One of Those Weeks

Sparse blog posts. Falling behind in every area of my life. It's been one of those weeks.

But that's okay. I've learned to give myself grace and not feel too guilty. I  remind myself that feeding and clothing and raising my children (and talking to my husband) is my priority and that if everything else falls away, that's okay.

Still, I'm feeling a lot like this picture:


Sometimes it's tough being a mama bear.



What I have accomplished:

I read SOLD, which I reviewed last night.

I plowed through a rewrite of my first chapter (after receiving feedback from my good blogging-writing buddy, Krista V. Thanks Krista!). I've lost count how many times I've rewritten this first chapter. I thought I was done with it earlier this week, but when I went back and read it through, I realized it was crap disguised as a first chapter. It was discouraging. In fact, if I'd written a post on Monday or Tuesday it would've been a discouraged post. But then I decided to let loose a bit, to stop worrying so much about making it good and just write the characters. So I added two more pages. When I went back and read them again with the new material, they actually worked. At least for now. So, today I feel encouraged. We'll see how long that lasts.

I got my first rejection for my literary short story, The Tiffin Box. Blaggh.

I had two dreams last night with two directions for this week's Story A Week. Weird that they both came in dreams. I'm still deciding which one to take.

Monday was my day to volunteer at my daughter's preschool. It's so much fun, because she's always so delighted to have me there, and the other kids are so cute.

My oldest daughter got her second round of spacers in yesterday at the orthodontist. Next week we go in for the real thing -- the appliance. It's a metal thing that's going to fit against the roof of her mouth and hopefully expand her upper gum line. The goal is to be able to do a major grafting surgery in about six months to fill in missing bone in her upper jaw. (The joys of being born with a cleft lip and palate, let me tell you! Poor baby.)

I've been playing musical beds every night this week with almost every one of my children. There's a nightmare epidemic in the house (I'm sure I have Halloween to thank for this, because it happened last October too!) AND my two younger girls have bad colds. So with all that, I have been bed-hopping. And not getting too much sleep. I always end up in my two-year-old's double bed with one of my children. Last night it was my son who woke up screaming. And all the other nights I slept with my two-year-old, who's sniffly and uncomfortable (did I mention the kicking and the thrashing?). When I leave my bed, my oldest daughter climbs into my spot ... and around and around we go!

So, that's the update from here.

What's new with you?