MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk

Ahhhhhhh.....

Can you hear my sigh of relaxation, wherever you are? I certainly felt it, rising from deep inside me, a wonderful yawning feel after the last few days. For my birthday last September, DH told me he'd signed me up for 2 days at Clare's Well, which I cheekily call the nun farm in Annandale. It's a small farm run by 4 Franciscan sisters, who offer 3 small cabins for people who want to come and spend some time in solitude. You eat meals at the farmhouse, home-cooked meals prepared by them, and then you spend your time in your little cabin, or walk around the pond or walk through the woods. One sister does massage as well, which I always take advantage of.

This was the perfect gift for me, especially this year, which has seemed hectic and stressful to me ever since mid-October, when I taught my Loft workshop. We went from that to throwing a Halloween Party for the teens, putting together the Kick-Off Party for National Novel Writing Month, trying to work on my novel for the month, dealing with DD's high school play, which involved more parental work than I would have believed, putting on younger DS's 12th birthday party for the family and then having Thanksgiving at my house. By last Thursday night, I was really exhausted, used up, spent. Not to mention seriously behind in my word count, with only 28,000 words and 7 days left to write.

So I drove off to the country Friday morning and reveled in my 2 days of solitude. It was so peaceful and beautiful, and I had my massage, got to go on walks around the pond and through the woods, sat and watched the sun actually set over the pond for about 20 minutes. And I wrote 14,000 words!

It was just the right amount of time to be away, and now I feel ready to get back to regular life. And I'm going to try very hard to work some solitude and me-time into my daily life, so I don't get so used up again. So if you hear me getting stressed out again, remind me!

National Novel Writing Month

Well, I'm doing it again. This year is my fourth year doing Nanowrimo, which is an abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month, in which crazy people like me sign up on a website (www.nanowrimo.org) to commit to writing a 50,000 word novel in a month, specifically the month of November. For me, as a writer, it is a push and a fun challenge to get myself to really crank out the words; for other people who aren't writers but sign up to do this anyway, welI, I don't get it, but are plenty of them.

The fun part of Nanowrimo is the community around it-- there are online forums on many topics and forums for local regions. Local people connect online and get together for Kick-off Parites, write-ins at cafes, and TGIO Parties (Thank God It's Over). There are people I've met through Nano that I only see one month a year-- we all go about our usual lives for the other 11 months and then connect in November.

This year I'm trying a young adult/middle grade novel based on my life at age 13, not a great year, and trying to fictionalize it and go beyond my own experiences. I'm a bit behind, have about 16,000 words so far and I've been procrastinating yesterday and today. The weekends are harder for me to get my writing done, since I'm off my usual weekday routine. But that's NO EXCUSE! So, if you see me you can ask how my novel is going. And now I've got to go write...

Trick-or-Treat?

Last night I ended up going out trick-or-treating with my younger DS and his friend, in the brisk and chilly 30 degree temps. I wasn't supposed to go-- 15 year old DD had said that she would take him out, like she did last year, because then she can have the excuse to trick-or-treat herself: "I have to take my little brother out." Saving face for teens! But it was cold last night and she'd just gotten home from play practice, so she decided at the last minute that she didn't want to go. Even the idea of a sack full of candy didn't tempt her. Sigh... they all grow up...

Anyway, I wasn't happy about having to go out. I wanted to stay home and hand out candy and not be cold and tromp around the neighborhood. DH had just gotten home and he didn't want to go out either, and he said they could just go out by themselves, but I definitely didn't want that. DS is still 11 and it's so dark, and I could see these boys getting lost, since they've never been the type to walk around the neighborhood very far. So me, the overprotective (so DH thinks), crabby parent, bundled up and headed out with the boys.

Well, it wasn't so bad. I was cold but it was actually fun to be the trick-or-treating parent again. This had always been my job in previous years, since DH preferred to stay home and hand out candy. Often me and the kids would team up with other families and go out in big groups, almost like a traveling party. It was festive and a chance for me to chat and share with other parents.

So I had all these bittersweet feelings come up--- the two boys were excited and had fun, but it was low-key with only 2 kids. We used to always have to remind the kid to say "thank you" but these 2 were very polite and friendly at every house. We walked to all the houses we used to walk to. I couldn't help thinking about the past and feeling sad about kids growing up. My twin 15 year olds were sitting home at their computers, doing homework and goofing off.

And now my almost 12 year old son, well, he might want to trick or treat next year but he might be old enough to go out on his own. I couldn't help wondering if this was my last year trick-or-treating with my own kid. An end of an era. Sunrise, sunset, how sad!

I'll have to look to the joys of older kids, like when DD is on stage in "Hello Dolly" in a few weeks, or when my husband and I can go out on a date and not call a babysitter. And no diapers anymore...