Thoughts for a Monday

Listening to: Birds singing in the backyard
Price of Gas: $4.25 a gallon
Stress Level: low to medium

I spent the weekend with my parents -and my mother took it upon herself to share with me that I've been a wreck lately. Thanks, mom. No one can completely level you like your own mother. Thank the Good Lord that my mother knows how to pick me back up again, dust me off, and set me on a better path. She told me to compartmentalize. To not try to do everything all at once. Work during work time. Take care of my family during family time. And write when no one else is around.

Well, that's the trick, isn't it. When you work from home, there's always work to do. There's always someone around, because I'm a parent of a four year old and a two and a half year old. And then there's Perry. And we do everything together. So that leaves, when everyone is asleep. Okay, so we're going to try that this week. Now that Rachel's in school, and Ellie's playing with PJ at Niki's house - it's time to go to work. And what happened? My e-mail's full. I'm archiving. So that buys me about 10 or 15 minutes to blog about my Monday morning thoughts. Uhoh. In attempting to compartmentalize, I'm blurring the boundaries. This is supposed to be work time. Thank heavens I don't actually have to drive anywhere to go to work.

Never have I been more glad to telecommute than this summer. I can hardly believe that Perry and I are considering buying a new SUV. I've been calculating my weekly mileage, and suppose if you consider my commute is walking upstairs to my desk with a cup of coffee, than perhaps I've done my part for the gasoline crisis.

After two weeks, and a few trips out to Lake Skinner for the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival, I racked up a total of 115 miles. Not bad. Perry only drives slightly more, so perhaps we can swallow the cost of an SUV and cruising around in comfort, rather than scrinched in the minivan. I'm still on the fence about that one.

Still waiting patiently for Tessa Takes a Chance to go live. Stay tuned for the sweet little read to grace the Free Reads section of www.TheWildRosePress.com

Another thing to do today - after work (and believe me, I want to get to work, my E-mail is still auto-archiving and disallowing me any access...argh!) I will get through at least another 50 pages of All or Nothing edits. I was going to this morning. I even woke up early with Perry so I could get to work right away. I don't even think I had my face washed when Ellie's little voice called from my doorway. Mommy! I wake! Go downstairs watch Dora! Lord, the child's addicted to Dora The Explorer!

Did I mention it is impossible to write a romance novel with Dora the Explorer on the television? Not much better with Miss Spider, Max and Ruby, or anything else considered Pre-School time on Nick Jr. Aye yai yai. So, I whipped out my journal, and we wrote her name awhile. We wrote down every word she could think of, and I swear the child talked for two hours and forty-five minutes, nonstop.

My mother says this is my karmic payback. My nickname, they remind me, when I was a toddler was the mouth. So, I set the edits aside (sorry, Elizabeth!), I picked her up, and we talked and tickled, and I remembered how once upon a time I wrote a novel with her happily cooing in her swing. Perhaps by the time I'm ready to start the next one, she'll be sleeping in a bit more. In the mean time, it's ridiculous to let this add to my stress. I have until July 10 to return the MS. I've been advised to take the entire time to get it right, and Lord knows, I'm following the sound advice of my fellow authors. *grin*. I just love saying that.

So, with that in mind, back to the day-job. I'm going to do my darndest to solve the world's bibliographic issues today. Diving whole focused into work, now that e-mail is done archiving. Edits come later. Then to the park with the munchkins. I'm compartmentalizing - work during work time. Play during play time. Edits and writing after my family and other obligations are complete. And someday, maybe, this will be the only work I ever have to do again. And wouldn't that be sweet?