Bird Brain Chronicles, Bird pics and story, books, Daily Work

Coming Back

Hey there! Remember me? I haven’t done my daily posts for a while. I think that the major reason is that I’ve been dealing with my mother’s death. Part of the way I dealt with her death was an attitude of “I don’t care” about a lot of things. I’m in a writing challenge and I’ve been struggling to meet my simple goal. As I struggle with doing any writing, I tend to be highly critical of what I’m doing – and part of that is because I don’t really have a plan for my writing and so I keep criticizing everything I write. I’ve given myself a sabbatical from writing my devotionals, but I finally began doing a little work on promoting the book series today. I should point out that if you’d like a free copy of my July – August devotionals, I now have a book funnel account so that I can give it to you freely. If anyone wants to help me out by going through the process of downloading it and making sure that everything works ok, I’d sure appreciate it. The bookfunnel link is here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/4nw47oq9cd If you’d like to leave an Amazon review, that would be cool too, but I’m not expecting you to do so. You are welcome to share that link if you find the book helpful to you.

Another part of my problem has to do with the animal kingdom: we now have a dog. We thought she was a year old when we got her, but the vet said she was about 6 months old. She’s been a hand full! She’s as sweet as can be, but she’s also annoying. This week has had some extra challenges because my daughter is taking her delayed honeymoon and we’re watching her dog. The dog that used to live with us when she did – which is why we wanted a dog. So now we have a 14 year old grumpy lady chihuahua and an 8 month old baby girl chihuahua. Only, the baby gets distracted when we take her outside. Then she comes in and wets the carpet. Or worse. Today’s been extremely tough on that front, with me needing to clean up between five and ten messes.

Perhaps I should mention all that’s gone on since I stopped posting regularly. I stopped after my mom died. Then we had her memorial service. After that, my daughter got married on March 16. Then, we traveled to Florida to celebate my wife’s graduation ceremony as she finished her requirements for an EdD. degree. She now lets me call her “Dr. Wife.” And finally, my wife and I just observed our 40th anniversary. So, I’ve been busy. And I haven’t been writing a lot. But it’s time to get back to the work of writing and photography.

I realized the photography angle today when I had the dogs outside. I heard the familiar thump of a woodpecker. She was on the utility pole thumping away. I ran inside and got my camera so I could take a few pictures. I couldn’t choose which of these two to use, so you got both. This is a golden fronted woodpecker and she’s been in the area for a while. My plan is to get back to more photography in days to come. I’ve missed doing that. I’ve missed sharing my pictures with y’all. So, maybe I’ll take a day or two each week, make some egg salad sandwiches, and spend some time taking pictures and sharing my adventures with you. Tomorrow, I’ll probably share some pictures of the Painted Churches of Schulenberg that we saw while we waited for the final alterations on the dress my wife wore as the mother of the bride. Anything you want to know about South Texas (that I can photograph) just ask in the comments.

 

Daily Work

May 10 – Slogging Along

Today was Taco Thursday. I know. I know. But Thursday is our breakfast taco day because the ones we like are on special on Thursday! I got them earlier than normal because my wife had to go into work earlier than normal. That doesn’t mean that I got my devotional finished earlier than normal, though. I didn’t finish until about 10:00 and then it was time to get ready to go to tutoring. It was my last day and I wanted to give the kids something. I picked up pencils, then discovered I didn’t have enough. So, after I finished, I had to get a few more and take them back to the kids. The teachers at this school are amazing and gracious  They gave me a very generous gift card for a meal out with my wife. Kindergartners are much different from middle schoolers, and I really enjoy working with them.

Then, we had difficulty making dinner plans, long story, so we ran a couple of errands with dinner in between. Then, I had time to write. I got my writing challenge done, then played some Splatoon. Don’t judge me, I needed the break.

Today’s Devotional (about 400 words) – May 10 – After 2000 Years, Still The Best Way To Make Disciples

Daily Work

May 8 – Someday I’ll Get Caught Up!

I have a project I’m working on: my devotional books. Then comes a short story anthology and I say, “I can work on that.” After that, another writing challenge jumps up and drags me in. All with very quick deadlines now. Someday I’ll stop taking on these challenges so that I can finish the work I really want to do. “But it’s just a short story…” will go out the window. After I finish these stories. Because deadlines. I did get my devotional written on time today and got a lot written before I left for my chess lesson. Then, editing didn’t happen because we began the process of replacing washer and dryer. Found out flooring will need major work. Fun. But that will get done too. And I will meet deadlines. And, I will write my class assignments. A new one came on Monday, and I’m thinking hard about it!

Today’s devotional (440 words) – May 8 – I Will Be With You Always

 

Daily Work

May 4 – In Retrospect

The Fourth wath not with me. I had everything done early last night and got to bed a little early, and realized this morning that I hadn’t written last night’s post. LOL. Just when you think you’ve got everything done. For my writing challenge, I used the story from my descriptive writing class. My teacher sent back a critique this afternoon. I thought there would be a lot more to work on. I got my devotional done early. My wife only had a half day yesterday, so we spent some time going to the Aquarium in the afternoon. I cooked a later than normal supper and then saw the whole writing community explode. (I’ll post a link to my response later tonight.) The quick and dirty is that some author who has a series of books called “The Cocky…” (don’t know the exact name of the series, got a trademark for the stylistic way “cocky” appeared and for the word appearing in the title of a series. She has since sent out Cease and Desist letters to authors with books that have the word “cocky” in the title. Yep, it’s getting ugly. 😦   (<<< that’s a foreshadow. A copy of my eBook to the first person who gets it.)

Today’s devotional (427 words) – May 4 – “As The Prophecy Foretold…”