Thursday, October 21, 2010

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?

16 comments:

  1. Amy,

    I'm so glad you are giving yourself grace. Earlier today I read your reviews on Sold and Mockingjay and wondered, "How does she do all she does?"

    And I'm learning the writing journey is such a rollercoaster ride.

    Two things that encouraged me this week- I heard a sermon where the pastor was talking about not despising the small things in our quest for the big ones. His challenge was to slow down and spend this week being led instead of driven. I needed that. : )

    And the other one- 1 Thessalonians 5:24 "The One who called you is faithful and He will do it." I shared that with another writing friend earlier this week. I guess we all need the reminder- He's called us to write. He'll do it.

    Hope you get rest!

    : ) Becky

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  2. It is tough being the mama bear, but I think you've done pretty darned well this week.

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  3. You are doing a good job, Amy, keeping up with the important things, like you said. Really bummed your short story was rejected. Glad you like where your revisions are going, though.

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  4. not only grace you deserve, but also gifts and goodness and lots of great pamper.
    hope kiddoes are getting welll :)

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  5. not only grace you deserve, but also gifts and goodness and lots of great pamper.
    hope kiddoes are getting welll :)

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  6. Wow, you poor girl! sounds like you've had quite the week. Isn't Halloween fun? We went to the party store for my son's costume and both my sons had nightmares that night.

    I love that you give yourself some grace. I don't think we do enough of that. :)

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  7. What a week!! I hope the kids get better, the nightmares stop and things fall back into place soon for you :)

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  8. Amy--It sounds like you are doing lots! WTG!

    Keep up the good work...

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  9. Ugh I have those kinds of weeks a lot. I'm glad you wrote down everything you did, because as you can see you were actually quite productive!

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  10. Mommying can be exhausting at times. Hope your kids feel better and that you have a chance to recoop this weekend.

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  11. Poor Olivia!!!! Great job with your work! Being a mom is hard! (From a tiny bit of experience and watching my own mom)

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  12. Don't feel too bad, Amy. I finally realized my book doesn't start at chapter one. It actually starts now on chapter two. I spent the last few days completely rewriting the new chapter one!

    I volunteered this week in my daughter's first grade class with the reading program. It was a lot of fun!

    Have a great weekend! (I'm apparently in a mood for exclamations today)

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  13. Amy...hope all gets better this weekend. Sick kids are no fun and the bed-hopping is not a fun game (although, the name makes it sound fun!)
    Praying that those kids have sleep filled nights with no one waking up, you get all the rest you need, and that all goes well with the fitting...
    And, your short story....I saw a short story contest and thought of you earlier. I'm going to look it up and FB it to ya! Don't loose heart, I loved that story!

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  14. Thanks, everyone. You're all so sweet and encouraging (as usual!).
    Kids are feeling better, I think, but now I have the bug. I guess I'll be back when I'm back. :) I'll rest in *not* being driven this week. :)

    Much love to you all,
    Amy

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  15. You have a lot of things to pack in during the week, so I don't think you should worry about whether or not you are blogging enough! I don't have half of the responsibilities you have and can't seem to get some interesting topics up!

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