Category Archives: Bible study

April-May Progress, June Goals

When I last posted about progress and goals, at the end of March, I said I wasn’t going to post goals for April due to uncertainty of my schedule and ability to work on writing. Slowly, my schedule clarified itself. I found more time to work in the midst of grandparent duties than I expected.

So here it is June. I didn’t have goals for April or May, but I need to give you some idea of the progress I made in those months. I can’t compare it to goals I didn’t make, so I’ll just give it, in the format I usually do, as if I had goals.

  • Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. I managed to do this. A couple of times I had almost dummy posts, but I got it done.
  • Attend writers groups as I can. I was traveling a lot, and missed a number of meetings. But I attended whenever I was in town.
  • Work on and finish Parts 4, 5, and 7 of A Walk Through Holy Week. I’m pleased to say that the time I spent on this was quite effective and efficient. I finished Part 7 a little ahead of the teaching schedule. I finished Part 4 just after that, and Part 5 on May 19. I’ll soon write a blog post about that progress.
  • On The Key To Time Travel, finish a final edit to make sure all editor’s marks are addressed, and all dates and ages are consistent. Then format and publish it by the end of May. Yes, I got this done! I learned yesterday I need to make a minor edit to the acknowledgements, which I hope to do today. The print cover has been delayed, as the cover designer has had a health issue. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I can get the print book published.
  • Update this website as needed. I did most of that. Possibly I’ll get it all done before this posts.

So, what about June? I’m not real sure. After five months of intensive work this year, I feel like I need to take some time off. Yet, time off doesn’t result in the writing that leads to publication. Therefore, I’m going to make a few goals.

  • Blog twice a week, Mondays and Fridays, as always.
  • Attend writer groups meetings as I can based on travel schedule. I was supposed to present at one of these in June, but have had to delay that based on my schedule.
  • Proofread as much as I can of the four completed volumes of A Walk Through Holy Week. I actually started that in May, doing a complete read-through of Part 4 and some of Part 5. We’ll see how far I can get.
  • Work on the cover for the AWTHW series. I don’t sell enough books to pay for cover creation, so I just have to do it myself. I have a concept I want to use, if I can do the graphics. Which leads to my last goal…
  • Work with G.I.M.P. on how to do more artistry in covers. I’ll have to find some tutorials.

Enough goals. Although, I’m writing this post on May 23 for publishing on June 2. I can always edit the goals before it goes live.

A Small View Between Obstacles

Hard to see in this photo, but the gaps in the forest are there. I took this photo this morning, and the cloud cover is about the same as Wednesday.

On Wednesday, I came to The Dungeon as per my routine, mug of coffee in hand. I opened my current Bible reading book, which is the harmony of the gospels that I wrote, did my reading, had my prayer time, and got to my work—or maybe my busywork, can’t quite remember exactly two days ago. At some point I went upstairs for breakfast, then returned to The Dungeon and got to my real working time.

The day had dawned cloudy and remained so. At some point I looked up and out the window. Now, the window is covered with vertical slat blinds from the top to the floor. And my computer desk with the upper shelf unit is between me and the window. So two items are blocking my view of the outer world.

But I did have some view, enough to know the clouds were still thick. All I could see was tree leaves and branches. Once the oaks leaf out, which happens in the latter part of April, the holler behind our house is fully obscured. I see leaves close, a little light behind them, and then a mass of leaves that covers all else.

I took note that the leaves were perfectly still—not a bit of movement. But then I focused on the small amount of leaves deeper in the woods that I could see through the small gaps between the near leaves and branches. There, behind the front foliage, were places where gaps in the forest canopy allowed more light to penetrate. And in those gaps, I could see leaves and branches stirring. Eventually, that stirring worked its way toward the nearer leaves and branches, and they began to stir as well.

That got me to thinking of the limited view we have of the world. Our view is obscured by the things around us: the work at home, the work at a job, the need to keep in contact with people. So many things crowd our lives that, to use the old and trite adage, we can’t see the forest because of the trees.

It’s good to be looking for those gaps in what crowds us in to see beyond, to see what the rest of the world is up to. That’s what makes our little piece of the world a better place to live in.

