It’s almost November. Only two months left to complete your goals for this year.

What would you love to accomplish by the end of the year? Writing goals or personal goals…

Waving at Connie, Sherry and Jorlyn – I know you have writing goals you’re trying to reach. Thank you to Jorlyn who keeps me on track each month with her consistent efforts : )

I challenge you to list five goals to complete within the next two months.

Be realistic. If you reach for too much, you may end up discouraged. I know I’ll be busy in November finishing up essays for Bible Institute and facing final exams for this semester. So I need to be reasonable. But I still would like to complete this list by the end of 2013.

1. Write out questions and draft article on a local pastor.
2. Return to novella work, revise and continue the story.
3. Make reservations for Blue Ridge Mts. Christian Writers Conference – DONE!
4. Set goals for Conference.
5. Begin editing work for a local publication.

Your turn! Time is running out…

Old Farmhouse Renovation #122…rip out ancient living room rug, patch/repair floor in weak spots, clean thoroughly, coat with sealant in preparation for brand new rug. Which at this point I’ve forgotten what it looks like. I’m tired of stumbling over furniture stashed in adjoining rooms and truly missing my couch corner where I sit and read each evening. While glancing at the room when it was first stripped free of the old rug and almost all the furniture cleared out, I realized there was NO TURNING BACK. We had to complete the job. No chance of going out to the garage and bringing that old nasty rug back in. Time to move on to new and better things.

Our spiritual walk feels like this sometimes. God strips away the old ugly attitudes and cleans us up all shiny new, filling our hearts with His love and crystal clear goodness. It may be tiring and a bit painful, but well worth it in the end. We need to continually let Jesus wash away all the hurts and ragged parts of our past, things that build up over the years. NO TURNING BACK. And no chance of allowing those ugly old things back into our lives. For He makes all things new. Jesus, complete Your work in us!       

Winners from last week’s post are: Marianne B. and Beth C. Please contact me!

To all those October babies who share my birthday month – a colorful Happy Birthday to you! I left for work one morning this week and as soon as I opened my front door, I caught the scent of fall.

A mix of woodsmoke, changing leaves and crisp air…

We’ve been blessed with a few bright and sunny days, highlighting crimson, yellow and burnt orange trees and bushes, a lovely time of year in upstate New York. Birthdays are a time of memories, being thankful for all the many blessings in our lives. I’m thankful for my amazing husband, my sister and sister-friends, and godly mentors. I’m grateful for my cousins who are becoming nearer and dearer as our families change with losing loved ones. Together we will carry on our traditions and hold true to what our parents taught us.

If you share an October birthday, please do leave a comment highlighting some of your blessings. And if your birthday falls between September and November, leave a comment to enter the book giveaway. One winner will receive: Love Inspired “The Lawman’s Second Chance” by Ruth Logan Herne. Another winner will receive “Healing the Forest Ranger” by Leigh Bale. Happy Autumn Birthday!

according to the IRS. The story began when I received a scary looking envelope in the mail. Never had a problem with taxes before so what could this official letter possibly contain? Simply a statement claiming we owed over $30,000 in back taxes from a couple of years back.

Hmm…deep breath  here. Must be a mistake. Repeat this phrase several times while trying to focus on the legal terms and phrases contained in said letter and not panic. Repeat, not panic.

Since the letter came on a Friday, I immediately called the toll free number and finally connected with a real person to sort out this dilemma so it wouldn’t hang over our heads all weekend. Fortunately the kind employee walked me through the process till we found the problem. Their problem. Not mine. Somewhere, someone on their end had incorrectly entered a $750.00 payment I recorded and changed it to $75,000. Oh what a difference a little decimal point or comma makes! On a tangent here, what a difference one little word can make in our stories or articles!

Anyway, I informed the employee that I would be most happy to pay any back taxes if I had in fact cleared $75,000 for one article. Wow, if only. Breathing a bit easier, I hung up the phone and immediately went to my records to verify what we had discussed. All was reported correctly on our end, including a copy of the right form which had the right figure and which they must have had a copy of.  Okay, we’re all human and we all make mistakes. I made copies of all my writing income from that year (trust me, it really wasn’t that much!) and mailed them all in with the form. After a few more phone calls, and receiving mail that reduced the balance but still didn’t cover all the bases, we finally received the final statement that we owed….0. God is good, all the time.

Moral of the story: Be sure to keep excellent copies of all of your writing records, expenses, income and tax statements. It would have been a hassle if I had to sort through piles of papers to locate the information I needed. I had the requested information readily available and was very thankful I had bothered to keep good records. You never know, this could happen to you!

Featuring two blogs this week with the Premio Dardos Award, an award that “acknowledges the values that every Blogger displays in their efforts to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values with each message they write.” First, my friend Erin Elizabeth Austin at  http://www.erinelizabethaustin.com/blog.html 

Erin’s Broken but Priceless Ministries blog is an encouraging read for anyone suffering from chronic illness. I met Erin at Blue Ridge Christian Writers Conference a few years ago. She is a lovely young woman with a passion to help others, sharing the wisdom gained from her own battles with unending health problems.

