Yesterday could have been better.
It started out
okay, but then I had a massive freak-out in the middle of the afternoon.
I'm not entirely sure where it came from, but it was leading to places
in my mind I thought I'd left behind me, so I'm grateful that KT was
online and able to talk me down off the ledge, so to speak.
I managed to pull myself together in time to go pick up the kids, and we had a pretty nice evening.
But then I read Officer Buckle and Gloria to Alex at bedtime, and when I finished it, I looked down and Alex was in tears. "What's wrong?"
He managed to gasp out that he was sad because Officer Buckle and Gloria had been alone during their falling-out, and even though they're friends again at the end of the book, he was still sad that they'd fought and been apart.
...Uh-huh.
I tried to lead him around to it, to try to get him to tell me if that reminded him of anyone he knew, but he just shook his head and wanted to snuggle for a while before I read the second book.
And then he woke up me at 3am to tell me he'd had an accident, so I had to get up and change his sheets. That's the second accident he's had in the last week or so.
And then he got up early this morning to tell me he'd had two bad dreams in a row. And that he'd had several when he was at Matt's. I got him to tell me about them, and the running theme seems to be abandonment, specifically by parental figures.
So... yeah, I guess he's starting to actually process that Matt and I aren't together anymore, even if it's not conscious yet.
Which, on top of my own little freak-out, was pretty well precisely bad timing. So I'm sleepy and doldrum-y today, and wishing there was some way to turn back the clock, and wondering if I should cancel my date for this weekend.
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Sleepless Mornings
As has become the norm for me lately, I woke up on my own at 5:30 this morning, and my brain immediately began churning, so I couldn't go back to sleep.
Mostly, when this happens, I'm planning, figuring out how things will change with the separation. How to take care of the kids. How to handle family events and holidays. Repairs that the house needs that we've been procrastinating on that I should probably get a move on. Renovations that I'd like to do eventually.
My therapist would probably tell me that all this planning is a way of avoiding the deeper questions: the sense of betrayal. The anger. The mourning. The fears. That's probably true to some extent, but I think it's also a sense of pattern. All my life, I have done my most productive work first thing in the morning. It's when I'm the most logical, the most organized, the most focused. It's when I have the fewest distractions, either internal or external.
Yesterday, with its moment of emotional breakthrough, was a rare animal. Today, it was back to the usual planning.
But for a change, it was neither denial/suppression long-term planning nor fretful worrybrain "please don't let this fuck up the kids too badly" planning. Today, I woke up thinking about Penny's birthday party. (In two weeks? My baby is only two weeks away from being nine years old??? Holy passing time, Batman!)
She wants a Harry Potter birthday party. (She also wants a sleepover, and is extremely angry with me that I've told her she can't have a sleepover until the weekend before school starts, but she'll just have to deal with that.)
I've been googling things to do, and mostly what I've found is that a lot of other parents put a lot more time, money, and effort into their small children's birthday parties than I'm willing to invest. Seriously. Some of these people are quite insane. Creative, yes. But insane.
But as I laid in bed this morning, I thought of some much simpler, fun ideas that Penny will probably be perfectly happy with. Like buying some streamers in Hogwarts house colors and making a color curtain the kids will have to walk through to get to the front door, and putting a "Platform 9 3/4" sign on it. Like doing the same to Penny's room, only with just red and yellow, and calling it Gryffindor Tower. Like hanging the Golden Snitch toy I bought from the ceiling in the playroom, and calling that the Quidditch field. Red-and-yellow plates and cups, red-and-yellow decorations on the devil's food cake (she already picked that out).
Anyway, I'm pleased. If I can't sleep, at least I had an actual productive morning.
It's Friday, and there's a decent possibility that I'll get to skip out of work early. And I have a new fridge being delivered tomorrow (hopefully in the morning). And I have friends coming over tomorrow afternoon/evening to make tacos and quesadillas and margaritas. And I have a germ of an idea for a story I want to write (well, re-write) for a submission.
It's going to be a good weekend. I have decided.
(But first, coffee.)
Mostly, when this happens, I'm planning, figuring out how things will change with the separation. How to take care of the kids. How to handle family events and holidays. Repairs that the house needs that we've been procrastinating on that I should probably get a move on. Renovations that I'd like to do eventually.
My therapist would probably tell me that all this planning is a way of avoiding the deeper questions: the sense of betrayal. The anger. The mourning. The fears. That's probably true to some extent, but I think it's also a sense of pattern. All my life, I have done my most productive work first thing in the morning. It's when I'm the most logical, the most organized, the most focused. It's when I have the fewest distractions, either internal or external.
Yesterday, with its moment of emotional breakthrough, was a rare animal. Today, it was back to the usual planning.
But for a change, it was neither denial/suppression long-term planning nor fretful worrybrain "please don't let this fuck up the kids too badly" planning. Today, I woke up thinking about Penny's birthday party. (In two weeks? My baby is only two weeks away from being nine years old??? Holy passing time, Batman!)
She wants a Harry Potter birthday party. (She also wants a sleepover, and is extremely angry with me that I've told her she can't have a sleepover until the weekend before school starts, but she'll just have to deal with that.)
I've been googling things to do, and mostly what I've found is that a lot of other parents put a lot more time, money, and effort into their small children's birthday parties than I'm willing to invest. Seriously. Some of these people are quite insane. Creative, yes. But insane.
But as I laid in bed this morning, I thought of some much simpler, fun ideas that Penny will probably be perfectly happy with. Like buying some streamers in Hogwarts house colors and making a color curtain the kids will have to walk through to get to the front door, and putting a "Platform 9 3/4" sign on it. Like doing the same to Penny's room, only with just red and yellow, and calling it Gryffindor Tower. Like hanging the Golden Snitch toy I bought from the ceiling in the playroom, and calling that the Quidditch field. Red-and-yellow plates and cups, red-and-yellow decorations on the devil's food cake (she already picked that out).
Anyway, I'm pleased. If I can't sleep, at least I had an actual productive morning.
It's Friday, and there's a decent possibility that I'll get to skip out of work early. And I have a new fridge being delivered tomorrow (hopefully in the morning). And I have friends coming over tomorrow afternoon/evening to make tacos and quesadillas and margaritas. And I have a germ of an idea for a story I want to write (well, re-write) for a submission.
It's going to be a good weekend. I have decided.
(But first, coffee.)
Friday, May 18, 2012
Grey
Been sick the last few days. Nothing serious, just a sort of annoying and persistent cold that left me unable to breathe properly and with a mild but constant headache. Your standard spring cold/sinus infection.
I worked from home and didn't engage my brain unless I had to and generally just sort of... existed.
And then Spring Drama happened.
I'd been getting used to drama-free springs, but it's back.
I'm not sure if I'm actually calm and accepting or if I'm just a little numb while it worms its way inward.
Yeah, I'm being vague. Sorry about that. I want to talk about it some, but while it touches me, it's not about me, so I can't. If you don't already know... probably best not to ask. Yes, I'm okay. At least for now. If I get to a point where I'm not okay, you'll probably hear about it.
Anyway. Drama, and me trying to decide if my relative lack of reaction is a good sign or a bad one. I stayed up late last night, drinking and talking things over with one of the other affected parties (who is, for the record, very much not numb or calm or remotely accepting; thus the drinking). So I'm slightly hungover and very tired today, which is probably making the confusion and vagueness even worse than it needs to be.
So I'm kind of not looking forward to this weekend so much. And any lingering desire that I had to stick to any sort of diet may be a bit run off the rails.
...But part of me is wondering if I can get a story out of it.
I worked from home and didn't engage my brain unless I had to and generally just sort of... existed.
And then Spring Drama happened.
I'd been getting used to drama-free springs, but it's back.
I'm not sure if I'm actually calm and accepting or if I'm just a little numb while it worms its way inward.
Yeah, I'm being vague. Sorry about that. I want to talk about it some, but while it touches me, it's not about me, so I can't. If you don't already know... probably best not to ask. Yes, I'm okay. At least for now. If I get to a point where I'm not okay, you'll probably hear about it.
Anyway. Drama, and me trying to decide if my relative lack of reaction is a good sign or a bad one. I stayed up late last night, drinking and talking things over with one of the other affected parties (who is, for the record, very much not numb or calm or remotely accepting; thus the drinking). So I'm slightly hungover and very tired today, which is probably making the confusion and vagueness even worse than it needs to be.
So I'm kind of not looking forward to this weekend so much. And any lingering desire that I had to stick to any sort of diet may be a bit run off the rails.
...But part of me is wondering if I can get a story out of it.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Recipe Time!
Alex had a bad dream last night around 2:45 that left him convinced there was a bug crawling around his bed. Seriously, when I made him get back into bed, he crouched on the very tips of his toes on his blanket and eyed the sheets with wide-eyed suspicion. "What's that dot, Mommy? What's that line? What's that, there? No, there!" (Of course his sheets have pictures on them that, in the dark, produce dark patches that could well be bugs. If bugs were, y'know, the shape of Woody's hat.) And of course, by the time I had him convinced that there were no bugs and it was safe to lay down and go back to sleep, he'd been awake long enough that he didn't really want to sleep any more.
He was up for the better part of an hour. Perforce, so were Matt and I. So I'm not terribly coherent this morning.
Luckily, I took pictures as I was making dinner last night (because Matt gave me a new camera lens for our anniversary and I wanted to try it out) so today's entry is going to be a recipe. With pictures! (Er, if you click through the pictures to look at the bigger versions, try to ignore how messy my stove is. Aheh.) This is one of my all-time favorite soups, and it's both cheap and easy to make. Get ready for some truly awesome...
I had this soup when I was in Mexico and loved it. I looked up recipes when I got home, but none of them really matched what I'd had down there. So I reverse-engineered it (I'd say 'cause I'm awesome like that, but really, it was just luck).
