What propels you forward when you aren't sure what to do?  Do you just go with the flow or does it have to be an agenda that is form fitting to your needs?

Today, what propelled me forward was getting a new hair cut.  I loved that I could just walk outside my apt and be on the main street.  I only had to walk a few stores up and be at the salon.  Let's just say, I got a good ten inches off!  My hair was getting quite long and was so due for a cut.  

She chopped the bottom layer really fast just not wanting to comb it out and I told her to go above shoulder length.

It feels so much more easy to take care of now and is lightweight for summer.  Sometimes we just need one thing to make our day perfect.

My kids got a surprise today with Mom's short new do.  I had to tell them about the time I got it cut really short and had it dyed black.  I was working in a college library many years ago.  Some people from California came in and asked if we wanted to audition for a hair cut on stage.

I was one of the ones who decided to follow through and be a part of it.  My two friends and my sister cancelled out of it.  I was then one of the girls in the show.  We had to act like models and these hairdressers from California cut and dyed our hair on stage.  We had to practice the walk and then right in the middle of the stage I could hear him ripping my hair.  That was definitely the shortest I ever went.

I loved it for a while, but then one day a month later, a cashier in a drugstore thought I was a boy.  That ended that hair cut and my dyed hair really quick.  I've never gone to short hair like that again.

Above shoulder length will give it time for it to grow out.  I tend to wait a bit before getting a new cut.

Another thing, watch what you do on internet.  Don't you hate it when you go to a certain site, it sends you somewhere else and you start getting calls from people thinking you wanted to further your education.  No, not interested.

A treat for me and my kids today were some cherry pies.  Yummy.

Little treats.  One son had me watching Spiderman today.  He's my movie boy.

Jennifer Jo. Fay

Copyrighted April 25, 2014

What you make of your time is up to you.  You can either sit on your laurels or stand up and get what it is you need to get done.  And many of us have so many things we need to do.

Isn't it the way that the agenda keeps going all the time.  It always seems like there's things that need doing.

We either can let the world pass us by or we can make a stand and not let things get in the way of what we feel we need to do.

Every day can either be a challenge or a walk in the park.  Nobody likes to have to do things we don't want to do but sometimes it makes us stronger.

There's always going to be obstacles and we have to learn to face them.

Dealing with things we don't want to have to face is what we need to do.  Going at them full force.  Trying to adapt to anything is key to making things successful in even the smallest tasks.

Get involved with things.  Join a class, go to the library.  Make use of your local public places.

Treat yourself sometimes.   We can't never treat ourselves.  I treated myself to a few slices of cheese pizza from my local gas station and boy were they good.  I don't do it often so it's a treat when I treat myself to that kind of thing.  I get addicted to Andy Capps too and today I didn't finish the bag, so my girls got a cheddar treat.  And another daughter got a soda from MacDonalds.

Little treats get remembered.  Like their grandfather used to dole out sticks of gum to my kids.  Probably still does.  Little things like that get etched into their memory.  Sometimes I weed out my things and pass things onto my girls.

One daughter got a gothic rose ring today.

Finding time for ourselves makes us feel better.  Even if it's just a little bit, that's all that matters that you found some time to do something you like to do.

Jennifer Jo. Fay

Copyrighted April 21, 2014

We got teased on Monday by lovely weather and now we're back to colder weather.  We even had snow a few days ago.  Yuck!

So what do you do when this happens?  Read a book, or do anything you like to do to pass your time.

Here we've got the Maple Festival on it's way next week.  It will be interesting to see what the traffic is going to be like.

I made a mistake on an author's name.  Patricia Cornwell's Body Farm was what I read.  I had called her Barbara by accident.

I've been reading through Tami Hoag's books and pretty soon, I will have no more of her books to read.  I've got about five left to read and then will need to wait for her new one to come out.  Her newest is set to be out around August of this year.  It's based on a character that came out of one of her other books.  Dana Nolan, a reporter who got abducted by a serial killer.  Sounds like she is the main character in her newest book.

She has certain characters that make appearances in other books.  Like some of the detectives and cops reprise their roles in newer books.

I think there are a few books that I have already read of hers that I don't want to borrow from the library as I'm sure I read them.

I will have to go to a new author pretty soon.  Maybe Mary Higgins Clark, James Patterson, J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts writes as her too), or another author.

I'm experiencing writer's block.  I will come back to mine of course, but am just taking time out to read for a little while.  I think it could be I exhausted myself writing and publishing, I want a break for a little bit.

Thank-God Kindle is free to do, so I"m not out any money for doing the ebooks.  And so far zilch, money wise.  I wish I could see some sales.  Definitely a hard market to break into.

Jennifer Jo. Fay

Copyrighted April 18, 2014

Take advantage of these warm days.  My daughter and I took a nice walk around her neighborhood today.  It was windy but it was warm.

It's nice to see people out and about.  Mothers talking while little kids are on their bikes.  Other people out walking.  This is the time to relish in the little things that Mother Nature brings our way.

Another time, I should bring my camera.

I love outdoor shots of my kids. And when you've got them all together tell them to get together for group shots.  Awesome.

The weather is great.  My daughter was doing jumprope again but this time I refrained from jumping.

