S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 69

It’s Cover Reveal Day! Introducing The New Miso Cozy Covers!

So, today’s the day! I’m pleased to show off the new covers for the Miso Cozy Mysteries Series! They really fit my vision for the length of the series and where I’ll keep going with it. I hope to write a total of 9 novels in this series and another novella, and these covers give me the flexibility to continue that long. I love the Mei character! She came to me with a few different poses and I’ve been working on some other poses, facial expressions, and clothing. It’s a lot of fun!

If you don’t see the new covers, please empty your cache. I replaced the old image files on my server and then dumped the WordPress cache, but your browser may still have the old covers.

Take a look!

A new novel!

Yes! Here is the somewhat reveal of THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE FINDS HER CALLING! The pre-order files are winging their way out to the stores right now, and I will have the links ready for you all by Friday. (Fingers crossed on this! Amazon has been VERY annoying lately.) If you want a sneak peek, you can check out THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE FINDS HER CALLING book page on my website to view the blurb.

And that’s not all…

Not only has the whole series got new covers, but they have also been newly edited! I went through all the books in the series, removed all the honorific suffixes (-san, -chan, -ko, -kun, etc.) Instead of using the suffixes, people either are called by their name or I use Mr., Mrs., Ms., and Miss which are all more familiar to English speakers. My awesome proofreader, Germaine, and I also found a few tense slips, and I fixed them. My natural writing style is present tense, so I always screw this up a little! Hopefully they should all be good now. It was quite an undertaking, but I know the series is better for it now.

A note about the paperbacks

Guys, I am REALLY REALLY REALLY sad that Createspace is gone. Dealing with KDP Print has been such a nightmare. On Createspace, I could change a lot of things after I had published the book. Title, Author, and Trim Size were always set, but other things I could experiment with. Now? Not so much. I want to change all the books to cream paper. It’s easier on the eyes and it’s more standard for fiction. This is something I didn’t know 5 years ago when I started making paperbacks, but I do know NOW. And I want to fix it.

BUT KDP Print will not let me change paper unless I use a new ISBN. Grrrr. This is going to eat up my available ISBNs, but I know it’ll be worth it. But I didn’t budget for the extra time of going in and changing all of my files to reflect the new ISBN and bar code.

So, long story short, I am updating the paperbacks, but they probably won’t be up there for purchase until next week. I’m working on it, and I’ll update the blog when it’s all set.

Stay tuned!

So stick around! The pre-order for THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE FINDS HER CALLING is coming soon, and so are the paperbacks.

I hope you love the new covers as much as I do!

The post It’s Cover Reveal Day! Introducing The New Miso Cozy Covers! appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – February 24, 2019

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

Monday was a holiday, Presidents Day. I didn’t sleep well Sunday night due to a upset stomach. But I got up early and moved the boxes of books and bags of clothing I was set to donate out to the front stoop before 8am. We chilled at home during the morning, had lunch, and went to see LEGO Movie 2. In the afternoon and evening, I baked bread and worked on Daydreamer 5 edits.

Tuesday, everything was back to normal. The kids went to school, and I got back to work. I edited in the morning, walked and watched Outlander, and then ate brunch. In the afternoon, I continued with edits while trying to ignore the plagiarism scandal that was ripping through the author world. It was awful. An author stole from a dozen (and more) other authors and tried to blame it on a ghostwriter. There was nothing I could do but show some support and try not to let it suck up my whole day.

Wednesday was an unexpected half day due to snow. In the morning, I drove my car out to the dealership to get a few things fixed. I borrowed one of their cars to get home. Then I canceled my acupuncture treatment and went early to my chiropractor appointment to get home early to greet the kids after their short day. Tennis was canceled too as the snow came down so I took a nap in the afternoon. It was much needed. I had woken up for the day so tired with bloodshot eyes. Sigh. The full moon made sleeping the previous night hard. In the evening, the kids and I had pizza and watched the Flash. Then I took care of the snow before getting back to work on Daydreamer 5 edits.

Thursday, everything was back in business. The kids went to school, I picked up my car from the dealership, got a little work done, and went to pottery. At pottery, I trimmed 3 bowls, made another bowl, and then glazed a few bowls. Next week when I return to class I’ll have a few more bowls to glaze. I got home, ate, and got straight onto the treadmill. Once the kids were home, they had piano lessons and I finished Daydreamer 5! Yay! I sent it off to my readers and crit partners, and then I took the evening off.