When I took note of that movement in the forest, working from deeper in it to the edge of it made up of our back yard, I knew I had to blog about it, but how do I find meaning in it? Meaning, that is, beyond the gaps that allows us to see a little more of the world? And I thought of what I wrote not so long ago about friendship.

Friendships are the little gaps in the forest, with light penetrating the canopy and shining deep within. Friendships are elusive in this busy world, but well worth cultivating.

I’ve been working hard on my current work-in-progress, A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 5. I’m down to less than 1,500 words to go on the main text, plus some kind of introduction. My hope is to finish it today, though a doctor appointment may be too much interruption for that to happen. No matter if it does; I’ll finish it tomorrow. Then, I’m going to take time to cultivate some friendships I’ve kind of dropped while working so hard between writing and parent/grandparent duties.

Here’s to friendships, and to little gaps in the desk top-unit, the blinds, and the forest, that occasionally align and allow a view of the woder world.

Miscellaneous Musings

Every now and then, I come to a blog day with nothing much to say. I’m sure my few regular readers notice those posts. They are days when, for whatever reason, I’m knocked out of my regular routine, or I didn’t sleep well after not planning ahead.

Today is a little different. Rather than being knocked off my routine, I’m trying to reestablish it. After over two weeks or helping our daughter’s family in West Texas, we are back home and trying to get back to normal. It will be a short normal, as the helping times will come back fairly quickly.

Today I was up at 6:30 a.m. as always and in The Dungeon before 7:00. I caught up on a number of things, but blogging wasn’t on my mind. Getting back to writing was. Except I had some correspondence tasks to do first. Once those were done, it was time for the stock market to open and I had three trades I wanted to make. I lingered over those trades more than I had to. Next thing I knew, it was 9:00 and time for breakfast.

Consequently, it was 9:45 before I was back in The Dungeon and ready to write. My goal for the day was to get back into A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 5 after 12 days and make some progress on it. I didn’t have a specific word goal. Well, I got into it and made progress as I hoped. By 11:20 I had close to 1,300 words added and the next to last chapter completed. Only one chapter to go, and a little of that is done. Based on the word target I established for each chapter, I have maybe 4,000 words to write, plus the Introduction.

So I came here to An Arrow Through The Air and got to my other writing for the day. It’s a blah post, about writing progress. No earth-shattering ideas. No political rants. Nothing about things learned, ministries participation, or people helped. But it’s where I’m at.

And now, the sunroom and my noon reading break beckon.

Working Hard

It’s 6:26 a.m. on my blog posting day. I normally try to have this written long before this on the day before, but circumstances worked against my getting that done.

The circumstances are, we are in West Texas again, the third of four trips here this year. The first was to babysit the grandkids while our daughter and son-in-law were on a mission trip to Thailand. The second trip and this one are to help out as they begin transitioning to a new location, south of Houston. Richard is down there two weeks and back here two. While he’s gone, we’ll come here to help out.

Yesterday I got the three older grandkids working on pre-move projects. They couldn’t get on screens until they had achieved a certain degree of completeness. They did it without complaining. In the evening, I worked on Bible quizzing with the two middle ones, as they will have a competition in June.

During the day, I have so far been working on yardwork tasks. Yesterday I completed the main task I had, though in reality there is much more to do. I’m going to take today off from outdoor stuff, I think, as I was quite worn out yesterday. I also slightly injured my chest swinging an ax to cut out some old, dead roots from a long-gone hedge. But that’s done, the debris discarded, and I need a day for the old bones—or perhaps it was muscles, ligaments, or tendons—to heal.

We’ve eaten leftovers so far. Today I’ll have to cook something. I can’t say I’m looking forward to that.

I’ve had plenty of indoor time to work on my other “jobs”. Over two days I added over 3,300 words to A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 7. I’m down to only one chapter left now, most likely three days of writing. Then I’ll have the Introduction to do and, of course, editing to turn it from a first draft to a publishable book. On to the little bit of work left to Part 5 of AWTHW, which I hope to finish in May. I’ve had time the last two days to do my stock trading. Fortunately, the type of trading I’m doing right now doesn’t take a lot of time. It’s relatively low risk, yet I’m ahead of the market for the year. That’s nice to see for a change.

