MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk

I did it!

Last night, just before the 10:00 news came on, I reached my goal for Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month)-- 50,036 words written on my novel in the month of November! This was my second year "winning," and the high wasn't quite as high as last year when I reached my goal. I slumped exhausted in my chair with a smile on my face, while my good little children came and put celebratory chocolate in my mouth! Good children! :-)

I don't know if I'll ever bother to put this NanoNovel into a real manuscript. It really was a method of exploring and pushing ideas and characters and seeing what happened. I have two other half-books that I want to get back to working on. Old characters are calling to me.

It is a really good feeling, though, to push yourself toward a goal and really make it! And to meet a lot of cool local Nano people in the process, not to mention Chris Baty, the founder of Nanowrimo, who came through Minneapolis in October on a book tour. He's a great guy! And it's a great project to get a bunch of people all around the world caught up in... all for insane fun and a good vibe feeling.

Yay!

My Baby Is 10!

My baby, younger DS, is no longer a little boy, having entered the realm of double-digits today. It is so hard to believe it is 10 years ago since DH and I went to the hospital for me to be induced (I was 2 weeks overdue and didn't want to have the baby on Thanksgiving). It was a long day of having miserable contractions and not being able to get up at all because I was being induced (no one had explained that part of it to me before), two hours of pushing and finally having the little squirt at 5 pm. He was big (9.3 lbs) and warm and fiesty from the start, crying in an indignant fashion like he didn't like this at all. We all fell in love that day... and now he is such a energetic, spirited and brilliant boy who surprised me at least once a day!

We had his family party last week, so today, with DH out of town, we quietly did some more celebrating. We gave him our presents and made a cake (easy and deliscious oatmeal chocolate chip cake that needs no frosting) and let him choose his outings-- he chose to visit Toys R Us (where I got him and his bro to at least start Christmas wish lists), Blockbuster to choose a video, and Dennie's for dinner... where I discovered what cheap dates my kids are NOT! Nobody orders off the kid menu anymore, and they choose quite substansial meals. Going out to eat never used to be so expensive! (Ah well, maybe it will discourage me from making it a habit, which I've been more prone to do lately, since we've been so busy.)

Anyway, Happy Birthday, D! I never realized before I became a mother how much the birthday is about the mom too, and her memories and feelings. For any of my kids' birthdays, it is my day too!

Taxi Mom

Last night at writing group, A. and I were lamenting the exhausting job of being Taxi Moms. Our two companions are child-free, and so they looked at us with crinkled brows, not understanding why we would sign up our kids for so much stuff that would make our lives so busy. It seems to be the bind of modern parenting. And we probably all say the same thing-- my kids are not signed up for THAT much.

I have three kids. The one thing that they are all participating in is piano lessons, which their father and I have mandated they must take. The kids have complained off and on over the years about practicing, wishing they could quit, but we have told them that quitting piano is not an option, that learning music is as important as learning math, and that studies have shown that learning music actually affects how your brain works. So we have one afternoon a week with our beloved piano teacher. Doesn't sound too bad...

Then DD has had her class at The Children's Theatre. This theatre has won a Tony Award for its education department, and it has been a really wonderful opportunity for her to explore the interest she has had in acting for a long time. The class was a bit intense, 4-5:30 pm Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. We managed to find someone to carpool with on Mondays, but otherwise it was back and forth, back and forth for me, twice an afternoon. So that really put a spin on the schedule.

Older DS is involved in Lego League at school, Thursday afternoons. Luckily it at school and so he just walks home afterwards.

And on Fridays, younger DS has a gymnastics class at Hamline University. A wonderful class for boys with a male coach who makes it fun. DS has no interest in sports but has a lot of energy and flexibility and agility, so this has been a good fit for him.

So, each kid is involved in 1 activity outside of piano lessons. It doesn't sound like too much, but hey, it all adds up! Toss into the mix the activities of the parents-- therapy sessions, writing group meetings, a writing class, school meetings, and whatever else comes up on the spur of the moment. And that creates quite a chaos all together.