I had the day off on Friday! That almost never happens. I got the kids off to school, updated the blog, got a little knitting in, then hit the treadmill for more Outlander. After, I stretched and ate lunch while getting caught up on Project Runway All Stars, did a face mask, and took a shower. I left the house at some point to shop at Whole Foods. Then I got more knitting done in the afternoon while catching up on podcasts and finishing my audiobook. I started a new audiobook while making dinner! I love audiobooks so much.

I enjoyed my day off so I continued it into Saturday morning. I sat on the couch and knit in the morning. Then I worked on my print covers for the Miso Cozy series. After lunch, I went outside for a walk and enjoyed my new audiobook. After, I got some bread ready for baking, worked on my covers some more, and had a shower. I finished off my covers in the evening, ate dinner with my husband, and watched Star Trek with the kids.

Today, Sunday, I knit some more in the morning while watching the Manchester United vs Liverpool match (We’re Liverpool fans). Then I walked on the treadmill and watched Outlander (again). In the afternoon, I kept my youngest busy by having her make muffins that I know she won’t eat. Lol. Then I went to start uploading my print changes to Amazon only to find out I’m going to probably have to assign new ISBNs to the print books and start them over from scratch because Amazon won’t let me change the paper from white to cream. I don’t know why. I could change the color paper on Createspace! What a crock of shit. (Sorry I’m mad.) So instead I’m working on a few other things while I wait to hear back from Amazon about changing the paper color. Grrr.

What else happened this week?

I spent many an evening with Great British Baking Show on while getting editing done. Then I finished off the edit with an additional 5000 words and celebrated with a cocktail.

Knitting and tea appear to be my things.

Progress has been made on the knitting! I started the second section on Friday and it’s already grown quite a bit.

Mmmm, tempeh bacon for BLT sandwiches on homemade bread.

And finally, we got snow on Wednesday and it all melted by the weekend and I was able to walk outside again! Yay!

Have a great week everybody!

The post Sunday Update – February 24, 2019 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

A Day Off

The second draft of THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE FINDS HER CALLING is done! So, guess what this means? I get a rare day off.

As most of you know, I’m a workaholic. I’m just not happy if I don’t have a project going on, somewhere, somehow. If it’s not writing or editing, it’s marketing, blogging, or writing copy for ads. Maybe it’s scraping keywords for targeted ads or making teaser images for my books. Whatever it is, there’s always something to do.

But that doesn’t count all the work I do at home too. I have kids to care for and a house to keep clean and livable. My closet needs desperate organizing, and I have this 70s harvest gold bathroom that needs renovating. My husband also wants to spend time with me (love him) and there are friends to meet up with too.

And what about my hobbies? I started a knitting project months ago, and I’m only a quarter way through it. Pottery is an awesome new hobby, and I could go to an Open Studio session, but I never have time.

Let’s not forget all the exercising I do too. I try to walk at least five days a week!

When I see all the stuff I do on a daily or weekly basis, especially in Sunday Updates, I begin to freak out a little. It’s a lot. And it’s stuff I do over and over again, usually without a break.

But today is one of those rare days when I can slow down a little. I finished a 76,000 word book yesterday. It was a thorough second draft in which I had to suss out details and write a good 5,000 words of extra content to flesh out the story. It was a lot of work, and I deserve a reward.

So today will be a day of TV and knitting! First, I will enjoy some walking and watching TV on my iPad, then I will move to knitting and watching TV. I will take my time. I will eat what I want. I will relax.

Because tomorrow, it’s back to work!

Have a great weekend everyone.

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Sunday Update – February 17, 2019

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

I’m seeing a pattern here of lots of work… I need a vacation!

Monday was my day to get stuff done. I got the kids off to school, did a little work, then left the house. I dropped off checks to each of the Girl Scout troops we belong to for cookies, checked my PO Box, and went to Costco. I was in and out of Costco in 30 minutes and spent $540 on too many things to count. We were out of a lot of stuff including tissues. In the afternoon, I worked on downloading the last of the SFR Station book covers and then on getting the Authors into the database.

Tuesday turned into a snow day even though we hardly got an inch of snow. I got work done and did some cooking and baking. I also gathered up all the books and clothing to be donated and scheduled a pickup for next Monday.

Wednesday was my busy day again. The kids had a delayed opening so I got them off to school and went to Panera to work. I got all the new Miso Cozy covers saved and ready to go for March before my friend, Amy, showed up to eat and chat. After Panera, I came home and did some illustration until it was time to take the kids to tennis. At tennis, I opened Daydreamer 5 and got to work on edits. In the evening, the kids and I had dinner together and watched Flash.

