Category Archives: NaBloPoMo

Thirty Days.

This is it, the last day of November. Thirty days of straight blogging is coming to an end. This was my second year, and just like when I finished last year, I am going on record saying I’m pretty sure I’m not going to do this next year.

The writing went pretty OK. I didn’t miss a day. Last year I had a post 99.99% done and then forgot to publish it, so I finished 99.99% successfully. I think bumping that up to a 100% success rate is pretty good.

What I learned from this is that I can make time – EVERY SINGLE DAY – for a regular writing practice. I wrote when work was hectic, when my kid had activities, on nights with a PTA meeting, when my kid had a virus, when I had a virus. I wrote on days when I opened the grid at yeah write (which, incidentally, meant I did two posts that day). I managed to read the grid at yeah write, which was generally 20-30 posts per week. I posted when my husband was away on business for a collective seven days. I posted when I cooked Thanksgiving dinner.

The biggest impediment to my writing was waiting until the end of the day. I feel like I should have known that, since I rarely get anything done after my kid goes to bed. Because my days are GoGoGo all the time, sometimes that was all I had. It would be ideal if I could get out of bed early to write before Nathan was up. How often do you hear of someone doing something ideal though?

Thankfully no one remembered and called me on the fact that I said I was going to also work on my book every day in November. That would be more of living in that ideal world. There is no way I could have pulled off everything else I do, plus blogging every day, PLUS working on a larger work in progress. Basically I didn’t touch that all month.

The other part of NaBloPoMo that didn’t go so well for me was the reading. Reading the posts of others is supposed to be part of the fun. But since I didn’t get to open my laptop until 8 p.m. some nights, reading and writing didn’t both happen often. I wish I could have read more of everyone’s stuff. If I didn’t get to you, I’m sorry.

I think what I’ve learned is that just because I can post every single day does not mean that I should. Not all of (or much of) what I wrote was quality. I really enjoy blogging, I love getting the comments and I love making blog friends, but what I love most is writing. If I’m not writing quality work, then I’m not using my time wisely.

So where do I go from here? I’ve made a pact with a friend to continue a daily writing practice but with one catch – blog posts don’t count. The focus is writing every single day, not necessarily for someone to see. It’s working on the memoir or another longer work in progress, or just plain getting the butt in the chair and doing it. Even in if it’s crap, even if it’s going to be revised a thousand times over before anyone else ever reads it. But making the time to do it is the essential thing.

I’ll still continue my blogging schedule of one to two times each week, plus my regular Tuesday post at yeah write. There’s nothing wrong with blogging every day or with NaBloPoMo or any of the other blogging challenges out there. I just don’t think they’re for me.

If you followed my blog throughout November, thank you! If you’ve followed before that or you’re planning to continue to follow after, thank you!! It’s been a fun, interesting, exhausting month. Thanks for sharing it with me. To December and beyond!

This is NaBloPoMo Day 30. You can read more here.

Sometimes I Get Sappy.

Last year I posted one sentence because I waited until the end of the day to post. Today I’m getting it out early so it can be a little something more. I’m going to go with the obligatory theme of thankfulness, what with it being Thanksgiving and all.

I’m thankful that Nathan is finally feeling better (I think) and that he slept all the way to 5:41 this morning. I’m thankful he only woke me up one time during the night (4 a.m.). I can assure you that I will be thankful when he goes to bed.

I am truly, truly thankful for such a wonderful boy whom I love so very much. He has taught me so much. I’m not even going to make a joke about how he’s taught me how to live without sleep, because that would be obvious, and also because this is the part where I proclaim my love for my child without a sarcastic remark.

I’m thankful for my husband – for being by my side for so long, for working so hard for our family, for all of it.

I’m thankful for wonderful friends. I have friends who know what I need, sometimes before I do. I have friends who are like second parents to my kid, which is something I never thought I’d need so much, but, you know, the village. I have friends who let me dump on them daily and they are still there, friends who call just to talk, friends who care about me. I never wanted to need friends, but need them I do, and I’m so thankful to have them.

I’m thankful for a job that makes it easier to keep my family as a priority. It’s not an easy job, it’s not all sunshine and roses, but there’s understanding, and that’s not easy to come by.

I’m thankful for a house full of stuff. Even if I want to get rid of all the stuff and live that minimalist life I keep yammering about, even when that house threatens to fall apart in a new way every other day, I’m so lucky to have what I have and for that, I am thankful.

I’m thankful for the ability to write – the physical ability, the mental ability, the time, and the resources. I don’t know where I’d be without that.

I’m thankful for every single person who reads this blog and for every single comment (OK, not the spam, let’s not go overboard here).

I’m thankful for the writers I know who keep me going, feed my writer-spirit, and who gently say, “Don’t publish that.”

I’m thankful that even when things are crummy, I have hope and dreams and someone to share them with.

I complain often, but I’m thankful. Maybe I don’t say it enough. Maybe all my lamenting makes it seem like I don’t know how lucky I am, but I am lucky and I know it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

This is NaBloPoMo Day 28. You can read more here.

Featured image credit: www.publicdomainpictures.net

I’m Not Giving Up.

I did not come this far to blow it all now. No, my friends, I am not going to let this day go by without posting. I wrote a long and rambling post that went nowhere and, since I like you, I’ll spare you.

It’s become clear to me that Mondays and I do not get along, particularly on the blogging front. I don’t remember how to make all the words and such. Thankfully this is the last Monday of NaBloPoMo. Yay!

In lieu of a real post, I’ll show you a picture from this summer when my kid pretended to get eaten by a shark.

photo (45)

No one has more fun getting eaten by a shark than my kid!

There you go. I’m not really sure how to end a pointless post. So maybe I’ll just end it like this.

This is NaBloPoMo Day 25. You can read other writers here.

Sick Day.

On my day of rest after The Great Migraine Event of 2013, Nathan came down with some sort of Gross. He puked in his father’s car, then was feverish all day with a record high of 103.2. Fun times.

Today he’s feeling better with his fever back to low-grade status. This roughly translates to him wanting to be better enough to want to do stuff, but not really being better enough to actually do stuff. Oh, and he’s cranky as all get out.

Here are a few highlights from the last 24 hours.

In an independent taste test, 1 out of 1 child in my house feels that Tylenol Cherry Flavor is the more desirable pain reliever and fever reducer than Target’s Up and Up brand grape pain reliever and fever reducer.

Even when you cannot see any color variation from the original piece of rye bread, you can have the toast you just made sent back to the kitchen for excessive darkness.

This kid can recognize the back of every single commemorative and foreign coin he has within an instant of seeing it. I know this because he asked me to please quiz him. For fun.

Nathan has a ton of Crayola crayons with wacky names like Manatee and Antique Brass. I do not know where these crayons came from.

It is next to impossible to write a blog post while your kid is forcing you to test out every single one of his 45 million crayons.

45 million is entirely too many crayons.

It is a scientifically proven fact that your kid will only want to eat junk when he is recovering from illness giving rise to a very real fear that your child will be sick again shortly. The other option, to deny him the only thing he feels like eating, means you’ll have to endure endless hours of whining, you’ll have to sneak your chips and dip snack into the bathroom to eat it, or your child will starve to death. My child happens to think the last one is the most realistic possibility.

Having my child well enough to whine and complain is far better than having him mope lethargically on the couch. But don’t tell him I said that.

PS – OBVIOUSLY I didn’t take my chips and dip into the bathroom. That’s where you sneak ice cream and candy, but not chips and dip. I ate the chips and dip in front of him.

This is NaBloPoMo Day 24. You can read other great NaBloPoMoErs here.