Happy April, everybody! ? This month is looking so amazing already — I can’t wait to see what else God has in store!
First off, I’m just wrapping up last month’s goals and taking a look at how much progress I made then. Scroll down and skip it if you’d just like to get to this month’s stuff. ?
God
1. Finish New Testament – DONE & DESTROYED
Yes! I finished John and then read all the way to Revelation. I finished it on March 27, 12:53 AM. My phone is now full of 428 screenshots of multiples verses I wanted to save. ?
2. Use journal more – AWESOMELY ANNIHILATED
Yep! I used it more than twice as much as I did last month, so that’s “more” enough for me!
3. Have a prayer list with prayer points (online friends’ prayer requests) – DEADLY DEMOLISHED
Yep again! On March 12th I decided to commit to never letting a day go by without spending time in prayer. The list keeps growing and growing! In addition to specific prayer requests, I am praying THIS awesome set of blessings of all of you awesome followers every single day!
Madi Grace Ministries
4. Send $20 to missionary Michael Biggs – Late, but DESTROYED NONETHELESS
Um, oops? He came over at the end of the month — and will be staying here until June — so he distracted me. YEAH. TOTALLY ALL HIS FAULT.
Nah, I did send in $20 – just not in March like I planned but at the beginning of April when I remembered…
5. Feed 1 child in another country – TOTALLY TERMINATED
I actually thought this one was late, but it’s recurring from my account, so I did indeed send money to feed a child that would otherwise die of starvation.
6. Post “Finding Your God-Given Purpose” – EPICALLY EXTINGUISHED
Yes! I had a lot of fun making this post and I really hope it helps anyone struggling to find out their purpose in life. Click the picture or here to read it!
7. Post “5 Ways to Kick the Devil’s Butt in Your Life Right Now” – OVER-THE-TOP TERMINATED.
This expanded into Mondays with Madi, kicking off with the first series over the next ten weeks with TEN epic ways you can kick the devil’s butt in your everyday life! You can view the first one here or by clicking that pic.
8. Get “like” buttons working – NEEDS TO BE TESTED BY YOU
Oh, no! It stills needs to be tested – I don’t know if the like buttons actually work or not! That means… I’m recruiting YOU to like everything on here to help me see if the buttons are working now!
9. Add WordPress follow button – NEEDS TO BE TESTED BY YOU
This needs to be tested out, too… if you have a WordPress account and only if you haven’t already, see if it works by pressing “Follow Madi Grace” below!
(Looks like some elements didn’t get the center-alignment memo… I’m lookin’ at you, follow button.)
10. Get account situation situated – CANCELED
I ended up not seeing a real need for this. It’s a little annoying to have my DWOD account notified whenever someone comments or likes on Madi Grace instead of here, but it’s not that big of a deal. I canceled this one just because I could.
Writing
11. Come up with tagline title for Loyalty, Book I – COMPLETELY CRUSHED
YES. What do you guys think of “To the Death”? Thank you to one of my amazing beta readers, Liz, for inspiring that title.
Oh, I even got a mock cover made for the book!
Would you care to see? ?
(the watermark is not part of the cover)
Maximumoe14 on the NaNoWriMo forums is a graphic design student who makes simple, quality covers for free. He doesn’t do major stuff with PhotoShop or anything but simply makes nice covers for your novel. I’m using this as a mock cover / inspiration until I hire designers. Maximumoe14, this was great! Thanks again.
12. Enlist 2nd round beta readers for Loyalty, Book I – DEMOLISHED
Why yes, yes, I did indeed do that! Signups are over and I’m so excited about everyone who’s beta reading now. The last day to do it is May first, so if you signed up and intend on reading more, you still have time to do so! Thanks so much again for signing up, guys — I was never expecting so many people to want to beta read! See, you guys are helping me think bigger.
13. Plot 33% percent of Loyalty, Book II: Pursuit of Nothing – UHH, CHANGED
Instead of this, I paused and decided to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo this month! Now I’m documenting my progress of plotting in hours for Camp. I’m over half of the way done with my goal so far, though, but the goal is just the beginning — I’ve got much more I want to do in regards to fully plotting book II!
I did get a mock cover made for this one too, though.
Care to see?
This one is my favorite one that Maximumoe14 made.
