Lots going on here.

Posted: August 6, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

I had 3 kids start school this week and my last one starts on Monday. While I’m happy to have them back in school, it’s a pain too. The shopping, the running, the back and forth. On top of that, this week has been our hottest yet this summer. I spent half an hour outside the girls school yesterday in 114 degree heat. This hasn’t helped with either my mood or my creativity.

Off to Start the House Ape Round-Up

Posted: October 2, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

I do it almost every day, for part of the school year it’s one simple trip, go to the school, pick them up, come home. However, spring and fall, both when school starts and when it ends (coincidentally, the hottest parts of the school year,) is not so simple. I’m still picking them up, but then I have to shuffle things so I can get four kids to their softball/baseball practice/games, fed, homework, etc. Not that it can’t be done but it’s a little stressful, and have I mentioned how much I detest the heat? Oh, and all this running really cuts into my writing time, it’s really difficult to type while driving. Plus the police really frown on it. Sticks in the mud.

Oops. It’s only partly my fault.

Posted: May 5, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I’ve been working on a project I started several months ago, it was written in bits and pieces, then set aside for several months. In the mean time, I’ve had several more thoughts and I have a much better idea of where the overall story is going, so I had to start at the beginning and make some storyline corrections, move some things around, insert missing pieces, etc.

To do this I printed out what I had and I’m approaching it much like a rewrite. It’s working really well. I’m getting a lot done. But there’s a down side. I’m so engrossed in what I’m doing that when I got a permission slip from the school for one of the kids, without thinking about it, I went over it with my red pen.

Oops.

I will take part of the blame, it isn’t the most socially acceptable thing to do. However, why are teachers distributing things with content errors? The big one that I remember, and I’ll paraphrase here because I don’t remember the exact wording was something like this

Please submit advance permission, the children who are going need to reply early.

I underlined advance and reply early and noted that they were redundant. It was more so than my example but I sent the paper back and I can’t look it up. I did attach a post-it apologizing, saying I’m in the middle of revisions and it carried over. I’ve met with the teacher several times and she’s aware of what I do. Still.

I’ll take the blame for being rude, but I still feel it needed to be pointed out.

What does August mean to me?

Posted: August 1, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Heat. It’s still the inner circle of hell, in relation to temperatures and weather where I live (110-120 is not uncommon.)  It’s hard to escape.

School. The kids (and other half) go back to school. I had one kid start today, the other two start in a week, and the other half starts near the end of the month. This means I no longer have to try to keep them entertained during the heat, or feed them 500 times a day. This year even more so, because the other half has been home 24/7 for the last three weeks, and will be for another three. I’m looking forward to some quiet time.

Craziness. I have three kids, who play two different sports, on three different teams. They all start practicing sometime in August. I spend my evenings running around trying to get everyone where they need to be.

Writing. Even with all this, I still write. While the kids are in school, while I wait for them at practice (when I have time) I need to if I’m ever going to finish whatever book I’m working on at the time.

What does August mean to you?