This is the time to get things done when you can.  Or do whatever you want to do.  Time for hobbies or other cool things.

I finished reading a Barbara Cornwell book.  The Body Farm.  It was a good book.  Now I'm reading Guilty as Sin by Tami Hoag.

And I made myself write a new chapter to one of my books.  Added a recipe into one of the cookbooks.

Jennifer Jo. Fay

Copyrighted April 13, 2014

Sometimes we need to take breaks and do other things.  We can't always focus on everything we have been accomplishing.

I'm taking time to do some much needed reading.  I formatted and published Red Ribbons my short mystery eBook.  Now I've been reading.

I finished Tami Hoag's Ashes to Ashes, read through James Patterson's Private and now am going to finish another Tami Hoag book.

I wrote some to my second book to The Glorious Money Tree, another book and Lolita Lob it off and decided to take a break from writing for a short bit.

Do you sometimes think there will be nothing to write about?  Sometimes we just need a few days to do other things.

Sometimes we just draw a blank and get that old writer's block.  I love to read mysteries.  It had been a while since I had read any.  I need to do some constructive stuff and reading is it.

My favorite Tami Hoag books are Deeper than the Dead and Secrets to the Grave.  They are sequels to each other.  I have a copy of Secrets to the Grave and may decide to read it again sometime.  I came across Deeper than the Dead at Goodwill but decided not to get it this time.

Do you ever like to read books for a second time?  It's like revisiting something that you have read before and maybe you just long to read them again for the sake it was a really good book.

I treated my kids to a shake and a McChicken today and those went down well.  One of my daughters talked about how it's not good to eat it all the time and I couldn't agree with her more.  All that grease isn't good for the body.

What do you like to do with your free time?  It's fun just to relax sometimes.  I love doing that with my kids.  A few days ago, my other daughter pulled out a jump rope and I actually jump roped.  I hadn't done that in years.  Then I had fun jump roping faster.

It brings me back to when I used to play jumprope outside for longer periods of time.  And double dutch.  We used to have the really long jumpropes.  I'm remembering two big jumpropes.

Jennifer JO. Fay

Copyrighted April 12, 2014

The Glorious Money Tree Trilogy:  Book One is available for sale at Amazon.  I've got it at 4.99.  I also published Vermont Soups and Pasta from my Home to Yours.  That's also available there at 4.99.

Today I am going to be publishing Memories of Mom, Family Recipes from a Beautiful Life.  That will be 4.99 as well and should be available on Amazon by sometime tomorrow.  And I'm publishing a short eBook on the craft of writing which I'm going to format and publish today.  Where that one is shorter, I am putting that one at 3.99.  It's called The Craft of Writing.

I'm glad I was able to post the other blog post today.  I had written it last week and my publish button wasn't showing up.  Today I found another way to publish it.  I can go directly into all my posts and check mark the one I want to publish.  But it is maddening not to be able to push my orange publish button.  I think it's because I have too many tool bars and it's not showing up enough for me to click and publish.

Oh well.  I'm working on an old mystery novel I had started several years back called Red Ribbons.  That is now on it's way to getting done and I may be able to format and publish that one soon.  It's a sequel to Black Roses which I published three years ago.

I had half of it typed into my microsoft word and never typed the rest of the handwritten pages.  So, that's what I've been working on over this last weekend is getting that one back to where it needed to be and then I've been writing new chapters for that one and refreshing my memory on the novel.

After that one is done, I foresee myself working on Book Two of The Glorious Money Tree Trilogy.  And possibly at some point a third book to the mystery series.  My third book will probably be called Butterfly Tattoos.

It's funny how suddenly I'm publishing and formatting a bunch of books.  It's ones I had partly done and I finally finished them.

I've set the knitting aside for a bit.  I still knit for a little bit in the morning and then I make myself type.  That's what I should be doing anyway.  There's more of a possibility of me making money from the writing than the knitting.

Jennifer Jo. Fay

Copyright April 7, 2014

Finally, I'm getting ready to format and am going to go with the basic formatting with Amazon.  It's basic formatting for my novel and I was told to just upload and hope for the best.  I'm going that route as I'm not familiar with html.

Can hardly wait.  I'm either going to get the book published today or Friday.  I also got busy over this week working on the soup book and now am into the recipe book of my Mothers.  The soup one is done and I'm going to work on the cover and get that one published soon too.  Once I get them published I will let you know when they are available.  Maybe I will be able to get the code and copy and paste into here for the books.

I've been busy with the one on my Mother, first getting the meals in and now I am working on the best course.  The DESSERTS!!!!

I'm working on a tube headband, which I've set aside to work on these other projects.  Maybe a knitting ebook in the works too.  I compiled my Ravelry patterns into one file and may get a small ebook together on some of those.  Including the skirt I did and the bobble shawl.

It's a matter of figuring out what to do next.  First things first.  Get the book published.  It was over the weekend when I finally decided it was done.  I got to the last chapter and said to myself, this is the finish.  It's not as many pages as I hoped for, but in my mind, it's done and I will be ready to dive into book two of The Glorious Money Tree Trilogy.

Jennifer Jo. Fay

Copyrighted April 2, 2014