goals – Jwls Mac Ray

Almost The New Year

Posted on December 9, 2019 by 2bcreativeblog

This year has been rather chaotic. I am going to make 2020 more organized and little procrastination!

No, seriously, I am going to get crap done and be organized! I think I had seven years off (no outside job) from mega chaos and now I don’t remember how to fit it all in without feeling overwhelmed. It actually helps me to be busy in order to get cleaning, stuff I enjoy, and kids stuff done. I was getting too use to sitting around and taking my sweet time. I will say it was enjoyable! Now, I will have something more to look forward to when I don’t have to work or kids in the house to pick up after. 🙂 Even though I do enjoy it!

Though having kids in the house does make the days happy and not lonely. I’m not sure if I will be lonely when the kids are all on their own. Though the way things have been going, one of the kid’s usually need a place to stay when things are rough for them. I truly don’t mind that because rent is outrageous on their own. Plus, it gives me someone to have around and cook for, when I want to cook. Lately, I have not wanted to cook, running out of ideas, or maybe I’m just losing my appetite. 😦

I am finding out having a job at home is as challenging if not more challenging than having one outside the home. I just need to shut my door and say I’m working! I get interrupted all the time. I like having the work at home job because I can make my own schedule, but then sometimes I don’t do time management as well as I should. Another task to work on for the new year. My sons’ could use some time management as well. 🙂

This year I did horrible at reading books! Only 3 read, but in my defense, my job requires a lot of reading so that did a bit of procrastination to not read books. I do want to! I need to write more because I feel happier when I write whether it is my stories or blogging or both! 🙂

I tried to make myself participate in NaNoWrimo this year but no luck, major writing block. Once again that time management thing.

Do you have any goals for the New Year?

Read
Write
Manage time better
Organize my clutter 🙂
Get rid of stuff (my kids will be happy)
Pay a couple bills off! (paid 2 in 2019)
Regular cleaning schedule.
Work, work, work
Fun time with hubby and kids.
Be healthy!

My Poetry

My January 2019

Posted on January 24, 2019 by 2bcreativeblog

New lists,
Old goals. 
Same work,
Some chores.
Mostly smiling,
Rarely crying.
Birthday approaching,
Crackling knees.
January ends,
February begins.


©JwlsMacRay2019

Simply sums up my month of January. 🙂 It has been a decent year thus far. A few bumps in the road but more good happenings. It is currently cold and a bit of snow on the ground. Though we have had some nice weather this month as well. Tonight is so far the coldest night we have had to deal with. My ideal temp is around 40 – 50 if it has to be cold. I must say yesterday was 32 and it felt nice because the sun was out after hiding for some time and NO wind. It felt really nice. I can handle that. Today it was sunny but that dang wind was there.

Well, I best get off here and hit the pillow. I am trying real hard to get back to bed before midnight again. Sigh. I have been terrible with staying up until 1 or 2 because of my job. It has been the way the schedule has fell. My own fault. 🙂 Night!

Oh This or That, Ramblings

Step Step Step

Posted on January 8, 2018 by 2bcreativeblog

I realized my phone app had step challenges, like duh. I am so observant at times. LOL

I began doing them in November. As you can see, I didn’t get quite halfway. I didn’t even get a star! Boo hoo. A few steps were lost due to not charging my watch or grabbing the phone when I didn’t have my watch on, but that was only a few steps. And I rather enjoy sitting on my butt. 🙂

I need to change how I do stuff.

More get up and move breaks (my cave is in the basement, water on main floor)
Perhaps read while walking on the treadmill
Could always clean more (who couldn’t)
Go window shopping (that could be dangerous on the pocketbook)
Walk down to the mailbox (end of the street, cluster mailboxes)
I have 3 flights of stairs I COULD walk up and down

I will have to get creative! 🙂

Happy to say in December, I did go over halfway!

I didn’t make it because I had my grandson here so I had to play with him on the floor! LOL Good excuse huh? 🙂 By the next time I see him, he may be walking, then I will have steps galore! 🙂

Look, I did get one star bonus for achieving the steps in a certain amount of time. Yay me!

So far this month, I am doing great! I am going for all the steps! I have achieved a star, missed the second one by only a few steps. 🙂

I definitely feel better and the challenge gets me up and moving more so that is great!

Do you use a step watch or app or both? 🙂

I am amazed how many steps the top people get. Crazy but a good crazy! Goals are good to keep one motivated! Stay tuned!

Oh This or That, Ramblings

Time Goes Fast

Posted on October 19, 2016 by 2bcreativeblog

(credit to http://www.magnusflyte.com)

Loved this book. Lots of interesting characters that are fun and real. Friendships, little romance, and several murders mixed with time travel and a treasure hunt. Love the setting in Prague and the castles. The villain is an intriguing character with a KGB past. Lots of fun reading. Terrifically wrote! Recommend!

