three peppers from the rescue I did at the feed store.  They're doing okay, but they came with issues, so I'm not holding out too much hope.  I thinned the carrots again.  Then I watered everything and fed the food plants (with store-bought food this time... the weed tea stinks so bad I'm giving that idea up.)  I'm thinking about taking more of my potted trees and transplanting them back into the wild - to free up space in there and to give them all a better chance at thriving.  As long as the deer don't eat them, that is.

Speaking of deer... The deer are pretty much all post-pregnant and they're starting to bring their babies to the yard.  Yay.  In Boo news, several of the deer have developed a taste for my irises.  When I see them eating my irises, I go out and chastise them, but they don't care.  One of the does looked up at me with an iris leaf hanging out of her mouth and then proceeded to munch it whilst I was scolding her.  On the upside, they haven't bothered my second redbud tree - Rudy - yet.

Not much else going on around here.  I'm hoping for a better writing week and to up my activity.  Tune in next Sunday to see how that goes.  Anyway, thanks for stopping by.  Feel free to chat about your accomplishments in comments.  Peace out.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 22

Here we are again at another Sunday.  It's the last day of May, which is my favorite month, but all good things must come to an end, eh?

Writing went well this week.  I wrote every day Monday-Friday and added 4758 words to my manuscript.  I think I'm finally in a place where I can tell you what I'm working on... :drumroll: The next book in the Shroudlands series.  It's up to 32240 words now, so yay.  I'm not laying out a whole shit-ton of words each day, but it's enough.  No clue when it'll be finished.  The point here is that I am writing again.  And once I get comfortable with being a writer again, I might finally get back to editing Duke Noble #3.  

Marketing occurred.  Not a lot of it, but it happened.  I moved 29 copies of Early Grave and someone bought a copy of Fertile Ground, so yay me.  May wasn't the best month this year, but it was better than nothing.

Reading... don't ask.  Despite my reading slump, I bought 8 new-to-me books last week, because I am a book-buying addict.  I picked up some NF books we didn't have and a Ken Follett I haven't read before.  Woot.

On the activity front, I wasn't too awfully active, but I did get some stuff done.  I vacuumed and dusted the whole house - 1700 sq ft worth - so go me.  I also did some gardening stuff.  And yesterday, we took a walk.  Weight: 178.6 - which isn't as low as I'd like, but better than I feared it would be when I stepped on the scale.

As for gardening, we planted two of my redbud trees in the ground - Randy and Rudy.  By the next morning, Randy was gone.  I haven't checked Rudy today but I am not holding out hope for his continued survival.  (Yes, I could surround him with wire, but if a critter REALLY wants to eat him, they'll get to him no matter what I do.)  Inside the greenhouse, everything seems to be thriving.  I need to repot some green peppers, now that I have two vacant bigger pots.  I still only have two tomatoes, but there's hope.  The potatoes have taken over.  

In exciting news, we've seen the first fawns of the year!  Brand new, still wet off the factory floor, baby deer.  New deer are so tiny!  (Of course.  They have a small door to go through when they first enter the world, so that have to be tiny.)  They grow fast, though, so we've already seen one that's less tiny.  Some of the deer were still pregnant as of last night, so there's more to come.  

I think that's it for me today.  Other things happened, but nothing of note.  Have a great day out there and a wonderful week.  :hugs:

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 21

 Good morning.  I'm not quite up to speed this morning.  I think it's Week 21.  :shrug:  Anyway, here goes...

I wrote stuff this week.  I managed four days in a row, but then I fell off the wagon and didn't write for three days.  Blerg.  I did get 3437 words out, so I'm not kicking myself.  Not hard anyway.  I'll write tonight if I have to stay up late doing it.  (No, I still have to write at night.  My creativity doesn't wake up until after 5pm. It sucks, but there it is.)  As of now, my WIP is up to about 27500 words.  For the record, this is a book I started writing 4 years ago (almost to the day* as it turned out).  I got to 20378 words before I stopped.

Marketing was pretty much a bust this week.  FB cracked down on me and I was only able to make one or two posts a day before it shut me down.  Bastards.  I did manage to move 25 copies of Natural Causes... which is kind of pitiful.  Not sure what I'll do this coming week.  

Not much reading occurred.

