Day: September 23, 2010

Building a chronology of my day from the following list is not recommended. I wrote in the order that things fell out of my brain.

***
Link sat up straight in his chair facing the teacher across the table. They were both smiling at the joke Link just made. It was the third teacher we’d spoken to in the chaos of junior high parent teacher conferences. I watched my son with his confident gaze and smirkish grin, startled to see him so obviously in his element. The time I spent worrying that he would be socially awkward felt wasted. We saw all of his teachers before we were done. This was at Link’s request. It was all good news. He’s getting good grades, he’s putting in the work. There are a couple of minor course corrections to make, but the shape of this year is perfect to allow him to grow in the ways that he needs most.

***

Kiki sat on the front porch reading with a cat asleep in her lap. She’d spent the prior hour playing with the neighbor’s dogs. I did not interrupt her, but thought how different this contented person was from the overwhelmed, emotional girl she was two weeks ago. The changes we made are working and her life is good again.

***

The phone rang and it was my visiting teaching partner. I’d missed the appointment we made with the new woman in our ward. I apologized profusely and felt really bad because I’d been looking forward to the visit. I was just hyper-focused on work and forgot.

***

The orders from Australia were waiting in my mailbox first thing this morning. I had a busy hour sending invoices, answering questions, and giving shipment instructions. The money from these sales push the Australia trip into the profitable zone.

***

I once again emailed Gleek’s teacher. We’re communicating about twice per week right now. The teacher is fantastic. This is good. I need to use this school year wisely.

***

My cell phone rang and it was Patch. I’d just dropped him by the house so I could retrieve Kiki from school.
“Mom. I have a picture for you.”
“Okay. Just leave it on the counter. I’ll be home in a few minutes.”
“No. I’ll just wait and give it to you.”
And he did. It was a lovely water color picture of yesterday’s thunderstorm.

***

Gleek sat a the kitchen table, shrieking in fury. What she was furious about changed from minute to minute, but she refused to give in on any of the points we requested, like “please stop yelling.” In the end there was stomping, slamming, and enforced alone time. Sometimes when there is an argument I feel bad because I see what I could have done differently or better. This one came out of the blue and shocked us all, Gleek included.

***

Link declared that he wanted to go to bed early so that he will be more rested for school. He did, but only after taking a shower and putting his clothes into the laundry.

***

The sunshine was warm and the air was just a touch cool. I stood barefoot on the warm pavement and closed my eyes to savor for just a moment.

***

Gleek and I sat at the kitchen counter while I read to her from a book about ADHD. The book is aimed at girls approximately her age. We read the descriptions of girls with ADHD and talked about how she is similar and different. The book is a first step toward finding solutions for her and, more importantly, involving her in the process. I don’t want quick fixes. I want habits and patterns that she can use throughout her life so that she can achieve the things she wants to achieve.

***

Howard and I stood in the kitchen while I listened to him hammer out the plot to wrap up the current Schlock Mercenary book. Only six weeks left and there are at least three days in a row where the outline says simply “Mayhem.”

***

I napped.

***

I’m once again loving the layout process for Schlock Mercenary books. It is fun for me to see the old story lines as I place them on the page. So far I’ve clocked 3 1/2 hours and I’m about half done with the first pass. This will give us a page count and let Howard know how big the bonus story needs to be.

***

Link got out of bed because falling asleep early is not so simple as getting into bed early.

***

Gleek went to bed late because claimed that laying still was impossible. She had cookies for snack. I’m thinking that further adjustment needs to be made to our lower sugar regimen. Bed time snack needs to not be high sugar or chocolate.

***

I finished my re-read of Palace Beautiful and loved it again.

***

I don’t have much day left and sleep needs to come next.