You start with a big soup pot, a couple of tablespoons of your choice of oil (I like to use a combination of vegetable oil and butter), and a medium-sized onion, diced. Put it on medium-high heat and sprinkle a little salt on it to help the onion sweat out its flavor.
When the onions are getting translucent and soft, you open two cans of black beans. If you can, get at least one can of them "seasoned". I've been experimenting with the various brands at my store, but really, they're all pretty much the same. Do not drain out the liquid; just dump it all in the pot.
In fact, add about a quarter-cup of hot water to each can and swish it around to rinse out all that tasty goodness. (You're going to have to rinse the can out anyway if you want to recycle it, right? Right?)
Then you add about eight ounces (= 1 cup. ish. I don't measure it, as being off a bit one way or the other won't make a big difference) of your favorite salsa. I'm a certified wimp when it comes to spicy food, so I get mild salsa, but you should use whatever you like. Except this is not the time to go for those delicious fruit-flavored salsas. I'm a peach and pineapple salsa addict, myself, but for this soup, you want plain old tomato salsa.
Dump it on in there and stir it up.
And then you add four cups of broth. I use chicken broth for the light flavor; if you wanted a richer, more complex flavor, you could go for beef broth. If you wanted to go vegetarian, you can use vegetable broth. I buy these 48-oz cartons of broth by the gross during the winter, when I'm making soup two or three times a week.
Yep, just pour it all in there. I did say this was really easy, right? Dicing the onion is pretty much the only real effort involved in this soup. And dicing an onion isn't exactly heavy labor.
Put the lid on it and let it simmer for a while. How long? Eh. If you're in a hurry, five minutes will do. If you like a thicker soup, leave the lid off and let some of the liquid boil off. At any rate, there's no need to go longer than half an hour. Stir it every little bit to make sure the beans aren't sticking to the bottom. And taste it at least once to see how you like the flavor. Add more salsa and/or other spices to taste -- but I never do. (This picture isn't really useful at all. I just think my pot is pretty and wanted to show it off.)
When it's done boiling, move it off the heat...
...and get out your immersion/stick blender. You can do this in a standard blender, in small batches, but that's a huge pain in the ass. Plus, I have a friend who was burned badly making soup in a blender. You can get a decent stick blender for $20 or less, and a pretty nice one for around $50. (Beyond that, you're getting into professional-grade blenders, and if you're going there, you don't need me to tell you about them.) But really, if you're only going to use it for soups, a cheap one is sufficient; the higher wattage blenders are only necessary if they're expected to tackle hard items like ice or nuts.
Digression done. Where was I? Oh, yes. Soup. Blend that mother until it's smooth and creamy. This one turned out a smidge more watery than usual, because I was finishing off that jar of salsa, so I added a little extra water to rinse it all out. Waste not, want not. But I probably should've taken the lid off for a bit to boil off the extra.
Spoon it into bowls and serve with a handful of tortilla chips, or with a spoonful of sour cream on top if you want to be decadent about it.
It's not the prettiest soup, but it's so delicious. Both of my kids love it -- even Alex, who as a rule does not like dinner. I get five or six servings out of this recipe, but those are entree-sized servings. If you were going to serve this as a side dish on, say, taco night or with quesadillas, you could get twice as many servings out of it.
He was up for the better part of an hour. Perforce, so were Matt and I. So I'm not terribly coherent this morning.
Luckily, I took pictures as I was making dinner last night (because Matt gave me a new camera lens for our anniversary and I wanted to try it out) so today's entry is going to be a recipe. With pictures! (Er, if you click through the pictures to look at the bigger versions, try to ignore how messy my stove is. Aheh.) This is one of my all-time favorite soups, and it's both cheap and easy to make. Get ready for some truly awesome...
Black Bean Soup
I had this soup when I was in Mexico and loved it. I looked up recipes when I got home, but none of them really matched what I'd had down there. So I reverse-engineered it (I'd say 'cause I'm awesome like that, but really, it was just luck).
You start with a big soup pot, a couple of tablespoons of your choice of oil (I like to use a combination of vegetable oil and butter), and a medium-sized onion, diced. Put it on medium-high heat and sprinkle a little salt on it to help the onion sweat out its flavor.
When the onions are getting translucent and soft, you open two cans of black beans. If you can, get at least one can of them "seasoned". I've been experimenting with the various brands at my store, but really, they're all pretty much the same. Do not drain out the liquid; just dump it all in the pot.
In fact, add about a quarter-cup of hot water to each can and swish it around to rinse out all that tasty goodness. (You're going to have to rinse the can out anyway if you want to recycle it, right? Right?)
Then you add about eight ounces (= 1 cup. ish. I don't measure it, as being off a bit one way or the other won't make a big difference) of your favorite salsa. I'm a certified wimp when it comes to spicy food, so I get mild salsa, but you should use whatever you like. Except this is not the time to go for those delicious fruit-flavored salsas. I'm a peach and pineapple salsa addict, myself, but for this soup, you want plain old tomato salsa.
Dump it on in there and stir it up.
And then you add four cups of broth. I use chicken broth for the light flavor; if you wanted a richer, more complex flavor, you could go for beef broth. If you wanted to go vegetarian, you can use vegetable broth. I buy these 48-oz cartons of broth by the gross during the winter, when I'm making soup two or three times a week.
Yep, just pour it all in there. I did say this was really easy, right? Dicing the onion is pretty much the only real effort involved in this soup. And dicing an onion isn't exactly heavy labor.
Put the lid on it and let it simmer for a while. How long? Eh. If you're in a hurry, five minutes will do. If you like a thicker soup, leave the lid off and let some of the liquid boil off. At any rate, there's no need to go longer than half an hour. Stir it every little bit to make sure the beans aren't sticking to the bottom. And taste it at least once to see how you like the flavor. Add more salsa and/or other spices to taste -- but I never do. (This picture isn't really useful at all. I just think my pot is pretty and wanted to show it off.)
When it's done boiling, move it off the heat...
...and get out your immersion/stick blender. You can do this in a standard blender, in small batches, but that's a huge pain in the ass. Plus, I have a friend who was burned badly making soup in a blender. You can get a decent stick blender for $20 or less, and a pretty nice one for around $50. (Beyond that, you're getting into professional-grade blenders, and if you're going there, you don't need me to tell you about them.) But really, if you're only going to use it for soups, a cheap one is sufficient; the higher wattage blenders are only necessary if they're expected to tackle hard items like ice or nuts.
Digression done. Where was I? Oh, yes. Soup. Blend that mother until it's smooth and creamy. This one turned out a smidge more watery than usual, because I was finishing off that jar of salsa, so I added a little extra water to rinse it all out. Waste not, want not. But I probably should've taken the lid off for a bit to boil off the extra.
Spoon it into bowls and serve with a handful of tortilla chips, or with a spoonful of sour cream on top if you want to be decadent about it.
It's not the prettiest soup, but it's so delicious. Both of my kids love it -- even Alex, who as a rule does not like dinner. I get five or six servings out of this recipe, but those are entree-sized servings. If you were going to serve this as a side dish on, say, taco night or with quesadillas, you could get twice as many servings out of it.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Projected
I went to bed at 9:30 last night, and Alex stayed in his room this morning, so I got a solid eight hours of sleep, plus about half an hour of dozing. I feel much better. Not quite up to snuff, yet, but definitely better.
Naturally, I'm going to blow it on gaming tonight.
Tomorrow, I'm hoping to sand and stain our new shelves that Brian built so that the stain can dry overnight and we'll be able to put the shelves in place sometime on Sunday.
That's pretty much my entire plan for the weekend, which I'm hoping means that I'll get in a nap sometime, as well.
That's about it. Yay for a mostly relaxing weekend!
Naturally, I'm going to blow it on gaming tonight.
Tomorrow, I'm hoping to sand and stain our new shelves that Brian built so that the stain can dry overnight and we'll be able to put the shelves in place sometime on Sunday.
That's pretty much my entire plan for the weekend, which I'm hoping means that I'll get in a nap sometime, as well.
That's about it. Yay for a mostly relaxing weekend!
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Sleepdep
Once again with the sleep deprivation.
Well, I should be honest. It's not true deprivation. It's not like I have insomnia, or a newborn. I just got behind somewhere, and I can't seem to catch up. Alex woke me up -- again -- at about 5 this morning, and then after I got him back to bed, he kept coming back into our room every time I was just about to fall back to sleep. Which means that effectively, I stopped resting at about 5 this morning. So I'm just that much further behind, now.
"So," Matt murmured when the alarm went off at 6, "when are we rearranging the room so I'm closest to the door?"
I chuckled, but I would do it in a heartbeat if I thought it would actually work.
We're gaming tomorrow night, which means I'll be up late again. But we have no other solid plans for the weekend (aside from finishing the shelves for the dining room, which I'm hoping to do Saturday morning so we can put them in place on Sunday) and so on Sunday morning, when it's my turn to sleep in? My ass is sleeping in.
Well, I should be honest. It's not true deprivation. It's not like I have insomnia, or a newborn. I just got behind somewhere, and I can't seem to catch up. Alex woke me up -- again -- at about 5 this morning, and then after I got him back to bed, he kept coming back into our room every time I was just about to fall back to sleep. Which means that effectively, I stopped resting at about 5 this morning. So I'm just that much further behind, now.
"So," Matt murmured when the alarm went off at 6, "when are we rearranging the room so I'm closest to the door?"
I chuckled, but I would do it in a heartbeat if I thought it would actually work.
We're gaming tomorrow night, which means I'll be up late again. But we have no other solid plans for the weekend (aside from finishing the shelves for the dining room, which I'm hoping to do Saturday morning so we can put them in place on Sunday) and so on Sunday morning, when it's my turn to sleep in? My ass is sleeping in.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Good News/Bad News
Okay, so I didn't get everything done that I wanted to do. Especially sleep.
