Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Final ROW 80 thoughts, and other orchid stuff....

Well, it certainly has been a while!!

Like many folks out there, we're settling in to school day routines and autumn-time activities, having never had two kids in school at the same time, I'd foolishly thought this would unlock huge swathes of time and productivity. Reality corrected this viewpoint pretty quickly! Being a (quite privileged) stay-at-home mom, I'm the kind of gal who volunteers immediately to prep materials for school, volunteer for the classrooms, put together projects for Sunday school, walk neighbor kids to the bus stop, dust for a friend, whatever.

You can see how this might tie up a day or two.

Mind you, this is more blessing-counting than whining. I've been able to take a solid look at how things are prioritized in my day, and have found that yes, indeed, when I focus on the family and home first, the free time seems to actually open up a bit. Drinking more water lately seems to help too, regardless of the amount of time I spend running to the bathroom! This isn't contradictory - the first week and a half were flat-out insane! That craziness aside, today was a good model for what this season could look like - knock out the basic house stuff either before the kids are up or after they're off to school, play catch-up on paperwork, give 30 to figuring out dinner, concentrate fully on my daughter or son for longer stretches, and having thinking/writing/art time for one or two sessions/day.

That being said (and, apologies here for sounding disjointed, I'm in the thick of a vertigo spell!), I am Not sure about the next round of ROW 80. The challenge has been hugely informative, and I've done writing that just would never have happened without it - just shy of 12,000 words that didn't previously exist only arrived as a gift from ROW 80. I've also connected with LOVELY, Supportive, outstanding writers - even ones with MORE kids than me!! PUBLISHED writers, mind you! These reasons alone may keep me in the challenge :-)

If I re-enlist for the next one, the goals will likely be even more modest (since I was rarely able to accomplish them). I'll see how the next week plays out and use that to help my decision-making. I'm certainly not making any decisions tonight, as I'm feeling terribly woozy and uneasy to boot! To the good - I've been waking up earlier the last two weeks, and positively identifiying what free time looks like, and where it falls. If I re-do ROW 80, for round FOUR, the results are likely to be at least interesting.

That alone is reason to keep my hat in the ring. On the other hand, interesting is something I don't seem to run out of around here.....

Take care. If you are considering ROW 80, I will tell you this. Something will get written. Something will likely get finished. And you will certainly learn as much about you as you do about your WIP.

With dizzy and spin-ney apologies,

S.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

ROW 80 update....and other snafu's......

Well, as delightful as it was to report success on the easy-bake motherboard fix, the video card on the WIP computer is officially toast. We have purchased a used computer - same model - to pop the drive out of and replace with our drive. Than me, my WIP, and the new scribbly business will be reunited. As much as I am fuming, part of me is relieved.....a little. Focusing purely on the family has its own challenges and rewards :-).

When the new computer arrives (and any guesses how long before That one is sitting on foil at 350?) I'll have more sensible idea of the writing time allocation. Considering that the sick 'puter also holds the pics of my daughter's first full day of school, I am really anxious to get this resolved!

So, in other nonsense, I've gotten a classroom volunteer opportunity that popped up for Friday, 8 new scout badges to sew on my sons new shirt, and some materials to prepare for Sunday school. I also need to make 2 condolence cards , an anniversary card for my dear husband, and start getting my act together for my mom's move-in party.

So, did anything good actually happen?

Well, all the glass jars are off the bottom of the fridge (breaking one earlier made This task a bit quicker), we've eaten out less, and I'm waking up early consistently. This is only important because with my husband sick (and gone most of last night) most of the doing that needs doing needs to be done by 9, and I am getting better at this. Also, despite his illness, when I carted the kids around this week, he took up a lot of vacuuming, so I've had some - sneezy - help. Also, I made time to play one-little-wolf-and-the-big-bad-pig with my daughter, and that counts as very good indeed.

Back to the craziness now, before something else goes flying! I hope everyone has a great weekend coming up, writing, or not :-)

S.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Just do it already..................

Today has been the living example of "do it now or you'll regret it."

What do I mean by this?

This morning, I got up early, had my coffee, checked my email. My husband has a pretty grim head cold and sore throat, so I figured any doing today needs to be done by me - and the sooner, the better. I unloaded the dishwasher, put away clean laundry,watered the plants and cleaned the kids bathroom.

My son woke in a grand mood, but was putzing around, not getting dressed. He winced and said his stomach hurt, I told him to get dressed and eat. Should have sent him to the freshly cleaned wc, as it turns out.

15 minutes later he has an obviously troubled tummy, some new laundry for me to clean, and we are calling the school to give the symptoms and keep him home.

While this is going on, I'm trying to get my daughter going for her first full day of pre-school (in between tossing stuff in the laundry) This goes great - she even shrieks - "Look, there's my preschool!" on the way there. When I park the car in front, she says,

"Mama, I do not want you to leave me here".