I’ve been able to get a little reading in, but not a lot. It’s been good reading, however. To be a good example to the grandkids, I’m reading in a print book when they are around rather then one of three books I have going on my phone.

So, it’s been a good trip. Still more than a week to go before we head home. Lots of work to do. Today I’ll have to take a little time to work on The Key To Time Travel, as the cover designer has reached the point where she needs book dimensions and back cover copy. Since she’s there, it’s time for me to get a few last-minute edits done. I should have that published in May.

Progress on “A Walk Through Holy Week”

I’m hoping that, by the end of the year, this will not be the only Bible study in my bibliography. Alas, I wrote that caption in 2022, and here it is 2023 and it’s still my only published Bible study. But I’m much closer to that goal.

I don’t think I’ve written before about the Bible study I’m writing. I know I have in my monthly progress reports and goals. But I’m not sure I’ve done a post about it describing the project. The genesis of it goes back a few years.

I think it was around six or seven years ago that the co-teacher of our adult Sunday school class said he would love to have a class lesson series on Holy Week, going passage by passage through it, ending up with Easter. Based on the harmony of the gospels I had written, I told him that was something like 67 passages and it would take more than a year or continuous study to get through it all. Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen.

But I brainstormed it and came up with a way to do it. We would take it in chunks over several years during the season leading up to Easter, commonly called Lent. Ten lessons or so over six years would do it. I suggested that to Marion, my co-teacher, and he agreed it would be a good thing to do.

So I made an outline of six years of lessons. The text would be my harmony. We began teaching it in 2019, covering the Triumphal Entry and teaching on Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week. In 2020 we covered the Olivet Discourse, mostly by Zoom because of the pandemic. 2021 was the Last Supper, 2022 the time in Gethsemane and the Jewish legal actions. This year we have moved on to Good Friday. Lent and Easter is over. We’ve had seven lessons from this part with three or four to go. That leaves Easter and the times after Easter to be covered in 2024.

We got through the first two years, and were in the midst of the third one when I suddenly realized that this might make a good Bible study to write and publish. So part way through year 3, I began writing the book for that year simultaneously with teaching the lessons. It was slow going at first. I wasn’t sure what I wanted in the books , how long they would be or even how long each chapter, corresponding to a lesson, would be. But I worked on it until the lesson series for that year was over, then put it aside.

Then last year, I decided to write simultaneously from the start of the lesson series and keep up with it. I found I could do this fairly easily. That gave a couple of days each week to go back and work on the lessons from the previous year. By the end of the then-current series, I was within a couple of thousand words of being finished with the volume.

Except I came upon a flaw in the series. The lesson series from year 1 was too long at 21 lessons. So was the one from year 3 at 14 lessons. So this year, during the “off season”, so to speak, I worked on the overall plan for the series. I realized that, even though we would teach it over six years, it worked better as an eight year series and eight book volumes. I also finished the little bit left in last year’s series over a couple of weeks.

Once again, I began writing the chapters simultaneously with teaching this year’s lessons. And it’s working. As of today, we’ve taught seven lessons and I’ve completed seven chapters. It’s gone fairly well, I think. I’ve also had time to work on the books from the third year, which in the new organization are books 4 and 5. Volume 4 is finished, and Volume 5 is about 12,000 words away from being finished. EDIT: Actually, Volume 4 wasn’t quite finished when I wrote this post. It is now, though, with one editing pass completed. [23 May 2023]

So Volumes 4 and 6 are finished. Volume 5 is nearing completion. Volume 7 is fully planned and is on schedule to be done in about a month. Alas, I haven’t started on Volumes 1, 2 and 3, and Volume 8. I likely won’t start until next year. The word count of the four volumes done or partly done is just shy of 110,000. If I keep writing lessons at the current length, the entire series will be between 200,000 and 250,000 words, or maybe even more than that, though I’m sure it will be less than 300,000.

So that’s the current project. I’m working almost exclusively on it. For the last several weeks I’ve been able to add close to 7,000 words each week. That will be my goal this week. Possibly next Monday I’ll report on how I did.