I also might change the title to Pursuit of No One instead of Nothing, because the person they are pursuing is not a thing… duh… but still thinking about that.
Whew! That wraps up March. Onwards!
My goals for this month…
God
1. READ PSALMS
Easily. That’s only about 6-7 chapters a day with the days I have left of April — and some of the chapters are, like, two verses long. ? Just wait until I get to Psalm 119, though.
2. CONTINUE USING JOURNAL
Pretty self-explanatory there…
3. NEVER LET A DAY GO BY WITHOUT GOING DOWN PRAYER LIST
I’m amazed at how committed I was to this last month! And my list just keeps growing and growing! Like I mentioned, I take specific prayer requests and would love to pray with you and for you — you can send prayer requests here or to madigrace[at]powerofGOD[dot]com.
Madi Grace Ministries
4. BUTTON SWAP WITH 5O BLOGS
It shall be done. Help me reach my goal by button swapping with me here!
5. SEND $20 TO MISSIONARY MICHAEL BIGGS
… on time, preferably.
6. FEED ANOTHER CHILD IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY
… on time. 😉
Writing
7. COMPLETE CAMP NANOWRIMO 2017 – 30+ HOURS PLOTTING LOYALTY BOOK III
I have 17 hours so far and am having SO much fun! I’m really, really excited to see how far I’ll go in my plotting this month. 😀 I also plan to to biweekly Camp NaNo recaps — look out for one next week!
8. POST *CLASSIFIED* STORY – BUT ONLY IF GOOD ENOUGH
I’ve been working on a story that I’m really excited for… but I’ll only post it if it’s good enough. 😛
Wow, this list was shorter than last month’s! It’s mostly because I’m working on a stop motion production that’s due indescribably soon… yipes. I post updates about that at my doll blog.
As always, I’d rather shoot high and miss it than aim low and make it — I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me this month and I’m gonna dream BIG.
It was my birthday yesterday, and now I’m on vacation in the mountains of… well, that’s my little secret. But it’s gorgeous up here! I love it! That’s basically my month. Oh, and I’ll be getting a new doll soon with my birthday money! Care to help me decide which one?
Oh my goodness, HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY IZZY! ❤️
Wait, I can do better…
I hope you had an amazing birthday! That does sound gorgeous! 😀
And of course! I’d first ask which dolls I want the next / have wanted the longest. 😀
Thanks! I had the best birthday of my life. Oh, did I forget to mention the cabin has a hot tub? ? XD
Yeah, I don’t really want a white doll, because the past two dolls I’ve gotten are white. I don’t have an Asian doll, and ya know how AG has bald dolls? Well, I fell in love with their Asian bald doll. But the problem with her is that you can only order them over the phone, and I don’t want a doll with permapanties and squishy vinyl. And then, TM #62 is really pretty, and I don’t have a doll with the Sonali mold. I love Melody, and she also has the Sonali mold, and she’s African American, which adds diversity but I do already have Addy. And then my favorite doll is TM #58, but I’m having worries about her. I already have dolls with the same eye color, skin color, and face mold as her. The only think that sets her apart from the rest is her hair, which I love, but I’m worried it will be hard to take care of. Then again, Catlover02 says otherwise.
Thoughts? Also, I have a $150 AG gift card, and I’ll probably buy my doll and something else when I get back from the mountains. What else should I buy? I know some BeForever outfits are on sale right now, including done that I really love, but I don’t know that I need any more doll clothes at the moment…
HELP MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
YAY! SO glad to hear that! Ahh… hot tubs. Lovely. ?
Hmm. All of those dolls sound gorgeous. This is totally going to blow my bluff, but I totally recommend #62 — gah, she’s amazing. I’ll probably do a review of her after my stop motion production, if that helps. Also, if the permapanties ordeal bothers you, I ordered my #62 from eBay for only $8 more than what AG sells her for. What helps me when choosing a doll (out of a billion other ones I want) is to list the dolls I want in order of importance — the ones that retire the soonest, you’ve wanted the longest, you’ve wanted the most, etc.
For the rest, I guess you might look at the money you have left and then decide what you have enough for. Then list those things you want in the order of importance, too — retiring the soonest and wanted the longest / most. You could also decide which one (clothing, furniture, accessories, books, etc) would benefit your collection most if you just don’t know what to get (but if your heart is set on one piece regardless what your collection looks like, go for it!). I hope that helps!
