Another Weekend Whizzes By

Is it just me, or do the days seem to go much faster as we approach the end of the year? I can't believe it's already Sunday night as I write this. It's been a pretty good weekend; very busy but quite productive.

Friday, I dropped Julie off at school, then went to the church to get all the magazines printed and hang monthly posters. When I got back, Everest and I hung out a little, then I got some other miscellaneous work done before Julie came home.

I had the collating meeting that night. Only two volunteers came, but we were fast and finished right on time. Since it was all ladies, we ended up talking about...well, all kinds of female issues and experiences. Quite interesting indeed! But I love having those conversations with ladies older than me because I learn so much.

Afterwards, I went straight to Village Inn to meet with the Muse girls and get some writing done for Ink 007. It was a fun time together. Plenty of chatting and catching up was done. We relocated to my house for a movie (Galaxy Quest) before we were done for the night. Fun times!



Saturday was my busiest day of the weekend. Got up early to finish the last chapter of the Ink 007 that needed to be done, because I had a tutoring appointment at 10:00 a.m. at Starbucks. I met with the gal's mom after the session was over because she wanted to talk about hiring me to design her website.

I only had enough time to print the chapters I needed to print and head over the Panera for session 5 of the Ink 007 group. What an amazing session! The kids were feeling really creative and wrote tons during the writing time. It was awesome.



Once the session was finished, one of the girls and I went to the library, where the regional NaNoWriMo TGIO (Thank Goodness It's Over) Party was taking place. It was pretty small, calm, and quiet--a drastic change from the Ink 007 group! I almost had to laugh at how opposite the groups were on the spectrum. I read an excerpt from my NaNo novel, and people laughed at the funny parts, so that was encouraging. Some of us continued the time together at Chili's for dinner following the meeting.



I got home at a pretty decent time. I'm pretty sure I got right into my PJs and just laid in bed for an hour until I said, "I'm going to bed" at 10:30. Heath was shocked I would turn in so early, but it was the first opportunity I'd had in awhile to go to bed early. I was taking it!

Sunday has been, again, busy but productive. The kids and I made it to church, and the message Jonathan shared was one that I really, really needed to hear. Like, really. Love it when God speaks directly to me like that.

Back at home, we had lunch together, then Heath took off to go rock climbing since he'd had the kids all day on Saturday. (He most definitely needed the break.) The kids and I cleaned the house from top to bottom, including bathrooms, laundry, stripping and re-sheeting beds, trash, vacuuming, dishes, sweeping, mopping, straightening up, filling bags for donation, and generally getting the house back in order. It was exhausting, but the house is SO much better for it.

Heath returned, all relaxed and refreshed, while I was taking my shower. We ran errands together as a family--bank, library, and a few shopping stops, ending with dinner at the Waffle House. We picked up Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones to read at bedtime (and whenever) together. I started reading it aloud while we were waiting for dinner, and Julie was enthralled. They are looking forward to hearing more of it, and so am I. :o)

The kids got in bed and thankfully fell asleep quickly; they did work really hard today. Heath and I have been working on our various things we need to do, and will get together in about 15 minutes to hang out. What a weekend. What a month! Hopefully things slow down just a teensy bit at least. I'd like to enjoy the rest of December as much as possible.

Wily Weekend Recollections

I'm having a hard time remembering last Friday. I think we went to see my mom at some point, as evidenced by this picture:



Perhaps I was in a mental lull after a whole week of having kids home for vacation. Or maybe I was writing for NaNoWriMo. I was definitely writing for the Inkaholics 007 group that evening because I was so into it that I completely forgot about Midnight Muse. I texted the girls and asked them if we could reconvene Saturday night. Thankfully, they could!

Saturday morning, we ran some errands, then I met with the Inkaholics group in the afternoon. SUCH fun times! I can't believe we only have two sessions left. It goes by so fast.

Afterwards, I dropped off my Ink stuff at home, got my laptop, and came right back to Panera to get some writing done for NaNo. I wrote ALL night, meeting Charity there, then moving to Village Inn, where we wrote some more with Legolas. I even wrote when I got back home, waaay into the wee hours. Total word count for that day was 7,431.

Sunday, we missed church in the morning. :o( (Surprise-surprise. When the human alarm clock stays up until 4:00 a.m. writing, that will happen.) We made it a family afternoon though, and went to have lunch at Subway. The kids were pretty exhausted in general, and honestly, they were probably getting tired of each other after all those days on vacation.