I haven’t figured a publishing schedule yet. I don’t know whether to wait a year and publish them more or less all at once, or to publish the ones I have done (Vols 4 and 6) now. I’ll decided that in a month of two. By that time, I may have Vols 4, 5, 6, and 7 completed. That would make more sense to publish them and fill in 1, 2, and 3 when I can get them done.

That’s too big of a question right now. I need to concentrate on the writing.

 

On Duty

Three of these are our grandkids. The oldest is a teen, so not in this children’s program.

My wife and I are on grandparent duty, again. Our son-in-law has taken up his new pastorate, further south and east in Texas. The family won’t move until school is out. He will follow a schedule of two weeks in the new location and two weeks home until they make the final move, probably near the end of May.

Since that left our daughter alone with the four kids, we came to dusty, dry, and windy West Texas to help her out. I’ve been taxiing kids to school, taking them to the library, reading with them, and being chief cook and bottle washer for 11 days.

I’m also getting some work done. Did my stock trading each market day. Worked on my Bible study book each day. Following up on author items. So it’s not been a bad gig. And with our daughter here the work is spread out a little more than when we babysat the grandkids for 11 days not all that long ago.

We head home on Friday. Hopefully I’ll get a better blog post done in a timely manner for Friday.

March Progress

March has been a mixture of good and difficult days. Here’s a look at my progress during the month.

  • As always, blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday. Got this done. A couple of times I almost forgot, but managed to post something.
  • Attend four writers meetings this month. I already attended the first one, held last Thursday. Got to all my writer’s meetings this month, including the Letter Writers Society, where I was the presenter.
  • Keep up with A Walk Through Holy Week writing simultaneously with teaching. You never know what curve balls life will throw at you, but, based on how this is starting, I think it is doable. By the end of March, I should be through Chapter 5 and have started on Chapter 6. I’m up to date, though the schedule is slightly different due to some reorganization of the book. I am currently working on Chapter 5.
  • Finish either Part 4 or Part 5 of AWTHW. I actually worked on this a little last month. Or maybe that was Thursday-Friday, which would be this month. I spent time reading where I was when I pulled of this last year, split and organized files in the new part designations, and put a few words down. Part 5 is farther along than Part 4, but I feel like I want to get Part 4 done first. We’ll see. I worked on Part 4, and made some good progress, but didn’t finish it. I decided that’s the one I’ll work on first.
  • Organize some writing ideas files. I began this last Thursday and presented them to the Scribblers & Scribes critique group. They liked one idea a lot, but not the other. A new idea came to me on Saturday and fleshed out a bit with brainstorming yesterday. I plan to document that on Monday—today—the put it out of my head until the time is right. I did some of this, but not as much as I hoped for.
  • Get any needed edits done to TKTTT according to feedback from beta readers. Alas, I haven’t received any feedback from my beta readers yet. I’m not sure when I’ll be getting that feedback.
  • Make a handful of edits to Letters Between Friends, and republish it. This is based on feedback from copyright holders. This is not really urgent, and I may put this off until AWTHW and TKTTT are further down the road. In a fit of effort, I actually got this done. It is corrected and re-published. Strange how the things you don’t expect to do take over.

I’m not going to, at this time, establish goals for April. Maybe I’ll do that on Monday, or maybe not at all.

I Guess I Was Tired

Here it is, Monday morning, 7:42 a.m. at the new Central Daylight Time, and I’m just getting around to writing my blog post. I didn’t get up until 7:02 a.m. today. I guess I was tired.

I taught adult Sunday school yesterday. That usually takes a lot out of me, both the preparation work and the teaching. I was exhausted as I made my way from the classroom to the sanctuary, and then as I sat through the church service.

When we got home, I ate our Subway lunch then put a roast on for supper. And off to the sunroom I went for my normal reading and nap time. I don’t always nap during these sessions, but I did yesterday. I like to take a walk then, but I was much too tired to do so. I went to my reading chair in the living room, where Lynda had a UFO program on. Just the thing to have in the background when you’re too tired to do much. I decided to forego my afternoon walk.