I had checked this out at the library and almost didn’t because it was such a long book. I actually read most of it yesterday. 🙂 Now, I want to read the next one.

So far my Goodreads reading challenge is at halfway. Better than last year, so that is ok. I probably could read the other half of the books but we are coming up on a busy time of year. I won’t hold myself to it. I should have read more earlier in the year.

Ooops. Goal for next year.

I am glad that I am reading regularly again. For the better part of twenty years I didn’t read much other than textbooks and kids books. I guess that counts. 🙂

Personal accomplishments since last blog:

Normal day-to-day house and kids’ taxi service. When will the taxi service stop? lol
Garage reorganized, again. Oldest daughter has her stuff in there now so it needed better placement. Now there is room for working on some furniture refinishing projects. And all the bugs are swept out for the Fall. It was bugging me seeing all of them. 🙂
Kids are doing good. Good grades. Youngest had broken his school tablet but since it was an accident at school and his first warning we didn’t have to pay for it. Thank goodness. That would have been tough. Still not a fan of having school laptops. I believe in paper and pen.
I still haven’t finished my Halloween decorating. Working on one wood project that will have Halloween on one side and Fall on the other. Will post when I complete this week. I’m not sure I will hand out candy this year. Our street gets really busy and one might as well sit outside and hand it out as many times as the doorbell rings. We have a doorbell camera and after a while last year it started going off on its own. Ghost? Maybe. lol

It’s been a bit productive. Time just flies so fast these days. I need more hours in the day to accomplish all that I want. I have stopped watching as much evening TV shows. I now catch up later with OnDemand. Lots of new shows. I really like Bull, Lethal Weapon, and Secrets and Lies to name a few.

I hope everyone has a lovely day and read something good! 🙂

Art Projects

Organization is Key!

Posted on January 31, 2016 by 2bcreativeblog

I have been seeing several posts on various internet sites for updating your filing cabinets. I finally got around to doing one of mine. I used the good ole duck tape squares again along with the thin duck tape. I like it a lot. 🙂

I am not sure about the sides yet or the other cabinet. I love the way the sun hits the prism and brings out the colors!

I was also glad to find my exacto knife which made cutting the center handle easy. No measuring required! Lol.

Inside one cabinet is normal paperwork. I tend to be a paper hoarder. I’m afraid if I throw an important paper away I might need it. My paperwork goes back years! I stress years! But I am slowly throwing some away just not those bills. 🙂

I have decided to use the other file cabinet to organize my paper stock. I did have them on a blue shelf divider thing but I found I didn’t use the paper much because it was difficult to see what I had. I figured lets file them away!

Now, I open the cabinet and I can see what I have. I am going to do other craft supplies the same way. The best part is the paper will not get dusty. I dislike dusty paper.

My first month of the year has been organizing. I think I have accomplished quite a bit.

I have done some book editing. Funny thing there, I discovered I had edited way more last year in a beta part of the software and had forgotten about it. When I took a break over the summer time I had forgot which software site I had used. The software I use had started a beta one for updating and moved it to a different internet address. I forgot about that. I had not saved it to my favorites. Ooops.

So when I picked back up editing in the Fall I opened the old software site because I was use to it. The new one I had used for just a month. I kept thinking, dang I know I had edited more, but I could not remember sites had changed. Crazy!

I love the site but one definite negative part was they didn’t automatically move over my work. Instead, one is suppose to import/export and redo where the chapters go. I’m sure I thought heck with that I will retype, catch more errors, and do my chapters again since I was not far into the editing. Normally, after editing I print out the chapter so I know where I was at. I had not done that. I am definitely doing it now. 🙂

My reading goal this year is 33 books! Yes, I went up even though I did not make my goal last year which was 25 I think. I like 3’s. Maybe it will help me to achieve it. LOL. I did read 2 books and almost have the 3rd done this January. I hope to keep with 3 a month for the low goal. Then that will leave December with no reading if I want. Seems December is tough for me to read during. I get into all the Christmas movies is my downfall. 🙂 I am missing those.

January has been good. I hope everyone else has had a good month! 🙂

Happy writing and happy reading! 🙂

Oh This or That, Ramblings

Calendar Journal

Posted on January 12, 2016 by 2bcreativeblog

I like to jot things down through the year on a calendar. Last year, I bought a quarterly calendar and it had a lot of room to write things where the date was. Then in April of last year I decided to go with the binder and filler pages. I enjoyed it and it had a lot of room to add pages if need be.

This year, I bought the binder again. I was surprised the store no longer carried the calendar refill. I pondered for the last week of what I wanted to do. I know I could have gone to an office supply store or order it online but my mind was thinking go more creative. What do I do but head to Pinterest for ideas. 🙂

Lots of neat free printables to choose from. 🙂

The one’s I chose.