I went to Panera to write some more, and Angel joined me. We had a nice time writing and chatting. That evening is a bit of a blur, but I'm fairly certain there was some writing in there somewhere. Even though I've posted excerpts on my creative blog, I'll post a bonus one here because NaNoWrimo was a big part of what I was doing this month.

It did not take long for him to realize that his reasoning was just plain silly. He could not just sit by and watch her cry all night. He had to either find out what was wrong and fix it, find out what was wrong and deal with the fact that he could not fix it, or never find out what was wrong and curl up into a ball and die.

Yes, it's been one of those weeks.

You know those kinds of weeks--the ones that are so busy that they're over before they even begin? That's been us for the last week and a half. Let's see if I can pull any memories out of this fuzzy brain of mine...

Last week on Tuesday, the highlight of the day was going grocery shopping with the kids. We were in serious need of some supplies at that point--like milk, eggs, and bread. Julie was having English muffin sandwiches! (Which isn't bad per se, just unconventional for school lunch.)

The kids still try to squeeze into car carts together. One of these days, Julie's going to dislocate her hip or something. While we were there, a guy was doing a promotional demo, and we got a free apple corer/juicer thing. Kind of cool!




Wednesday, I made an experimental dish for dinner that I called Baked Tacos. They were basically super-loaded hard shell tacos with refried beans, cheese, seasoned meat, rice, salsa, and onions, all laid in a baking dish and covered with a can of green chilie enchilada sauce. Sprinkled with cheese and baked til heated through and the cheese browned. DELICIOUS. I wish we'd had some sour cream though.



After Heath left to cover a shift for another instructor, I had the kids get showered up while I set out the goodies to make gingerbread houses. We picked out the stuff at the store (graham crackers and frosting), and they were super excited to do it. Decorations included Halloween candies and cereal bits.





Because Heath had to work, I had to bring my scheduled Young Writers NaNoWriMo write-in to our house. So after the kids went to bed, I straightened up the house and set up. We were originally going to go to Village Inn to have pancakes, so I made pancakes at home instead. They were a hit! And the girls that came had a really fun time. We talked about SO many different topics over the pancakes. Oh yeah, and we did some writing too. XD

Of Productivity & Noveling

Tuesday, I was off the hook for my morning meeting because we met Monday, so after I got the kids off to school, I went to Panera to work. Legolas joined me for most of the morning, working on one of her novels. The hours out were extremely productive! I zoomed through my to-do list and now have only two items left projectwise and two of my usual weekly items. Easy-peasy for the rest of the week.

I did some catch up on my NaNo novel in the afternoon while Everest was napping since I didn't write at all yesterday. (I chose sleep.) Julie arrived around 4:45 after being at a playdate with friends. She quickly finished her homework, and the three of us took off for my mom's store. Nana had prepared a feast for us, complete with a huge appetizer platter, one of her new items.





We all enjoyed the food and the company, and afterward, the kids and I hung out on Everest's bed, talking about what we're going to do for his birthday party. Julie fell asleep almost immediately after lights out, but even now, at just after midnight, Everest is STILL awake, alert, and not grumpy at all. Methinks perhaps he got a little TOO good of a nap this afternoon.

Heath had taken over getting him back in bed though. That leaves me here at the computer to blog and see if there is any possible way I can get completely caught up on my novel. It is certainly possible as long as I get on it quick. Currently, I'm at 12,040. By the end of the day, I should have hit 13,336. Better get clackin'!

Usual Non-Stop Crazy

Thursday has been a busy day indeed! But not at all frustrating, for which I am grateful. Heath had to interview somebody in the morning and I needed to put the finishing touches on the church magazine, so he went ahead and took the kids to school.

By time I had to leave to pick up Everest, I had finished the magazine and even had time to quickly shower. YAY! We went straight from school to church to print the magazine pages. It's a short edition this month, which made printing much less of a chore. Everest was content to play on my iPod under my desk (I really don't force my children under there; they request it!) or wander around to the office with me.



We came home rather later than I'd intended, but Everest didn't give too much of a complaint about taking a nap. He was asleep pretty quickly after putting him down. He woke up right when I was getting ready to open the door to tell him it was time to get Julie. That was so nice!

