Feeling good and here's why ...

I'm feeling a little excited today and here is why ...

It's raining - again.  We have experienced a drought for a couple of years and that is a very dangerous situation for agriculture in the high deserts of Idaho. A running buddy and I slogged through four miles of drizzle today.

I have an approaching trip to visit my daughter and her family.  I am excited to spend some time with my granddaughters!

My boys will be home in a week to spend the summer.  Excited and apprehensive.  My cooking regimen will have to be changed up!

I registered my team for the Grand Teton Relay last night!

Training for Fit for Life Half Marathon is going well.

I have a mini book tour approaching.  (Okay, it's just lunch and a library signing, but I am looking forward to it.)

My next book is taking shape and I think it is going to be great!  I will soon be giving you some teasers here and on Running Granny Green, because ... well, it has some running lessons in it. That's all about that for now.

I'm going on a Friday night date with my hubby.  What's not to love?

Redecorating with Behr

My dear friend, Paulee, was visiting several weeks ago and told me, “Carol, the next time I come to visit we are painting your bathroom!”  Paulee is the kind of friend that loves me in spite of my faults and loves me enough to give me advice when needed.  She was right.  That bathroom was long overdue for a face lift.  What makes it worse is it’s the “public” bathroom in our house.  Everyone sees it.

And we're prepping!

While cleaning said bathroom this week I determined to come to a decision on a paint color.  After cleaning the bathroom I decided it would be a good time to tape and repair holes in preparation for the paint.  I am a bit under the gun as my two college student sons are coming home for the summer.  If I didn’t paint before they arrived, it wouldn’t happen until fall. 

Having prepped the walls and prepared my mind for painting (not my favorite pastime) I made the thirty minute drive to town that evening to purchase paint from Home Depot. (I could write much about my relationship with Home Depot, but that will have to wait.) Unfortunately, the paint swatch I had picked out did not come from Home Depot!  So I made a stab at a close match. I returned home with a gallon of BehrDusty Olive. I had difficulty sleeping as I was so excited to get those ugly blue walls covered!

Bright and early Thursday I donned my grubby painting clothes (Sorry, no selfies!) and began the chore.  I had nearly completed the task when my hubby arrived home for lunch.  I had used only about a quart of paint. While we were munching on the lunch that he so kindly prepared I mused, “I wonder if I have enough paint for the kitchen?”

I got a little carried away.

And so it continued.  The prep work involved climbing up and down to remove objects above the counter. And up.  And down.


Just one of four collections to remove and replace.

When the task was completed, I had upgraded two rooms for about $40 and my shoulders and ankles hurt. 

Such a difference!

I have a new favorite paint color and I am wondering if I have enough paint left to cover a dining room wall!

I love this rich color.

 Gone is the ugly blue glazed white stuff.  I wonder why I had that blue paint?

 

 



Fresh new look!

 

Those chairs are OLD, as in 100 years!

 

What do you think?  Should I paint the wall on the right of this photo! Maybe I should ask Paulee ...

Baking with sour dough

As if I don’t have enough interests to occupy my time and energy I was given a sour dough start by my friend, Nikki.  Read her blog HERE.  I’ve been trying to market my new book, finish my taxes, clean out a few closets, study for my new Sunday School assignment teaching the Old Testament, and write a couple more books. Now I have another hobby to play with!  I’ve used it four times.  The first attempt was sour dough Focaccia Bread that turned out like this! 



Sour Dough Focaccia Bread

Here is a link to the recipe!

Then I made sour dough pancakes.  They are always a hit. I baked a sour dough coffee cake.  I thought I took a photo, but I must have deleted it.   The coffee cake was yummy, too!

When I sent Nikki this photo bragging about my sour dough bread bowls, she replied, “You are on fire!  I haven’t used mine yet.”



Bread bowls I created on my own!

What? I’m wearing myself out in the kitchen out of a sense of duty to make use of the start she gave me and she hasn’t even used hers yet! I bet she will after she reads this post!

The marketing roller coaster

Wouldn't it be grand if every great idea simply sold itself?  Better yet, if every fabulous phrase ever penned (Well, we seldom pen anymore.  I call it "plunk out.") found its way to the eyes of a reader and inadvertently to the change in their pocket, writer's would be free to create and plunk out to their hearts' delight!  Unfortunately for us creative types, to fund our habits, we must market.  Creativity and the inspiration that springboards it is best accomplished in quietude. Marketing, on the other hand, involves telephones and messages.  It involves networking, both personal and virtual.  It involves copiers and envelops. It requires busyness.
While visiting with my sister the other day about an upcoming event and the work required to schedule another, she said, "I thought you liked talking to people."
She is correct.  I do like talking to people, even large groups of people.  It's the asking for permission to talk to them that challenges me!
For instance, I have a friend with a lead on a possible event (That's all the detail you get at this juncture). She gave me a phone number and said, "They are expecting your call." I was excited, but I put it off for a little while and when I did call, the contact was not in.  I have to call back!  I am really resisting the urge to see it as a sign that the event will fall through!
I am beginning to understand why so many people hire others to do their marketing.  I can tell you all the great things about a friend's product, but I keep expecting my books to speak for themselves.  I think they do, once they are read, but they don't call to people from a shelf, or the box in my car!
I'm trying some new things - phone calls for one!  I am also going to implement a newsletter for those folks who don't follow my blogs or Facebook. I am going to keep plodding along, because it's the writing (and the talking) that I love!

The work of writing

Ahh, the writing life!

