Task it Tuesday - Oct 13

Originally created by The Geeky Blogger, Task it Tuesday is a weekly meme to help you--and me--get things done. The challenge is to post a task or list of tasks you want to complete before next Tuesday. These tasks can help you with your blogging life, reading life, personal or professional life.

What an exhausting start to the week. My work from home day turned into showings, visiting clients, and running around until late. I used to do this before the pandemic. Why does it seem so much harder now? 

Luckily, I started off the week with a Bible study and prayer time, so if I focus on that instead of feeling overwhelmed the week will turn out right. 

Here is this week's to-do list:

• Daily Bible reading
• Walking three days
• Six meetings and one class
• Appointments with new clients
• Continue fall cleaning 
• Look into getting a small dumpster 
• Continue reading Systemology
• Continue reading The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street
• Review writing goals from 2020--DONE
• Start looking into a new publisher for three of my books :( 

I think that's it. What's on your list this week? Is there anything I can help do to motivate you toward meeting your goals?

Task it Tuesday - Sep 22

Originally created by The Geeky Blogger, Task it Tuesday is a weekly meme to help you--and me--get things done. The challenge is to post a task or list of tasks you want to complete before next Tuesday. These tasks can help you with your blogging life, reading life, personal or professional life.

Wow! What a week it has been. I accomplished more than planned, made that decision that had I been praying about (which didn't end up going as expected), and finally pulled the plug on some old blogs. 

Here is what I needed to accomplish last week:

• Daily Bible reading--DONE
• Finish social media calendar for book promotion--DONE
• Walking three days--DONE
• Two client meetings--DONE
• Stage new listing--Finishing tomorrow
• Continue fall cleaning--First floor done, maybe starting the second floor Sunday
• Change decorations--DONE
• Keep reading Morning Star--DONE
• Finish Chapter 5 in editing project--Halfway there
• Clean the shed roof
• Look into getting a small dumpster
• Set up Mass Save audit--DONE

The nice thing about fall cleaning, or spring cleaning for that matter, is that you go through things and consider what's worth keeping and what should be donated or discarded. My motivation to accomplish so much stemmed from the decision, which didn't work out. While I am disappointed, I've discovered God knows much more than me about what is best. So, while this door is closed, a window will open somewhere. 

This week's list looks like this:

• Daily Bible reading
• Walking three days
• Two client meetings
• Stage new listing
• Continue fall cleaning 
• Complete three marketing proposals
• Finish Chapter 5 in editing project
• Clean the shed roof
• Look into getting a small dumpster 
• Three meetings
• Virtual BusinessWest event
• Bring the Lil' Princess to her driver's test Saturday
• Start reading two books

Here's hoping you have a blessed week. I leave you with an inspirational quote.

Task it Tuesday - Sept 15

Originally created by The Geeky Blogger, Task it Tuesday is a weekly meme to help you--and me--get things done. The challenge is to post a task or list of tasks you want to complete before next Tuesday. These tasks can help you with your blogging life, reading life, personal or professional life.

How are you today? I hope you're having a good week. I listed a new property yesterday and am staging another one today, so the week started off a bit crazy. I get to meet my sister for breakfast on Thursday, though, so that will be nice.

My list is fairly the same from last week. Some of the tasks moved to this week and others are continued from last week. A couple are new.

• Daily Bible reading
• Finish social media calendar for book promotion
• Walking three days
• Two client meetings
• Stage new listing
• Continue fall cleaning
• Change decorations
• Keep reading Morning Star
• Finish Chapter 5 in editing project
• Clean the shed roof
• Look into getting a small dumpster
• Set up Mass Save audit

That's it for me this week. I hope you can tackle your to-do list.

Task it Tuesday - Sep 1

Originally created by The Geeky Blogger, Task it Tuesday is a weekly meme to help you--and me--get things done. The challenge is to post a task or list of tasks you want to complete before next Tuesday. These tasks can help you with your blogging life, reading life, personal or professional life.

Welcome to September. It's hard to believe how quickly time flies. I didn't post a Task it Tuesday last week, but basically it was a week of meetings, errands, cooking, book reviews, and trying to catch a wink or two.

Most of the fall garden is coming in nicely. I cut back the tomato plants, the grape vine, and the blackberry bush. I am trying to decide if I will keep the vegetable garden next year or plant grass over it. A large part of me wants to be more self-sufficient--especially with the prices of fresh fruits and vegetables. A tiny part of me realizes I don't have time to turn the garden into what I want in order to make a substantial difference. With my half-hearted efforts, I don't even get a harvest large enough to can. I'm almost better off buying fruits and vegetables in the grocery store and canning those. It would take less effort. :)

As I mentioned yesterday, the Lil' Princess started school. So, I'm feeling like I need to be more productive than I have been lately. One thing I decided--I am ditching the planner. I know so many productive people use them, but they really are not for me. I have my calendar, and I am going to stick with that for the rest of the year. Going to a digital calendar is what I want to focus on.

Here is what I want to accomplish this week:

• Daily Bible reading
• Five meetings
• Start reading Morning Star 
• Finish reading Out of No Way for a September 9 review
• Start fall cleaning on Saturday
• Change outdoor decorations Sunday
• Look into getting a small dumpster
• Follow up with architect on house design
• Pray daily about a big decision 

That's pretty much what my week looks like. I'm still figuring out how to get back into the fall schedule of school drop off and pick up, but by the next week or so that should be settled. 

What is on your task list this week? Do you write a weekly task list? What is one thing on your list that never seems to get done?

