Morning has arrived

and I greet it grudgingly.

Yes, I did sleep last night, much better than the night before, and I was not happy when the alarm went off and I had to get up. I did the math, Yesterday I ran for twenty hours on three hours sleep. I’m still amazed I survived. And that I didn’t rip anyone’s head off in the process.

And even bigger accomplishment than not ripping someone’s head off? I managed to make seven pages in my current book. That’s as many as I’ve been able to make I 2-3 days recently. Going to have to get off the internet more often.

I didn’t manage to see NCIS last night, Between getting the kids in bed and waiting for the Hubster to do what he needed to do the last of my energy fled and I all but passed out waiting for him in bed. I was still awake enough to know when he joined me, but only barely.

My agenda for today is much simpler than yesterday. I have to take kids to school, run to the grocery store and get gas, after that it’s household stuff till school lets out.. and we have 2 practices tonight, plus a softball game. Luckily Hubster will help out with practices, I just have to drop one kid off, then take the oldest to the game, Hubster will take the youngest to practice, then pick up the middle child on their way home (the timing worked out perfect with that one.)

I’m hoping I can watch last night’s NCIS, and then sit down and focus and get some major pages done today.

3 year Blogoversary

This is kind of a blow my own horn post. I’m looking back at how much things have changed for me over the last three years since I started the blog.

Let’s see… where was I in my life 3 years ago?

• I‘d moved to the Third Circle of Hell only 6 weeks earlier, while the winters were nice and warm, I missed real cold weather. Shorts in January is nice but not when you have heat so hot you step out into it and your brain bakes instantly and that heat lasts from April through October.
• I owned and was managing a women’s message board, it was very very stressful and I was not easy to get along with.
• I had one child in second grade, one in kindergarten and one still in diapers.
• I was totally obsessed with knitting.
• I was still trying to get my house unpacked from the move.
• I was renting my home.
• I was still putting up with my sister treating me like the mud she didn’t want to track inside her life.
• I knew no one other than my in laws in my new town.
• I was reading at a rate of about 200 books a year.

 

How is my life now?

• I’ve been living in the Third Circle of Hell for over 3 years now, I still dislike it, but don’t totally hate it, except when it’s too hot to think. Having solar panels on the house helps, it means I can afford to set the air conditioner at a temperature low enough that I don’t get heat migraines. (but still not low enough to actually be comfortable.)
• I gave up the message board and not only don’t I own one, I don’t frequent them either. I’m far less stressed and in general, a happier person.
• I have one child in fifth grade, one in third and one who will start Kindergarten in the fall. I’m completely through with diapers, can I tell you how happy I am about that? But I’m also –><- this close to hormonal girl stage. Wish me luck.
• I am still a big knitter, but I’m not totally obsessed, I do other things too. I’ve also designed and sell a couple of my patterns. It’s not much but it is rewarding.
• I still have a few boxes in the garage, but it’s storage, not waiting to be unpacked. And it’s not the same garage.
• I’ve bought a house (ok, so Hubster and I bought a house, on his salary, so what?)
• I actually have pictures on the walls, and my own curtains hung (I have refused to hang things up just to pull them down a year later when we moved, so most of my stuff got put away until we bought the house.)
• I’ve cut communications with my sister for the most part. If she calls me for some reason I’ll speak to her, I’ll even be nice, I don’t snub her. But I also don’t put up with her talking down to me or treating me badly. I like who I am and my life and I don’t need her approval to be happy.
• I’ve written two books. One that has been submitted to publishers, and though not accepted I did get some very helpful feedback. The second (which has nothing to do with the first) is still being edited and will be submitted to publishers this year. Book 3 (sequel to Book 2 ) is in the planning stages.
• I have good friends, both in town and through out the country.
• This year I plan on reading far less, editing and writing take up much of the time I was spending reading, I‘m ok with the trade off.

After only 19 months…

I have curtains!! As soon as we could after moving into the house we had solar screens made, and they dramatically cut the cooling bill by not letting nearly as much heat in the windows from the sun, they also blocked anyone from being able to see into the house so curtains have been on my want but don’t really need list. (Yes, there is an actual list magneted to my refrigerator.) Anyway, I had decided near the end of this summer that it was time for curtains, and I was planning on getting some with the thermal layer, so that they would block more of the heat from the windows (and glass door) hey, when the temperature outside is over 120 you need all the help you can get keeping the inside cool! My goal was to have them and have them up by this coming summer.

For Christmas Hubster got my big gift (a 6qt Kitchenaid) at Kohls, so he had a large amount of Kohls Cash that he also gave me… I went in and looked there was nothing else in the store I wanted so I ended up ordering curtains for my whole house (minus kids rooms, I had gotten theirs over the summer, and that’s when I noticed how much more heat they block.)

The curtains were delivered at about 6:30 last night.. and first thing this morning I started hanging them. I am thrilled. No more glare from the sun that you just can’t escape, no more the room is too hot to breath in… I am jumping for joy here.

General update.

Yes, I know, things on the blog have been slow, and kinda one subject for a while. But I have big news!! I’m still stuck in the NaNoWriMo hole!! Though a little differently. I hit 65k words the day before Thanksgiving (65,000 words, which equals about 260 pages, in only 24 days, who knew it could be done, much less that *I* could do it?) and I set it aside so I could concentrate on my holiday preparations. After we had finished with our celebration, on Saturday. I tried to go back to my novel on Sunday and I just couldn’t face it. I knew I had some changes that needed to be made, some missing scenes, and at least on scene that needs some major cuts. But I couldn’t force myself to concentrate long enough to get anything done. So I gave up. I stopped trying to force myself to work on this when it just wasn’t working and I took several days off.

On Tuesday when it had been almost a week since I had done anything on my story, I was feeling antsy and unable to concentrate on anything, not writing, not knitting or watching TV, I was a mess. I came to the conclusion that part of my problem was that I still had more story to tell. I had started this book with the vision of creating a series, and though I had most of the first story out, I still had lots of story floating around in my head. So I dug out a new composition book and started making notes and working on the plot for the next book. Several pages later I felt much better. I determined that I needed to go back to my notes from book 1 and check details on a specific character. (Yes, I have a spreadsheet with all the character details so I don’t get them mixed up. That is something that drives me nuts when I’m reading and I’m determined not to be guilty of it myself.) So I looked up what I needed and finished my notes for the time being.

Once I had all the book 2 plots and ideas out of my head and on to paper, I realized that I could now go back and work on editing book 1. That my thoughts on book 2 had been clogging things up and that now that I had them out, my mind could flow again. So that is what I have spent the last several days doing. In between loads of laundry, cooking dinner, filling cups, chasing kids, enforcing rules and smacking a husband who thinks up shit for me to do when he thinks I’m not busy enough, I read and edit a chapter at a time.

I am currently about 20% of the way through my first edit.  I still carry my composition book with me every where I go, so that I can take notes as things occur to me. When I finish this edit I will put book 1 away for a while and work on writing up book 2. I will edit book 1 at least once more, if not two or three times. But it will need to rest so I can look at it with a fresh perspective (plus, after book 2 is written it may give me more perspective into my characters or things that need to be changed.) I really want to have at least two books in the series done before I submit the first to publishers. We will see how that works out and how long it takes me.

NaNoWriMo Day 19…

Well, I hit an important milestone yesterday… 50,000 words!!!

No, this doesn’t mean I am done, my story is not yet finished. But I knew this going in, that the story  I had to tell most likely wouldn’t fit into the 50,000 words target and that I would have to go longer. I am ok with that. I still would like to finish the story in November. I’m getting closer. I know I have several scenes that are still missing to make the whole tale work, but they are things I am working on and I’m sue I can get them done. Hey, I still have 11 days to go, that’s more than 1/3 of the time allotted for this project.

Major Milestone

Today.. on day 9 of NaNoWriMo.. I reached a major milestone.. I reached 25,000 words. For those of you unfamiliar, the goal for the month is 50,000 words, which means I am half way there!

PARTY!

yes, I am unexplainably excited about this..

