Life realizations

Not much actually happened this weekend, or in the past few days. I've been looking into what conferences are happening where. Then I began to think about the possibility of me going. Ali is still pretty attached and Katie is still literally attached because I am still nursing at night. (I'm beginning the weaning process). Now Preston and I are talking about our third, which will probably be attached for at least the first six months. After thinking about this fact for a while I came to a few realizations: 1. There is virtually no possibility of me making a multi-day writing conference. The further I thought about this, even if I somehow could get over my aversion to the price of said event, the more I realized I want to be this type of mother. I fully realized that, right now, I could hire a baby sitter, allow them to stay with Preston (probably incredibly unhappy the entire time, or some other option I haven't thought about) it just isn't what I want, that is why I haven't done it. 2. So now, not dis lauding conferences in my areseanal, I've decided to work solely on my ability to write. I'm also learning the ins and outs of on-line social networking sites. To work solely on my craft I've recently adopted a new "training technique" as it were. I have been reading The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell. I love the suggestion of having a word quota for the week. I am going to try that and make a daily journal of what I have written, if anything and how much I have written. On a more personal note some friends and I have entered the Color me Rad 5K in Indy. It's going to be so much fun. From what I understand the runners all wear plain white shirts and each carry color packs to throw. When it starts we all run and pelt each other with color, then have an awesome commerative shirt when it's done!

Aren't reality pills fun?

So it has officially been a week since I sent the agent query. I am going to assume my e-mail went (sadly) straight to the slush pile. When this realization hit me, so did two others. The chances are my writing just plain sucks and I'm not going to give up. So here is my plan. Continue getting books from the library and improve my writing. Also, I have started writing short stories. I am planning on entering one in the "your story" competition from Writers Digest. I am also researching magazines that fit my genre and plan/ write short stories in hopes of publication from that. In the meantime I'm still writing my second manuscript. I've heard that to master anything you need to spend 10,000 hours doing it. I'm not keeping track, but I know I have a long way to go. (wish me luck) With the kids this past weekend was pretty low key. Preston was sick, as Ali had been sick later last week, so basically we stayed inside deciding no to spread the infection. Ali spent the day with Grandma Daniel yesterday and from what I understand she was able to choose everything from where to eat, go and do. Basically Ali had a day where baby Katie didn't command all the attention, she was away from Mommy and Daddy saying "no", and was able to choose whatever she wanted. (she chose to eat a Panera, then shop at the mall and finish it all up with watching movies at Grandma's house). Needless to say she had a blast. Katie is walking more and more, strengthening her little baby muscles.

What constitues a good Mother's day?

First and foremost I want to say happy Mother's day to all mothers.  It's probably one of the most frustrating jobs in the world, but the only one where white hot anger can be easily dispelled by an "I love you Mommy, you're my best friend."

This past weekend was interesting and memorable for a few reasons, not including the holiday.  Katelyn took her first actual baby steps!! (That is the positive memory.)  The negative memory is getting a call from my husband, who is watching 4 kids, saying he needs help immediately.  My sister-in-law go to fine my nephew crying with blood coming down his forehead.  My niece is crying, is terrified and naturally crying as well as my oldest daughter.  From what I understand as to what happened my nephew was banging rocks against things to see what sounds they made and what music he created.  My daughter, for whatever reason, decided to hit his head with her rock.  He is fine, no stitches, he didn't go to the hospital, the bleeding stopped quickly and our daughter was punished.  Terrifying moment aside my husband made sure I didn't have to worry about anything from cleaning to cooking to corralling both kids during church.  All I want is for this to be a one time occurrence. 

While my hubby had both kids during church, I was able to fine tune a query letter to one of the agents for the Andrea Brown agency.  I'm not sure how many time I read and re-read both the letter and the first 10 pages for the submission but I'm hoping for something.  The only things that worries me is that I haven't received the automated e-mail from the agency telling me "they received my e-mail."  I'll wait it out for a week or two, it was a 4 week exclusive query.  Then maybe I'll have the guts to call and see if it in fact was sent, (and they just don't like it.)  Either way, I've started again.  (And sadly, my delusions still exist, I'm not quite sure how to dull those.)

Busy brick wall weekend

So this weekend Preston wanted to work on our front yard landscaping. Which basically took up the entire day. The first wall is finished, and naturally Ali was the perfect helper. Now, there is no need to explain the small events that lead me to my anger, the end result is me not writing. But multiple factor aggregated me early Saturday morning and the small simple fact that I have edited my manuscript so mush that I need to completely re-do both of my synopses, not to mention my query letter. Long story short the last straw of my composure was broken and my anger was decidedly present. Preston, is anything but appreciative of my mood and called upon a previous agreement I was unable to write for the last few days. The agreement was if my writing ever effected the mood of family then I need to take a "break" and he wanted me to not write for three days. Not only was I reluctant to accept this but I took a day off of my penalty. In hindsight it was good because it allowed me the time to think about exactly how I'm going to re-write basically everything in my agent prep folder. For the most part the girls were good. Their cousin Noah had his sixth birthday party so the both had a blast. Saturday was spent working outside, so for a switch Sunday morning I did the chores I needed to do and basically left Preston to take care of the kids. He didn't like all of the things he had to do like get them breakfast, clothed, teeth brushed and kept generally happy. I laughed and took a shower, and laughed a little more (laughing all on the inside of course). I'd say it was a positive weekend. On a side note I'm learning the ins and outs of Pinterest!!

Yesterday...amazing

Yesterday (Wednesday May 2nd, 2012) was amazing from the primary reason of feeling productive.  I took the girls to Ali's gymnastics class in the morning, then it was off to a picnic lunch at the park where we have a small, but free, zoo.  And who doesn't love free things?  Luckily I was able to communicate with my sister-in-law and we had lunch with her cousins.  Then the park's playground last.  We came home around 2pm and somehow I had the energy to clean the kitchen, living room and do four loads of laundry.  Keep in mind I didn't fold any of it, so I have piles of clean laundry screeching my name. 

That night I was awake enough to sit at the computer for an hour and edit my first manuscript.  Which gave way to this morning after dropping Ali off at preschool (big cheer for preschool!) and getting Katie to sleep, I actually finished editing it.  Now I am currently in the process of refining my query letter and synopses in extremely high hopes of sending them out to agents again.  For the first time in a long time I feel forward progress on my writing!