Okay, Friday was pretty awesome. I met Adin for lunch, and then the two of us went to a pottery painting place and had fun making a mess of some ceramic. (We'll get our pieces back at the end of this week, I think. I'm looking forward to seeing how awful mine turn out, or if they're actually half-decent.) And then, because the weather was so nice and warm, we had grilled meats for dinner. Yum!
I'd forgotten I had a hair appointment Saturday morning, so even though I actually went to bed more or less on time (thanks to Alex throwing a hissy fit so I took him home rather than put him to bed at the Hegemony), I was up at 8 so I could caffeinate and get over to the salon.
Hair re-colored and trimmed, I considered Penny's plea that we join the Hedge at Busch Gardens' pre-opening preview day for pass holders, and decided it was good. So we left the boys at home (Alex was still in pretty dire need of a nap) and headed out. Naturally, the park was completely packed -- we left home at 11:30. It took us 5 minutes to get to the park grounds, and then another twenty minutes to get through the parking line. And then by the time we'd made it to the back of the park to where the Hedge were having lunch, it took us another hour to get our food. (Note to self: Remember, when at Busch Gardens this summer, not to eat at "normal" mealtimes. Get a snack at noon, and have lunch at 2.)
But we did eventually get to have some fun, though Penny didn't get to do any roller coasters, as she was hoping. (There were pictures, but I haven't had time to upload them to flickr yet.) But after we left Busch Gardens, I went home and collected Alex so Matt could go to his D&D game, and then we met up with the Hedge again for dinner. Some begging had induced me to agree that Sarah could sleep over at our house, so we packed up and came home shortly after dinner, and I got all three kids to bed.
Blam! Saturday gone.
Sunday was the usual chores, mostly. We met up with the Hedge for lunch so we could give Sarah back to her dad, but other than that just lounged around the house. I made a pot roast for dinner that turned out very well, though, and I'm eagerly anticipating the leftovers. (Pot roast is always better as leftovers. I don't know why, but it's true.)
And then Monday -- yesterday -- was supposed to be my day off to really relax. Catch up on sleep, do some writing, maybe run a couple of errands. Matt looked at the calendar Sunday night and noticed a doctor appointment I'd completely forgotten about, so that was good, because otherwise I'd have missed it.
The morning got off slow, though -- I did more chatting with KT than writing (this is why I should register my copy of Freedom) and when that two hours was up, I finally guilted myself into doing our taxes.
That was a weird conglomeration of good news/bad news. Good news: We've paid down quite a chunk of the principle on our mortgage, so in 2011 we paid only half the interest we'd paid in 2010. Bad news: That drop meant that our itemized deduction was actually smaller than the standard deduction. Good news: Using the standard deduction is loads easier and lighter on the paperwork, so next year I can probably skip straight to the standard unless something happens to make me think itemizing would be a good idea again.
Good news: I actually did save the receipts from my Vistaprint orders and when I went to Roanoke Pride in September, so I could claim all that stuff as a business expense (advertising and promotion travel are allowable). Bad news: I made less than $1600 from my writing and editing combined; less than $1400 after factoring in the expenses. I won't be able to give up the Day Job any time soon. Good news: That means I got to use the "EZ" version of the self-employment form. (That would be Schedule C, for my writer friends who haven't done their taxes yet...)
Good news: We owed less than last year. Bad news: We still owed. Good news: We make enough money that we owe taxes.
Bad news: The VA form is still put together by epileptic meth addicts. Good news: The VA form still lets us claim a lot more of our daycare expenses, so we're getting a small refund from the state.
Back and forth like that. I think if I had to write them all down and add them up, the good outweighed the bad... but only just barely. Anyway, I lost a solid three hours to wading through all that paperwork. Which is nothing compared to, say, my brother and sister-in-law, who operate their own business out of their home. (Sam spent over 20 hours just gathering files and organizing things for their CPA.) But it was still three hours out of a day I'd really wanted to spend on less mentally draining efforts. Or at least, more enjoyable ones.
Then I ran some errands and ate lunch and tried to wake up a little. Later in the afternoon, I drove over to the doctor's office and had my annual boobsmashing. (I realize I am now old enough that even if I switched to a different insurance company, they're pretty much guaranteed to agree to pay for annual mammograms. I guess that's... good?)
I thought about going to bed early last night, but instead I thought I should recover some of the writing time I'd meant to have earlier in the day, so I started up Freedom (Twitter is my nemesis in the evenings) and dove into my current project. I didn't do a progressive word count, but I wrote a solid two and a half single-spaced pages, so probably 1500 words, give or take? That felt like pretty good progress. I'm only another maybe four pages from wrapping up the story, so I might make that April 1 submission deadline with it, after all. (And if not -- or if they reject it for the anthology -- I think it's good enough that a little scrub would let it stand alone.)
So that was my long weekend. Not nearly as relaxing and sleep-intensive as I'd hoped, but still (mostly, except for the taxes) pretty good.
Now, I just need a good, long nap... What? Work?
Dammit.
Okay, Friday was pretty awesome. I met Adin for lunch, and then the two of us went to a pottery painting place and had fun making a mess of some ceramic. (We'll get our pieces back at the end of this week, I think. I'm looking forward to seeing how awful mine turn out, or if they're actually half-decent.) And then, because the weather was so nice and warm, we had grilled meats for dinner. Yum!
I'd forgotten I had a hair appointment Saturday morning, so even though I actually went to bed more or less on time (thanks to Alex throwing a hissy fit so I took him home rather than put him to bed at the Hegemony), I was up at 8 so I could caffeinate and get over to the salon.
Hair re-colored and trimmed, I considered Penny's plea that we join the Hedge at Busch Gardens' pre-opening preview day for pass holders, and decided it was good. So we left the boys at home (Alex was still in pretty dire need of a nap) and headed out. Naturally, the park was completely packed -- we left home at 11:30. It took us 5 minutes to get to the park grounds, and then another twenty minutes to get through the parking line. And then by the time we'd made it to the back of the park to where the Hedge were having lunch, it took us another hour to get our food. (Note to self: Remember, when at Busch Gardens this summer, not to eat at "normal" mealtimes. Get a snack at noon, and have lunch at 2.)
But we did eventually get to have some fun, though Penny didn't get to do any roller coasters, as she was hoping. (There were pictures, but I haven't had time to upload them to flickr yet.) But after we left Busch Gardens, I went home and collected Alex so Matt could go to his D&D game, and then we met up with the Hedge again for dinner. Some begging had induced me to agree that Sarah could sleep over at our house, so we packed up and came home shortly after dinner, and I got all three kids to bed.
Blam! Saturday gone.
Sunday was the usual chores, mostly. We met up with the Hedge for lunch so we could give Sarah back to her dad, but other than that just lounged around the house. I made a pot roast for dinner that turned out very well, though, and I'm eagerly anticipating the leftovers. (Pot roast is always better as leftovers. I don't know why, but it's true.)
And then Monday -- yesterday -- was supposed to be my day off to really relax. Catch up on sleep, do some writing, maybe run a couple of errands. Matt looked at the calendar Sunday night and noticed a doctor appointment I'd completely forgotten about, so that was good, because otherwise I'd have missed it.
The morning got off slow, though -- I did more chatting with KT than writing (this is why I should register my copy of Freedom) and when that two hours was up, I finally guilted myself into doing our taxes.
That was a weird conglomeration of good news/bad news. Good news: We've paid down quite a chunk of the principle on our mortgage, so in 2011 we paid only half the interest we'd paid in 2010. Bad news: That drop meant that our itemized deduction was actually smaller than the standard deduction. Good news: Using the standard deduction is loads easier and lighter on the paperwork, so next year I can probably skip straight to the standard unless something happens to make me think itemizing would be a good idea again.
Good news: I actually did save the receipts from my Vistaprint orders and when I went to Roanoke Pride in September, so I could claim all that stuff as a business expense (advertising and promotion travel are allowable). Bad news: I made less than $1600 from my writing and editing combined; less than $1400 after factoring in the expenses. I won't be able to give up the Day Job any time soon. Good news: That means I got to use the "EZ" version of the self-employment form. (That would be Schedule C, for my writer friends who haven't done their taxes yet...)
Good news: We owed less than last year. Bad news: We still owed. Good news: We make enough money that we owe taxes.
Bad news: The VA form is still put together by epileptic meth addicts. Good news: The VA form still lets us claim a lot more of our daycare expenses, so we're getting a small refund from the state.
Back and forth like that. I think if I had to write them all down and add them up, the good outweighed the bad... but only just barely. Anyway, I lost a solid three hours to wading through all that paperwork. Which is nothing compared to, say, my brother and sister-in-law, who operate their own business out of their home. (Sam spent over 20 hours just gathering files and organizing things for their CPA.) But it was still three hours out of a day I'd really wanted to spend on less mentally draining efforts. Or at least, more enjoyable ones.
Then I ran some errands and ate lunch and tried to wake up a little. Later in the afternoon, I drove over to the doctor's office and had my annual boobsmashing. (I realize I am now old enough that even if I switched to a different insurance company, they're pretty much guaranteed to agree to pay for annual mammograms. I guess that's... good?)
I thought about going to bed early last night, but instead I thought I should recover some of the writing time I'd meant to have earlier in the day, so I started up Freedom (Twitter is my nemesis in the evenings) and dove into my current project. I didn't do a progressive word count, but I wrote a solid two and a half single-spaced pages, so probably 1500 words, give or take? That felt like pretty good progress. I'm only another maybe four pages from wrapping up the story, so I might make that April 1 submission deadline with it, after all. (And if not -- or if they reject it for the anthology -- I think it's good enough that a little scrub would let it stand alone.)
So that was my long weekend. Not nearly as relaxing and sleep-intensive as I'd hoped, but still (mostly, except for the taxes) pretty good.
Now, I just need a good, long nap... What? Work?