I am pretty happy with them so far. Eventually, I want to make my own. I like doing that kind of stuff. 🙂

I put them in three sections.

I used my teddy bear stationery cut down to size. I have tons of stationery because we once had a small office and computer store. I am eager to get it used up so I can justify buying new stuff. LOL (I keep telling myself it needs all used up first but now I do have room for more so just maybe I can buy a couple new ones. 🙂 )

This is the front cover. 🙂

I figure the calendar is the perfect way to know what year the journal is. 🙂

The reason I use the smaller binder is when I carry my big purse I can place it in it. Plus, the smaller size uses less ink to print. 🙂 lol

How do you organize your year?

I had a good hair day today so I am going to post my selfie for the month. LOL

I chopped my hair about a month ago. She actually cut more than I wanted to but I like it ok. It will grow. I am thinking I want some color to it. I might even go brave with a hint of teal. ???? It will be a few months pondering time. 🙂

Novels

I Did It Again

Posted on October 20, 2015October 20, 2015 by 2bcreativeblog

I signed up for NaNoWriMo!

I have never won a November challenge. The last few years I have not accomplished writing even ten percent of the 50,000 word goal.

The only time I won was the April Camp challenge. I was determined then unlike the November ones. I don’t know if it is because of the holiday time so lots of distractions or what the reason is. But I am going to give it another try. Why not. Plus, I don’t like to give up. I say every year I am not going to do the November challenge but then I sign up. 🙂

(My photo writing this blog in my new teeny tiny comp book.)

(I think tiny items are so cute. I purchased these yesterday at my youngest son’s book fair. We had his teacher conference.)

The first novel in my series of books to write has the basic bones it just needs some more “fluff” to make it fun and interesting.

( My current book cover for book #1.)

I am not sure if I will ever be able to write several books in a year. This first book has taken me since 2012 to write. I have the second book started but only a few chapters done. It is the book I signed up to do the challenge.

When I edited the first book I shrunk it from 50,000 words to about 25,000 words. There was a lot of extra stuff that made no sense. I was laughing when I read it, it was that absurd. 🙂 I imagine I will be more of a short Novella writer instead of a full novel writer.

Cheers to everyone doing the challenge!

Time to eat breakfast, waffles with peanut butter on it. Yum! 🙂

Oh This or That

I Swear It Was Not That

Posted on January 21, 2015January 21, 2015 by 2bcreativeblog

A few weeks ago I ordered a new 2-page quarter year calendar journal from Day Timer. I was excited to open it when it arrived. The first thing I noticed was that it was for October, November, and December 2015. WHAT?

I can not believe I did not notice that when ordering it. I remember thinking October was an odd time to start a date book but I know you can get one’s that start in September, so I did not think anything of it.

I should have paid better attention.

But, all is not lost. January actually began the same day October will. I scratched out the October and put January on all the month’s pages.

February has a few extra days since it is actually November, crossed those out.

March is a bit more tricky. I crossed out the day of the week and will write above it the true day.

This all led to thinking, I can doodle and put color on the pages to hide the month and day when needed. Works pretty well. I always doodled on my notes when I was in high school and college. I also wrote with colored pen. Love colored pens.

Why, would I not send it back and get the real one?

I did not want to wait. LOL

Plus, why waste it. It is easily fixed and it was my error. I will make sure to double check the next quarterly calendar that I order in March!

I really like this one too.

It has a place for

To Be Done Today (Action List): I use this for the day’s task I want to complete. Some days it is huge and others I am rather lazy. Interesting to see what I really get done.

A section for appointments with the time beginning at 7am – 10pm: I put down kids’ schedules and mine. I write what I get accomplished plus how long. Good for making me write.

Phone call section, expense record section: Not much goes here. I do not get many calls. I sometimes use it for other things I want to track.

Next page is an entire page of work record: This is where all my ideas go. When I complete them I flip back and check them off. It includes my writing ideas plus all the art stuff I want to get done.

It even acts as a diary in a way. I will jot down funny stuff that happens or things I want to remember. I wish I had done this a long time ago with things the kids do or say. 🙂

In the beginning, I wrote down my New Year Goals. It will be fun to see what I achieve at the end of the year. I did another page with my creative goals. I put these on the beginning days 1-5 because the calendar did not arrive until after the 5th.

The best part, it fits in my purse. 🙂

5 Year Journal

Journal Dec 29-Jan 3 2015, That 5 Year Thing Again.

Posted on January 6, 2015 by 2bcreativeblog

This is my five year journal I bought in 2012. 🙂

December 29

Question: What are your top three wishes?

2012: To be loved, Peace between all of us, All of us to be healthy.

2013: A close family, Everyone healthy in the family, The family happy in their lives.

2014: Close family, Healthy family, Accomplished family.

