Friday Four or Five

1. My baby sister is on her way to Africa right now (to Capetown) to do service--helping teach children English and to read, building a home or school, and more. I have to admit, I'm jealous of her. Back when I was in nursing school, I used to dream of going to Africa on a medical service trip. My mom is a Medical Technologist and we used to talk about going together. Honestly, sometimes I think about finishing my degree someday just so I can still go do that. What an amazing opportunity for her! Just hoping she stays safe and has an amazing time.

2. I think the pools are officially supposed to open today. It's been in the 80s and even 90s for the last two weeks. Want to guess what the weather is like today? Yep, raining and chilly. Heh. That's Utah for you.

3. Change can be exciting, but it's hard, too. Another one of my sisters bought her first home this week and we are helping her move this weekend. She's staying close by, so I'm just excited for her. But one of my closest friends is moving to Texas (we're helping them move out of their house early next week) and I'm so sad to see them go. I'm happy for them to have this opportunity, but I will miss her and her family so much! Interesting how the same thing--someone moving--can cause such different feelings depending on where the move takes the people I love.

4. I opened a WIP that I started in March this week. I had two different ideas that month and started them both. Then the second idea kind of took off, and I finished that one. Now that I've got that one revised and polished (at least for now), I went back to my other one. I'm about 8,800 words in and as I reread them I thought, "hey, this is actually pretty good. It's unfortunate that I can't remember what I was planning on doing with some of these characters. Hmmm... I obviously intended for that object to mean something. If only I had a clue what it was." And so on and so forth. I have a document where I wrote notes for this book, so I remember most of it, but apparently I wasn't thorough enough. Wish me luck as I try to remember the rest of my plot so I can keep writing!

5. I think there is a skunk outside right now. It suddenly smells very strongly of skunk. Hopefully my dog doesn't need to go outside to do his bizness anytime soon.

What's on your mind today? Any fun plans for the weekend? Happy Friday!

Writing has now REPLACED exercise

Remember my last post where I explained how writing is like exercising? If not, you can read it below this one or by clicking HERE. Well, now writing has literally taken the place of exercising for me. At least, some of the time.

And considering I'm supposed to be running a half marathon again in a few weeks, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Heh.

Anyway, SHH has started leaving for work super early in the morning, which means I can't go to my early morning classes at the gym anymore. And every day I keep thinking, I should get up and write if I can't go work out. Think about how much happier I'll be if I get some writing done BEFORE the kids get up. Otherwise, all my ideas for this new book swirl around in my head all morning, distracting me from being the best mom I can be, because all I want to do is go WRITE IT ALL DOWN.

So today, after Baby Girl woke me up at 6:20 to nurse, I got her back to sleep and then I stayed up. I got out my laptop and ipod and I wrote. Five shiny new pages by 7:20 am. I'm pretty excited about it! So maybe this will be my new morning workout--for my brain and fingers, instead of my heart and muscles.

And hopefully I can sneak in some REAL exercise, too, because let's face it, I need it for my mental AND physical health. And also those 13.1 miles I'm supposed to be running at the end of the month. Oh dear.

Monday Madness

Guess what I typed on Friday night?

THE END.

WOOHOO! I've already begun the first revision, just going through it for major mistakes and stuff like that. Then it will be time for feedback and a little break to get some perspective.

So, you would think my week should be starting off great, right? I mean, I finished my goal almost an entire week early, and will have time to *hopefully* finish this run through before the end of the month and get it sent off. But...

"A two-year-old is kind of like having a blender, but you don't have a top for it." - Jerry Seinfeld

That is the morning I've been having already. I went to the bathroom and came out to find my two-year-old on the counter, dumping all the fish food down the drain. At least he wasn't trying to get the fish out of his bowl, or dumping the food in the bowl, (both things he's done before), but yeah. I love that kid, but holy smokes is he ever, um, precocious. Anyone who knows him knows what I mean. I'm not sure I've ever met a more independent toddler in my life. He has to do EVERYTHING himself. And I mean absolutely, postively everything. How do you explain to a two-year-old that he can't make himself toast? Or cook his own eggs? Or that he doesn't need to flush the toilet for me when I go to the bathroom? Or change his own diaper? Or take the fish out of the bowl? Or run his own bath? This list could go on and on and on. The point is.... he is too fun but what a handful! Good thing he is so dang cute.

My little monster showing me his green milk on St. Patty's day.

Son A and Son B playing on the swings the one nice day we've had since October.

I'm really hoping warm weather decides to come around soon. I'm thinking these boys need some more outside play time. (And so does their mom!)

How's your Monday going?

p.s. I just made my bed, and heard him start to cry... (two seconds ago when I came in to make my bed, he was sitting on the couch, eating a bag of crackers, watching Dinosaur Train). I go out and he's in the fridge, somehow has gotten a package of crescent rolls open (how does a two-year-old do that? I can barely get those stupid things open!), and sliced his finger on it. He wants me to make orange rolls. He's crying now because he doesn't understand why the crescent rolls aren't orange rolls. Oh that kid. You just have to laugh sometimes.