The work of writing is not nearly as glamorous as one might imagine.  There is a lot of cutting and pasting and discarding that goes on and that is just the first draft!  It can get quite messy. If creating were the only aspect of the “work of writing” then there might be more glamour.  Editing can be drudgery and marketing - well, most of us are not very good at it!  Both must be done before the writer can make a profit.  I use the term “profit” loosely!  For me it seems that as I focus on one task, the others get neglected.  I have been attempting to market my new book, Milk Cans and Quilt Blocks, at the expense of my blogs and other writing projects.  When I immerse myself in writing, I don’t sell books!  It’s a vicious cycle, but I love it and so I muddle through!  Here is an overview of some of the projects, both writing and marketing, that I am tackling.

*Two books are completed and available for purchase – Gold Pans and Iron Skillets and Milk Cans and Quilt Blocks. Both are available HERE.

*I have a luncheon date with the Union County Nile Club and a Meet the Author event at The Cove Library. I am attempting to schedule a third event during the same trip.

*Daily I look for new ways to get the word out.  This blog is only one of them!

*I am collaborating on a children’s book with my sister who will be illustrating it.  Watch for more info on this one.  It is going to be fun!

*I am working on a book about the pains of running and the life lessons learned.  I am still mulling over a title.

*I am still sitting on the novel. I am not sure where I want to go with this. Self-publishing may or may not be the answer.

*And lastly, just waiting to be discovered like every other starving talent!

So, if you think I have quit writing, think again!  I am just missing in action while I attend to other things.  Often, those other things are people.  You see, that's why I write.  I have time to do the important things that arise during the day.  As a wise man once counseled, "People are not an interruption of our work.  People are our work."  It was good advice then and it's good advice now.

Happy Reading!

Homemade laundry soap and guilt

I love the scent of line dried clothing!

I just made my own laundry soap.  I didn’t do it out of a desire to connect with my pioneer roots or because I found a pretty picture on Pinterest that made me believe my house would be perfectly clean and organized if I made my own soap.  I didn’t do it because my mother made laundry soap with lye when I was a child and I was feeling reminiscent.  I did it out of guilt.

The leaders of my Faith have long taught that we should be prepared and frugal.  In event of an emergency we will not only be able to take care of ourselves, but lend aid to those around us. We call this preparation Provident Living. Some aspects of Provident Living are easier for me to comply with than others.  It’s easy for me to grow a garden because my husband does that.  He has a Green thumb. I enjoy reaping what he sows and find great satisfaction in filling mason jars with the bounty.  Physical health is also in my skill set.  I try to exercise regularly, eat a healthy (somewhat) diet and I know a few home remedies that come in handy on weekends and holidays. That’s when everybody always gets sick. Spiritual health is another goal I am continually pursuing.

I am not so good at storing sundries.  I told a friend once that I always think things should last longer than the do – for instance, a bottle of lotion.  She made a profound observation.

“I think that is just mortality.  Things are always wearing out.”  Good point.

Anyway, back to the guilt.  In our pursuit of Provident Living, we often have workshops aimed at Emergency Preparedness and Frugality.  I have participated in the Laundry Soap Lesson on more than one occasion and I have been skeptical.  I would rather clip a coupon than purchase all the ingredients to combine to make a mess while assembling the powdered cleaner.  I ignored the lesson and the counsel to store laundry soap. Recently, however, I was given a sample of the product and informed that it costs about $.03 per load.  Three cents!  My clothes seemed to come out just as clean as they did with my high efficiency, Oxi-added, liquid soap.  Maybe it was time to bite the bullet and be obedient.

The first step is a bit aromatic and my husband complained.

“What stinks?”

“It’s part of the laundry soap I’m making.  I’m trying to be obedient,” I replied.

“It’s making me sneeze.”

I promised it wouldn’t last forever and that it was a way to save lots of money.  That seemed to suffice.

I now have approximately six months’ supply of laundry soap in a bucket. It cost me about $15. I need to make another batch to be truly prepared.  Oh … and obtain a large bucket and a hand held dasher to really get the job done!  I’ve got a small washboard I use as a decoration.  I think that will have to suffice for now.  I would hate to get carried away!

What are you doing to be frugal, be prepared, or be obedient?

10 Best things about Maui

Rather than give a play-by-play of my vacation (I can do that well enough in person) I thought I would post a short list of my favorite things accompanied by a few photos!  Enjoy!

10 – Crashing surf and blowholes. We saw this one on a drive around West Maui.  It’s a sketchy road and makes the Road to Hana look like a highway!

9 – Seven Sacred Pools.  This freshwater dip was just what we needed after a two-mile 1000 foot climb to the waterfall that feeds them.

8 – Upcountry and Orchids of Olinda.  After this visit I believe even I can grow orchids! (Maybe not.)

7 – Road to Hana. Put it on your bucket list!

6 – Sandy Beaches. I even brought some of the sand home with me.  It’s in my ear canal. (That’s another story!)

5 – Lani Kai Snorkeling.  The captain was fabulous.  When the wind picked up he modified the cruise to find the best snorkeling spots.  The best, however, was his knowledge about humpback whales and the whale of a show that he found for us!

4 – Humpback Whales!  I wish I had some photos.  The competition for a female partner was incredible, as was the mother whale teaching her calf to breach.

3 – Humidity and 85◦. It occurred to me that there is no need to dust in Maui.  That's foreign to this country girl.

2 – Palm Trees!

   And more palm trees!

Did I mention palm trees?

1 – Hanging with my Hubby!

 

Things that didn't make the short list:

Lahaina, Banyan Trees, Hawaiian Shave Ice, Hot Island Glass, Haliimaile Coutry Store, and Ali’IKula Lavender farm, to name a few.