So, I still havene't figured this out. Is this just the way life is right now? What could/should be cut out? I guess right now, it's just making me think about my choices and look at everything with a critical eye. Every decision has a pro and a con, and that all needs to be considered.

Good Day

Today, I sat at The Blue Moon Cafe and wrote 5,000 words toward my Nanowrimo novel! (Yay, I'm finally up to 21,000, only a few thousand behind!) I wouldn't let myself eat lunch until I hit 3,000. Thank goodness it was a day that the words flowed fast.

Also, DD had her performance for the class she has been taking at The Children's Theatre. It was an hour-long performance with musical numbers, and all the kids did a great job. There's nothing like the pride of seeing your kid perform!

And then, after we had a quick dinner out, we went to see Frog and Toad at The Children's Theatre, their holiday play this year. We had seen this show a few years ago, and it went so well that they took it to Broadway and won a Tony! If you have kids, it is a must-see, a very good show with lots of humor that adults enjoy too, silly and fun and great music. We have the CD from a few years ago, too.

So... busy day, good day, and now it's off to bed!

Back to Blogging

It's one of those weekends again, where Cleaning is floating up to the top of the list. We are having family over for younger DS's 10th birthday party (one week early), and so it is time to take this clutter-pit we call a house and get it presentable for people to see. I'm am just not much of a cleaner, and I'm really really disorganized. We could psychoanalyze me all we want, but the facts are still there. The house is a mess. And it's time to do something about it.

So tomorrow will be the big cleaning fest, which involves cranky parents and resistant kids. I keep wondering how to make it better, make it different, but it all comes down to doing the work and getting through it somehow. With a lot of yelling and threatening, that is how. Sigh.

Maybe someday we'll be able to afford a cleaning person! I know there are people out there who actually like to do this. I need to find one!

The Day After

I'm sad. I'm depressed. And the only thing I have to say is that I hope America will be able to say 4 years from now that we are much better off then we are today--our schools, our economy, the poverty rate, the unemployment rate, the abortion rate, our environment, and our health insurance system. I hope to God that we are better off, but I really don't have confidence that we will be.

Fun Political Activism

As I sit here nailbiting and waiting to hear about the election results, I want to tell about the fun I had last night at Midnight Madness. This is what they call the flyer drop the night before election day, 9:30- midnight. We gathered at the Communication Workers Association hall on Lake Street. I went alone but wanted to do something to help, and I ended up seeing some neighbors there, a married couple (J&A) who are very politically active Democrats. We waited outside for awhile while they gave instructions to the crowd in the full union hall, then our huge group got to go in. There was a mini-pep rally (with Josh Hartnet as the big guest), and we got maps and leaflets to put on cars. Since we were supposed to go out in groups of four, we ended up with a guy we'd never met, I, a 20-something guy. And before we left, my brother came up to me and we were both thrilled to see each other, being activists for the same cause. I didn't know he would ever do something like this.

So I did the driving, and we drove around looking for our area of Minneapolis to cover with the map that no one could figure out, very poorly drawn. After mistakenly doing a few cars by Washington Avenue in downtown, we figured out we were supposed to be by the U, west bank. So we went over there, and started doing a parking lot. While there, a college kid came over and asked what we were doing, and did we need any help. So we ended up with D coming along-- hey, the more the merrier.

Mainly, I drove and dropped off a couple of them here and picked up a couple of them there. For awhile we had lost D and I, but then found them. D then confessed to us that he would be turning 21 at midnight (it was about 11:30 then), and that all he wanted for his birthday was a Kerry for President. (Gee, I hope he gets his wish!) And then, since we were done about midnight, we took him out to the nearby Viking Bar for his first legal drink! Very fun! It's an old hopping bar with live music, and the old guy who runs the place even asked me "young lady, how old are you?" He didn't ask to see my license, but when I said "40" he said "just barely."

What was fun is that I got to be with a group of people who share my ideals and philosophies, and we were doing something to help our cause, and just having a good time doing it. And it was so good to see the amazingly large crowds that came out to help.

And now the waiting. I hate this part.