It was a slightly active week this week.  Mostly, I messed with the gardens.  I also did some cleaning and shopping stuffs.  I didn't bother to weigh myself.  Who needs that kind of negativity?  ;o)

The gardens are doing well.  Everything in the greenhouse seems to be thriving.  I gave them all a healthy drink of nettle tea a couple days ago, which I guess they like.  It's supposedly full of nutrients.  Stinks to high heaven, but nobody ever promised homemade plant food would smell good.  I have two little tomatoes and plenty of tomato flowers, so yay.  The carrots in pot #1 are getting taller.  Carrot pots #2 & #3 need thinning again.  The potato plants are HUGE.  Pedro is a monster.  I just hope they're growing tubers underneath all that greenery.

The foxes are back.  I watched one for quite a few minutes yesterday.  It was a little fox and I think it was practicing hunting.  It said there, staring into the grass beside the neighbor's driveway and tilting its head back and forth like it was hearing something yummy.  Then it got bored and trotted away.  

I chatted with a neighbor who told me they had a fawn in their yard the other day.  I'm totally jealous.  But still, it means the fawning has begun, so yay.  Not sure which doe is post-pregnant yet.  It's not Sissy - she's still fat pregnant.  Fingers crossed that soon I'll have baby deers on my trail cam.

It was my annibirfsary week.  We ate a boatload of cake.  Other than that, not much celebrating happened.  I mean, kisses and snuggles and all the good things that come with being with the one you love for 22 of your 56 years, but no prezzies or singing.

 Other than that, not much going on around here.  What's going on around there?

*I started writing the book on 5/13/22 - wrote words for about a month and gave up.  I picked the book back up again on 5/12/26.  I didn't plan that.  It was just the book that called to me.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 20

Here we are again at another week.  Let's see what happened.

I wrote.  I still don't want to talk about it much.  Suffice it to say, I wrote 4 nights in a row and ended up with around 2800 new words, all on one WIP, so there ya go.  I'm not celebrating, in case this is an anomaly.  The hardest part about writing after so many months away is retraining my fingers to type as much as I want for as long as I want.  Derp.

I marketed.  A little.  Blink moved a whole 17 copies.  Woot.  Not sure what this week will bring.  I'm at the end of a 90 day KDP reup, so this week might be a little iffy.

Reading still isn't a thing, but I made a little progress with Rudy.

In baking news, yesterday, Hubs made me a cake from scratch - yellow cake, chocolate frosting with a layer of strawberry jam in the middle.  Yum.  It's not the prettiest thing, but it's been more than 20 years since he made a cake, so I'm not harshing him too much about it.  He was going to make the frosting, too, but after the cake wouldn't come out of the pan and ended up kinda roached, he left the frosting to me.  Hey, it tastes good and he tried, so that's all that matters.

On the activity front, I wasn't.  I did some garden stuff and I went shopping.  Meh.  Didn't bother weighing myself.  Weight: Fat.

The trail cam has been fun.  See yesterday's post.  The new mower is awesome.  So's the new greenhouse.  Shopping for the win.  Woot.

The garden is growing right along in the greenhouse.  I have one little grape tomato growing and one little Early Girl tomato.  The green peppers are trying to come back from getting munched, as are the black cherry and the persimmon.

Yesterday, I cut my hair.  Short.  It was bugging me, so off it went.  It looks pretty cute, if I do say so myself.  No, there aren't any pics.

Speaking of cake... Today is our anniversary.  22 years.  Go, us!  And tomorrow's my birthday.  56 years.  Go, me!  (Yes, people shouldn't leave important dates lying around the internet, but we make sure we never use those dates in any security questions or passwords, so there ya are.)  We aren't doing anything for either.  We don't give each other cards or gifts anymore.  I think that stuff stopped about 15 years ago.  We're happy with each other and celebrate each other every day, so no prezzies are necessary.

And that's it for me today.  What's been up with you lately?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week Something or Other

First off, Happy Mother's Day to those who are moms or have moms.  My furbabies are unimpressed by the holiday, as is my human baby.  I'll call my own mom in a while.

Not much is going on in my little portion of the world.  I'm still stuck in what basically amounts to neutral.

The gardening is going okay.  I planted some more carrots this week and I fertilized everything using used coffee grounds.  One heaping spoonful per plant.  Then I watered everything.  One of my munched green peppers has itty-bitty leaves, so it's trying to live.  My black cherry and persimmon trees are showing signs of life.  Also, I picked more nettles to refresh my 'weed tea'.  In about 10 days, I'll use it to fertilize the plants again.  (I saw a video saying potted tomatoes need to be fertilized every ten days, so I'm going with that.)