Another Blue Ridge friend, Sherry Carter, blogs at www.sherryjcarter.blogspot.com 

Sherry is, in her own words,  “a Reformed engineer – that’s me! After many years as an engineer at Johnson Space Center in Houston, God saw fit to yank me out of the Space world and sit me down in front of a laptop, writing about His Word.” Definitely an interesting background for a writer. Sherry won the Award for Excellence in Christian Writing at the Blue Ridge Mountains Writer’s Conference in 2006 for her Bible study, Storms of Life.  Check out the blogs and pass them on to others for a good dose of encouragement!

I traveled a different route to work today.

I knew the way but haven’t driven that direction in a while. When I veered off the exit, it kept winding around and around and for a moment, I was in unfamiliar territory. Not quite sure I had gotten off the right place. I kept going and soon came to familiar landmarks and all was well.

Are you on unfamiliar territory this week? I’m thinking of my friends who are attending the American Christian Fiction Writers conference, perhaps for the first time. Take heart, if you keep going, you will find things will become more familiar and…all will be well.

If you are pitching your work to an editor, remember the lesson of the APTD : ) page 39 in the summer issue of The Journal.  And remember wherever you are traveling, Jesus has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Viola Kalandyk Sowinski, World War II veteran, previous proprietor of the Kalan Hosiery Shop and the Central Fish Market in Albany, former employee at the Albany County Courthouse, Albany City Board of Education, and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

Otherwise known as my Aunt Viola.

One of my favorite relatives, Aunt Vi was an incredible woman. Hearing the sad news of her passing, my husband and I were sharing words that best described her. Gracious, kind, classy, stylish, charming, funny, adventurous, world traveler, honorable, intelligent, caring, sweet, loving. She had a fascination with languages, studying Russian, Spanish, Italian and German and in her later years learning…Chinese!

My aunt and cousins kindly took us under their wing when my parents passed away. We had the privilege of spending several holidays with them and loved to listen to their travel stories. Visiting England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy, China, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Poland and many states in the USA, she was my “aunt most traveled.” It always amazed me to see the pictures of her early years serving in the 8th Air Force based in High Wycombe, England under the command of General James Doolittle. An amazing woman who was ahead of her time. She portrayed a beautiful blend of old world gentleness, femininity and true bravado. I will cherish our last Christmas  together, remembering how she patiently helped us learn the correct pronounciation and meaning of several Polish words and phrases. 

Aunt Viola’s spirit lives on in her children, Valerie, Barbara and Chester. They orchestrated a beautiful funeral and gravesite service for their mother that truly honored her life, complete with Air Force military escorts in full dress blues and ending with the soulful sounds of the bugler playing Taps. My cousins follow in their mother’s footsteps, all having excellent careers, well-traveled, close knit, caring for each other and others along their daily path. My dear Aunt Viola, how we will miss you but you are and always will be a part of us.

Upstate New Yorkers learn to cherish any mellow, sunny days that come our way before we are stuck inside for the long, snowy winter.  This is one of my favorite places to write in the summer. Um…yes, there are several magazines in the picture. They provide a needed break when my hand gets too cramped from the furious writing pace : )  Please note there is also a pad of lined paper to the right.

Okay, I admit I do a lot of dreaming here and am easily distracted. Watching the cardinals sneaking over to the bird feeder. Admiring the grace of a beautiful butterfly. Sometimes even falling asleep on my cozy loveseat. The dreaming helps restore creativity and the relaxation renews the spirit. 

What is your favorite place to write in the summer? Or to curl up with a good book?

Riding around beautiful Sacandaga Lake today in upstate NY to visit some friends. Remembering my family renting camps and cabins here so many years ago when we were young. I tried to locate one of our cabins along the lake marked off by a huge white boulder with “Whispering Pines” written across it in heavy black paint. No such luck. The cabin is probably long gone due to new development along the lakefront.

However, we did find the Old Country Store, right at the edge of the bridge. Of course we had to stop and look it over. Things were different but the outside looked much the same. I was thrilled it was still there. Such memories!

• As a child, coming in sunburnt and happy from swimming in the lake.
• My sister and I just about reaching the height of the counters, facing the difficult decision of which old fashioned candy to choose from the large glass containers.
• Driving around with Mom and Dad in the old fin-tailed Cadillac with our wet hair flying in the breeze.

Do you have special summer memories?

Any old landmarks that are still there? Please share in a comment!

So many out there. What blogs do you read every week?

Do you enjoy devotional blogs?

Book reviews or writer’s blogs?

Are you drawn to those filled with humor or do you like ones that address serious topics?

Please share your favorite blogs in a comment. I’ll be sharing my favorite ones in a future post.