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Today:
Awakened by a phone call reminding me that I’ve committed to taking Kiki and Link to visit their friend a 90 minute drive away.
Scrambled out of bed to make two kids pack for overnight. Also to arrange babysitting for Gleek and Patch since I don’t have enough passenger seats for all the kids in Howard’s VW.
Drove 90 minutes to friend’s house.
Drove 90 minutes back.
Retrieved cranky kids from neighbor.
Plunked cranky kids in front of videos because I know they’re over tired and it was the activity least likely to inspire sibling warfare.
Spent 5 hours packaging magnets for shipping. It is good to get this done. It would have been nicer to get this done last week, but the magnets did not arrive until yesterday. I’m still not done because I already need to place a re-order.
Let the kids run wild with the neighbor kids while a neighbor lit pioneer day fireworks.
Got kids into bed far later than they should have gone. Hopefully they’ll sleep in late tomorrow.

Usually I spend significant energy trying to get the kids to bed on time during the summer. This year I’ve just let it slide. Some nights they’re in bed by 9:30 others by 11:00. Now, after several 11:00 nights in a row, I’m really feeling a need to assert an earlier bedtime. I”m tired of the daytime crankiness. I’m really tired of the cranky-induced defiance. Both Gleek and Patch threw tantrums at my neighbor’s house today. I really need to stabilize life for them before I hand them off to relatives for a week.

This morning I intended to spend the day putting my house into order. There were things to be cleaned. This plan was derailed by 1600 magnets which finally reached completion. I paid for the magnets, brought them home, and then spent the middle of the day packaging them for shipping. Around 4 pm I crashed onto the couch with a book, ready for a short break. This action must have pinged the “mommy availability” sensors that my kids seem to have. Within minutes, Patch came into the room and snuggled into the space between me and the couch. Usually when a child comes to me, that child wants me to do something. This time all Patch wanted was to be close to me. I kissed the top of his head and remembered that I’d meant to give him a bath as part of the cleaning. He certainly needed one. But I was not ready to give up the snuggly moment yet.

I put my book down and tried to think what conversation I could have with my son. I counted days in my head and realized that in just over a week I’ll be handing him off to relatives while I go on a business trip. I’d been picturing that event as a safe two weeks away, but it is almost in my lap. So we talked a little bit about him going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. He was more interested in talking beyond that to when he gets to go on a father/son campout with Link and Howard. So we talked about camping and tents. Then we circled back around to the trip to Grandma’s house.

Then Gleek showed up with a request and the moment was gone. From there we moved on to baths and the rest of the day.

One of the things I wanted to accomplish this week was clothes shopping. A space opened up this afternoon, so I left Kiki in charge of the other kids and took off to Savers. I spent a peaceful hour browsing through the racks and trying things on. In the end I found 4 pairs of pants, a shirt, and a sweater for about $30. I love Savers.

When I came home, I realized that what I really wanted to do was get outside and do something active. It has been far too long since I’ve done something enjoyable that requires muscle power. (Hauling boxes of books is exercise, but it ain’t fun.) Since I’d already ditched the kids once, this time I decided to take them along. I decided on a bike ride. A couple of months ago we bough Kiki a new bike. This meant that for the first time in more than a decade, we own a bike that is the right size for me. I asked her if I could borrow it. Gleek and Patch got out their bikes and we got ready to hit the road.

Kiki followed us out saying “I’ve got to see this.” It turns out that she thought the idea of mom on a bike was highly amusing. It was new territory for the other kids as well. They kept making encouraging statements to me about how bikes were fun and I should not worry. Amid a cloud of well intentioned advice, we set off. It was not a fast or exciting ride because I had to keep to a pace that Patch could maintain. His legs and wheels are smaller than mine. The return trip took three times as long as the trip out because we turned around when Patch started complaining of tired legs instead of anticipating tiredness and turning around sooner. We were all hot and sweaty by the time we arrived home, but a good time was had by all. I shall have to do it again, although I think I’ll try to pick a time of day when it is not 90 degrees outside.