If you missed yesterday's post, I set up my game camera and have started taking pics.  Except I messed with a setting somewhere and last night's trial was a bust.  No night pics at all.  Derp.  The worst thing about this camera so far is the lack of instructions.  And no, the company's website doesn't help.  At all.  Derp.  I'll fuss with it later.  Anyway, here's me feeding the deer this morning.  

Yes, I look fat and old.  No, I don't really care.  Like Popeye, I am what I am.

Early in the week, Hubs and I mowed the lawn.  I love the new mower.  It's so light and so easy to start.  Yay.  I got in some other activity this week, too, but not really anything specific.  I doubt any of it had any effect on my EWA.  Earlier in the week, I weighed myself, so... Weight: 177.8

We've been seeing foxes in the yard.  At first, I thought it was one fox, but over the past week, I've gotten better looks at them all.  From my estimation, we have three young foxes and one older fox.  Or rather, 3 that are about 2/3 size and one full size.  One of the little ones has a white patch on its side, another has a dark patch, and the third is uniform in its grizzled gray/red.  So yay.  I hope they stick around.  They're good for eating vermins.  I do hope they don't eat the baby raccoon.  Then again, I hope the coyotes don't eat them.  Nature's a bitch sometimes.

Other than that, not much going on around here.  I need to get off the net call my mom and wish her a Happy Mother's Day.  Later, Hubs will call his mom.  All is well.  Have a great day, wherever you are.  

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 15

 Here we are again at the beginning of another week.  Time to look at last week.

Book marketing was done.  I moved 52 copies of Fertile Ground.  From previous marketing, I had page reads of Dying Embers and Song of Storm and Shroud.  Oh, and Wish Hits the Fan goes on freebie starting tomorrow.

Reading is still going slow, but I am reading, so I have that going for me.  I'm about a third of the way through Leadership by Rudy Giuliani.  It's really interesting.

No baking.  Which is good because my EWA doesn't need the calories.  

I was pretty active this week.  I did a hard target walk, vacuumed, worked on the deck garden, and planted trees in the woods.  I haven't weighed myself, though, so whether any of that is starting to shrink my ass?  Dunno.  

Speaking of gardening, Pedro Potato is getting tall.  I have another pot with tiny potato plants coming up, too.  One tomato and two of the peppers have flowers.  The carrots are growing right along and need thinning again.  Then there are the trees.  They all seem to be doing well.  The one unknown tree has been identified as a persimmon, so yay.  Thank you to whatever squirrel or bird planted that seed in my garden last year.  

Speaking of trees, Cecil and Clyde went into the woods.  They're my oldest two cedars and it was time.  When I turned Cecil out of his pot, it was obvious he needed more space.  He was getting rootbound in there.  Clyde probably could've spent another year on the deck, but like I said, it was time.  I can still see Cecil from the house, so yay.  Fingers crossed that nature doesn't harsh my babies.

Pregnancy abounds in the deer herd, so yay.  Lumpy is still rolling along, but does not appear pregnant, which is a mercy.  We also have phoebes nesting under the deck and chickadees using our birdhouse.  I love Spring.

Other than that, life is pretty boring here.  What's up with you?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 14?

 Well, crap... it's Sunday again, isn't it?  Since I can't figure out what day it is most of the time, you shouldn't be surprised that I'm not sure what week it is.  Anyway...

Nope on the writing / editing.  I'm having stern talks with myself.  I may banish myself with my Kindle and my notepad to the spare room until I finish editing the damn book I should've finished editing months ago.  I think the main problem here is I'm stuck in the 'I suck and I hate this book' mindset, so it's hard to make progress on something you're pretty sure stinks.  And if you suck, how can you fix something that stinks?  :shrug:

Yep on the marketing.  Not a banner week, but still, something is better than nothing.  No clue what's going to be on the block for this week.

No reading.  Seriously, I don't think I even picked up my book last week.  Derp.

No baking happened, but I did make ham & bean soup yesterday.  It turned out really yummy and it used up the last of my Easter ham, so yay.