Dammit.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Recovery
The proposal is done. Our contracts manager sent it out yesterday afternoon. My sinus infection is (slowly) clearing up; I have a mild but persistent sore throat, but the headache is largely gone. There are a couple of documents due out today; I'm in the office to get those out the door and then I'm going home.
I'll work on the story idea I had last night, for a submission call that's due in two weeks. (Though it's possible that if I'm mostly done by that point, I can send in a precis and get an extension.) I'm meeting a friend for lunch, and we'll take it slow and easy. It's Friday, so we'll do dinner with the Hedge and hang out at their place until late.
Matt has his monthly D&D game tomorrow, which means he'll get up with the kids tomorrow morning. I'm going to sleep as late as humanly possible, and then I'll get up and do stuff. Not sure what stuff -- aside from Matt's game, there isn't anything on our calendar. Maybe we'll resume shopping for a new fridge. Maybe I'll make a run down to Sam's Club. Maybe I'll go to Bath and Body Works and buy more good-smelly stuff that I don't actually need. Maybe we'll take the kids to see The Lorax. Whatever. Since Matt's gaming, I'll probably take the kids over to the Hedge so they have someone to play with and don't drive me bonkers. (Unless the Hedge has other plans, in which case I will resort to the clever combination of bribery, guilt, and shouting that so characterizes my parenting style.)
Sunday morning I'll get up with the kids and we'll do the usual chores and stuff. See my list of "maybe"s from the previous paragraph; they all still apply.
And Monday? I'm not going to work on Monday, either. So there.
I'll work on the story idea I had last night, for a submission call that's due in two weeks. (Though it's possible that if I'm mostly done by that point, I can send in a precis and get an extension.) I'm meeting a friend for lunch, and we'll take it slow and easy. It's Friday, so we'll do dinner with the Hedge and hang out at their place until late.
Matt has his monthly D&D game tomorrow, which means he'll get up with the kids tomorrow morning. I'm going to sleep as late as humanly possible, and then I'll get up and do stuff. Not sure what stuff -- aside from Matt's game, there isn't anything on our calendar. Maybe we'll resume shopping for a new fridge. Maybe I'll make a run down to Sam's Club. Maybe I'll go to Bath and Body Works and buy more good-smelly stuff that I don't actually need. Maybe we'll take the kids to see The Lorax. Whatever. Since Matt's gaming, I'll probably take the kids over to the Hedge so they have someone to play with and don't drive me bonkers. (Unless the Hedge has other plans, in which case I will resort to the clever combination of bribery, guilt, and shouting that so characterizes my parenting style.)
Sunday morning I'll get up with the kids and we'll do the usual chores and stuff. See my list of "maybe"s from the previous paragraph; they all still apply.
And Monday? I'm not going to work on Monday, either. So there.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Sleepshod
I woke up yesterday morning and thought, "Huh, my throat's a little sore."
Then I swallowed and I thought, "Oh, shit, it's a LOT sore. I do not have time to have strep right now!"
Luckily, when I found a flashlight and look a look in my throat, I didn't see any white patches. Just raw red. Yay, weather changes and allergies, I guess.
But by mid-afternoon, I had a headache. And by dinnertime, it had become that sort of all-over body ache that I usually get with a fever, except I didn't feel feverish.
Which could only mean one thing: sinus infection.
Joy.
So I took two Advil, threw down a slug of Tylenol Cold and Sinus (nighttime), and took an Allegra for good measure, and took myself off to bed just a smidge past nine, the very earliest I could manage it after getting the kids to bed and taking a shower.
When the alarm went off this morning... and then the snooze alarm... twice... and I finally dragged myself upright, I thought, "Oh, good. Throat's not nearly so sore today. But I could easily sleep for another three or four hours."
Which says to me one of two things:
1) Either I have a cold and my body would really like me to go back to bed and drink fluids and get some rest; or
2) I've been short on sleep and running on adrenaline for weeks (if not months) and the extra two hours of sleep I got last night was just enough to make my system realize how tired it actually is.
Or, you know, some combination of the above.
In any case, it seems I need to get some more sleep, and soon. (HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!)
Then I swallowed and I thought, "Oh, shit, it's a LOT sore. I do not have time to have strep right now!"
Luckily, when I found a flashlight and look a look in my throat, I didn't see any white patches. Just raw red. Yay, weather changes and allergies, I guess.
But by mid-afternoon, I had a headache. And by dinnertime, it had become that sort of all-over body ache that I usually get with a fever, except I didn't feel feverish.
Which could only mean one thing: sinus infection.
Joy.
So I took two Advil, threw down a slug of Tylenol Cold and Sinus (nighttime), and took an Allegra for good measure, and took myself off to bed just a smidge past nine, the very earliest I could manage it after getting the kids to bed and taking a shower.
When the alarm went off this morning... and then the snooze alarm... twice... and I finally dragged myself upright, I thought, "Oh, good. Throat's not nearly so sore today. But I could easily sleep for another three or four hours."
Which says to me one of two things:
1) Either I have a cold and my body would really like me to go back to bed and drink fluids and get some rest; or
2) I've been short on sleep and running on adrenaline for weeks (if not months) and the extra two hours of sleep I got last night was just enough to make my system realize how tired it actually is.
Or, you know, some combination of the above.
In any case, it seems I need to get some more sleep, and soon. (HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!)
Thursday, March 1, 2012
News and Such?
What's with the exhaustion lately, dammit? I went to bed at 9:30 Tuesday night, and at 10:30 last night, and I still feel like I want to crawl back under the covers for a half-day or so.
On the other hand, I feel like I've been weirdly busy. Aside from work stuff, I've gone through edits on a story that's coming out at the end of this month (squee! that never gets old!) and gently poked two editors for news on other stories. (I know that's a no-no, but it's been over 3 months since I heard from either of them. I thought a gentle request for information was not entirely out of line.) I've edited a short novel (a really good one, too, which is always awesome!) and written a couple of scenes in a couple of my own projects.
I've made plans for lunch tomorrow, and talked to Penny about attending a gallery show and contest that my brother is in this weekend. (We've agreed she'll bring a book to read, in case she gets bored before it's over.)
I've drunk surprisingly little coffee, and chewed a slightly ridiculous amount of gum. (Soon, I will be out of gum, and then it will be time to kick ass, I suppose.) I've made mini-pizzas and sausage chowder and baked chicken.
The frog and dragon game obsessions continue, slightly abated but by no means extinguished.
Tonight will be TV night -- we need to watch Castle from Monday and Big Bang Theory as well.
And that's... about it, I guess.
I'm leaning strongly toward taking tomorrow off, so I'll see y'all on Monday! Have a great weekend!
On the other hand, I feel like I've been weirdly busy. Aside from work stuff, I've gone through edits on a story that's coming out at the end of this month (squee! that never gets old!) and gently poked two editors for news on other stories. (I know that's a no-no, but it's been over 3 months since I heard from either of them. I thought a gentle request for information was not entirely out of line.) I've edited a short novel (a really good one, too, which is always awesome!) and written a couple of scenes in a couple of my own projects.
I've made plans for lunch tomorrow, and talked to Penny about attending a gallery show and contest that my brother is in this weekend. (We've agreed she'll bring a book to read, in case she gets bored before it's over.)
I've drunk surprisingly little coffee, and chewed a slightly ridiculous amount of gum. (Soon, I will be out of gum, and then it will be time to kick ass, I suppose.) I've made mini-pizzas and sausage chowder and baked chicken.
The frog and dragon game obsessions continue, slightly abated but by no means extinguished.
Tonight will be TV night -- we need to watch Castle from Monday and Big Bang Theory as well.
And that's... about it, I guess.
I'm leaning strongly toward taking tomorrow off, so I'll see y'all on Monday! Have a great weekend!
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Krunk
Yesterday was the kind of day where I spent a lot of time scrambling to catch up with others' poor time management (or downright lack of consideration). I don't want to detail every instance, but it's not my favorite way to work. (On the other hand, I did compose several haiku for ThinkGeek's ongoing contest during my lunch break. I just have to decide which one I like best before I send it in.)
And then I lost a chip out of my favorite ring, and thanks to stacked meetings for both Matt and I, had to scramble to get dinner. Thank goodness for Matt, who cheerfully and uncomplainingly unloaded and re-loaded the dishwasher while I made lunches.
Still, I was so exhausted by the time the kids were in bed that I thought briefly about just sticking a fork in the day and going to bed early. (No, early. Like 8:45.)
But I'd skipped writing on Sunday, too, so I made a cup of coffee and told myself that I didn't have to write a lot, I just had to push forward until I'd finished the coffee. Just enough, I promised myself, to have a snippet for the writing blog. The story was 80% done, and I knew I didn't have the energy to write a sex scene, but I thought I could push it to right at the beginning of the sex scene, and then I could polish that off later.
An hour and a half later, I'd only written 500 words, but the more I looked at them, the more I thought that this story might not end with a sex scene anyway. It would, in fact, have been counterproductive. Which means, I think, that I might be done with the draft. So I'm going to let it rest for a day or two and then go back and re-write about two thirds of it (no, really, it's kind of rough and needs a lot of polish) and then it might be worth throwing over a wall.
So it wasn't the best-ever day, but it could definitely have been worse. (Which puts me in mind of Neil Gaiman's words of wisdom about writing:
And then I lost a chip out of my favorite ring, and thanks to stacked meetings for both Matt and I, had to scramble to get dinner. Thank goodness for Matt, who cheerfully and uncomplainingly unloaded and re-loaded the dishwasher while I made lunches.
Still, I was so exhausted by the time the kids were in bed that I thought briefly about just sticking a fork in the day and going to bed early. (No, early. Like 8:45.)
But I'd skipped writing on Sunday, too, so I made a cup of coffee and told myself that I didn't have to write a lot, I just had to push forward until I'd finished the coffee. Just enough, I promised myself, to have a snippet for the writing blog. The story was 80% done, and I knew I didn't have the energy to write a sex scene, but I thought I could push it to right at the beginning of the sex scene, and then I could polish that off later.