AHAH! YOU CONFESSED!
ALERT! ALERT! MADISON GOT #62!
Mwahahahah!
I’m so evil, right? Riiiiight? ***crickets***
NOOOOO MY COVER HAS BEEN BLOWN! *hides* Sly, clever Phoenix… ?
YAS YOUR STOP MOTION VIDEO!!! I MUST SEE MOOOOOOORE. And also dang it I wish I could read your novel! It sounds really awesome but right now I’m just too busy, and I couldn’t beta and offer the greatest critiques. :/ Maybe another time though. 😉
Ooh, “To the Death” is really cool! It sounds more like a subtitle to me then a tagline, but maybe that’s what you’re aiming for??? And those are two GREAT covers!
MWAHAHAHA I HAVE ALREADY SWAPPED BUTTONS WITH YOU I FEEL ACCOMPLISHED
Woooooow, girl. I could never spend like 1 hour a day plotting a book (because you can only put in your “accomplishments” in one hour increments for Camp, right?). And GOSH plotting is so fun and hard and exciting and frustrating at the same time!!! Honestly, I don’t even know how I create books anymore… I just do. XD I’m currently thinking of a new novel idea myself, but I’m not focusing on that as much since I have my current novel to work on for Camp.
OMG WHAT IS THIS *CLASSIFIED* STORY TELL ME MORE MADI TELL ME MOOOOOOORE.
Love this post, Madi dear! Learning about other people’s goals is too much fun. XD
YAAAAY I AM SO GLAD YOU ARE EXCITED FOR IT. And aw, that’s fine! ❤️
Thank you so much! Ohhh… what’s the difference? XD I guess the point is like Star Wars’s tagline / subtitle: Episode 4: A New Hope, etc… is it called a subtitle or a tagline? XD
Aw, thanks! You can put 1 hour increments, but multiple ones — like I do two – three hours a day. IT IS! I am having SO. MUCH. FUN. PLOTTING. Like I can’t believe it. XD LOL! Ooh! I love getting new novel ideas. ?
HAHAHAHA WELL IT’S CLASSIFIED SO NO. >:)
Thanks so much, May! ? I feel the same way. XD
Also, I have more contemporary dolls than historical right now.
Great job, Madi! The like button worked, and I’m following you from WordPress now, so I’d say it worked, too!!! I loved Loyalty, To The Death…. (that’s the one I read, right? XD) I absolutly can’t wait for Two and Three!! (And saw your response to May, and HAVE YOU SEEN STAR WARS?!?!?!?!?!)
Yay! Thank you SO much, Bella! And yes! Aw, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I’m so very glad you liked it! And I can’t wait to write them. *evil laugh* You won’t believe who *claps hand over mouth* Hehe, yes, I have! Have you?
HEY, MADISON!!?
WOW???YOU REALLY BROKE! ?*SMASHED*? all those goals!? Great job!? Those are all such AWESOME! ??goals I’m so happy for you that you DESTROYED!!? all those goals!! ?
KEEP UP THE AWESOME WORK!!!????
At Least you got most of the goals on time??? XD! how are you????
Hey, Sara!
Haha, thank you so very much! And yep, some is better than none! ?
I am great! How are you?
Cool post Madi! I love this way of conquering your goals! Thanks so much for sharing! 😀
Thank you so much, Liv! Hehe, me too. ? Aw, thanks for commenting! 😀
Ooh! Cool list! I love the book cover! Where did you get the cover pictures?
Thank you so much! Aren’t the covers great? Maximumoe14 actually chose the cover images for me based on information I gave him about my books.
Yay! Great job destructing! (If that is even a word LOL) Yay! You decided to use it!?!? That’s awesome! (Hugs Madi) As for book plotting, like i said on AGH, you can do it! For me with the MM stories, i am just like, “hmmm, murder? Yeah, maybe. Kidnapping, nah! Assassination plot? That works. ” LOL!
Good luck with your stopmotion and April Destruction Goals!
*looks up word in dictionary because she’s curious* IT IS! ? I did! Thank you so much again for inspiring it! I’m in love with the title. ;D Thank you so much, Liz! HAHA, assassination plots are very fun. ?