I was pretty active this past week - mostly with the deck garden.  I did take two hard-target walks for 1.75 miles.  I also did some cleaning and furniture moving.  I'm also trying to eat better - more salads, less crap.  Unfortunately, I stepped on the scale yesterday and had gained two pounds.  Derp.  Weight: 179.4

As for gardening, I have all my produce seeds/plants in the ground now - potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and green peppers.  We'll see how those go.  I realized yesterday that I fucked up with Pedro.  I was supposed to cover him with dirt while he was still small - to encourage root growth.  But I was so pleased with Pedro's growth, I totally forgot to mound him in dirt.  He is pretty spectacular.  I'll mound the other potatoes.  

I spent some time shopping this week - Tractor Supply and Wallyworld.  I do love Tractor Supply, and they had dirt 'buy one get one 50% off', so I had that going for me.  Yes, I am a redneck.  Wallyworld was Wallyworld.  

Oh, I saw Beauregard the Broad-Winged Hawk twice this past week.  One time, he flew beneath the smoking room windows, so I got a really close view of him.  He's pretty awesome.  On another bird note, the Barred Owls have been hanging out close to the house, so we've heard them hooting for a few nights/mornings in a row.  This morning, one of them must have been in the yard because the hooting was really loud.  Awesome.

And that's about it for me.  I need to figure out what I'm going to do today and try to avoid sitting in front of the TV for the majority of it.  A walk is in order, definitely.  The rest?  Time will tell.  Have a great day wherever you are.  

Monday Update - 2026 Week 13

 Yesterday was a holiday, but let's face it, I can't blame Easter for my totally forgetting to post.  I'm late today because I overslept because cat-antics wouldn't let me sleep and then I was up until after midnight.

Let's not talk about writing, eh?  Although, I did think about writing.  For some reason, a story I started years ago but never finished popped into my head late last night and wanted me to write it RIGHT THEN.  But I was trying to get to a place where I could sleep, so I ignored it.  I take the fact that stories are demanding to be written as a good sign, but so far, that's all it is - a sign.  

The big marketing a whole series thing last week went okay.  It looked better than it was because I had three books being downloaded, but per book, it wasn't great.  Today, Song of Storm and Shroud is up for a 5-day freebie.  (SONG OF STORM AND SHROUD - an epic fantasy for kids and adults alike - is free today through Friday. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W745M6P)  Unfortunately, I woke up late and haven't really done any marketing beyond posting to my pages on FB.  :shrug:  I'm tired and unmotivated.

Not much reading this week.  I really am a toad.

In baking news, I made applesauce bars (B-) and raisin-apple bread pudding (A-).  Plus, I baked the ham for Easter (A+).  

On the activity front, I took two walks for about 2 miles. I also did stuff in the deck garden - moving pots, etc.  Last night, I moved a bookshelf and all its books, so that was active.  (Sawyer was being turd and using it as a springboard to get onto the TV shelf.)  After all the ham I ate yesterday, I'm not going to weigh myself, but when I weighed myself last Tuesday, I was at 177.4.

Ah, the garden.  It's rolling right along, as you could see from my post last week.  I did plant more carrot seeds to replace the ones that pooped out on me.  The feed store has their tomato plants in, but I have to wait until I'm flush again before I buy those.  Later this week... I hope.  None of Pedro Potato's kinfolk have come up, so I'm getting ready to plant more taters.  :fingers crossed:

Other than that, not much going on here.  I did mention I was a toad, didn't I.  

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 12

Hello.  I'm up obscenely early for a Sunday, but that's on the cats.  They didn't like last night's food, so they're being turds.

I thought about writing and editing this week.  That may be a sign that I'm jones'n for it.  Shhh, don't frighten the gumption away.  Marketing went crickets on me.  I only moved 15 copies of UNEQUAL.  :shrug:  Tomorrow starts a 'series bonanza' - something different I'm trying - wherein all the books in the A Model Curse series will be free for 5 days.  I've already set up tomorrow's post on that.  

I started reading a book.  Woot.  I'm about a quarter of the way through Leadership by Rudy Giuliani.  

No baking.  I did make a really tasty sweet & sour chicken dish, even if the breading on the chicken did go pear-shaped* on me.

On the activity front, I was a little active this week.  It was mostly garden work - removing detritus from the outside beds and working on the potted plants on the deck.  We did walk once, though.  Go us.  I haven't weighed myself.  Weight: Fat

The potted plants seem to be doing okay.  I'm not sure if I mentioned that 3 out of my 4 pots worth of tiny carrot plants died, but the 4th pot is doing good.  I will be thinning that this week and replanting the other pots with new carrot seeds.  I have 1 tiny potato plant coming up, which thrills me no end.  The repotted green peppers are all doing well.  All six of my redbud trees have leaves.  The redbud I thought was dead is trying, so yay.  Both of my remaining dogwood trees have tiny leaves.  The three mystery trees are all doing really well.  I'm no longer sure that one is a black cherry, but I'm getting more sure that one is a buckthorn.  We'll see.