On the way home from school, we stopped by Marla's house to drop off a Take 10. I told our Children's Pastor about how we did Take 10 with our friends, and she got one out and said, "Did you want to give them one?" The kids enjoyed seeing their friends, especially Julie. We convinced her mom to let S. do the young writers program of NaNoWriMo, and Julie got to hear the story that S. has written so far.



Julie got her homework done while Everest watched a library DVD. They relaxed some before it was time to leave for my mom's store for dinner. We met up with both Nana and Papa there and had shrimp fried rice, chicken wings, eggs, and cream cheese wontons (which the kids helped make). Dessert was coconut ice cream over sweet sticky rice and coconut cream. Nom nom.





We went straight from dinner back to the church for the collating meeting. We had four volunteers show up, as well as the 13-year old daughter of one of the ladies who came. Julie and Everest were actually quite helpful for the first 20 minutes. And I mean, the real helpful where you don't have to hover. Once their friend arrived, the three of them were off to take a walk around the church while the rest of us finished collating and stapling.



Needless to say, the kids were worn out by time we got home. They gave little fuss over getting to bed after a few snuggles and the lights were out. I got all the laundry folded and straightened up around the house a little. Magazine week, things always get a little off kilter because I can't keep up with the messes coming into the house. Let's add on top of that my NaNo endeavors and everything else going on. Eep.

Now I have at least another 1,000 words to write if I want to stay ahead, so I had better hop to it. Still updating over on my creative blog, so if you're interested, check out some excerpts that I am posting each day as some of my favorite lines from my novel-in-progress.

First Day of NaNoWriMo 2011

Tuesday, I took the day off work to celebrate the beginning of NaNoWriMo. The MLs (people officially in charge of our region) arranged for an all-day write-in at Panera. I got the kids to school, then went straight there.

I didn't start writing right away for I wanted get all the finalizations done on that pesky book I've been trying to finish. That done, I wrote and wrote and wrote. The story is off to a good start and has some nice legs to start with. I'll be writing more tonight after blogging.

My plan is to post an update as regularly as possible with excerpts from my novel over on my creative blog. My personal blog posts may be somewhat sparse this month, what with all the extra writing I'll be doing. I've got another Collaborative Writers Group starting on Saturday, after all! Yes, pray for me. I may lose my mind by November 30. XD

This afternoon, Julie had a playdate with her friends at Marla's house. When they came back, Marla and the girls joined us for dinner. We had a great time together, and everybody seemed to enjoy my spaghetti lasagna. The kids were enthusiastic about sharing Take 10 with them, so we did one of those as well. Marla and I chatted for a bit while the kids watched a show upstairs and Julie did her homework.




Once our guests had left and the kitchen was clean, I had the kids get ready to head out again. The NaNoWriMo kick-off party was tonight, and I didn't want to go through the trouble to get a sitter, so I just brought the kids with me. I hadn't planned on staying super late anyway.

They were really good, though Everest was clearly getting pretty tired. He almost fell asleep under the table. We only stayed about 45 minutes but got to see some friends, one being one of the boys from my writers groups. Fun times!




The kids went right to bed when we got home. Both were getting cranky from the super busy day. I can't imagine how other kids can handle their crazy schedules; mine get all out of whack when there are just two major events in one day.

I've still got another hour or so before Heath is home and we get to hang out. So I do believe I'll put on my soundtrack from the library and start writing in my novel!

Pumpkin Pomp

Monday worked just about like most Mondays, with the exception that I was exchanging emails with Legolas about the book cover--MOST exciting! Also, a few other things of note happened:

1. We carved Everest's last pumpkin with his name and a heart.


2. We moved all the pumpkins outside. I came to the realization that they needed to be out in the cold if they were going to stay preserved until nearer to Halloween. *facedesk*


3. I went to a writers critique group! This is the group that I met with several months ago when they were in the very beginning stages of planning. They started meeting on Thursdays, once a month, then Heath was working Thursday nights. They just moved it to Mondays, and I am SO there.

Only three other writers were there (one being the organizer), but it was still a nice group. Three people brought stuff, and everything was quite different and varied. A fun time indeed.

In other news, I received my "classroom kit" from the Office of Letters & Light, the organization that puts on NaNoWriMo. I'll have to buckle down sometime this week and figure out all my young writers write-ins so the NaNo MLs can get them on the local calendar. Can't wait!

