Spread Thin

Today was another snow day. All last night we had freezing rain. The thick glaze coated the cars, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are downed wires or broken branches. Last night I knew they would cancel due to weather. And I was right.

The funny thing is that by 8:00am the temperature warmed right up and the snow is melting. I had to call the school a second time to see if they said “na, just fooling, school’s back on.” I think the awakening of spring is glorious and surprising and…wonderful. *smile* The best part is that I get to keep my kids with me all day long, and I like that. It means of course that the day will be full of interruptions and busy… hardly a good day for getting any serious writing done, but I should be used to that by now.

I have an idea for a book. Okay, yes, I know I have several started and none finished, so I have one more to add to the pile. All the writing books tell you to write about what you know. So, I took their advice. I am writing about something I know intimately. Laundry. This will have a spin on it though. It will be an inspirational devotional, which uses laundry as the metaphor for spiritual growth. *giggles* I can imagine what you must be thinking, and you might be right, it might not fly. However, I have targeted it to a specific audience and it will be general enough that anyone can find humor in it. I believe that I will be able to pitch it to an editor, if I get it written. Well, I don’t know how it will turn out, but the writing of it will be fun for me. Can I finish it? Can I finish the mail order bride novel I started? How about the young adult story I started over 10 years ago? Am I forever doomed to only finishing “flash” stories? All of these are good questions.

Well, while I am exposing my self-doubt here, why don’t I also toss in a confession of not feeling like I am doing any one thing well? I have found that I have spread myself very thin in terms of writing communities. It’s coming back to bite me on the butt and I am not finishing reviews that I said I would do. I have people who have been waiting for way longer than they should have to. *sigh* I lock myself into these timed, due-date-driven flash challenges and then there is no flex room to allow the other parts of my life to swell. I juggle so many responsibilities, especially during busy season, and occasionally, I have to let one of the balls drop. Sometimes those balls are made of rubber and they bounce… Sometimes they don’t. I like to say “yes”. So I say yes far more often than I should on some things. Especially on things that lie within my passions.

Speaking of passions, yesterday I printed out fresh pictures of my kids and put them on the wall. They turned out soooo well! I am pleased with how my skills in photography are coming along. The day before yesterday my son celebrated Valentines day with his girlfriend. He asked me to take some pictures of the table he set with the good china, the flowers he bought and the candle burning in the center. The lighting was tricky because the digital camera I have is automatic. That just means that it has preset selections on it’s aperture. So I am learning to monkey with the settings. I am able to capture pictures now that I never would have been able to before. It gives me a great thrill and I can see my improvement daily on the screen when I download and print the pictures from the camera. Pathetic aren’t I?

I have a guilty confession, I have another passion. Movies. I buy them cheep and have a huge collection. I could almost run my own rental business.


I spent the afternoon reworking a chore chart and establishing a series of short-term goals for the girls. We already have a system of sorts, and it’s been working for a long while, but it is a simplistic system. What I did the other day merged with what they were already doing. I am hopeful that it will make a difference and for now, they are still motivated.