I did try to do some carving this week.  I was really getting into it when the gouge slipped and I perforated my thumb knuckle.  That'll teach me.  Of course, I wasn't wearing the safety gloves.  I hate gloves when I have to actually do anything with my hands.  Of course, I'll be wearing them the next time I carve, because while I am sometimes foolhardy, I'm not stupid.  Live and learn.  Thankfully, it wasn't a large perforation and I'm a good clotter.  I'm just waiting to be 100% sure it won't open back up before I go back to strenuous hand activities.  

Other than that?  :shrug:  I hope you had a good week last week and that this coming week is amazing for you.

*a British phrase that I appreciate, so I'm gonna use.  What's English if not an opportunistic language that rummages through the pockets of other languages looking for spare phrases and shiny euphemisms?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 11?

 I counted and it was week 11, but I could've miscounted.  :shrug:  I could go online and check, but meh.  I'm unmotivated this morning.  Big surprise, I know.  Bu then I haven't been overflowing with motivation this year, have I?

You know the drill... no writing, no editing.  The usual marketing.  I moved 20 copies of Project Hermes.  No residuals there yet.  On the upside, my previous marketing efforts have gained me 20+ sales this month so far.  It might not seem like much, but it's better than all but 2 months in the last couple years at least.  So yay.  This week UNEQUAL will be free.  The week after that the entire A Model Curse series will be free.  

No reading.  I DNF'd the book I was reading because it wasn't holding my interest enough.  :shrug:  I might try some non-fiction for a while and see if that sparks me.

No baking.  Which works for me because my ever-widening ass could use a break from all that.

On the activity front, I was pretty busy.  I only spent one day sitting on said EWA.  It's Spring and all the things need doing.  Plus, we had what appears to be the last cold days until next fall, so we were in the woods doing work.  I don't know my weight because stepping on the scale is depressing.  

One of the 'needs doing' things is clearing my garden beds of the leaves from last fall.  Yesterday, I hauled about 4 wheelbarrow loads of leaves out of the front garden.  My peonies are happy now.  Today, I need to do the shade bed and the south bed.  That'll leave me with the cedar bed in the middle of the yard, which needs weeding more than leaf removal.  

I've also been working on my deck garden.  (See Wednesday's post.)  Unfortunately, it seems like I killed two pots worth of carrots somehow.  I suspect I either knocked them down the day I had to water with the big jug or the first really hot day zapped them.  It disheartening, but I have more seeds, so I can plant again.  Still no sign of the potatoes.  They have until the next time I hit the grocery store (10 days at least) and if I don't see any signs of growth, I'll buy more potatoes to plant.  

I went to Wallyworld.  Yes, prices are up again.  No, I'm not pissed... well, not much... because at least there's a good reason behind it.  I can bear the burden of higher prices if it means crushing the Iranian regime.  The little bit of pissed I am comes more from the idea that some of these prices were raised in anticipation of rising costs.  

Not much else going on in my life, really.  It's hot but I'll get used to it.  I'm a little sore from bending over the garden yesterday, but I'll get over it.  All in all, I don't have much to bitch about.  (Not that that's ever stopped me before. LOL)

Have a great day out there, whatever you're doing.  Peace out.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 10

Well, there's another week shot to hell gone by.  What happened?  :shrug:  Drama llama.

Of course, there was no writing or editing.  Marketing was done, but little movement of books was seen.  I moved 28 free copies of WIOH and got one sale for that after the freebie was over.  I'm still moving some SCIU books, though, so yay.  I've actually sold nearly 15 books this month - regular sales and pages reads - so I can't gripe.

No reading.

No baking.

Very little carving.

I did some cleaning and some garden work, so 4 out of 7 days had some activity.  I didn't weigh myself.

In garden news, I have tiny carrot seedlings in all four pots.  I'll thin those when they get a little bigger.  Nothing's happening in the potato pots, except for the ravages of a squirrel that decided it wanted to dig around.  Little bastard.  I've treated all those pots with chili powder and no more forays from Mr. Squirrel since.  It also looks like a majority of my baby trees have signs of leave buds.  Some of them even have leaves!  Everything needs to go in the garage today, though, because we're getting a freeze starting today.  