Thank you so much again!
AHHH I’M THE WORLD’S WORST BETA READER :'( :'( I could bore you with all the reasons I didn’t get around to it, but I’ll spare you. XD
I am going now to leave some edits!
-Clara <3
AHHH NO DON’T SAY THATTT. LOL! XD Ooh, yay! No worries again if you can’t leave any edits, that’s totally fine. ?
I just left some edits on Chapter 1! I may not make it through the whole story, but I’ll do my best. 😀
-Clara <3
Thank you SO much, Clara! And that’s totally fine! Thanks so much for just reading it at all! 😀
wait, are you getting more beta readers for your book? because if you are, i’d love to do it again!
oooh, i need a cover for my book. the only problem is that it doesn’t have a title. 🙁
OH MADI I READ THE THING FOR YOUR SECOND BOOK!!!! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!
(that was weird… XD ) do you think you could read the thing about my book, and help me find a title? I’ll have the link at the bottom of this comment. but OMGOOOOOOOSH madi I wanna read your next book! WHEN WILL IT BE DONE?????
Most crazily, ~Olive
http://campnanowrimo.org/campers/olive-loves-star-wars/projects/my-still-title-less-star-wars-book
I’m thinking about doing one last round after I edit the second draft. And YAY! I’d love for you to do it again, too!
Ahh, yikes. :/ Oh, if you wanted to get a cover from Maximumoe14, you could just not give him a title and just your book’s description / synopsis and add the title yourself when you think of it.
Yay! And — WHAT? KNEW WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU NOW KNOW ABOUT MY BOOK THAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW BEFORE?! DID I GIVE SOMETHING AWAY WITH MY CARELESS HORRIBLE FIRST-DRAFT EXCERPT? ?
XD Yes! I just read it — gah, it’s amazing! I think maybe something about your book’s feel / theme — perhaps something about finding the nerve, stepping out, facing an old enemy, etc. You could say it like it is — The Hunted Padawan, etc. Or even Jedi vs. Sith or something. Hope that helps! Once again… THAT WAS AMAZING.
Aw, thank you SOO much! That means so much! 😀 I plan to write the first 75k of it this July with Camp NaNo and then finish it out in August. (And then plotting book III, then writing book III… in November! ?)
Oh… and I love your profile pic. ?
oh goody! 😀
hmmmm….*conciders*
*grims* the synopsis confirmed my suspisions about R- whats-his-name. XD
aww, thanks! hmmm, maybe. my sister suggested The Mysterious Sith, but soon her sugestions turned into things like ‘the malicious dasterdly evil sith’ and things like that. XD
😀
haha, thanks!
Most crazily, ~Olive
HOW HOW HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH THAT? HIS NAME IS NOT MENTIONED ONCE IN THE SYNOPSIS… NOPE NOPE NOPE THE IDEA MUST BE BURNED.
XD
LOLOL! That would totally be me… XD
I have my ways…*grins*
*narrows eyes* ?
Oh, and Olive, did you read the excerpt? What did you think? It’s a terrible first draft but I’m just curious as to what you thought about it… XD
yes, I did read it! it was a little confusing, mostly because I had no idea what was going on. XD Hora…I think I remember her? but she seemed nice-ish then….*sad face*
Most crazily, ~Olive
Yeah, it was the middle of a large scene I wrote. XD Hora shows up at the very end of book I to capture Hinoki, which is what book II is about (I think she’s my favorite character from book II now XD)
XD
oh, and I might have found a title. how does ‘Hidden” sound? or maybe concealed…I woke up this morning and thats what I thought of. XD
Most crazily, ~Olive
Ooh, that sounds so cool! I love both!
Ooh, I’m so glad you completed almost all of your destruction list, Madi! And I hope you can do so for April too! 😀 This was fun to read. 🙂
Thank you so much, Allison! I hope so too! 😀 I’m so glad! ?
The like button actually worked! XD You’re a great “destructer” . I love this blog, Madi! ?