Thursday was Valentine’s Day! I published a post on the blog about my systematized life then went to pottery. At pottery, I glazed two bowls and made 3 new larger bowls. I had to leave a little early to make it home before my youngest got home. Our school district had a half day. I spent most of the afternoon relaxing because I was tired but I still did some edits.

Friday was a day off from school, an extended weekend for Presidents Day on Monday. We had a chill morning, I walked on the treadmill, and then we went to Whole Foods to get groceries and lunch. After lunch, my youngest had a play date. My oldest entertained herself while I baked up more candied walnuts and almonds. Then I did some more reorganization in my room before I got to Miso Cozy edits. The entire series is ready to go for re-launch at the end of the month! I also did some edits to Daydreamer 5 in the evening.

Saturday was the usual for us. I read for a bit then got work done in the morning. Around 11, I ate lunch then I fed the kids. When my husband got home from the gym, I immediately left for a long walk around the park. It was cold! A lot colder than I thought it would be, mostly because of the wind. Once I got home, I gathered up all of my cleaning supplies and cleaned out my car. It had been ages since I’d done it. My youngest child helped me out, and we vacuumed it out and wiped it all down, got all the trash out of it. I hope it stays clean for a while. It’s going back to the dealer on Wednesday to get a few things fixed so I’m hoping it’ll feel like new this week. After that, I stretched and spent the afternoon working on Daydreamer 5 edits then I cooked dinner, and we watched the newer JJ Abrams STAR TREK with the kids.

Today, Sunday, I have plans! Of course. I’m going to walk on the treadmill this morning, eat lunch, and then work on edits again. I plan to bake bread for Tempeh BLTs this evening. Should be a chill day!

What else happened this week?

I caught a few more photos of the yarn-bombed trees outside of our local museum. It’s so great to see them all colorful!

Valentine’s Day was filled with cards and cookies… and (not pictured) chocolate.

We got more snow on Tuesday and now it’s almost all gone!

I had a sore throat on Monday, but I managed to get rid of it with tea and honey, and a drop of Thieves under my tongue.

My Costco run on Monday included a stock up on nuts. I eat a lot of nuts as snacks and this is the best place to get them for a good price. I store them in the freezer to keep them from going bad. Then I make candied nuts with this recipe from Cookie & Kate.

I was in the “office” aka Panera on Wednesday and I treated myself to some coffee and coffee cake. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve mostly given up pastries and cakes and I only eat desserts on the weekends. So it was a treat to have coffee cake that day. (I’ve also mostly given up coffee since I can’t drink it without cream. I’m only drinking tea at home.)

And finally, here are the three large bowls I made this week! I hope they come out nice once I trim them!

Have a great week everyone!

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Big Changes Coming to the Miso Cozy Mystery Series

This is a heads-up post for all my mystery readers! Ch-ch-changes are coming soon!

Come the end of February / beginning of March, the entire Miso Cozy Mystery Series is getting a makeover, inside and out.

First up, the entire series is getting new covers. The novellas are getting a slight update to match the new fonts, but the rest will be all new. I really like the new design! They’re a bit more whimsical and easier to reproduce for an extended series of covers.

Look at that! Not even I, the author of the books, have the updated covers in paperback. Lol.

So, if you want the paperbacks with the old covers, get them now, especially at the prices they’re currently at. I will be raising prices by a dollar or two when the new versions are out. Why? I checked my statements and I’m making less than $1 per paperback sold. Yes, less than $1. I was keeping the prices low for readers, but I do SO MUCH WORK to bring you paperbacks between the formatting, wrap-around covers, price of buying ISBNs, and dealing with KDP Print. I can’t afford to be making less than $1 every time I sell one. So, it’s time to raise the prices. I will be re-covering all the paperbacks, switching to cream-colored paper, and eventually making the paperbacks available elsewhere besides Amazon. If you are a large print reader, I hope to have those editions ready by the end of summer.

The insides of the books are being updated too! I have edited all the books to drop the honorific -san, -chan, -kun, and -ko. They have been proofread, inconsistencies have been sussed out, and I’ll be updating the file files this weekend. This was a hard decision but ultimately I’m much happier with this version! They read better for English speakers, and I find they’re easier to understand. I wish I had done this update last year!

And finally, I plan to put the 5th book of the series up for preorder soon. THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE FINDS HER CALLING will be an installment in the series you won’t want to miss!