An hour and a half later, I'd only written 500 words, but the more I looked at them, the more I thought that this story might not end with a sex scene anyway. It would, in fact, have been counterproductive. Which means, I think, that I might be done with the draft. So I'm going to let it rest for a day or two and then go back and re-write about two thirds of it (no, really, it's kind of rough and needs a lot of polish) and then it might be worth throwing over a wall.
So it wasn't the best-ever day, but it could definitely have been worse. (Which puts me in mind of Neil Gaiman's words of wisdom about writing:
When writing a novel that's pretty much entirely what life turns into: "House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day." "Got call this morning to say I'd got Nobel Prize for literature. Wrote less than 300 words (285) probably unusable, so lousy day."Yes. That's it, exactly.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Success x2!
I sat down to write last night and had a very hard time getting into it -- I'd left off smack in the middle of major changes to my big story and I'm so out of routine and practice that I don't think I wrote more than maybe two hundred words before I petered out and wasn't sure where to go.
But instead of calling it a night and giving up, I flipped through my "ideas" file until something struck me, and then I opened a new document and wrote about four hundred words on that.
Which still isn't much, but I'm calling it a victory, given that it's the better part of a month since I've written more than a few lines, and that my brain has been stuck heavily in Edit Mode for the last couple of weeks.
I stayed up later than I expected last night. Matt's been watching back seasons of Burn Notice for the last month or so, and I admit to a visceral thrill for that moment in any episode when Michael flashes his bland, charming, "I am going to destroy you" smile. And also a complete adoration for his mom. It's not a show I'm going to plan my schedule around, and I've walked away from it to go to bed before.
But last night, as I was doing what I thought was a final email check before going to bed, Matt started up what immediately turned into a very exciting and cliffhanger-y episode. (The season finale, it turned out, and if I was understanding right, the last of the episodes available on Netflix streaming.) So I did kind of get sucked into staying up to watch it, and didn't get to bed until nearly 11:30.
So, naturally, Alex woke me up at 5:50.
But I didn't wake up to, "Mommy? I had an accident."
Nope. I woke to the sound of him singing to his toys in bed. I got up and went to check on him. "Hey, buddy. Did you have an accident?"
"Uh.... Nope!"
Holy cow. He did it! A whole night without an accident! Whoo!
"That's great! Give me five! Yeah! Okay, now, why don't you go sit on the potty."
"I don't want to!"
"Alex..."
"I don't want to!"
I'd had just about six hours of sleep. I am not a six-hours-of-sleep kind of person. I didn't have the energy to fight it. "Okay. But no accidents, okay?"
"Okay."
"And you need to go potty before you come snuggle with Daddy and me."
"Why?"
"...Because I don't want you to have an accident in my bed. I'm gonna go get some more rest. Play quiet until you hear the music, okay?"
"Okay."
Five minutes later, our alarms went off, and like magic, a little blond head appeared at my elbow. "Mommy I want to snuggle you."
"Go potty first, kiddo."
"Okay!"
And that was that. I'm not foolish enough to think we're done (especially since I suspect his success had something to do with his extremely minimal dinner last night), but that was a much-appreciated glimpse of the light at the end of the diaper tunnel.
We can postpone or even do without his nap from time to time. We're nearing the end of diapers and pullups altogether. And I realized this morning that he can reach the light switch in his room all by himself, now. (A table by the door puts that switch further out of reach than the other switches in the house.) I may very shortly have an honest-to-gosh Big Boy on my hands.
But instead of calling it a night and giving up, I flipped through my "ideas" file until something struck me, and then I opened a new document and wrote about four hundred words on that.
Which still isn't much, but I'm calling it a victory, given that it's the better part of a month since I've written more than a few lines, and that my brain has been stuck heavily in Edit Mode for the last couple of weeks.
***
I stayed up later than I expected last night. Matt's been watching back seasons of Burn Notice for the last month or so, and I admit to a visceral thrill for that moment in any episode when Michael flashes his bland, charming, "I am going to destroy you" smile. And also a complete adoration for his mom. It's not a show I'm going to plan my schedule around, and I've walked away from it to go to bed before.
But last night, as I was doing what I thought was a final email check before going to bed, Matt started up what immediately turned into a very exciting and cliffhanger-y episode. (The season finale, it turned out, and if I was understanding right, the last of the episodes available on Netflix streaming.) So I did kind of get sucked into staying up to watch it, and didn't get to bed until nearly 11:30.
So, naturally, Alex woke me up at 5:50.
But I didn't wake up to, "Mommy? I had an accident."
Nope. I woke to the sound of him singing to his toys in bed. I got up and went to check on him. "Hey, buddy. Did you have an accident?"
"Uh.... Nope!"
Holy cow. He did it! A whole night without an accident! Whoo!
"That's great! Give me five! Yeah! Okay, now, why don't you go sit on the potty."
"I don't want to!"
"Alex..."
"I don't want to!"
I'd had just about six hours of sleep. I am not a six-hours-of-sleep kind of person. I didn't have the energy to fight it. "Okay. But no accidents, okay?"
"Okay."
"And you need to go potty before you come snuggle with Daddy and me."
"Why?"
"...Because I don't want you to have an accident in my bed. I'm gonna go get some more rest. Play quiet until you hear the music, okay?"
"Okay."
Five minutes later, our alarms went off, and like magic, a little blond head appeared at my elbow. "Mommy I want to snuggle you."
"Go potty first, kiddo."
"Okay!"
And that was that. I'm not foolish enough to think we're done (especially since I suspect his success had something to do with his extremely minimal dinner last night), but that was a much-appreciated glimpse of the light at the end of the diaper tunnel.
We can postpone or even do without his nap from time to time. We're nearing the end of diapers and pullups altogether. And I realized this morning that he can reach the light switch in his room all by himself, now. (A table by the door puts that switch further out of reach than the other switches in the house.) I may very shortly have an honest-to-gosh Big Boy on my hands.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Washed Out
Have I mentioned that we're trying to get Alex out of pull-ups at night? We decided to take the same tack we'd taken for his daytime training, which was to just get rid of them and let him have however many accidents it takes for his brain to key in.
Which, for the last two mornings, has meant that he goes to bed and is fine right up until about 5:45 in the morning, when he comes into our room and says, "Mommy...? I had an accident."
We're double-sheeting his bed, so it only takes a couple of minutes to get him into clean pajamas and strip the wet sheets off the bed and put him back down... but by then it's almost 6 and the boy is Awake.
And Matt and I, manifestly, are Not.
He willingly lies down and is mostly quiet for the ten minutes it takes for our alarms to start going off, at which point he appears back in our room. "Mommy? I heard the music. I wanna snuggle."
Which is code for, "I want to play with Daddy and possibly lean my elbow on your boob," so you can imagine that it means we're pretty much done sleeping.
So far, he's gone to bed in underpants three times. So far, we've had to wash four sets of sheets. I may need to start going to bed at 9:30 again and just getting up when he has his accident at 5:45, if it goes on like this. Or possibly, set an alarm to wake him up and take him to the potty at 3, when it's still late enough that we can all go back to sleep afterward.
I had my day off from the Day Job yesterday. I try to use my days off as writing days (by preference) or to run errands and do chores. I'd wanted to get together with Lynn to talk about a book we want to work on together, but her daughter turned up sick with what turned out to be strep throat, so that was out. So I figured I'd just take my iPad over to Panera and have a regular writing day.
Except that as I took the kids to school, I was yawning obsessively. And my eyelids were heavy. After I'd dropped Alex off and was on the way to Penny's school, I twice had lights change fortuitously quickly, so I didn't even have to stop -- and was frustrated by that (usual) good luck, because I desperately wanted to be able to bring the car to a complete stop so I could close my eyes and doze for a minute.
(It's probably a good thing that Lynn couldn't meet me, because the hour-ish drive down to her place would've been unreasonably dangerous, and I doubt I'd have been in any shape to focus on the topic at hand once I got there.)
When I'd dropped Penny off and gotten back home, I thought about making myself a cup of coffee so I could buck up and get on with my writing, and then I decided that I had the day off, and rather than settle for the quick patch that would get me through, I should take the actual fix and get some extra sleep. So I changed back into my jammies and crawled into bed, thinking I'd nap for an hour or so and then get up and just write through lunchtime instead of breakfast. No sweat.
Except that I didn't wake up until 12:30. Well, I do fuzzily recall opening my eyes at 11, thinking I should probably get up, and then going back to sleep. I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.
That's easily a three and a half hour nap. Maybe more. Apparently, my tank was running emptier than I'd thought. It's entirely possible that I could've slept another hour or so if I'd really tried, but by then I was starving. So I got up and ate lunch, and then decided the day was a wash for writing. Instead, I purged the clothes and toys in Alex's room, filling two trash bags with clothes to donate, one with stuffies he hasn't so much as looked at in a year, and another with a Little People set he hasn't played with since about two weeks after I took it out of the box, all of which I took to the CHKD thrift store near us while Matt was picking Penny up from school.
My next day off, I may tackle Penny's room. She actually plays up there, though, so it'll be harder to figure out what to keep and what to junk.
Which, for the last two mornings, has meant that he goes to bed and is fine right up until about 5:45 in the morning, when he comes into our room and says, "Mommy...? I had an accident."
We're double-sheeting his bed, so it only takes a couple of minutes to get him into clean pajamas and strip the wet sheets off the bed and put him back down... but by then it's almost 6 and the boy is Awake.
And Matt and I, manifestly, are Not.
He willingly lies down and is mostly quiet for the ten minutes it takes for our alarms to start going off, at which point he appears back in our room. "Mommy? I heard the music. I wanna snuggle."
Which is code for, "I want to play with Daddy and possibly lean my elbow on your boob," so you can imagine that it means we're pretty much done sleeping.