Yay! XD Haha, thank you so much, Sara! Aww, I’m so glad! 😀
❤❤❤
😀
You’ve accomplished TONS this month, Madi! 😀 Great job! My April goals are to start up my new blog I have planned, reach my Camp NaNoWriMo goal, publish my book, and finish most of the books on my TBR list for this month. 🙂
~Lydia~ <3
Thank you SO much, Lydia! 😀 Ooh! Those sound awesome! I hope you’re able to accomplish them all! (And your book getting published — AHH THAT’S SO EXCITING.)
Wow you did so well!! I’m so excited because I’m going to the beach with one of my friends for spring break next week!!! EEK, I don’t think I can focus on school this week I’m so excited XD
Thank you so much, Rebekah!! WOW, that sounds amazing! I hope you have an incredible time! Hehe… XD
YASSSS!! YOU GO GIRL, THATS RIGHT, DEMOLISH THEM MONTH GOALS!!! ? And my good gravy, I LOVE the cover art for Loyalty!! AND DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON YOUR TAGLINE. It’s perfect. ? I love how it’s short and simple, yet those few words carry emotion and meaning. Oh and looking at your plot board, I love how you just wrote EPIC on a couple of those sticky notes ? You my lovely friend, are hilarious?❤️
AWWW YEAH! ? XD Thank you SOOOO MUCH MADDIE. I LOVE YOUR COMMENTS. HAHA! I was wondering if anybody would notice that! XDD Aw, thank you so much. ? Thanks for commenting Maddie!! I can’t get enough of your amazing comments. ?
HAHA you are so very welcome!! Yes, I was scrolling through the comments to see if anybody else noticed and then I was like YAS MISSION ACCOMPLISHED I MANAGED TO DECIPHER ONE WORD OFF A STICKY NOTE!!!! ? Your welcome again, I’m glad I an bring joy through a silly little comment ?
LOLOLOL! Yeah, my handwriting skills… shouldn’t be called skills… ??? AH I LOVE YOUR COMMENTS. :3
Awesome job knocking out your March goals! Better late than never for some, right?? 🙂
Do post your story!!! We perfectionists *shakes head*. Things are never good enough. 😛 Anyway, I want to read it, bad or no. Honestly, I can’t imagine it being bad.
Also, I LOVE the tagline you decided on!!!!!! Now I need to get moving on actually reading your novel which I’ve missed for the past two weeks due to busy-ness and vacation! 🙂
Thank you so much! Hehe, very true! 😀
I think I am indeed going to post it! 😀 Thanks, Kendall! You always make my day… 😀
Thank you SO much! I am SO excited about it, too! Hehe, no problem! I hope you enjoy what you can read! 😀
Wow! I am so proud of you for completing all your goals!! Way to go! And all your new goals look epic! OH, and the “like” button is working now! Yay!
Hmm, exciting things this month, well, my birthday is coming up! Yay! I’m excited!!! 😀
I’m loving all your posts on here, they’re so good! 😉
Thank you SOOO much, Livy! And HURRAY! I’m so glad it’s working! 😀
OOH YOUR BIRTHDAY! That’s so exciting!! Are you going to have a party?
Aw, thank you SO much, Livy! 😀
Oh, and A HUGE CONGRATS ON EVERYTHING BOOK RELATED!!!!! Your cover mockups look absolutely EPIC!! I’m so excited for you and pray everyday that the Lord will inspire you for book 2 and that a publisher will publish them!!! 😀
AHH THANK YOU SO MUCH LIVY! 😀 And that means SO much!! Thank you so very much!! 😀
Seriously, I know this is way late on commenting (and you’ve probably already finished most of these) but those are great goals! I love it! The book cover is pretty awesome too… 😀 Oh, and I’ll send you an email in a minute to explain something…. 😀
~ Light4theLord
LOL, that’s fine! And thank you soooo much! 😀
That is a very full plot board. BUT THAT IS VERY GOOD SO THAT WE ARE NOT LEFT HANGING FOR TOO LONG
You should see what it looks like now. JUST UNTIL SEPTEMBER, MY DEAR. THAT’S WHEN BOOK II BETAS ARE ENLISTED.
You should do a post on how to use a plot board. I have never even heard of it.
I WILL LOVINGLY WRITE MY SCREENPLAY OF BOOK ONE UNTIL THEN. XDDD JK
Unfortunately, I do believe I’m doing mine all wrong. I take a twist to a lot of things.
XDDD
Hey there just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the images aren’t loading correctly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show the same results.