This is your advanced warning that changes are just around the corner. I hope you’ll love the newly redesigned and reimagined Miso Cozy Mystery Series as much as I do.

Have a great weekend!

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Living the Systematized Life: How I Get Stuff Done

If there’s something that everyone wants, it’s more time. Time to get more work done. Time to relax. Time to spend with our families. And that time comes when we’re able to push aside the things that suck up our energy needlessly.

A few months ago, I heard about the concept of systematizing your life. Not just develop habits but take the everyday things in your life that suck up time and make them easier.

I thought, “GREAT IDEA! I love to make things easier!”

My first thing was my wardrobe. I love fashion. It’s so creative and fun! But it’s not me. I’m horrible at it. I only want to be comfortable. So I found pants that I love and bought six pairs of them. I also got rid of shirts and sweaters that no longer fit, bought more colors of the shirts I loved, and stuck to them.

As you can see here, I have my blank pants that I wear every day plus one pair of jeans that I like. The one pair of blank pants to the left of the jeans are my shorter pair that shrunk. Lol. I only wear them with flip-flops.

I have this one style of shirt that I love that I bought in all the colors I liked. Yes, the shirts have pockets.

I did the same with my workout clothes too, and I keep a few nicer things for holidays. That’s it. There are lots of prosperous people that have done the same thing. Steve Jobs. Michael Koors. That Mark guy who started Facebook. My day starts easily. No wasted moments.

My second thing was eating. I whittled down my meals to two per day and a snack. I hated having to figure out what I would eat day-to-day. Hated it. And I found lunch time to be the most stressful of all. So I combined breakfast and lunch and made this time of day easier. I can eat breakfast foods OR lunch foods! I know people say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it doesn’t work for me. I am happier fasting. For meals, I have a menu of stuff to choose from, making it easy to get fed without spending time thinking about it. I often joke that I’m a prime candidate for Soylent Green. Too bad it’s made of people.

My third thing was always scheduling my health time first. The prevailing sentiment is that the morning is for creative time. I can’t tell you how many writers get up at 4 or 5AM to write, but not for me. I’m most creative in the afternoon, so exercise time comes first.

Out for a walk!

I know that every day I need to spend about 90 minutes working on my movement, if it’s not a rest day. This is usually walking and stretching, and I figured out how to systematize this too. I have a path that I always walk when I’m outside, or if the weather is bad, I have my treadmill. If I walk outside, I listen to podcasts or audiobooks. If I walk inside, I choose a show to watch on my iPad.

I know what you’re thinking… This sounds boring!

And that may be so if you love wearing fashionable clothes or spontaneously cooking whatever you want. Everything I’ve presented here are things that worked FOR ME because I couldn’t care less about them. For me, clothing is a nuisance, and food? I’d be fine to pop a food pill and only eat when I really wanted to. These things take up time and space when I could be doing creative things like writing books, creating covers, and building websites.

Writing, writing, writing.

I systematize my life to make room for more creativity and relaxation. If my mind is free from worry about clothing or food, it makes room for things I’m more interested in. And I still get a lot done! I build websites AND edit books AND design covers AND play with my kids AND watch TV AND I do a lot of that stuff all in one day.

Some of you may be struggling with low energy and depression, and I know you may read this and think there’s no way you can do this too. That may be the case, and I’m not exactly the best of examples here. I do suffer from depression on occasion, but it’s not persistent. Still, even in those times that I’m down, my systemization has helped. There are days when it’s hard to get out of bed and get dressed. But at least, I always know what to wear.

I went searching for more articles on systematizing your life and found these two…

How to Create Systems to Gain Back Time
Five Ways to Systematize Your Life

I hope that gives you an insight into how I manage to accomplish all that I do!

Do you systematize any parts of your life? Let me know in the comments! I’m always looking for more ways to make life easier!

The post Living the Systematized Life: How I Get Stuff Done appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – February 10, 2019

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

A very busy week around here again! No surprise there.

On Monday, the weather was so nice! 60°F! I went out for a nice long walk in the morning and really enjoyed being outside. Then I worked all day on the SFR station website. I mostly worked on the layout of the site and the individual book pages. My eyeballs were ready to fall out by dinner time! I spent the evening on the couch with my Kindle instead of getting back to work.

On Tuesday, I worked all day on the SFR Station website again. I did go out for a walk but the rest of the day was spent toiling over code. I worked on installing and developing a content framework for the site and integrating it into the new design and template. I worked on a lot of PHP and even though it was frustrating at times, I got the templates and code to work and do what I wanted it to do.