In other garden news, I've cleared the dead leaves out of 4 beds now.  Only five more beds to go.  The beds should be fine in the freeze.  

Other than that, we've been in the clutches of family drama again.  I can't give the details because they're not my details to give.  Needless to say, though, it's been all-encompassing and there's been very little room in my brain for anything else.  

A couple of days there, I did get out of the house and hit the thrift store for a little retail therapy.  The first time, I didn't buy anything.  The next day, I went back for a couple things I'd seen, since I'd had time to think about them.  Item 1: I got a handmade wood cabinet with shelves and a door for $10.  The door's hinges were wonky, though.  I tried to fix it, but in the end just removed the door.  Now it's a nice shelving unit. The other thing I got was a pair of stackable shelving units ($15 for both).  They're not high enough to put books in, so I gave them to Hubs for the garage.  Woot. I also picked up a cute painting of birds and birdhouses.  The painting is on wood and it was only $1, so yay.  I had intended to buy this neat kitchen island thing, but in the end, I didn't think it would fit in my car.  

Once the shelving unit was cleaned and polished, I put it in the living room and shifted books onto it from the full office shelves.  Then I shifted books around in the office.  I have room on my shelves again!  It was getting pretty close to me needing to thin my library out, so yay.  (I hate thinning my library.)  

On the upside, it seems like the family drama is finally actually over and all is well again, so we can get back to using our brains for something other than that.  Woot.  I actually have been feeling like I need to write, so maybe next week you'll get to see something about that.  I'm not promising anything, though.

Anyway, that's it for me.  Have a great day wherever you are.  :hugs:

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 9

 Argh.  Time change... I'm later posting this than I thought I was.  Derp.  

I didn't get much sleep last night.  I went to bed at 9 like a good girl, but I couldn't sleep and then Sawyer was being a turd, so I just got up.  I finally went back to bed at midnight.  Unfortunately, I still laid there.  And I had no sooner fallen asleep when I had to pee.  

Anyway...  Per my current outlook on life, no writing or editing.  I did some marketing for AD, but didn't really move many books.  Tomorrow WIOH goes on the freebie block.  (You might notice that for this 90-day run, so far, the books have been in the order in which they were published.  I'm not sure how long I'll continue this, but there it is.)

I'm still reading duMaurier.  I'm about halfway through.

Earlier this week, I made raisin walnut quick bread.  Yums.

On the activity front, it's been less about burning calories than accomplishing stuff.  I did some gardening and some carving, groceries, etc.  I haven't weighed myself since last week.  I don't expect the number to have changed.

As for carving, all my supplies are here and I'm in the process of teaching myself how to use the tools.  I have a big chunk of cedar on the sunporch for that purpose.  While I was messing with it, a thin piece came off in my hand, so now I'm carving on that.  It's probably 8 inches by 4 inches and maybe a third of an inch thick.  It's shape reminded me of feathers, so I'm trying to make that happen.  I also might cut the end of the chunk off to make myself a cube of wood and turn that into a sphere.  Additionally, my salesman brain got the idea to carve baby bunnies wearing diapers... and now I know that there are places where you can buy diapers to put on rabbits.  Anyway, I'm still excited about the hobby, so yay.

On the gardening front, I planted the carrot seeds and the potato chunks.  Now we wait.  Still no sign from most of the trees that they are, in fact, still alive.  :shrug:  It's early yet.  If they don't make it, I'll use their pots for veggies and other volunteer trees and try again next year.  This isn't a short game I'm playin' here.  Oh, and I need to move my pepper plants outside.  Heh, one of my peppers has a carrot growing in with it.  A baby carrot I bought to eat was starting to grow in the fridge.  I cut the top off and stuck it into a pot with one of the peppers.  It's kinda cute, so I'll keep it.

Anyway, I think that's it for me this morning.  Not exactly what you might have stopped here looking for, but I hope my humdrum existence was a little interesting for you.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 8

Well, we're bombing the hell out of Iran.  Yay.  The Ayatollah is dead.  Also yay.  We're hitting military targets, those fuckers are hitting civilian targets.  Not so yay and also proof that what we're doing needs to be done to completion and not half-assed like the Gulf War.  The good people of Persia are happy we're doing what we're doing.  Anyone not happy can go pound sand.  But they better do it fast before we turn it into glass.  Glass up your ass.  :gigglesnort:

Anyway, my life...