So far, he's gone to bed in underpants three times. So far, we've had to wash four sets of sheets. I may need to start going to bed at 9:30 again and just getting up when he has his accident at 5:45, if it goes on like this. Or possibly, set an alarm to wake him up and take him to the potty at 3, when it's still late enough that we can all go back to sleep afterward.
***
I had my day off from the Day Job yesterday. I try to use my days off as writing days (by preference) or to run errands and do chores. I'd wanted to get together with Lynn to talk about a book we want to work on together, but her daughter turned up sick with what turned out to be strep throat, so that was out. So I figured I'd just take my iPad over to Panera and have a regular writing day.
Except that as I took the kids to school, I was yawning obsessively. And my eyelids were heavy. After I'd dropped Alex off and was on the way to Penny's school, I twice had lights change fortuitously quickly, so I didn't even have to stop -- and was frustrated by that (usual) good luck, because I desperately wanted to be able to bring the car to a complete stop so I could close my eyes and doze for a minute.
(It's probably a good thing that Lynn couldn't meet me, because the hour-ish drive down to her place would've been unreasonably dangerous, and I doubt I'd have been in any shape to focus on the topic at hand once I got there.)
When I'd dropped Penny off and gotten back home, I thought about making myself a cup of coffee so I could buck up and get on with my writing, and then I decided that I had the day off, and rather than settle for the quick patch that would get me through, I should take the actual fix and get some extra sleep. So I changed back into my jammies and crawled into bed, thinking I'd nap for an hour or so and then get up and just write through lunchtime instead of breakfast. No sweat.
Except that I didn't wake up until 12:30. Well, I do fuzzily recall opening my eyes at 11, thinking I should probably get up, and then going back to sleep. I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.
That's easily a three and a half hour nap. Maybe more. Apparently, my tank was running emptier than I'd thought. It's entirely possible that I could've slept another hour or so if I'd really tried, but by then I was starving. So I got up and ate lunch, and then decided the day was a wash for writing. Instead, I purged the clothes and toys in Alex's room, filling two trash bags with clothes to donate, one with stuffies he hasn't so much as looked at in a year, and another with a Little People set he hasn't played with since about two weeks after I took it out of the box, all of which I took to the CHKD thrift store near us while Matt was picking Penny up from school.
My next day off, I may tackle Penny's room. She actually plays up there, though, so it'll be harder to figure out what to keep and what to junk.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Busy is Relative
Compared to the previous weekend, this last one was positively indolent.
Jenn and Brian came down on Friday instead of Saturday, so we took them with us over to the Hegemony for dinner and a round of Cards Against Humanity.
I'd meant to be productive Saturday, but Matt took Penny out to run some errands while Alex was napping, and I had a headache, so I went to lay down, too. I had to get up twice to answer the phone, but I crawled right back to bed and the next thing I knew, it was 5:00 and the whole afternoon was gone. So we ordered a huge order of Chinese and took it over to the Hegemony again. This time, we played Trivial Pursuit. I've always sucked at the game, but I got a fantastic selection of really ridiculously difficult questions, so eventually I gave up even really trying, and just enjoyed watching the other three jockey for the win.
Sunday made up for my indulgence Saturday, though. After I'd gotten up and done the grocery shopping, I set about clearing the kitchen of a wide assortment of items that need to be pre-prepared: I roasted five winter squash from our CSA box that have been waiting. I seeded a pomegranate. I peeled and roasted a whole bunch of root vegetables (sweet potatoes, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, and carrots). I made a batch of apple-pumpkin soup. The kitchen got cleaned not once, but a couple of times. So I felt pretty good about all that. The only things left to do on that front are another pomegranate and a batch of peanuts to be shelled and roasted.
I also took Penny out shopping to get some new "fancy" shoes to go with her Christmas dress, and I stopped by Target to pick up a new pair of jeans and a pair of leggings, and I found a couple of new shirts while I was at it. (Kudos to Penny for suffering through all my trying things on and bemoaning re-gained weight; she just sat on the floor in the dressing room with my phone and held the room while I ran back and forth getting things in various sizes.)
After our dinner of pumpkin soup and roasted vegetables, we had to drop Matt's car off at the dealership for some routine maintenance, so as long as we were all in the car anyway, we took the kids down to drive through the Newport News Park's Celebration in Lights. I was driving, so I didn't take any pictures, but Penny had her camera, and delighted in taking both videos and snapshots. (I'll be interested to see if any of them turned out at all.)
The timing worked out pretty well -- by the time we got home, we were only slightly late for Alex's bath and bedtime.
This coming weekend ramps things back up. My book club Christmas party is Friday night. Matt's D&D game is Saturday. Sunday, Matt is taking Penny to see the Nutcracker ballet, after which we'll convene at my parents' for Alex's birthday party.
Jenn and Brian came down on Friday instead of Saturday, so we took them with us over to the Hegemony for dinner and a round of Cards Against Humanity.
I'd meant to be productive Saturday, but Matt took Penny out to run some errands while Alex was napping, and I had a headache, so I went to lay down, too. I had to get up twice to answer the phone, but I crawled right back to bed and the next thing I knew, it was 5:00 and the whole afternoon was gone. So we ordered a huge order of Chinese and took it over to the Hegemony again. This time, we played Trivial Pursuit. I've always sucked at the game, but I got a fantastic selection of really ridiculously difficult questions, so eventually I gave up even really trying, and just enjoyed watching the other three jockey for the win.
Sunday made up for my indulgence Saturday, though. After I'd gotten up and done the grocery shopping, I set about clearing the kitchen of a wide assortment of items that need to be pre-prepared: I roasted five winter squash from our CSA box that have been waiting. I seeded a pomegranate. I peeled and roasted a whole bunch of root vegetables (sweet potatoes, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, and carrots). I made a batch of apple-pumpkin soup. The kitchen got cleaned not once, but a couple of times. So I felt pretty good about all that. The only things left to do on that front are another pomegranate and a batch of peanuts to be shelled and roasted.
I also took Penny out shopping to get some new "fancy" shoes to go with her Christmas dress, and I stopped by Target to pick up a new pair of jeans and a pair of leggings, and I found a couple of new shirts while I was at it. (Kudos to Penny for suffering through all my trying things on and bemoaning re-gained weight; she just sat on the floor in the dressing room with my phone and held the room while I ran back and forth getting things in various sizes.)
After our dinner of pumpkin soup and roasted vegetables, we had to drop Matt's car off at the dealership for some routine maintenance, so as long as we were all in the car anyway, we took the kids down to drive through the Newport News Park's Celebration in Lights. I was driving, so I didn't take any pictures, but Penny had her camera, and delighted in taking both videos and snapshots. (I'll be interested to see if any of them turned out at all.)
The timing worked out pretty well -- by the time we got home, we were only slightly late for Alex's bath and bedtime.
This coming weekend ramps things back up. My book club Christmas party is Friday night. Matt's D&D game is Saturday. Sunday, Matt is taking Penny to see the Nutcracker ballet, after which we'll convene at my parents' for Alex's birthday party.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Slept
I have too many balls juggling at the same time, I think. In no particular order:
I'm not sure if I'm actually sleep-deprived, in which case a few early nights might set me straight, or if it's a stress reaction to the holiday ramp-up.
Either way, I'm glad one of my friends gave me some caffeinated lip balm and soap for a birthday present!
- Two novels to be proof-read, both due before the end of November.
- A novella to edit and its author to herd through all the assorted steps. (This involves a number of different deadlines, but the whole thing comes to fruition in early January.)
- Keeping my own writing projects moving, however slowly.
- Thanksgiving dinner to plan and prepare.
- A friend's birthday package to wrap (not a trivial task, due to <SPOILER>) and box for shipping.
- Matt's birthday to plan for.
- Assorted social events and plans.
- Christmas shopping to plan and put into effect.
- The moon cookie party to plan and prepare for.
- Other holiday activities, such as taking photos for the Christmas card (though I snapped up today's Groupon, so that's at least partly underway!) and figuring out the best time for us to go to Christmastown at Busch Gardens.
- Getting to the gym at least twice (and preferably three times) a week.
- The actual work at my actual job. (I know -- crazy!)
- A million other things that may or may not be tangentially related to the above -- for instance, the usual day-to-day household tasks and chores.
I'm not sure if I'm actually sleep-deprived, in which case a few early nights might set me straight, or if it's a stress reaction to the holiday ramp-up.
Either way, I'm glad one of my friends gave me some caffeinated lip balm and soap for a birthday present!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Unpictured
Karen, in the state for a few days, came up to visit us on Friday night. We folded her into the usual Friday evening with Braz and Adin -- went out to dinner, then went back to their place and got the kids tucked into bed and settled in to drink and play Cards Against Humanity. There was much drinking and hilarity and a good time was had by all. Yay!
Saturday afternoon, I took Penny to the most awkward birthday party ever (we got there a few minutes late, and there was no one there but us, the birthday girl's mom, and the little brother. The birthday girl -- and most of the other guests -- didn't arrive until more than a half-hour after when we'd been told the party would start.) and then we spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Jenn and Brian. More eating out, a round of Pirate Fluxx, and another game of Cards Against Humanity, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite games.
Sunday, I roasted the pumpkin we'd got from our CSA and Penny and I made muffins with it, and then after Alex's nap (and a snack of pumpkin muffins) we all went up to Pumpkinville to pick out our Hallowe'en pumpkins. (I was mildly disappointed in the selection this year, though, especially with the pie pumpkins, and they've added additional "fun" things like a bounce house -- that you have to pay extra for, of course, causing the kids to whine and complain when we say 'no' -- so we may go elsewhere for our pumpkins next year.) I took pictures, but haven't gotten around to getting them off the camera yet.