The next couple of hours are a blur. I caught up on e-mails. At 3:45 p.m. I added the veggies to the roast. I sent an e-mail to our Life Group with the prayer requests from the morning and the scripture we studied. I really can’t remember what else took up those couple of hours. But I did learn that I had left the charging cord to my computer in the Sunday school classroom. Alas, I won’t be going anywhere near the church this week. Well, I have a second cord I keep in The Dungeon, and fetched it. I can carry it up and down the stairs this week.

When the roast was done a little after 6:00 p.m., we ate, putting on a Miss Marple TV show, one of the ones from the 1980s in which Joan Hickson plays Miss Marple. When that was over, I pulled up on my computer the Bible study I’m writing, the one that my co-teacher and I are also teaching. I started writing on that around 8:30 p.m. or so, and when I stopped at 9:50 p.m., I discovered I had added 1,800 words, and was a little ahead of schedule on where I hope to be at that point in the week.

After that writing session was reading, putting pills together for this week, cleaning a bit in the kitchen, and to bed around 11:00 p.m., my usual time. I slept okay. Up several times in the night, but was able to get back to sleep each time. I woke this morning around 6:10 a.m., and rather than get up I decided to stay in bed until my normal 6:30 a.m. rising time. The next thing I knew it was 7:02 a.m. I never sleep that late.

But, of course, we changed this weekend to Daylight Saving Time. I lost an hour of sleep. It’s no wonder I was tired. It’s going to take a couple of days to fully adjust. And Saturday, I spent a fair amount of time pulling together our partnership income tax form. We trade stocks as a partnership, and that tax return is due March 15. That actually came together pretty well. I was able to complete and print the forms on Saturday. Today I will proof them and, assuming they are correct, make my copy and take them to mail today, two days early.

I also did some writing on Saturday, in the evening, on the Bible study as I prepared the lesson for yesterday. In that session I produced around 1,200 words. I think they were good words, but I’ll know more when I re-read them today at the beginning of my writing session.

So maybe I earned that tiredness. My blood sugar readings were good, as were my blood pressure. My weight is up a little as I’ve lost motivation to eat properly. I hope to get that motivation back today.

I think also the weight of everything I have to do this week was pressing on me. Tomorrow I make a presentation to the Northwest Arkansas Letter Writers Society (one of my clubs) on Historical Letter Collections, and I’m not ready yet. With banks failing this weekend, I know stock trading today will be intense. Wednesday are our annual eye exams. Thursday is Scribblers & Scribes writing critique group, and I have to decide what to prepare.

Oh, and this morning, I discovered that I also forgot my wireless mouse at church. It’s very hard to do my stock trading without that, and of course it’s important to overall computer use, so I guess I’ll make the 13 mile drive to church this afternoon and retrieve the forgotten items.

Obviously, I was tired.

Monthly Progress and Goals

The sequel is done, and close to publishing ready. Hang in there, folks.

And, for the second month in a row, I forgot all about publishing my progress against my goals as the first post for the month and setting new goals. I should have done that Friday. What was I thinking? Well, a couple of days late, here they are. The progress first.

  • Blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday. Yes, I did this. I liked the series I thought of, posting library memories.
  • I won’t be attending writers meetings this month. There was nothing to do about this goal.
  • Edit and complete A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 6. … Part of this goal is to, at the end of February, have a publication-ready book. I completed this! I was able to knuckle down, finish all chapters and sections, add the Introduction, and declare the book publication ready. I even figured out a cover scheme for the series.
  • Begin work writing AWTHW Part 7, simultaneously to when I teach it. I have been doing this. Fairly successfully I think. My co-teacher and I have now taught two lessons in the series. Chapter 1 corresponding to Lesson 1 is complete. Chapter 2 corresponding to Lesson 2 is close to complete. Last night, after doing other things and watching some Miss Marple movies, I spent a very productive hour on it. I think I shall be able to finish Ch 2 today, putting me ahead of where I usually am for this simultaneous teaching and writing.
  • Get TKTTT to beta readers and receive their feedback back. I did this. One of two grandchildren read it and gave me feedback. I also sent it to an elementary school teacher to give to students who will be beta readers. No feedback from them yet, but it will be coming soon.
  • Work with the cover designer of TKTTT. Yes, I got with the cover designer. I gave her my ideas, and she will work with it. Hopefully she is working on it now.
Gary is gone, but the letters between us live on. A few edits to this are possible this month.