December 30

Question: List what you’ve eaten for the past week.

2012: turkey, turkey, and more turkey. Love turkey sandwiches and lots left over from holiday. 🙂

2013: Turkey and too many trips to fast food hamburger places. We were lazy to cook after Christmas when the turkey ran out.

2014: Lasagne, salad, cucumbers, donuts, Pepsi, hamburger, chicken, little smokies, chili, candy, eggs, cereal, cookies. Did much better this holiday with the variety. 🙂

December 31

Question: What is your most cherished memory of this year?

2012: My oldest son graduating from high school. 🙂 Two graduated, two more to go!

2013: Finding out the daughter did get her Associates of Arts Degree from college. She achieved some of that while being deployed and stressed!

2014: Spending major holidays with kids and hubby. It won’t always happen as the family grows.

Image credit to Bing.com

January 1

Question: What is your mission?

2012: To have more energy to do the things I need and want to accomplish. I will finish everything I start this year and some past starts! 🙂

2013: To write and publish my first novel. To make some money writing. To lose 50lbs.

2014: To love my family, be healthy, and provide for them. To get that first book published. Get over the fear of people not liking it.

2015: To be healthy, happy, and accomplished! 🙂 To lose another 30lbs. I lost 20lbs last year! Yay!!!

January 2

Question: Can people change?

2012: People can change but they have to want to change. And some change without trying to or noticing that they did. They have to care to change for themselves first.

2013: I believe they can if they really want to. It helps when people are there to believe in them.

2014: Yes, but others need to open their eyes and see that it is possible.

2015: Yes, hopefully for the better. The other way is not so good.

Image credit to Bing.com

January 3

Question: What are you reading right now?

2012: Scarlett— love it! Had to read it after finishing Gone With The Wind. I had to know what they hoped would happen. The two authors’ writing is different but I enjoyed them.

2013: Several books at once. I never thought I would do that. Love reading again. Goal for year is 40 books.

2014: One book and one ebook. Goal is 52 books this year. (I only read 25, bummer.)

2015: One book and one ebook. I like the change from the electronic to the real deal of a book. Soon my creative cave will be done and I can bring the rest of my books from our other house. I use to buy them all the time but most I have never read. I have well over 1000 books. 🙂 I will probably bring only the hardback ones and the series paperback. I have tons of Harlequin books but think I will keep them at the other house. Way too many to bring here. Plus, need something there to read. 🙂 Goal this year is 40 but secretly hoping for more.

5 Year Journal

Journal Dec 26th – Jan 1st

Posted on January 14, 2014 by 2bcreativeblog

(Bing.com photo credit)

Dec 26th

Question? On a scale of one to ten, how spontaneous were you today?

2012

A big 1 🙂 It was a lazy day of watching TV with the hubby and doing absolutely nothing.

2013

Big 1 🙂 The day after Christmas is almost always just chilling at home. We watched some movies and barely moved from the couch.

Dec 27th

Question? When was the last time you felt at peace?

2012

I feel at peace now. I couldn’t say that a year ago. Things are going good. 🙂

2013

A couple weeks ago. We have had some mild family issues lately. We will get through it though and feel peace again. 🙂

Dec 28th

Question? Snuggle down or go out and play?

(Bing.com photo credit. Hide under the blanket! 🙂 )

2012

Snuggle down. A nice warm blanket.

2013

Snuggle! It’s a bit chilly out today! 🙂

Dec 29th

Question? What are your top three wishes?

2012

1. To be loved by my family. 🙂

2. Peace within my family. We’ve had some years of no peace.

3. All of us to be healthy because then we will be happy.

2013

1. A close family. We have been the closest this fall than any other time in a long time. 🙂

2. Everyone healthy in the family. No sadness.

3. The family happy in their life decisions. 🙂 No feeling sorry for oneself.

Dec 30th

Question? List what you’ve eaten for the past week.

2012

Turkey, turkey, and more turkey. 🙂 Love turkey sandwiches from leftovers of Christmas dinner.

2013

Turkey. Too many trips to fast food hamburger places. We were too lazy to cook after Christmas. 🙂

Dec 31st

Question? What is your most cherished memory of this year?

2012

My oldest son graduating from high school. 🙂 Two kids done, two more to go. Yay! 🙂

2013

Finding out the daughter did get her Associates of Arts degree from college. She achieved some of those credits while being deployed and stressed out. She is a strong woman! 🙂

Jan 1st

Question? What is your mission?

2012

To have more energy to do the things I need to do and want to accomplish.

I will finish everything I start this year. 🙂

2013

To write and publish my first novel. To make some money from writing. To lose 50lbs.

2014

To love my family, be healthy, and provide for them.

To get that first book published. Get over being scared of publishing and no one liking it.

It matters that I like it. 🙂

This is my year. I must believe that. 🙂

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