Super Mom is Back!

Thursday morning, Julie got up early for some odd reason. She woke me up at 6:30, saying, "Mom! You have to see this. The sun is coming up, and it's so beautiful!" I couldn't stay in bed after that, right? So I got up to see, and she had spotted the shining moon out of my window before we went to her room. "So pretty!"

Sure enough, the eastern horizon was glowing pink and orange. Everest eventually woke up while we were talking and looking out the window. I looked up the actual sunrise time and found it was just after 7:00. The kids continued to get ready, and when it was about time, we all went to the window to see the sunrise. I believe it was the first sunrise Everest has ever seen and perhaps the first one Julie will remember seeing.



The kids got to school on time, and I came home with a mission. I still wanted to do all the things I'd wanted to do on Wednesday, and this was going to be the day. I felt so, so much better than I did the day before. I guess all that extra resting did the trick!

I put away a basket of laundry, then got all the bathrooms cleaned and trash taken out. Switched out all the toothbrushes and sanitized the holders. Then I checked work email and started on the weekly church email, along with all the blog posts that went along with it. (That was definitely essential.)

After picking up Everest, we went to the gym where I did take it easy with a mere 35 minutes on the elliptical, but at least the workout was done. I finished reading Artemis Fowl (book 1) just as the timer hit 1 minute. That was fortunate because book 2 just got put on hold for me at the library. *whistle*

We hit the library after the gym so I could get my book (YAY!), then went home for lunch. Everest had a tomato sandwich--probably one of his faves now. We ate on the back porch since it was so pleasant outside.



I let Everest watch some shows while I finished up the church email. Before we knew it, it was time to get Julie from her Student Council meeting. When she got in the car, I asked her if she had any homework, and she reminded me that there's no school tomorrow. o.O Yes, I had it on the calendar, but it totally slipped my mind.

We came home, and the kids played outside for an hour before we headed over to my mom's store to have dinner with Nana and Papa. It was delicious, and we had a fun time. The kids were really tired on the way home though, and Everest went down to sleep almost immediately. Julie took a shower, but after she settled down, she was out like a light.

It's been a good, productive day. So glad I got the bathrooms cleaned, and got the church email out, and even made it to the gym.

I also signed up for NaNoWriMo, after having decided that I was going to skip yet another year. But it would be good to connect with some more local young writers, and NaNo write-ins are the perfect place to do that. I volunteered to be the unofficial local NaNo Young Writers Program point person. As a writing tutor, they let me order a free "classroom kit" which has all kinds of fun NaNo swag for young writers. I am super excited for November!

Out & About on a Sunday

Sunday, we missed the early service again, but at least we made it to second service. (We also discovered that we were scheduled to help in the preschool on the first hour. Oops. But it's on the calendar for next month!) After church, we came home and had lunch together--leftover tortilla wraps from Saturday's graduation and leftover potato soup.



While we were eating, we each poured over different parts of the Sunday newspaper. Julie's school had a deal running with the local paper that offered Sunday and Wednesday papers for a whole year for one dollar--and that dollar would be matched and go back to the school. Pretty cool deal!

We haven't had the newspaper delivered for years, but I have to say that it has been really nice to get the paper twice a week. The sheer simplicity of having new reading material is enough to make me look forward to it, and it's nice to get in touch with what's going on in the world again.

After lunch, Julie and I went to McDonalds to write, because they have outlets and it's cheap. I got us a small fries and a strawberry sundae to share while we worked on our NaNo novels. Julie actually got quite a bit written. I, on the other hand, am still incredibly behind.



We came home, and Heath took off to go rock climbing. Everest was napping, so I had Julie work on her homework and project while I laid down to take a pseudo-nap. Around 3:30, I got up, we got Everest up, and headed over to my parents' house.

For Julie's family heritage project, she has to get information about her relatives and go back as far as she can to the time of the pilgrims. As a part of her research, she asked each of my parents questions about their growing up days and their parents' stories as well. She did a good job of taking notes so that she can fill in the pages of her storybook later.



We got home fairly late, and I was feeling totally exhausted. Yet I took Heath's advice and got out of the house to attend the last part of a regional NaNo write-in at Panera. Beth and Nia were both there, which made it all worth it. Nia and I went to Village Inn after the write-in and continued to write there. Legolas stopped by after work, and we went back to my house to chat for awhile. Much fun!