Carry on.

NaNoWriMo day 7

I have been reminded over the last couple of days how much my writing drags over the weekends and why. Having three kids at home doesn’t just mean three times the interruptions but I swear it means ten times the interruptions. the bickering, the fighting, the asking permission. One would think that older kids could do more without your constant attention but no.

I am sure it hasn’t helped that the first weekend this month also happens to be my single parenting weekend, so I have no help intercepting any of the constant need for attention.

I have managed to get my minimum word count each day, despite the difficulties, and I am hoping that once we return to our normal schedule tomorrow that things will start moving more swiftly again. My fingers are crossed.

NaNoWriMo day 5

Good progress today, per the specs of the assignment, (50,000 words) I am 1/3 of the way complete, and I am beginning to think I can get my complete story in, though it will probably take more words than that. Totally fine, just a bigger accomplishment for me. I was sweating it for a couple days, my word count was doing great and wonderful things but when you have almost 10k words and only two real scenes, and no plans on any others, it can lead to issues. Thankfully, at least to me, my mind woke up and I drafted a few more scenes.

The other thing I realized, late last night at almost 13k… I have no descriptions in my book. No clothes, no hair, no real locations… it’s not that I don’t know what they look like, or where they are, I know all that, but I was so busy concentrating on getting the story out that I forgot to add those details and I will have to go back and edit them in. But unless I have a word count issue or a sudden block, I have no plans of doing it right away.

My plan is to continue as I have been. Get the story down at least the rough draft of it, I can go back and move things around, flesh them out as I need to later, but before I worry about adding the extras like descriptions, I need to make sure the characters aren’t going to decide that they don’t like their lives and make a 180* turn and do something I totally hadn’t planned for instead of taking the path I think they will take. Strange as it may sound, I have had characters do it before.

Distraction…

I am having a day. A day where I have a lot of things I want to do. I want to work on my book, I want to get house work done, I want to strangle the kids for irritating me. I work on some of it, and refrain myself from others.

I did finally share the file on my laptop of the book I started while visiting family, so that I can work on it on my desktop too, I opened the file this morning, but since it has been at least 10 days since I worked on it last I read through the whole thing (all of 4200 words) and added and tweaked and edited a bit, then continued with the story. The whole time I am working on it, I am listening to music, whether through headphones or with the speakers on my computer, and most of the day I get through less than a full song before a child comes up and needs attention. ALL DAY LONG.

Also, in an attempt to get something other than just writing done, and to get me up and moving some, I have instituted a new policy. I sit down and write, I work for 45 minutes, then I get up and do something around the house for 15 minutes, pick crap from the kids up, clean up the kitchen, fold and put away laundry, gather and sort laundry, the WHAT I do for 15 minutes doesn’t matter much as long as it is something having to do with housework. Then, when the 15 minutes are up, I can again sit down and work on my book.

I haven’t gotten a huge amount done, on either the house, or the book, but the progress on both shows. Now if only the kids would not pester me all day long, I might get more done.

A New Look.

I was in a mood today, so I decided that I needed to change things up.

School is starting (and my wallet sure knows it after supplying half the school with paper!) soon, and all our supplies are bought, I still need to find a few pairs of pants for my munchkins, but all else is done. My dining room table is covered with supplies to be hauled to class during the first week. My 4 year old is both excited to see his sisters go to school, and sad to see them go. He will miss being able to play with them and harass them all day long, but he will enjoy the time to himself too.. He will get to pick what he watches, what he plays, what toys he uses, and not have to share with his sisters. He will also enjoy spending his time with Mom, and not having to share my attention with the girls.

One major change though, when school let out, Hubster was working a swing shift, and now he is working days, so he won’t have Mom AND Dad to himself in the mornings. But I think he will manage. I am looking forward to fewer fights, less bickering, and way way less “Moooommmm, can we _____“ oh, and dragging all 3 to do what ever shopping I need to get done, where they always find 500 more things that we just HAVE to have. Plus, and this is a big one, if they are not here all day long, they are not making messes for me to clean up all day long.