This morning was filled with the last-minute bustle of preparing for Comic con. At 3 pm Howard hugged us all, climbed into the van and left. I watched him drive away. Then I walked into the house and stopped. Every time Howard leaves on a trip I go into this numb state where I’m just waiting for him to get back. I spend lots of time reading or watching movies because it makes the time pass more quickly. I’m usually able to shake it off after the first 24 hours, mostly. The rhythms of the days are broken. True, I enjoy watching girlie movies without feeling like I’m using time I should be spending with Howard, but then the movies are over and the house is empty of conversation. Unless I want to spend time listening to the antics of the Sim families that my kids have created. (We’re experiencing a Sims revival at our house this week.)

Tomorrow I need to get back into gear. There are things I need to get done before next week. “Waiting for Howard to get back” should not be among my top ten priorities.

This time last year, Howard and I looked at a calendar and realized exactly how many conventions he’d committed to attend. I knew then that the year would be crazy and full of new things. It was also about a year ago that I began to do layout work for the Schlock books. We are now nearing the end of that year of craziness. After Worldcon, Howard has no travel scheduled. At all. I can’t remember the last time there wasn’t a trip looming on the calendar ahead. I am looking forward to some routine. I’m looking forward to developing a family/work rhythm that isn’t thrown off by travel. I’m looking forward to cranking out the Schlock books and releasing them on a regular schedule. I’m looking forward to not having the last minute panic of “we’ve got to get this book out before we run out of money.” I’m looking forward to having enough space in my brain to keep in touch with the kids’ teachers.

The past 12 months have been all about stretching to do new things. I hope the next 12 months are about settling in.

This morning I turned our front room into a staging area. This is done by clearing out all the clutter and then filling all the newly created empty space with piles of stuff that needs to go with Howard to Comic Con. Around 2 pm Howard and I looked at the pile that had begun to accumulate. We were both mentally calculating how it was all going to fit into his Volkswagen Beetle. I turned to Howard and said “Why don’t you take the van?” Taking the van gives Howard plenty of cargo space. It lets us pack things for ease of transportation at the other end rather than compressed for size. It might even let him pack along a full sized dolly to help him wheel boxes of merchandise around. We hadn’t considered it before because I’d been planning to pack the kids and travel while he was away. I’m no longer planning to do that because my kids will be spending time with their cousins the first week of August. So now Howard is taking the van and I’ll be left with the Beetle. This means I can’t go places with all of the kids at the same time. They don’t all fit in the Beetle, but in an average week I don’t do that anyway. If we need a family outing, we’ll walk to a park.

In order to get the van ready for the trip, I took it to Jiffy Lube. It was a very long wait, which is to be expected at 4 pm on a Friday afternoon. I can tell I haven’t been out of the house or away from the kids enough lately because sitting in the Jiffy Lube waiting room for two hours was soothing. Now I just need to kick myself into gear and get the rest of the packing done.

On the list of “parenting things I’m glad to be done with” I think child immunizations tops the list. I’ve written about this topic before. In fact I write about this topic every time I have to take a child to be immunized. I have to write about it, because the experience is an emotionally laden one and I always need to process the thoughts and emotions. Patch had his Kindergarten shots today. That means I am done. I will never again have to hold a crying child in my lap while helpful, but potentially toxic substances are injected. They’ll all need boosters at age 12, but that is a whole different ball game. Twelve year olds can be logical about the need for shots.

I’ve generally been of the ‘talk things through in advance’ school of thought for immunizations. I like to warn my kids they are coming, why they must be done, and how it will all be handled. I have not had the brainspace to do that for Patch. I should have started weeks ago to prepare for today. But today arrived and I realized that I had a window of opportunity in which I can deal with potential post-shot reactions before life gets really crazy again. If I wait until after the craziness, I’ll have to stand in long lines with other parents who are in a rush to get the shots done before school starts. So I sprung the shots on Patch. I took him out for “errands” without clarifying that County Health Office = shots for Patch. I didn’t want to completely ambush him though, so I did not wait until we were faced with the row of needles before telling him. I told him in the waiting area.