No writing or editing.  I'm not sure when I'll do that again, but I'm not calling it quits, so the blog title stays.  I did some marketing, which for some reason took off like a rocket and garnered me some sales.  I finished February with 17.16 books sold for $29.76.  Not big money, but better than a sharp stick, so I'm happy.  And I've already got page reads this morning so my March dashboard doesn't look like a ghost town.  I'm not sure which book I'll pimp tomorrow, so stay tuned.

I read two books on wood carving this week.  One on whittling and the other a more comprehensive volume.  I'm also slowly making my way through The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne duMaurier.  

No baking.

Activity... It was a busy week for me.  I did something active 5 out of 7 days.  Early in the week, when it was still cool, I worked in the woods.  Other days, I did cleaning projects.  One day I did gardening.  I surprised myself by actually discovering visible biceps.  Woot, I have muscles again!  Unfortunately, I also ate like a horse this week, so... Weight: 177.2  =op

My wood carving hobby is getting exciting.  Like I said, I read two books about it, and since my tools arrived on Friday, I can now get started learning by doing - which is my preferred way to learn anyway.  

As for gardening, I moved all my baby trees outside.  I also filled pots with dirt and I'm ready to plant carrot seeds.  I'll be ready to plant potatoes once I cut my starter spuds into quarters, dry those cut edges, and buy more dirt.  All things in their own time, I guess.  I'll also be planting tomatoes once the local store starts carrying seedlings.  Oh, and I have three green pepper plants that made it through the winter in my spare room, so those'll be going into pots and outside once the weather is guaranteed to not turn to freezing.  

All in all, life is pretty good here.  I'm busy-busy, even if it's not writing related, and I'm okay with that.  (Not super-okay, otherwise, I wouldn't feel the need to go on and on about it, but okay enough for now.)

How are things in your world?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 7

Sorry I spaced out last week and didn't do a Sunday Update.  There really wasn't much to talk about that week anyway, but still, it was rude of me.  This week... Well, there's not much to talk about either, but here I am.

No writing, but I did do some editing.  I really need to get off my ass and get this book finished.  In order to do that, though, I need to stop wondering whether anyone actually cares.  (Beyond a couple of people, that is.  They know who they are and they know how much I love them.)  I marketed, but it was pretty much crickets.  Tomorrow, Dying Embers goes on freebie, so we'll see if anything comes of that.

In reading news, I started a SF, read about a third of it, and DNF'd it.  It wasn't bad.  It was just not giving me any reason to finish reading it.  I sometimes wonder if that's what other people feel about my books.  (Then I remind myself I have plenty of people reading my books all the way through in KU.)  I started reading Flight of the Falcon by Daphne duMaurier on Friday, though, so I've got that going for me.

In baking news, I made a chocolate oil cake with strawberry jelly and vanilla frosting.  Yummers.

On the activity front, Hubs and I are over the crud finally, so we're making an effort on turning back into humans, as opposed to the slugs we were.  While it was still unseasonably warm, we took walks Mon, Tues, Wed for about 2.15 miles.  Then it got cool and we worked in the woods Fri and Sat for around 3 hours.  I also did some cleaning and shopping.  Weight: 176.2 (the poundage I lost to the flu jumped right back on me... derp)

Due to the woods working, I'm pretty sore today.  Throwing logs will do that to a body.  We're mostly through cleaning up the top branches of that sycamore that fell over 2 years ago, so yay.  Funny thing about that sycamore.  It turned brittle.  I went to saw the limbs and they snapped off in my hands like bread sticks (the crunchy kind, not the Olive Garden kind).  Good thing we weren't planning on trying to burn that.  

Speaking of the downed sycamore, that bastard tree took out two perfectly good dogwoods when it crashed.  I've got a large chunk of the bigger dogwood that I may try to carve into someone once I get some carving experience.  I'm thinking I need to carve a dog out of the dogwood, or would that be too obvious? :smirk:

Oh, and I got our taxes done yesterday.  Woot.  If you're using TurboTax, you have until 2/28 to do them at a discount.  Which was enough of a poke in the ass to get me to do mine.

I think that's it.  I'll try not to forget to post on Sundays from now on.  Have a great day and an awesome week.  :hugs:

Updated:  After Silver pointed out that the title of today's blog said 2025, I changed it.