Washed Out? Washed Up?

This space needs something written in it. So, here goes.

Monday was kind of a wash, at least as far as my own attitude goes. I did push the kids through their lessons but I accomplished nothing at all except laundry. And it rained.

Tuesday was better. The rain went away, but the ground was saturated. Soccer was cancelled. I went with Dar and Pam over to the campground to look over the possibilities for homeschool camping. We changed the area we plan to camp in, although it's different than we had originally planned to change it to. Confused yet? So, those plans are underway.

Our neighbors invited us over for a cookout for their youngest daughter's birthday, so we hung out there most of the evening. That was fun. James and I tossed a football back and forth for a long time. Then I went to two libraries.

Started a fluffy book because I need something light and quick to finish out the month. All the usual suspects were unappealing.

Today should be sunny and nice. But all I want to do is write. I have a new idea. Not sure if I should start writing that or continue editing MVR. Well, I haven't edited in a while. (And if you are one of my FMN Beta Readers.... will you update me on where you are? There are a lot of you I haven't heard from!)

Oh yeah, and I got two of the High School Musical soundtracks at the library. Yeah, go ahead and laugh at me now.

Time for a shower. The kids are going to watch a Bible video to start their day today. I'm off!

Btw, David took the photos. FROM OUR ROOF.

Not Much To Say

Wish I had something to say here, but all I've done so far this week is teach lessons and edit my book. Oh yeah, I watched Nights in Rodanthe and cried buckets. I haven't read more than just a few pages in either of my books. I haven't even gone out of the house since Sunday morning when I taught SS. Meals have been concocted but they wouldn't win any culinary awards.

I have exercised twice this week so far, keeping up my 3 sessions a week. (Though I haven't yet managed to add a 4th session). I've kept my calorie count within my limits every day except one (when I ate ice cream). I lost 2 more pounds!

Editing is going well. I've sent the first chunk out to most of my beta readers and the second chunk out to one since she read the first part and responded already. I've gotten 93 pages edited (out of about 236). It's mostly the old stuff I wrote in 2007 and edited already in 2008 so this isn't the challenging part. Hopefully I can push through the rest of that (about 40 more pages) today and move on to the new stuff.

The kids are playing with a remote control car. The boys aren't feeling top notch today, but I need to move them into their lessons. Bob is at the church working on a painting project.

So, same old, same old, here in the Wagner house. Can't wait for SPRING!

I like to write.

Editing update - I have the whole book edited on the second go-through. It's 123 pages long and 49307 words. Now I have to write a synopsis (about 4-5 pages) so I can begin to query publishers and agents.

However, I realized I am missing a key scene - important information that will inevitably cause a conflict. Where I THOUGHT I could put it isn't going to work. At least I don't think so. So, now I have to figure out where to put this scene. The scene is mostly written - it just needs the specifics to make it fit in the proper place.

A friend told me I should keep writing because I like it, not because it might make me some money. I resisted that idea at first. I didn't really think I was doing this because I like it. I got the idea because I love a well-crafted challenge, and because I thought it would jump-start my non-fiction writing career by getting me in the habit of writing.

However, I realized just today, when I woke UP thinking about the previously-mentioned key scene, that my friend was right. I DO like writing. The creation of characters that seem to come alive on paper. The effectiveness of the precise word choices in creating a mood. The ability to move scenes around to better fit the plot! The power of the thesaurus!

So, yes, I do enjoy writing! I will keep doing it. I hope I am effective at it and can sell my writing. But I think I'll keep doing it regardless.

Dichotomy

This was a productive weekend in some ways, and lazy in some others.

On Saturday, we slept in. Then we went to the post office and the library. In the afternoon, we cleaned house. I started cleaning my bedroom and got the urge to straighten the bookshelf in there. I realized some books were in there that ought to be in the living room. And when I went to the living room, there wasn't any room, so I had to take some books from there and put them in the bedroom.

So, the upshot was that I organized my downstairs bookshelves by subject. Then David and I went to one of those resale video game stores to see if he could sell his GameBoy Advance and all his games. (He wants to trade up to a PSP.) They didn't offer what he wanted, so he didn't complete that transaction. Then we went to the grocery store, picked up some Little Caesar's pizza, and came home to watch The Three Musketeers (Disney version with Mickey Mouse).

Because of the ice forecast, I hadn't planned to get up for Sunday School and when we got the call that church was cancelled, I was still in bed. I slept in again. When I woke up finally, I had a book plot all planned out from a dream. But by the time I tried to write it down, all that was left was a name - Amy. Darn!!!

Most of the day today was spent editing my book. I've edited 79 pages now with about another 40 to go. (The page count keeps increasing because I am messing with the paragraphing.) This is the second editing. I have a good friend acting as beta reader for me - telling me what's clear and unclear, where I need something more, where I have too much of something. I also chatted with her today in IM for several hours - a luxury we don't get too often now that our lives are busier!

We also watched National Treasure - one of our favorites - and the kids poked around in the Special Features.

I also roughed out a schedule for the upcoming Sister Weekend with, who else, my four sisters. (and my mom and my brother and his wife!)

I've put Matrix: Reloaded's special features in the DVD player and I am going to keep editing until I fall over. :-)

Tomorrow I planned to take the kids to a free museum day. However, it occurred to me tonight that a lot of schools are probably off tomorrow and the free day may be a little crowded. So, we may reschedule that.