It is a measure of Patch’s trust in me that while he cried and asked to be taken home, he did not flee. He huddled in my lap and tried to convince me not to make him get shots. It was hard. I don’t want him to have to get shots either. The nurses tried to help me distract Patch with stamps and coloring pages. He was smarter than that. He did not want a blueberry scented dog stamp, he wanted to not get shots. But he did get shots. The nurse was very quick. After it was all over, Patch and I talked about how scary it was before the shots, but afterward the shots did not seem scary at all. By the time we got home, he was happy to show off his bandaids and eat cheetos.

Now I get to bite my nails and feed him tylenol and watch for any frightening reactions to the injections.

This morning the library called to tell me that I had two items being held for me. This reminded me of the pile of books that were likely overdue. Going to the library jumped up to the top of the priority list, so I loaded Gleek and Patch into the car and we went. On the way to and from the building I avoided cars, made sure not to step in mud, and navigated curbs. Gleek and Patch avoided hordes of goblins, skirted a mire of doom, and rode a griffin across a bottomless chasm. Their world is far more interesting than mine. We dashed and sneaked our way through the library, picking up books along the way. At the end I checked all the kids library accounts, paid fines, and renewed books. Then we traversed back to the car for the journey home. On the drive home there was much discussion of goblins, seeing stones, and hobgobin spit. (We’ve been reading The Spiderwick Chronicles.)

I had over a dozen hardboiled eggs sitting on my kitchen counter. I’d cooked them this morning with the intention of making egg salad for lunch. The egg salad was abandoned in favor of speedier PBJ, so the eggs sat waiting. I pulled out an empty carton to put the eggs away for later. Whenever I stow hardboiled eggs in the fridge, I draw little smiley faces on them. This allows us all to know at a glance which eggs may be peeled and which are a mess waiting to happen. The eggs always look so cute with their row of smiling faces. I started drawing faces on this batch. It is interesting to me how the quick little smiles develop personalities. One egg looks sweet. The next looks goofy. By about the seventh egg, I started to feel sorry for these little faces smiling at the people who will crack them open and eat them. Perhaps not all of the eggs were happy to be boiled. The next egg looked a little worried. The one after was surprised. One ended up mad. One looked like he was hatching a plot to escape from the fridge in rebellion. I think he needs to be the first to go. I don’t like the way he’s looking at me.

Despite being incredibly busy, I’m feeling happy and optimistic. My sister-in-law and I hatched a plan that takes care of the kids while I’m at Worldcon with Howard. The older kids (Kiki, Link and three cousins) are going to fly to California. I’ll put them on the plane at this end, my mom will meet them at the other end. The younger kids (Gleek, Patch, and two cousins) will drive to California with my brother and sister-in-law. This gets everyone to grandma’s house for a visit, and doesn’t put small people on a plane with inadequate supervision. I love this solution. I’d been feeling bad that the kids have been stuck at home all summer and this gives them a nice vacation right before school starts again. Of course I’ve already spent one night laying awake worrying about all the things which might possibly go wrong, but I do that even when the kids are all at home in bed.

In other good news, I learned that Hold Horses is eligible for Caldecott nomination. The odds of being recognized for that prestigious award are slim to none, but applying puts my book into the hands of 16 notable librarians across the country. That’s a good thing. I’ve got my eye on a couple of other awards as well. I should probably also look up children’s book reviewers and submit copies to them as well.

My sister-in-law and her kids headed home this afternoon. I’m so glad that they got to stay the extra two days, although I wished they could have stayed without having car trouble. It was so nice to just sit and talk. The kids all ran off and played together all day long. And I got to hold their little baby. Baby snuggles are good.