Tuesday

It's 1:am and I'm awake. That's kind of an obvious statement I suppose--If I wasn't awake then I'd be writing this in a sleepstate and the opening would look more like this:

A is for alpha one. Today the elephants come to break bread with us while the witches of the north take a breath and we explain our sudden silence to our children. B is for beta fish at dawn . . .

You know, that's most interesting writing I've done since I started keeping a blog. Perhaps I should start writing in my sleep.

I'll settle on a focus for this blog sometime in the next couple of weeks. It will have something to do with writing--specifically Witness Tree and Keep Cold. Until then, it's will be a great place to vent

I did no writing today/yesterday thanks to schooling kids, work and exercising. By the time I got in from the Crane 4-H meeting at 9pm, I was fried, the kids wanted to be read to and I had a headache. So I read a few pages to them and sent them quickly off to bed. I do not feel like a good mother--I was grumpy and short with all of them, ordering them to clean up messes and put away toys and shoes before I was able to settle down with them. The bedtime prayer I prayed with them was brief and unoriginal. This is true all too often for my liking.

Daniel, the fourteen year old, got an earful because he once again did not do the laundry I asked for him to do. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him. Shadow Asperger's or not, he can remember that he has art class and be dressed in time for that, he can get himself up in the morning, be showered and ready to go when he wants to be some place, and he never has any trouble cooking for himself when he's hungry. I think he can handle a few loads of clothes. I've tried writing it down on a white board and that does no good, calling and reminding him from the office and that does not good. Grounding him isn't working. Being Daniel, he's honest about the cause--he was distracted by the TV (he's currently grounded from the computer). Perhaps we should turn it off while we're gone, or let his younger brothers watch it back in our room until he's completed his chores. Yeah. That's probably doable. This follow-thru, this learning to finish the things he doesn't want to do, is important. I suspect it is the most important thing we're going to impart to him if he's ever going to leave home and function on his own. I do not believe his "issues" are great enough to keep him from having a normal life, but I do worry about there being a delay in his developing the skills he needs. I've been advised to stay tough with him, but it's not easy--not when all I feel like I'm doing is hammering away on the same issues, over and over and am making no headway.

Today is upon me already so I suppose I'd best get some sleep. I might just have an hour to write before going to the office in the morning, I crash now. Tuesday evening will be dedicated to writing the first draft of a query letter.

I have three subs out right now and haven't heard back from the editors yet. They are all paying sources so I'm anxious.