Friday, November 30, 2012

Friday’s Five

1. National Novel Writing Month is over (well, at midnight tonight). It was a complete bust for me this year. With all the family drama going on, I didn’t manage to get remotely close to 50,000 words. Oh well. I do have some writing done at least. Maybe next year.

2. Family drama—I’m tired of it. That is all.

3. The writing/craft room is ready for painting! The walls have been taped and textured by a professional. I decided it was beyond me even though I got an e-book and watched videos to learn how to do it. I’ll try my hand at taping and texturing on a less important project—like a closet that no one will ever see or something. I’m not sure when I’ll get around to getting the walls painted, but after the walls are painted, I’ll do the floor and then have the ceiling fan installed (not by me since I’d probably electrocute myself), and I’ll be all ready to move in! Yay. Okay—“move in” makes it sound like I’m planning to live there. I’m not. Though it may seem like it to my family. hee hee hee

4. I can’t believe tomorrow will be December! Holy mistletoe! Where did the time go? Christmas will be here in 25 short days. YIKES! The kids want to decorate the house tomorrow. I’m not ready to dig out the decorations. First of all, I have to plan these things. It’s not like I can just get the decorations and start throwing them around the house (even though the finished results may look like I did). No, my friends. This takes planning. I have to rearrange the entire living room to accommodate the tree—because it HAS to be in front of the window so it can be seen from the street. It’s like an unwritten law or something (well, it should be). And the couch is under the window right now—and I have no idea where I’ll move it. Last year, we took the couch completely out of the house (it was a different couch) and were couch-less for the holidays. I DON’T want that again. I like having somewhere to sit.

5. The kids made bows and arrows out of sticks from the hedges hubby cut. They even got bird feathers (ones the macaw and cockatiel had discarded) to tie on the arrows. The bows and arrows work surprisingly well. I made them swear NOT to shoot them at any living thing upon pain of me taking away and breaking their bows and arrows. They promised. I hope the threat of losing all their hard work is enough to make them keep their promise. And hopefully they’ll be to busy NOT shooting at living things to bug me about decorating the house tomorrow.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Distractions on!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Words on Wednesday . . . even though it’s Tuesday

I won't be here tomorrow and wanted to get at least one post in this week. I'm heading out on a field trip with K in the morning and will be gone until late afternoon/early evening (yeah, it's a long one). We'll likely be exhausted since the trip involves some hiking so I doubt I'll feel like blogging. So you get Wednesday's post tonight. Lucky you? ;-)

Things have been insane here! My NaNo dreams will NOT be coming true. I’ve had absolutely no time for writing.

Among the many other crazy things going on, we ended up pulling J out of middle school and enrolling her in an online school. Trying to get things organized and learning the ropes of how everything works (still trying to learn it all) has taken up the majority of my time.

J started the online course today but it’s basically introduction and assessment testing for this week. The school supplies (books, etc.) are on their way but probably won’t get here until next week or later.

Since she’s older, she should be able to do most of it on her own with a little assistance from me (I’m her “Learning Coach”), but for now, it’s taking both of us to get it figured out. Some of the classes/lessons will require some advanced preparation on my part, but this isn’t a “homeschool” situation. It’s a virtual academy so she has been assigned a teacher to help her along the way.

I really hope it works for her—and for me. But right now it’s frustrating. We’ll see how it goes.

With that and the sickness that has been invading my home (one thing after another), I’m ready to pull my hair out—or at least go to the salon and have it cut off. But I’m trying to resist temptation. I always want to have long hair until I get long hair and then I start hating it and run and get it cut shorter and then I wish I had long hair again. It’s a vicious cycle.

So, no writing, a few rejections here and there (one on a full—ouch), and sending out more submissions in between juggling housework, school arrangements, and other life adventures—that’s my life right now.

Hope all is well with everyone. I haven’t had a chance to drop by your blogs, and I miss you all!! Here’s hoping I get more time soon!

Write Live on.

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Thursday Things

1. Today is the start of National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNo or NaNoWriMo). I do plan to participate, but I’m not sure I’ll get much writing done today.

2. I have all three kids home today due to various illness. K finally got the sore throat and fever the other two had. JR has a sore throat and stomach ache (and he didn’t even eat a bunch of Halloween candy) and J has stomach ache and vomiting (she didn’t eat Halloween candy either). *sigh* For some reason, the kids always get sick when the weather changes.

3. J asked me about doing online schooling yesterday. She’s in 7th grade this year, but doesn’t like it much. We are looking into it and considering allowing her to enroll in online school. We’ll see.

4. I’m glad to see some of my east coast friends are getting back online after the hurricane/storm/mess. It’s also good to see some agents/agencies getting back online too.

5. And I read the news about the Penguin/Random House merger yesterday. There are those who don’t like it and those who do. I’m not sure what to think.

What are your thoughts on the merger?

Hope you have a great Thursday and an amazing start to a brand new month!!

Write on!