Wednesday was my busy day again. In the morning I caught up on blogs, then off to the chiropractor and acupuncturist. In the afternoon I finished off some back end code to SFR Station while the kids were at tennis.

Thursday was pottery day! I spent the entire 2.5 hours trimming all the things I had worked on the last two weeks. I only had about two hours afterward to eat and shower. Then I took the kids to the dentist, and we had dinner and watched the Flash together.

Friday continued with the busy life. I worked in the morning before walking on the treadmill. Then I worked until going to Whole Foods. Then I worked until I made dinner. My daughter had an 8-10pm birthday party a 25 minute drive away so I had to take her and a friend to that. Guess what I did after? I worked until she got home. I have a lot of work to do.

Saturday, yesterday, I spent the entire day working. I downloaded over 100 covers for the SFR Station website and edited several of the Miso Cozy Mysteries books to take out the honorifics. I ran out of time in the morning to walk, so I walked on the treadmill while working in the afternoon. For the evening, we all had english muffin pizzas and watched Pirates of the Caribbean together.

Sunday, today, I plan to continue working. I’ll walk this morning, and then I think I can download the rest of the covers that I need to continue on with the SFR Station website. My awesome assistant, Lola, sent over all the information I need to add the authors into the system, so I’m going to work on that tomorrow. I also hope to finish up my Miso Cozy Mysteries book edits, get them into Vellum, and send them off to my awesome proofreader.

What else happened this week?

The week started out very warm but the lake was still pretty frozen in the park. Look! A rock on the ice!

I sat outside and enjoyed my tea in the sun.

Our local museum got yarn-bombed. There were several trees covered in yarn creations.

I got back one of my bowls and found out that the two different kinds of glazes I used don’t mix.

I used the actual desk portion of my treadmill yesterday to get work done.

And we all enjoyed English muffin pizzas last night while watching Pirates of the Caribbean.

Have a great week everyone!

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Mailing List Updates – New Options and New Release Alerts

Over the past few months I’ve been working behind the scenes on this blog to make things easier for you to get the content you want or need from me. As you know, I don’t have a newsletter anymore. Instead, if you sign up for alerts from me, you get the posts from the blog every Friday. That’s the standard “newsletter” and it’s been working great for about a year now.

In May of last year (while I was in Japan, no less), I dealt with purging the mailing list of people who didn’t open emails, in an effort to comply with GDPR. Then in December of 2018, I held a giveaway at the end of the year, both of free books and a hardcover on Amazon, to entice people to open emails from me.

Did you know that it’s actually important that you open emails and load images if you want to continue getting emails from the people and businesses that you sign up for? If you read in the preview pane, this can be a major problem. YOUR system (gmail, yahoo, etc.) will think you’re not opening emails and it will decrease the sender reputation of THAT BUSINESS, therefore sending more of that business’s emails to junk or spam folders. So, in order for me to keep my sender reputation high and not end up in spam, I have to only send to people who are opening emails. I send every week, so it’s a problem if 50% of people are not opening my emails every week.

So, I have made another option for those of you who want fewer emails from me. There is now a monthly email option. It sends out on the 28th of every month with the last 10 blog posts in it. I moved people who didn’t open ANY of my December giveaway emails to that list at the beginning of January. That email does not get a lot of opens from those people BUT it’s only one email a month and it’s not interfering with my weekly email open rates anymore.

If you would like to hear from me only once per month AND get new release alerts, you can switch to that option in the Manage Your Subscription page via the email you were sent.

Regarding New Release Alerts

Everyone on my mailing list alerts gets New Release Alerts regardless of what list they have signed up for. I’m an author first and foremost and a blogger second. I will be letting you know about my new books! That’s my top priority.

If you get the Blog Posts As They Happen, Weekly Digests, and News options, you will get your normal email with the New Release blog post as long as I’m launching that book on a Friday, which I do plan on doing for the foreseeable future. All people on my New Release and Monthly Digest lists will get a new release email as well on the Friday the book launches.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop them here or hit reply on your mailing list alert. Have an awesome weekend!

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Let’s Discuss! Animals in Books – What are Some of Your Favorite Animals from Books You’ve Read?

Let’s get this week back on track with a discussion post! I’ve been working hard on my computer all day, every day, coding SFR Station, so I’ve had very little time for blogging or anything else this week. So, let’s have a discussion about animals in books!

