I knew the day was not going to go according to plan when we had 5 out of 6 people awake at 4am. All of the kids stayed home from school sick. Patch probably did not need to stay home, but everyone else did. Link, who was the one not awake at 4am, slept until almost 1pm. Gleek had a bad sore throat and spiked a fever by late afternoon. Kiki went to school for a class she couldn’t afford to miss, but felt tired and overwhelmed.
Tomorrow: Doctor’s office visit.
Home home home home home home home.
It even smells right.
Although the decision to turn off the heat while we were gone appears to have been a mistake. It began blowing snow shortly after we departed. Things were a bit chilly on our return, but they’re warming up nicely.
Also.
Home.
Tomorrow is retrieve the kids day.
My day contained tulips, suitcases, new books, a house filled with small friends, and snuggles.
Tomorrow will have school, packing, and hours of driving.
Thursday I will spend on a plane.
I’ve been looking forward to this week and now I need to slow down and absorb it.
My head is buzzing full of things. They’re all zipping about so quickly that I’m having trouble forming them into a coherent story. So I’ll just dump them in here at random, which will hopefully clear my head enough to let me sleep.
Today I ran down to the LDS Storymaker’s Conference in Provo so that I could participate in the recording of a Writing Excuses podcast. The episode is called “Living with the Artist” and it is me, Dawn Wells (Dan Wells‘ wife), and Kenny Pike (Aprilynne Pike‘s husband) talking about what it is like to be the spouse of a full time creative person. I’d never participated in a podcast before, but I think the recording went pretty well. I’m sure that when I get to listen to it I’ll find something I wish I could fix, but that is always the case with a finished project.
Speaking of finished projects, the digital page proofs for Resident Mad Scientist arrived today and they are beautiful. Plotter’s proofs should arrive on Monday and then the project is ready to go. We should have advance copies in our hands the middle of May, at which point we’ll open pre-orders and my life will be crazy busy again.
Howard and I ended up staying for dinner at the conference. We hadn’t intended to do so, but we stopped by to say hello to a couple of people and they urged us to take the empty seats. I’m so glad that we did. I love how much laughing I do when I hang out with local writer friends.
The kids spent the evening watching netflix movies streamed through our Wii. That system gets two thumbs up.
And now to bed.
I’m having deja vu. Last year Spring Break was rainy and I was under high pressure to finish a book before the end of the week. This meant I had little attention to give to the kids and they were all trapped indoors.
Guess what today was like.
Forecast says there will be sun later this week. I’m hoping for work to be done too.
We just got back from the Utah’s Biggest Liar Competition at the Orem public library. Howard and I were asked to be judges after the contest organizers met us at LTUE. I guess they could tell by looking at us that we might be good at it. It was a family event, complete with a junior competition. So we brought our kids along. I loved seeing the range in experience and practice. I loved how those who were just starting out with storytelling got the same chance as those who had been practicing for a while. The most common flaw was that the stories ran over time. But mostly we didn’t mind because they were fun to listen to.
The kids behaved really well and had a great time. Although Gleek says the best part was after the competition was over and she got to play hide and seek in the library with some other kids. But then she was the one who was telling story after story during the post event cookies. Each story was wilder than the last. All the kids will be getting a reward of some sort, because Howard and I were able to focus on our judging duties without being worried about them.
I came home energized and happy. It was such a nice change after the dragging day that I’d had. I loved getting to talk with the people who were there. I hope we can be involved again.
Popcorn made with oil over the stove then stirred with butter and salt.
Strawberries dipped in melted chocolate.
Sherlock Holmes watched while snuggling kids.
A good afternoon.
Here I am at Thursday and some of my Monday things are still yet to do. This is normal, but I sigh over it. More worrisome is the fact that March only has six days left and I still have a long list of March things. I am endlessly sprinting to try to catch up to my own plans. I really do try to build spaces into the schedule. I try plan ahead and give myself room to add things last minute. Because some things will be forever gone if you don’t take time for them. Other things will not go anywhere, and in fact will laying in depressing heaps until you manage to shovel them out of the way. The trick is recognizing when a heapish thing is masquerading as vanishing thing. Or vice versa. It happens more often than you might think.
The other thing that is bothering me today is my turn around time on email. I used to answer email in 24 hours or less. That is not happening anymore. Some of it is a function of quantity. More of it is lack of space in my brain. I have to find time to compose answers. Sometimes the answers pop into my brain as soon as I read the message. Other times I read through the piles of back email and realize that an important message has been languishing for days because I needed time to compose and then I got distracted.
Time for me to go organize something and hope it will help me find my ability to focus.
True friendship is calling 8 AM to ask for help with the unexpected flood underneath a laminate floor and knowing that the person you call will not mind. Instead of being a focused day, it ended up being a social one. Our friend came over, helped us remove a plank, and spent hours visiting. I also spent time visiting with neighbor friends and friends who don’t happen to be neighbors.
The discovery of the flooding (new washing machine will arrive on Friday) knocked the day off course and it never really recovered. I’ve been scattered and tired most of the afternoon. But my two critical items for the day got done. I attended Gleek’s activity day and I required Link to type up his revised essay. Hopefully tomorrow I will find my ability to focus and stay on target.
Despite the day being knocked askew, it still feels like a good day.
Thus far it has been a week of lists, emails, contracts, layout adjustments, essays, homework, and chores. I’ve been running on high energy and getting lots of stuff done. It is fun to start the day with a long list of tasks and to check them off by mid-afternoon. It is also tiring. Days like these tend to run long and so I end up short on sleep.
Today this meant that my brain fizzled out by 1 pm and I lay down for a nap. Unfortunately, fizzled out is not at all the same as relaxed. I lay still, hoping for sleep to arrive, but my brain was like an over-excited puppy in a field full of ground squirrel thoughts. It would chase after a thought, yapping happily, until suddenly the thought vanished and I was left staring at a hole where the squirrel had been. But the field was full of thought squirrels to chase, so my brain was never still for long. There was lots of running, and at the end there was nothing to show for it. Not restful.
What was restful, was wandering outside to sit on my neighbor’s front porch in the sunshine. We all sat and talked for an hour while the children flocked from house to house. I do not think it is a coincidence that I found my happy effective mojo just as the weather turned sunny and mild. I love spring.