So, here are some goals for March.

  • As always, blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday.
  • Attend four writers meetings this month. I already attended the first one, held last Thursday.
  • Keep up with A Walk Through Holy Week writing simultaneously with teaching. You never know what curve balls life will throw at you, but, based on how this is starting, I think it is doable. By the end of March, I should be through Chapter 5 and have started on Chapter 6.
  • Finish either Part 4 or Part 5 of AWTHW. I actually worked on this a little last month. Or maybe that was Thursday-Friday, which would be this month. I spent time reading where I was when I pulled of this last year, split and organized files in the new part designations, and put a few words down. Part 5 is farther along than Part 4, but I feel like I want to get Part 4 done first. We’ll see.
  • Organize some writing ideas files. I began this last Thursday and presented them to the Scribblers & Scribes critique group. They liked one idea a lot, but not the other. A new idea came to me on Saturday and fleshed out a bit with brainstorming yesterday. I plan to document that on Monday—today—the put it out of my head until the time is right.
  • Get any needed edits done to TKTTT according to feedback from beta readers.
  • Make a handful of edits to Letters Between Friends, and republish it. This is based on feedback from copyright holders. This is not really urgent, and I may put this off until AWTHW and TKTTT are further down the road.

That’s enough. If I get all that done this will truly have been a productive month. Also, my business partnership taxes are due this month, which will cut into my writing time.

Monthly Progress and Goals

The sequel is coming, folks. Hang in there.

In the category of “what was I thinking–I wasn’t thinking, include my post on last Friday. That was the day closest to the first of the month, the day I should have been recording my writing progress for January and goals for February. Instead, I did the post that came to mind first. Ah, well.

Here’s how I did in January relative to the goals I set.

  • Edit The Key To Time Travel, at least once and hopefully twice. I’m happy to say I did three editorial reads of TKTTT, and am pleased with how it turned out. One of those reads was aloud with my wife.
  • Finish one pass through A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 4. If time allows (which it should), make a true editorial reading of it. Also, write whatever introduction is needed, and whatever ending makes sense. And I did this too. That is, I did a devotional reading of it, one section each day. The editor in my couldn’t keep from correcting typos, clarifying the text, making the occasional change. At least this allowed me to know the two places I need to give most attention to as I do my edits in February.
  • Blog twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. I don’t know if I can claim this as done or not. Twice I had only what I call a “dummy” post, just a few words to let my readers know I was alive and kicking, but didn’t have time to write something beneficial.
  • Attend four writers meetings this month. The one I sometimes make, sometimes miss, is a lunch brainstorming session, which I plan to go to.  I was able to attend only two. The two others came during my wife’s hospitalization and I wasn’t able to attend.
  • Work on at least one other part of A Walk Through Holy Week, probably Part 3, which is already well along. No, I did not get this done.
  • Plan out the next part of A Walk Through Holy Week. I will be teaching that in February through April, and last year I found it was easier to write the current part than one from a previous year. Yes, this I did get done. I have a plan for the 10-lesson series and have discussed it with my co-teacher. It begins February 26. Still more prep work to do, however.

So now, we come to February, already six days into it. Here are my goals.

  • Blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday. I believe this is do-able, even with certain distractions planned into the month.
  • I won’t be attending writers meetings this month. The first one, already passed, was snowed out. The three others come while I’ll be out of town.
  • Edit and complete A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 6. This was Part 4 until I restructured the series last month through some serious planning. That wasn’t one of last month’s goals, but I did it. I begin that editing today. Part of this goal is to, at the end of February, have a publication-ready book.
  • Begin work writing AWTHW Part 7, simultaneously to when I teach it. That worked well last year on part 6 (was part 4 before restructuring).
  • Get TKTTT to beta readers and receive their feedback back. I began this process last Friday. Hoping two of my grandchildren will read it this week and next. And I have one other family to check with.
  • Work with the cover designer of TKTTT.

That seems like enough. I’ll check back in on March 3, report how I did, and post some goals for March.