We got home right at dinner time, so we had tacos for dinner, and then Penny and I started the next Little House book. (On the Shores of Silver Lake -- I'd forgotten what a downer it is, with the illness and blindness and lack of money and then the dog dies... yike.) After the kids were in bed, I wrote a little bit, then read a lot more. I'm not 100% positive, but I think I may have fallen asleep reading.
It wasn't my best sleep ever, though, I have to say. Between Alex getting me up to deal with a wet spot on his bed (his pullup wasn't even all that wet; I guess he was just laying on it wrong and it leaked) and the sinister and disturbing dreams that chased me all night (don't worry, no details) I'm still pretty logy this morning.
I need to figure out when I'm taking my part-time time off this week, and put it on my calendar so people don't schedule me for things. And I need to prep for a sort of mini-audit early next week. And the guy who usually takes notes at the Monday meeting isn't here, which means it'll be my job, yay.
This weekend is Penny's school's fall festival; Matt and I need to decide if the whole family is going or just one of us with her, so we can pre-order our tickets and dinner packages. And the neighborhood fall festival is this weekend, as well.
So apparently, we've entered the fall/holiday busy season without my having time to brace for impact.
Saturday afternoon, I took Penny to the most awkward birthday party ever (we got there a few minutes late, and there was no one there but us, the birthday girl's mom, and the little brother. The birthday girl -- and most of the other guests -- didn't arrive until more than a half-hour after when we'd been told the party would start.) and then we spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Jenn and Brian. More eating out, a round of Pirate Fluxx, and another game of Cards Against Humanity, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite games.
Sunday, I roasted the pumpkin we'd got from our CSA and Penny and I made muffins with it, and then after Alex's nap (and a snack of pumpkin muffins) we all went up to Pumpkinville to pick out our Hallowe'en pumpkins. (I was mildly disappointed in the selection this year, though, especially with the pie pumpkins, and they've added additional "fun" things like a bounce house -- that you have to pay extra for, of course, causing the kids to whine and complain when we say 'no' -- so we may go elsewhere for our pumpkins next year.) I took pictures, but haven't gotten around to getting them off the camera yet.
We got home right at dinner time, so we had tacos for dinner, and then Penny and I started the next Little House book. (On the Shores of Silver Lake -- I'd forgotten what a downer it is, with the illness and blindness and lack of money and then the dog dies... yike.) After the kids were in bed, I wrote a little bit, then read a lot more. I'm not 100% positive, but I think I may have fallen asleep reading.
It wasn't my best sleep ever, though, I have to say. Between Alex getting me up to deal with a wet spot on his bed (his pullup wasn't even all that wet; I guess he was just laying on it wrong and it leaked) and the sinister and disturbing dreams that chased me all night (don't worry, no details) I'm still pretty logy this morning.
I need to figure out when I'm taking my part-time time off this week, and put it on my calendar so people don't schedule me for things. And I need to prep for a sort of mini-audit early next week. And the guy who usually takes notes at the Monday meeting isn't here, which means it'll be my job, yay.
This weekend is Penny's school's fall festival; Matt and I need to decide if the whole family is going or just one of us with her, so we can pre-order our tickets and dinner packages. And the neighborhood fall festival is this weekend, as well.
So apparently, we've entered the fall/holiday busy season without my having time to brace for impact.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Ass: Kicked!
Our farm box last week contained half a dozen persimmons, which is a fruit I don't use much. The flavor is a little too cantaloupe-y for my taste, and they're slightly high-maintenance, what with the spiny leaf and the inedible rind and the stealth seeds and the need to wait until they're completely ripe or else suffer tannin levels that make the flesh taste/feel like chewing on moist black tea leaves.
But they were in the box, and I like to at least try to use the stuff in the box -- we're paying for it, after all, and it can't hurt to help the kids vary their palates a little, either.
We'd eaten a couple of them raw the other night, but they weren't a big hit that way. So I experimented. Chopped a red bell pepper (also from the box) and about a pound of chicken breasts, and tossed them into some oil along with a teaspoon or so of curry powder. (Most curry recipes want tablespoons of the stuff, but my kids don't like it enough for that.) When the chicken was almost done, I threw in a can of diced tomatoes, two persimmons (diced to make sure the seeds had been found) and some frozen peas for color. When that had simmered a bit, I added about 2/3 of a cup of light coconut milk, and a tablespoon of granulated Truvia to accent the sweetness of... well, everything. I served the whole mess over couscous.
It was a hit! Penny and Matt and I loved it, and even Alex (who as a rule does not like cooked vegetables) managed to eat half his chicken along with the couscous.
Dinner/persimmon ass: kicked!
(Though now I have the rest of the can of coconut milk in the fridge and nothing to do with it. Hmm, bet it would make delicious smoothies...)
Once the kids were in bed, I sat down to write. I'd finished the previous session mid-scene (I've seen writing advice that you should stop mid-sentence, even, just so finishing the sentence will help you get moving a little, but I've never tried it) and I'd had a pretty clear idea of where it was going, so it was easy to drop back into the story and push forward. By the time I realized I was entering my "getting tired" taper, I checked my word-count and I'd written roughly 1700 words!
Not only that, but I still have a pretty clear idea of what comes next -- really, just the final chapter with its payoff sex and warmfuzzies -- and then I'll be ready to do my draft review and shoot it out to my beta readers. (Anyone interested in joining those ranks? Good feedback is hard to come by!)
Writer's block's ass: kicked!
I stayed up a smidge later than I'd intended, not because I was writing, but because after I finished writing, I went downstairs to plug in the iPad (the battery was sorely drained) and to start downloading the new iOS 5 update, and of course I had to fiddle with things for a while.
And then Alex woke me up at 5:30 with some incomprehensible complaint about noises in his room... and got up again at 5:40 to tell me the cat was in his room... and again at 5:50 to tell me he wanted a clean pullup...
My sleep's ass... kicked.
But they were in the box, and I like to at least try to use the stuff in the box -- we're paying for it, after all, and it can't hurt to help the kids vary their palates a little, either.
We'd eaten a couple of them raw the other night, but they weren't a big hit that way. So I experimented. Chopped a red bell pepper (also from the box) and about a pound of chicken breasts, and tossed them into some oil along with a teaspoon or so of curry powder. (Most curry recipes want tablespoons of the stuff, but my kids don't like it enough for that.) When the chicken was almost done, I threw in a can of diced tomatoes, two persimmons (diced to make sure the seeds had been found) and some frozen peas for color. When that had simmered a bit, I added about 2/3 of a cup of light coconut milk, and a tablespoon of granulated Truvia to accent the sweetness of... well, everything. I served the whole mess over couscous.
It was a hit! Penny and Matt and I loved it, and even Alex (who as a rule does not like cooked vegetables) managed to eat half his chicken along with the couscous.
Dinner/persimmon ass: kicked!
(Though now I have the rest of the can of coconut milk in the fridge and nothing to do with it. Hmm, bet it would make delicious smoothies...)
***
Once the kids were in bed, I sat down to write. I'd finished the previous session mid-scene (I've seen writing advice that you should stop mid-sentence, even, just so finishing the sentence will help you get moving a little, but I've never tried it) and I'd had a pretty clear idea of where it was going, so it was easy to drop back into the story and push forward. By the time I realized I was entering my "getting tired" taper, I checked my word-count and I'd written roughly 1700 words!
Not only that, but I still have a pretty clear idea of what comes next -- really, just the final chapter with its payoff sex and warmfuzzies -- and then I'll be ready to do my draft review and shoot it out to my beta readers. (Anyone interested in joining those ranks? Good feedback is hard to come by!)
Writer's block's ass: kicked!
***
I stayed up a smidge later than I'd intended, not because I was writing, but because after I finished writing, I went downstairs to plug in the iPad (the battery was sorely drained) and to start downloading the new iOS 5 update, and of course I had to fiddle with things for a while.
And then Alex woke me up at 5:30 with some incomprehensible complaint about noises in his room... and got up again at 5:40 to tell me the cat was in his room... and again at 5:50 to tell me he wanted a clean pullup...
My sleep's ass... kicked.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Tuesday Blues
I'm not actually blue today, just a little tired. I was up late last
night, mostly writing. I wrote somewhere between 1200 and 1400 words,
which is a good session, but then I had to delete about 2000 words I'd
previously written, so the overall wordcount on the story went down. I
count it as progress anyway, because before I did that, the characters
were headed somewhere completely Wrong and I had no idea how to drag
them back on track. So the answer turned out to be backing up to before
they made the wrong turn in the first place and trying a different
approach.
So I'm feeling good about that and about the story in general, and I think I'm still on track to have it finished by the end of the month, as long as I remain diligent.
But then I sat up a bit longer to leave comments on a couple of messageboards, and when I went down to shut off my computer, I realized I'd left in the middle of a game, so I finished that out. And then I had to check my RSS feeds, and...
By the time I was done and ready to go to bed, it was closing in on 11:30. And then the damn cat "lost" us. (Every night when we go to bed, he sits downstairs, bewildered and forlorn and lonely, crying, until we coax him up the stairs and into our room. Every. Night. You'd think he'd eventually form a connection, but no.)
And of course Alex woke me up at 5:57 to tell me he needed a new pullup. Sigh. I'm honestly wondering if we should just move him to underpants at night and brace ourselves for a couple weeks of washing sheets on a daily basis.
So. Tired, but not actually blue. The post title is just because I like rhymes.
Kid anecdote: Alex and I were standing in line for something at Busch Gardens (probably the Elmo ride) and I was standing on one foot, with the other out in front of me a little ways -- you know, like you do when you're in a long line. And I looked down and realized that Alex was standing in exactly the same position. He wasn't looking -- his attention was all on Elmo, or a bush, or another kid, or... something else. So I switched feet, just to be silly.
A bit later, he looked down, and hurriedly switched his own feet. So I waited, then switched again.
This time, Alex glanced up at me and grinned as he matched my stance again.
The game held us for several minutes, and at odd moments again throughout the afternoon.