Parting Shot
I just love the treats my children make for me first thing in the morning.

Angel's Visit, Day 3

Sunday, we couldn't seem to get it together fast enough to make it to the first service again. However, we did squeak in on time to the 10:30. It was fun to have Angel there at church because I don't believe she has ever attended PRC before.

Back at home, we had some homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch. Then Everest went down for his nap, Julie did homework, and Heath and I taught Angel how to play an old card game we used to play a lot during college days.



I threw together some Thai massaman curry while we played, so it would be ready when it was time for dinner. Angel and I took off soonish after the game and went to Panera Bread to write for a few hours.



Little did I know, Nia had scheduled an official regional NaNoWriMo write-in scheduled for 6:30 to close. Angel and I went home for dinner (saving ourselves a $10 expense!), then returned to join the group for the last hour. It was much fun, and there was candy to be had.

Angel's dad picked her up from Panera around 9:00, and I headed home to relax for a little while. It was so wonderful having Angel with us for three days! I've never had this kind of opportunity to get to know her one-on-one before. I enjoyed it very much.

Puella came over at 10:00 p.m. for a late night chat since we missed each other last Friday. :o) We got coffee at McDonalds and drove up to an overlook where we could talk and look at the city lights. So beautiful!

These days must really stop disappearing

Monday was November 1 and the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. This is officially my 6th year doing NaNo, and I have won in the last five. I don't think it's possible for me NOT to do NaNo at this point, thus, the Cat trudges through.

Though I must say that having Julie participating with me makes it MUCH, much cooler than in years past. To celebrate the first day of NaNo, I picked her up from school, and we went to Panera for the annual November 1, all-day write-in.




Some rearranging had to be done to squeeze us in because there were quite a few people there, including Nia, Twinkie, and Legolas. Such fun! Julie wrote some at school and then at the write-in, composing almost 300 words in the first day! I'm so proud of her progress and enthusiasm. (You may recall that her goal is 100 words per day.)

I only achieved somewhere around 800 words for day 1, but that's all right. I've been known to make word-count leaps and bounds in November. This year will be no different!

Monday night, Everest threw up two or three times for reasons unknown. I'm really glad that we were staying up late to work on stuff because we heard him right away. Poor boy!

Tuesday morning, I called in sick to my meetings because I was going to take Everest in to the preschool at church. And of course, if he was going to be sick again or had something catching, we didn't want to take him there. Heath took off for his morning meeting, and I nursed the little man back to health. Overall, he spent a lot of time drinking apple juice and laying around. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do in order to get well.



Tuesday afternoon, I had an online consultation with another writing student. While I was meeting with her, the kids did crafts downstairs. They were so excited to show me them when they were done.





Tuesday evening was spent catching up on NaNo and working on a super-important, big project for the church. It was a last-minute deal, but still very interesting work. We stayed up late that night too. We really must stop doing that...

That's My Girl

Saturday morning, Legolas came over so we could have a business meeting to talk about art for the Cafe Press store. It was quite productive, and during that time, I had the kids doing chores. They watched a show for the last part of it, and after lunch, Everest went down for a nap.




Once Heath got back from his bike ride, Julie and I went to the Arc to find her some pants for school. She always loves shopping and does a great job when she has a limited budget.



Alas, because of her size and the nature of what is available at a thrift store, we only found a few pairs of pants that would work. But we did pick up a wonderful red, winter coat for only $5 (at half price). After the Arc, we headed for the grocery store to do our regular shopping.




We put the groceries away at home, then went to Panera Bread for the regional NaNoWriMo kick-off party at 7:00. Reason for Julie joining me? She has decided to NaNo with me this year, but with the Young Writers Program! Young writers can set their own word count goal and go for that through a completely different verification system.




I tell you--having Julie do NaNo with me is QUITE exciting. I would have never imagined it was possible--like so many other things in my life these days. Her goal is 100 words a day, or a 3,000-word story in 30 days. We bought a special notebook for her to write in, and she can hardly wait to start.



Parting Shot:
One of the activities for the kick-off party was to draw a picture of your Inner Editor, and our lovely MLs (Nia and Twinkie) would put them in "Jail" for you for the month of November. These were Julie's and my drawings: