Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Goals for 2009   

January 2, 2009 | Comments

Yes, everyone has one of these posts.  But instead of a laundry list of all the things I hope to do this year, I’m going at it a bit differently.  Every year, I dream up what I want to do, and guess what?  90% of it never happens.  The question is, why not?

1. Life is messier than it looks on paper.  When I sit down at my nice, clutter-free desk, it’s easy to forget that the baby won’t always take 3-hour naps at hte exact time that the boys are ready for some independent time.  Kids will get sick.  For that matter, I will probably feel under the weather at some point.  Crises will happen that require me to drop everything and put out the fire.
2. As author JA Konrath reminded me recently, I don’t get to control everything.  I have absolutely no control over whether or not a publisher buys my novel, or my next nonfiction book, or the article I queried.  Of course, that doesn’t excuse me from putting together the best submission package I possibly can, but beyond that things are out of my hands.
3. Goals change.  And that’s ok.  New opportunities pop up, and sometimes when we follow out our original goals we find that the destination isn’t as rosy as we thought it would be.  It’s ok to change course, as long as we do it intentionally.

Of course, I still have a laundry list of things I’d love to accomplish this year.  And the top of the list is accepting life as it is, even while I work constantly to improve it.

Recipe for Spring Break Sanity   

April 8, 2008 | Comments

Another writer I know recently asked how to survive Spring Break with the kids home from school.  First I have a guilty confession to make.  I kind of look forward to the days when my older son is home from school.  But that’s a whole ‘nother post!  Here’s my recipe for Spring Break Sanity:

1. Take a deep breath.  You can do this!
2. If it’s not physically dangerous to be outside (i.e. severe
   thunderstorms, blizzard, wind chill below zero, or a heat advisory)
   kick the kids outside for a minimum of 1 hour.  If it’s raining,
   fine.  A little water and mud never hurt anyone (although it will do
   a number to that freshly mopped floor….sorry!).  You stay inside
   (where you can see them, of course!) and pour yourself a cup of
   coffee/tea/soda/water or whatever spells comfort in your world.
3. Brainstorm 5 article ideas and research markets for them
   while you’re waiting for editors to get out of
   meetings and call you back.
4. When the kids get back inside, escort them to the shower -
   odds are they’re going to need it, even if the weather’s fine!
5. When they’re clean, feed them.  That always buys me at
   least a 1/2 hour of sanity.  Use this 30 minutes or so to come up
   with an obscure task or project for them to do.  I like scavenger
   hunts for things that don’t actually exist
6. After lunch, send them on their quest or sit them down for a
   project.  Free art time is good too - dump a bunch of random stuff on
   the table, provide scissors, glue, and construction paper and see
   what happens.
7. Chore time!
8. After they’ve worked so diligently, reward them with an hour
   of TV or computer games or whatever activity Dr. Sears would probably
   frown upon.

Congratulations, by now it should be mid- to late- afternoon and you’re practically done with the day!

I’ve been tagged!   

March 18, 2008 | 8 Comments

Ok, so according to Shauntelle, the blogosphere wants to know 10 weird things about me. (What, only 10?!) Ok here goes:

1. I’m completely obsessive about planning and organization, but I need a good amount of spontaneity in my life as well. Except that I have a really hard time adjusting when things don’t go as planned. Hey, I just report the weirdness, I don’t try to understand it!
2. We partially homeschool our kids - our oldest is in full-day Kindergarten, but he joins us for homeschool on days off. Our middle son is in preschool 3 days a week, and he joins homeschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our third is fully homeschooled for preschool and will homeschool until Kindergarten in 2 years. I expect to homeschool Miss Elizabeth for preschool as well. We do science, art, and music a couple of afternoons a week with our two oldest boys, to supplement what they are (or aren’t, in the case of science) learning at school.The boys are rapidly piling ideas on me for Summer Homeschool - so far we’re planning a unit on the Pioneers, complete with field trips to a living history museum and a “No power weekend” where we will avoid using electricity and other modern conveniences so as to experience what it might have been like to leave the conveniences of the East Coast and strike out into the wilderness. We’ll also be learning about hydroponics by building a hydroponic tub and growing several varieties of herbs, and since Elizabeth will be born sometime in May, I’m trying to figure out whether I can convince my 6 year old that learning to change diapers qualifies as a homeschool topic!
3. I recently revived a book project from several years ago. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had several conversations with various people about the benefits of living a sustainable and less cash-dependent lifestyle, without moving to a subsistence farm in Iowa or otherwise living on the equivalent of bread and water. It’s an idea I played with several years ago, but let it go when other projects became more pressing. Now I’m starting to think in that direction again, so I guess it’s time to let my poor agent in on my dirty little secret: I can write hard-core technical books, but I’m a hippie chick at heart!
4. I’m the youngest of 7 kids, but I was raised as an only child. My parents had 6 kids in 10 years, then almost 12 years later, I came along. Now that I’m an adult, I have close relationships with most of my siblings, and I’m grateful to have such a large support system available.
5. I grew up in California, and went to school in Peoria, Illinois for no better reason than “because it felt right.” Seriously.
6. I met my husband in October of our freshman year in college. (Score one for intuition!) We’ve been attached at the hip for the past 12 years or so, although in college half our friends had no idea we were dating. Yet we still hear the phrase “get a room” on a fairly regular basis, so go figure.
7. I started a cloth diaper company that imported and sold prefolds to many of the cloth diaper retailers in the US. For about a year, then I sold the company to focus on writing.
8. I owned a web hosting, content development, and search engine optimization company for about a year - which I then sold to focus on writing.
9. I collect culinary textbooks and love to pour through them dreaming of days when I’ll have time to cook and bake like I used to before I had kids. Baking artisan breads and French pastries are two of my favorite stress relievers. Luckily I live in a house full of appreciative boys who never let any of my creative endeavors go to waste.
10. I majored in Computer Science in college because my mother strongly advised that I might want to get a degree in something that would allow me to support myself while I wrote stories. I was bored and didn’t actually bother going to class as often as was academically advisable, so was kicked out after my freshman year. In order to be readmitted, I had to write a letter to the dean describing how I would change my ways. My solution - I double majored in Computer Science and English/Creative Writing. Eventually I dropped the CS major when I realized that I had all the credits to graduate in English. I had done enough CS to get my first job as a web developer, which led to a fairly successful career in the IT field. Until I got bored with it and left IT to focus on writing.

Ok - there ya go. 10 things that make me just slightly outside the realm of normal. Gotta go feed the natives, then I’ll tag someone else!

The natives have been fed, they’re tidying up the Living Room in preparation for quiet time, so I’m off tagging 3 other bloggers:  Homemaking Mama, Angela from And Then There Were Four, and Michelle of #!/usr/bin/mom.