I'm in need of some tech refresh. The external hard drive I'm using for backups is too full to continue using it for backups, so I need a new one. I'm thinking of getting a hot-swappable drive dock or a mini-RAID, just to make it easier to expand the next time I fill up a hard drive. But I should probably get on that sooner rather than later -- the system warned me this morning that it's been over 2 months since my last backup, which means if I have a hard drive failure, I'm losing all my Cancun pictures that aren't uploaded to Flickr.
Speaking of hard drive failure, my computer is well out of warranty and beginning to slow down and get chunky on me. (I have a backup drive at all because a while back, my hard drive glitched -- it came back with only minor losses, but it was a nervewracking experience.) So I'm probably looking at a new laptop by the end of the year.
(Note to Matt: I'm pretty sure neither of these are covered by either the birthday or Christmas No Buy Zone.)
I'm in dire need of a system re-org, though, so I'm considering how best to go about that. Before I get the new computer, and then let the re-org copy over when I sync the new machine? Or only sync a few select things (e.g., music and photos) and move the rest by hand, reorganizing as I go? It's a dilemma.
So I'm feeling good about that and about the story in general, and I think I'm still on track to have it finished by the end of the month, as long as I remain diligent.
But then I sat up a bit longer to leave comments on a couple of messageboards, and when I went down to shut off my computer, I realized I'd left in the middle of a game, so I finished that out. And then I had to check my RSS feeds, and...
By the time I was done and ready to go to bed, it was closing in on 11:30. And then the damn cat "lost" us. (Every night when we go to bed, he sits downstairs, bewildered and forlorn and lonely, crying, until we coax him up the stairs and into our room. Every. Night. You'd think he'd eventually form a connection, but no.)
And of course Alex woke me up at 5:57 to tell me he needed a new pullup. Sigh. I'm honestly wondering if we should just move him to underpants at night and brace ourselves for a couple weeks of washing sheets on a daily basis.
So. Tired, but not actually blue. The post title is just because I like rhymes.
***
Kid anecdote: Alex and I were standing in line for something at Busch Gardens (probably the Elmo ride) and I was standing on one foot, with the other out in front of me a little ways -- you know, like you do when you're in a long line. And I looked down and realized that Alex was standing in exactly the same position. He wasn't looking -- his attention was all on Elmo, or a bush, or another kid, or... something else. So I switched feet, just to be silly.
A bit later, he looked down, and hurriedly switched his own feet. So I waited, then switched again.
This time, Alex glanced up at me and grinned as he matched my stance again.
The game held us for several minutes, and at odd moments again throughout the afternoon.
***
I'm in need of some tech refresh. The external hard drive I'm using for backups is too full to continue using it for backups, so I need a new one. I'm thinking of getting a hot-swappable drive dock or a mini-RAID, just to make it easier to expand the next time I fill up a hard drive. But I should probably get on that sooner rather than later -- the system warned me this morning that it's been over 2 months since my last backup, which means if I have a hard drive failure, I'm losing all my Cancun pictures that aren't uploaded to Flickr.
Speaking of hard drive failure, my computer is well out of warranty and beginning to slow down and get chunky on me. (I have a backup drive at all because a while back, my hard drive glitched -- it came back with only minor losses, but it was a nervewracking experience.) So I'm probably looking at a new laptop by the end of the year.
(Note to Matt: I'm pretty sure neither of these are covered by either the birthday or Christmas No Buy Zone.)
I'm in dire need of a system re-org, though, so I'm considering how best to go about that. Before I get the new computer, and then let the re-org copy over when I sync the new machine? Or only sync a few select things (e.g., music and photos) and move the rest by hand, reorganizing as I go? It's a dilemma.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Sleeps
I haven't been writing for the last few weeks, mostly because I've been sucked into re-reading the Song of Ice and Fire series. So last night I thought I should at least read through my current project, so I could remember where I'd left off and be able to pick back up again.
So once we'd gotten the kids put to bed and I'd had my shower, I sat down with my iPad and scrolled to the top of the document and started reading. It wasn't too bad for a first draft, but I was all of about half an hour in when I started nodding off. It was only 9:30, and I'm usually up until 10:30 or 11, but I could not, for the life of me, keep my eyes open.
So I gave up. Matt says when he came upstairs at 10 to do Penny's blood sugar check, it looked like I had been sitting up and just fallen sideways across the bed. Luckily for him, by the time he came to bed, I'd moved into a more usual position, but I hadn't found the energy to get under the covers. I remember waking up around midnight because I was cold, so I went to the bathroom and got under the covers, and then I don't remember anything until my alarm went off at 6.
I'm still tired. Logy, even. If I thought I could put my head down and not be disturbed, I'd probably sleep for another two or three hours. I don't know if it's a delayed reaction to coming back from vacation, or if I've got a minor bug I'm fighting, or what, but my body and brain are in complete agreement: Zzzzzz.
Maybe I'll be going to bed early again tonight.
So once we'd gotten the kids put to bed and I'd had my shower, I sat down with my iPad and scrolled to the top of the document and started reading. It wasn't too bad for a first draft, but I was all of about half an hour in when I started nodding off. It was only 9:30, and I'm usually up until 10:30 or 11, but I could not, for the life of me, keep my eyes open.
So I gave up. Matt says when he came upstairs at 10 to do Penny's blood sugar check, it looked like I had been sitting up and just fallen sideways across the bed. Luckily for him, by the time he came to bed, I'd moved into a more usual position, but I hadn't found the energy to get under the covers. I remember waking up around midnight because I was cold, so I went to the bathroom and got under the covers, and then I don't remember anything until my alarm went off at 6.
I'm still tired. Logy, even. If I thought I could put my head down and not be disturbed, I'd probably sleep for another two or three hours. I don't know if it's a delayed reaction to coming back from vacation, or if I've got a minor bug I'm fighting, or what, but my body and brain are in complete agreement: Zzzzzz.
Maybe I'll be going to bed early again tonight.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Early Morning Sunrise
So Alex has realized a fundamental truth about his new bed: he can get out of it.
Every night, I put him to bed. Every night, he pops up less than ten minutes later to "go to the bathroom". To be fair, he does go to the bathroom, and he does usually go right back to bed. I tried taking him to the bathroom before I put him down one night -- that night, he got up three times in half an hour. To "go to the bathroom."
But that part's minor, really. Hell, Penny still does that, two nights out of three. It's one of those things where we point him back to bed if he tries to stop and talk to us, but the whole time we're trying not to let him see us smiling about it.
The part that's killing me is that he's also realized that he can get out of bed in the morning. For whatever definition of "morning" you care to name.
For instance, he woke up this morning, apparently, around 4:30. The good news is that he did not come into our room, which is what Penny used to do. No, Alex either recognizes that we would just send him back to bed or else would rather play with his sister. So he went into her room and woke her up. And apparently they managed to play quietly enough that Matt and I slept through it until somewhere around 5:30, when they started playing some game involving Alex sliding down Penny's legs, and the giggling woke me up.
I made Alex go back to his room, but neither of them were happy about it. But I don't care much, because I wasn't happy about it, either -- because the act of my getting out of bed cued the cat that it was time for breakfast, and he immediately became a whiny pest.
He became so whiny, in fact, that at some point Alex decided that he was going to get out of bed and go feed him. The only reason the whole kitchen wasn't strewn with cat food was that Alex was not strong enough to open the tupperware container that we keep the cat's food in. So instead, he decided to have himself a little snack -- a piece of chocolate from of his candy bag.
I didn't discover all this until I gave up and got out of bed at six, and was met with Penny in the hall: "Where's Alex?" When I found Alex in the kitchen, he was sitting on the floor, huddled in the corner like a lost waif, little pieces of foil wrapper scattered at his feet.
Sigh. In fifteen years, when he's going off to college and the house wakes me up early in the morning with its emptiness and silence, I'm going to look back on this fondly, even longingly.
But right now? Right now, I want everyone in the house, even just occasionally, to sleep past six.
Every night, I put him to bed. Every night, he pops up less than ten minutes later to "go to the bathroom". To be fair, he does go to the bathroom, and he does usually go right back to bed. I tried taking him to the bathroom before I put him down one night -- that night, he got up three times in half an hour. To "go to the bathroom."
But that part's minor, really. Hell, Penny still does that, two nights out of three. It's one of those things where we point him back to bed if he tries to stop and talk to us, but the whole time we're trying not to let him see us smiling about it.
The part that's killing me is that he's also realized that he can get out of bed in the morning. For whatever definition of "morning" you care to name.
For instance, he woke up this morning, apparently, around 4:30. The good news is that he did not come into our room, which is what Penny used to do. No, Alex either recognizes that we would just send him back to bed or else would rather play with his sister. So he went into her room and woke her up. And apparently they managed to play quietly enough that Matt and I slept through it until somewhere around 5:30, when they started playing some game involving Alex sliding down Penny's legs, and the giggling woke me up.
I made Alex go back to his room, but neither of them were happy about it. But I don't care much, because I wasn't happy about it, either -- because the act of my getting out of bed cued the cat that it was time for breakfast, and he immediately became a whiny pest.
He became so whiny, in fact, that at some point Alex decided that he was going to get out of bed and go feed him. The only reason the whole kitchen wasn't strewn with cat food was that Alex was not strong enough to open the tupperware container that we keep the cat's food in. So instead, he decided to have himself a little snack -- a piece of chocolate from of his candy bag.
I didn't discover all this until I gave up and got out of bed at six, and was met with Penny in the hall: "Where's Alex?" When I found Alex in the kitchen, he was sitting on the floor, huddled in the corner like a lost waif, little pieces of foil wrapper scattered at his feet.
Sigh. In fifteen years, when he's going off to college and the house wakes me up early in the morning with its emptiness and silence, I'm going to look back on this fondly, even longingly.
But right now? Right now, I want everyone in the house, even just occasionally, to sleep past six.
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