I convinced her to walk in with me and say hi to her teacher, and once we got in, washed hands, hung up her bag, and found her 'frog'. She sat down to do a puzzle, my eyes filled up with tears, I gave her a hi-five and told her "see ya later". Leaving sooner than I wanted probably kept the teacher from having to comfort her, not to mention her sappy-assed mother as well! Well done to just.....go already...........

Inspiration struck when I got home, I found the cleansing-bleachy-wipey-cloths and scrubbed every surface my son and husband could have touched. Started to make myself a second breakfast after I thought to talk with my son's teacher about sending his homework with a neighbor (and remembered to scrub my hands but good!). Took care of that and was - briefly - ahead of the game.

Then I knocked the jar of pizza sauce off the lower shelf when I was checking the protein stash for dinner. I just cleaned the danged fridge last week, so this didn't help my mood. I'm cleaning cold sauce and glass off the floor, and a little voice in my head says:

"turn off the stove or your lunch will be on fire - just do it now."

Another voice - stubbornly - replies:
"oh, come on, I'm almost done"

I actually thought about it for a moment.

Today was the day to clean like a banshee all morning and do art all afternoon.

I end up with both of the guys home, and am barely on top of the cleaning, as new messes accumulate. The odds of me Not starting something on fire are actually getting....pretty small, so I turned off the stove, finished with the mess, wolfed my sandwich, and picked up my daughter. On time here is good, as it's $1/minute after the first 15 late. And no-one wants their kid to feel forgotten on the First Day of School! We stopped at the dance store for the promised sparkly ballet gear bag, and she was excited to read a new book  from her classroom.

After she had lunch, she and I went upstairs for her nap, where she immediately lied to my face and said:
"I don't Haaaavvvvve to go to the potty".

15 minutes later she's clogged the toilet and I am cleaning stuff Again.

My bed isn't made, the laundry isn't reloaded, I posted Naught for ROW 80, the table isn't decluttered, and if I don't vacuum my rug within the next 15 minutes, I'm pretty sure it's going to sprout arms and clean its own damned self......(maybe I could pay it to dust, too, as I am seriously low on energy.)

Nothing else for it, is there? Pour myself a glass of water, take on the laundry, vacuum the rug, and wake the daughter while I get everything else rolling for the evening (which list, I must say, is pretty packed). What really ticks me off is there are about three things that are banging at the back of my head that I am supposed to be taking care of as well, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what they are!

(looks around. spots pile of books to be put away. recognizes them as library books and movies and the light goes on. Another hop in the car is at hand. Wonders what it will take to get my husband in the car to......just do it, already....)

Oh well.

Tomorrow Is Another Day.

;-)



Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Orchid and Mayhem: Original Birthday Cards

Orchid and Mayhem: Original Birthday Cards:

A New Page of Artwork at the Orchid House Finally - sorry it's taken so long, but the above link should take you straight to them. Click images to enlarge.

The birthdays in August were a great reminder of why I love iridescent watercolors, but it's only fair to warn you that they don't photograph particularly well. Enjoy!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

As If There Isn't Enough Mayhem Already.....an update

Ok, so I should know better - but I've re-opened the can of scheduling worms and thrown a few curves my own way. Here's the round-up:

ROW 80 - The W.I.P.
I managed to clear the 11K benchmark finally, and feel a surge of.....something going on. The Muse came back or something. This means that I am seventeen times as scatterbrained as usual so you lot are going to have to find your patience and use it if you come 'round for updates :-) I've patterned the next section o' story to mess with and am trying to figure out what day it will go in. Somehow, I doubt it will be Tuesday. Wednesday is a little more likely.

The Artistic Mother:
Welllllllll............we are off track. But, the 6 pages of scrapbooking I did last week kinda-sorta-count. I'll pick two days for that program and let you know how it went.

The get-your-stuff-together/flylady stuff:
The fridge is a thing of beauty, the floors got vacuumed, the laundry monster is almost tamed, and my kids have been amazing with their sleep schedule, so there is time for me to get things ready at night for the morning. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this. The thing about flylady's system is that if you read her suggestions long enough, you start thinking ahead a little more, and that really adds up to saving time and trouble.

Poetry:
Still derailed on the latest poem, definitely have offended the muse with the sh!tmobile. Sorry, Muse. Truly.

Mayhem:
Started a new horror story. Historical, no less.For the record, I have no idea how to write a historical horror story. But, apparently, that's the story I'm supposed to tell next. We've also signed our kids up for a few more activities and will be moving my mother from AZ to...3 miles away from me - at the end of September. Of course, I'm covering the catering. I'm no where near the planner my mother is, but I've done a few large get-togethers, and it should be doable. Need to practice my short-rib recipe though :-) And, I've signed up to volunteer in our son's classroom one day/month, more if needed. Because I like being busy.

Clearly, I need to adhere to schedules the way I'm coercing my children to. (stick or carrot? stick or carrot?)


anyway, it's time for some anti-mayhem momming stuff. This could include baking.

I hope you all find the fall weather treating you well, and wish you a lovely week.

Catch the rest of the ROW 80 gang below :-)