Wednesday is my super-busy tutoring day — 4 awesome students! I think I learn as much from working with them, as they learn from me 🙂

Three or four years ago, I was collecting spelling rules from here and there, and got the bright idea of putting them together into a really comprehensive spelling book.  Of course there are lots of spelling books out there, but I couldn’t find one that covered all the bases.  So I got busy and put my “Spellbound” book together. I was just about ready to publish it when I stalled–because the more I thought about it, the more depressed I got about how boring and technical it was.  Besides that, it was dull to look at.  So I shelved it, and it’s been sitting there sad and lonely for a good couple years. Several months ago, though, I started taking a sketching course called Verbal to Visual, and I quickly realized that I could use my new skills to illustrate the spelling book in amusing ways.  But still … the manuscript itself was stale….

And then today I got a brainwave! When I work with my tutoring students, we have a lot of fun practicing spelling by using lots of rhyme and rhythm to learn new words.  Why not, I thought, make a fun rhyming spelling book? I decided to give it a try, beginning with “Abbreviations.”  And not only did I have fun myself creating the rhymes, but I really do think others might find it fun, too–and the rhymes might be just the ticket to make the rules easy to remember. 🙂

I also wrote a couple of pages in my journal today.  Handwriting, I find, helps my creative muse get active faster than trying to create on the computer keyboard.  Besides which, I have a wonderful collection of pens of all colours, and that helps me create too.  (And yes, I created those spelling rhymes in handwriting, with my favourite purple pen).

One other thing I do every Wednesday is transfer, from my daily agenda book to my writing calendar, all the writing and editing and reading I’ve done in the past week. There I can see, at a glance, how much I’ve accomplished! It really is motivating and encouraging.

What do you do to motivate yourself to keep up with your writing goals?

Today’s day planner page looks like a tornado passed through it!  I decided at the last minute to drop in to God’s Kitchen with a bucket of warm fried bread, and say hello to everybody (I’m on a “sabbatical” for the time being, but have been missing the wonderful “family” there, and just couldn’t resist dropping by for a visit). Of course this meant spending time setting bread; then later forming it into chunks and deep frying it; then taking it there and visiting with folks while they dug in to the bucket 🙂

Still, like I said in today’s post title, “Mixed up schedule but it’s all good.” I still managed to get pretty much all my scheduled work done!

I wrote and posted  “Learn With Songs and Poetry” on PenAndPaperMama.com — and shared it on Twitter, Google +, and Facebook (business page and shared with the local homeschool group page).

In July I took part in the ProBlogger 31 Days podcast — learning how to blog better. And in October I took part in the Writers Digest October Platform Challenge — for writers to learn how to build their author platform through blogging and social media.  Through both challenges, I had taken daily notes in Notepad, but I decided I wanted to fix up my notes so they are easy to access, so I copied them into Word, and created headings, table of contents, proper links, etc.  Then I printed them out and put them into a binder so I can actually get busy and put what I learned into action.  So hopefully you’ll soon be seeing some positive changes at this site and my other sites.

I’m embarrassed to say that I got distracted from writing my Summerland stories the past couple months. But today I got out my binder, and sat down for an hour and a half, and organized notes for a couple new stories. Hurrah! So hopefully you’ll soon be seeing some new stories on the Summerland Stories page of this site.

And yes, I had a tutoring student today–we had a good focused session working on converting and adding fractions (proper, improper, and mixed).  It’s always so great to see “the light come on” when I’m helping kids who are struggling with a concept.

All good!

Inspired by a friend’s blog, JLT Studios, I am going to try to stick to my new writing, editing, and tutoring schedule by posting daily (at least Monday to Friday each week) what I have accomplished.

For writing today, I:
– wrote a new page in my journal, related to my personal and spiritual thoughts and activities.
– typed selections from previous journal entries (2 years ago) which I want to turn into blog posts for my My Church Journey blog
– wrote my weekly letter to our 5 children, their spouses, and our 9 grandchildren–keeping in touch with family is so important!
– answered emails sent to the BCHLA (BC Home Learners Association) in the past week, explaining about the home learning options in our province, and encouraging and advising home learners. I am on the BCHLA board, and this is my main “volunteer activity” for the organization.
– answered personal and business emails; also checked and commented on my personal Facebook page and my business page as well; Google + ; and Twitter  — I’m trying to build my “platform” through social media. Yesterday I updated my LinkedIn page, too.

Also today, I tutored 3 students, and then did written reports for each one, explaining to their parents/teachers what we did during their lesson, so they can follow-up at home and school. Of course I also prepared their next lessons as well.

Monday is my “administration” day.  Each Monday, I also do my weekly bookkeeping (both business and personal), and file and backup all the new documents I have created on my computer in the past week.

Busy day! To keep healthy, I try to eat healthy (cook from scratch as much as possible, lots of veggies, etc.), do exercises (and go on walks on alternate days), and have a 1/2 hour “nannii (grandmother) nap.”  When you’ve hit my age, you deserve that mid-day rest!

Up until now, I have used this site simply as a place to post various things I have written, under appropriate categories. However, as of today I am starting to take my writing more seriously–in a scheduled, planned, preparing-to-publish kind of way. One of my goals is to keep you, my readers, updated on my writing. And another is to keep myself accountable to my daily writing by setting up this blog.