Contrary to what my husband thinks, I love animals. We don’t have any pets at home because I’m fanatical about keeping the house clean with two kids and throwing a dog into the mix is madness to me. Madness I will probably succumb to before the year is out. I’m a dog person, not a cat person. Not that there’s anything wrong with cats, I’m just allergic to them. So when we get a pet, it will be a dog for sure!

When it comes to writing, I’ve tried to include animals in all of my books.

The Nogiku Series started out without animals, in a domed city where no one had pets, and ended with the biggest animal coup I could come up with. The final technology of the book revolved around animals.

In the Hikoboshi Series, I refer back to that technology but then Yumi gets a dog, Ninjin, in the third book of the series. I enjoyed writing Ninjin and giving Yumi someone to cling to in times when Rin wasn’t there.

In the Flyght Series, Vivian comes from a farm and animals have always been a part of her life. She has a dog, Frogger, who is not only her best friend but also carries with him memories of her ex. Her house is filled with dogs and cats and birds and rabbits and the occasional goat. There’s never a time when she hasn’t been surrounded by animals! And when she flies off in her spaceship, she brings farm animals with her.

In the Miso Cozy Mysteries, Mei’s mom has Mimoji-chan, her ginger cat that is always prowling around the house, but Mei doesn’t have any pets of her own… But there’s a surprise in Book 5 of the series too! I’m excited for you all to read it!

But besides my own books, I love animals in the books I read as well. The Harry Potter Series had such great animals, from Hedwig to Crookshanks. And they all played a vital role in the series.

There’s also all the cozy mystery books I read! I do adore Muesli from the Oxford Tea Room Mysteries. He’s always getting into trouble and, by accident, leading Gemma to clues she hadn’t found before.

When I think hard about the books I read, a lot of the science fiction books don’t have pets, which is a shame. They could add so much to the story! But Junkyard from FRACTURED STARS springs to mind. I just downloaded the actual book JUNKYARD this morning and I’m excited to read it!

Let’s Discuss! What are some of your favorite animals from books you’ve read? And why? Tell us what’s special about them!

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Sunday Update – February 3, 2019

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

It was a very good and productive week around here!

On Monday, we started out the day early and cold. I had forgotten to switch the heat back on the regular schedule because of MLK Day the week before. The kids went to school and I got some ad work and Pinterest work done. Then onto the treadmill and took care of recycling. After lunch I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open! I forced myself to take care of some chores and then laid down for a bit. But construction next door kept me awake. Writing was accomplished in the afternoon.

Tuesday, I barely remember except for walking in the morning and writing in the afternoon.

Wednesday was our busy day and also the day I wanted to finish writing Daydreamer 5! I got the house prepped for the cleaning ladies and then walked on the treadmill while they were here. I wrote in the afternoon before school was out and again at tennis. I got takeout for the kids, came home and finished Daydreamer 5! Yay! I celebrated with dinner with the husband and a drink!

On Thursday, the polar vortex arrived here and the kids had a late start at school because of negative 0°F weather and wind. I got them to school and went straight to pottery. I made some nice bowls this week and trimmed another professional looking bowl. I’m getting better! I wanted to read Thursday afternoon but I ended up consoling one kid who had a bad day and helping the other with her homework. Win some, lose some.

Friday was taxes day and I got 98% of it done! The other 2% will be me remembering deductions I totally forgot about over the next few weeks. This year I developed my own spreadsheet which I’m really proud of.

On Saturday, I worked all day on the SFR Station website. (You can check it out but understand that it’s still under construction.) It’s coming along and I think most of the major design stuff will be done soon. Then I’ll be going through all the backend and updating it over the next week.

Today, I worked on the SFR Station website all morning, went for a walk OUTSIDE (OMG it was such a nice day!), and then worked on the website again all afternoon. I think my eyeballs are going to fall out of my head.

What else happened this week?

I enjoyed two of my macrobiotic bowls that I made the previous week. Here it is all messy with the miso tahini dressing on it. It was delicious!

I enjoyed a few drinks this week. A daiquiri on Friday night and another on Wednesday to celebrate finishing Daydreamer 5!

Yep, she’s all done!

We had some snow and something hopped through the snow in the middle of the day.

I think I did a pretty good job of trimming this bowl. It has an actual foot on the bottom!

Yes, I’m working on the SFR Station website. There’s lots to do besides the redesign, including updating all the content. But I do love this logo Najla Qamber made for me. It’s fabulous!

And finally, I really enjoyed my walk outside today! I listened to my audiobook and I was sure to go up and down the stairs 6 times.

Have a great week everyone!

The post Sunday Update – February 3, 2019 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.