Task it Tuesday - Nov 12

Originally created by The Geeky Blogger, Task It Tuesday is a weekly meme to help you--and me--get things done. The challenge is to post a task or list of tasks you want to complete before next Tuesday. These tasks can help you with your blogging life, reading life, personal or professional life.

In checking, September 24 was the last time we had a Task it Tuesday. I would say I've been a bit distracted. :) This is what the list looked like then:

• Daily Bible reading
• Exercise four times a week (never happening, but the doctor says so)
• Blogging
• Get the yard ready for winter
• Clean the house
• Finish cleaning my office
• Get 6 hours of sleep a night
• Edit a manuscript
• Compile additional content for the hardcover release of A Christmas Kindness in 2020

What did I accomplish?

• My Bible reading has been a bit more sporadic than I would like, but several times a week I am spending time in the Word. This will require some additional discipline in 2020.
• I have not exercised and I have gained a tiny bit of weight. I need to consider a plan for how to use my barre, the cookbooks, and the workouts I have here to exercise regularly; if for no other reason than to help me be in better shape in case I need to defend myself while out showing houses. 
• Blogging is fairly regular, but you'll see big gaps when I got so busy I barely slept. I've decided to stop populating my Christian book blog for a while. I will use this blog to post about those titles. I need to better focus my activities.
• Made good progress on the yard, but the vegetable garden still needs to be taken care of. Might try that this week. 
• My office is CLEAN!!! It took almost three days, but my closet is free of stuff I don't want; my TBR pile has been organized and I donated some books; all my real estate supplies now fit in the closet with the overflow of books in boxes; and I can see my floor. 
• My sleeping habits have definitely improved, but I still abuse myself a couple times a week and stay up too late.
• Finished that manuscript. Now, I am waiting for the copy to come back from the publisher so we can catch anything that might have been missed.
• Some material has been put together for A Christmas Kindness. 

Here is this week's task list:

1. Daily Bible reading
2. Exercise twice
3. Get 6 hours of sleep at least 5 nights
4. Start editing a new manuscript
5. Blog
6. Complete two pages of additional content for A Christmas Kindness
7. Prepare for a closing

What are you working on this week? Anything you need to stay focused on to complete?

Mailbox Monday - Nov 11

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

We are somehow at Monday again. This week we are expecting a bit of the wet and white stuff. Doubtful it will be much, but thankfully the leaves are picked up and the trampoline mostly dismantled for the season.

Since I was kind enough to myself to take a weekend off, I began the task of cleaning my office. I've done little pick ups here and there, but now that I am treasurer for two organizations and am sick and tired of boxes of books stacked in my upstairs hallway, I need to deep clean and organize.

These are magazines I saved for two decades for some crazy reason. They are getting recycled.

I've stopped most of my subscriptions because I never get around to reading them. Why waste the money?

My office closet floor is totally empty right now. That hasn't happened in I don't know how long. I'm going through the boxes of books to make sure I want to keep everything in them. If not, they are making their way out to the library. 

I won an Amazon gift card from a company event and used it to pick up three new books. Two arrived on Sunday.

I am expecting the final one tomorrow. 

On this Veteran's Day, I wish to extend my sincere thanks to all who have served our country. May God bless you and your families. I was thrilled to hear President Trump proclaimed November as National Veterans and Military Families Month. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Fall Cleaning

Fall is my favorite season. Homemade applesauce, the smell of wood burning stoves, and all those leaves to jump in. The one thing I'm not overly fond of--fall cleaning. There are only two times a year I wish we had a maid--spring cleaning and fall cleaning. At least then all the basic areas would be clean and I could merely tackle the big jobs.

This year's big job--the basement. Now, you have to understand, I am the type of person who believes if I haven't used an item in a couple of years, I'm never going to, and therefore it is to be donated. The rest of the gang, however, are pack rats. I love them dearly, but I'm not overly fond of the clutter. Since we are seriously talking of finishing off the basement, I decided some decluttering was in order.

A big job like that needs to be handled in small chunks, if for no other reason than my severe allergies don't allow me to spend hours at a time in the musty, filthy basement. The first day, I tackled unused clothing. The Lil Princess (9), doubled her wardrobe thanks to my project. I found two bags worth of clothes that the Lil Diva (11) had bagged up for her little sister a year ago. Now it's all washed and hanging in the Lil Princess' closet. Clothes that would no longer fit either of them were donated to the church tag sale that takes place the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Then I tackled the shoes. We had four bags of old shoes--many still in fine shape--that the girls don't/can't wear any longer. I wiped them off, matched up pairs, and shipped them off to the church tag sale.

My lovely pack rats tend to save boxes for everything they buy. There are boxes for stereo components we no longer own. There are boxes for dishes that have long since been broken. There are boxes for the larger toys that I'm fairly certain are never going to be disassembled and put back in those boxes for any reason. Over the past two days I've made a bit of a dent in the pile, but this is one area I don't like to allow my throw away nature to run wild. If we ever move, those small appliance, computer, and other large boxes will come in handy.

Now, if I can just get my husband to part with all those spare computer parts that he's really going to do something with someday, we'll be in business.

Fall Cleaning at The Busy Mom's Daily

You might have noticed a few less banner ads in the sidebar. That's because I got rid of a bunch of them. Some will remain, but I won't be seeking to provide more advertising space in the future. I don't have the time to seek sponsors and work on a regular schedule to provide all kinds of reviews and giveaways.

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Hope you enjoy the fewer ads.