So come on.  Put pen to paper and get your blogging done.

This has been a public service message.

The cover art for the anthology

I’m so excited that my first short story is coming out in the MetaHuman Press Anthology Modern Gods.  The title of my story is Ice Beauty.  I hope when it is released you’ll check it out.  However, it got me thinking that I now need to put more of a focus on my writing than I ever have before.  LOL!  Those of you following me know that I have very little time.  Writers write, right?  Well, yes, but many of us also take care of toddlers, have full time jobs, social lives, etc.  As I type this, I have a sick toddler lying at my feet finally passing into a restful nap.  I can still smell the vomit from earlier this morning.  The French doors into the back yard are open so the dog can run in and out without my assistance, and my husband is running errands for me.  All of this so that I can get a few more minutes, hopefully hours, of writing in.  Then I’ll put away pen and paper (laptop) and get back to cleaning, feeding, hugging, listening, disciplining, and a multitude of other things.

If you are a writer and you feel overwhelmed by life, you are in good company.  If you find a way to keep writing despite  the obstacles, you are in great company.  So, yeah – writers write.  They write with limited time and sleep, and they write with lots of distractions.   But they write.

Jesse was not a saint, and dealing with consequences is to be expected.  However, there was obvious gossiping, back-biting, and plotting going on by those who know better.  I guess this just hit home to me because it is something that can be seen in many a church today.  In fact, it is one of the things Christians seem to be known for.  When one of our own is down, we often move away and openly criticize and deride so that we can make sure that people know we aren’t that kind of person.  I think a better tactic might be for us to stop the gossip when it reaches us, be the first to volunteer to pray for the person, be the first ready to forgive helping to direct the person to better behavior.

In the end, there were a few who realized what they were doing and made the tough decision to humble themselves in apology.  However, there were a few who did not change.  We are all capable of hearing the truth, but few of us are willing to make the hard decisions that living the truth requires.  If you get the change, watch Pastor Brown and think about who you most closely identify with in the movie.

So how did I do today?  Let’s look.  Here’s a reminder: I’ll list the category, then the percentage followed by what grade I think I should get in each area. (Some things aren’t an everyday thing, so if I don’t have anything that needs to be done I get those points free. Yay, me! There has to be some benefit to making the rules.)

•     Family – 30% – 30: Not only worked in time with everyone today, but also started working with my sister-in-law to help plan my nieces third birthday party.
•     Foster/Adoption Work – 10% – 10: Nothing needed to do today.
•     Bible Study – 10% – 10:  Did my Bible study and attended the meeting tonight.
•     Writing – 10% – 10: Self-examination blog and review of the movie Pastor Brown.
•     Work – 10% – 8: I think I could have accomplished one or two more things.
•     Health – 15% – 5:  I need to record in MFP and exercise more.
•     Home Organization – 5% – 0:
•     Church – 5% – 5:  Attended the Bible study meeting.
•     Social Life – 5% – 5: This is one of those bonus times when other things I’ve done completed this one too.  Yay!

An “83″ for the day is awesome!  Wow. It feels good to be above average.  It’s not often that I get the higher numbers.  I think the biggest key is whether or not I get all of the points possible in regards to family.  I know that if I am doing that right everything tends to fall into place, and even if it doesn’t, then I’ve taken care of the most important thing.  What do you find is most important in your life?

Today was the first day back on our bowling league for my husband and I, which means that we didn’t get a lot of quality time with the little ones today.

So how did I do overall?  Let’s look.  Here’s a reminder: I’ll list the category, then the percentage followed by what grade I think I should get in each area. (Some things aren’t an everyday thing, so if I don’t have anything that needs to be done I get those points free. Yay, me! There has to be some benefit to making the rules.)

• Family – 30% – 20: I wish I had more time to spend with the kids.
• Foster/Adoption Work – 10% – 10: Nothing that needed to be completed today.
• Bible Study – 10% -0:  I didn’t realize until now that I hadn’t done my Bible study.
• Writing – 10% – 5: Again nothing but blog.
• Work – 10% – 10: I finished what needed to be done.
• Health – 15% – 12: I ate decently and exercised.  However, I didn’t get post in MFP.
• Home Organization – 5% – 0: Nothing done.
• Church – 5% – 5:  No church today.
• Social Life – 5% – 5: While bowling, I was able to catch up with my friends.

I have a “67″ for the day.  Lots not done, but the day was restful.  I’m looking forward to getting more completed tomorrow.

We made it home and decided that I would make hamburgers and dad would run to the store practically across the street to grab a tomato, head of lettuce, and some cheese, which he did. Then he came home. The entire time the dad was gone the toddler was around my ankles crying to be picked up, which I did when I didn’t need my hands to cut, mix, or flip things. The teenager was on the couch exhausted from his weather induced migraine. Dad gets home and sits down. Meanwhile I’m still fixing dinner and dealing with the crying toddler in the other room. Seeing dad sitting down and relaxing, I call his name using that tone, you know the tone that says, “why aren’t you helping”. He comes in to the kitchen complaining about how he doesn’t feel well, and why am I upset when I haven’t asked for any help. Well in order to keep some self-respect for the two of us I won’t continue with how the conversation devolved, but I’m sure you can figure it out.

We did manage to eat, but afterwards the toddler decided to go into full on meltdown mode. This led to the wisdom of the teenager being spouted on how the toddler was turning into one of those spoiled children who will forever scream to get what they want. This is a common comment any time the toddler cries for more than a few seconds. I tried to explain that the behavior is perfectly normal for a toddler and that as she doesn’t have the vocabulary to express herself yet, crying is still a big part of how she expresses herself. But, of course, I no longer have the wisdom I had in my teens and early twenties, so what do I know.

At this moment in time, the toddler is peacefully asleep having spent an hour watching Umizoomi and Dora with mom before taking her bath and going to bed. The very cranky teen is in the sitting room with a book. And most importantly, the husband and I are in the same room working on our different pursuits after having apologized for our earlier failures.  We make mistakes.

This evening has been exhausting. I think part of it may be everyone not feeling well, but also that everyone has been too busy working in one way or another. I’m determined that we are going to go out of our house tomorrow to do something fun if it kills us.

As for the rest of the day… how did I do overall? Let’s look. Here’s a reminder: I’ll list the category, then the percentage followed by what grade I think I should get in each area. (Some things aren’t an everyday thing, so if I don’t have anything that needs to be done I get those points free. Yay, me! There has to be some benefit to making the rules.)

• Family – 30% – 15: I already confessed up above.
• Foster/Adoption Work – 10% – 10: On the phone with DHS today.
• Bible Study – 10% – 10: The Bible study is getting very exciting.  I had a revelation today that was completely outside of the lesson.  Yay!
• Writing – 10% – 5: Again nothing but blog.
• Work – 10% – 8: Didn’t finish posting the radio offer due to visitors.  I’ll put it up this weekend.
• Health – 15% – 8: I ate decently, but didn’t post or exercise.
• Home Organization – 5% – 0: Did I mention that this was  a nightmare of an evening?
• Church – 5% – 5: No church today.
• Social Life – 5% – 5: Lovely friends came by and visited at work today.

Well, there we are back down to a “66″ D.  Honestly, I’m surprised to see it that high.  The most important thing to me is my family and when that is not working then it should show that something is wrong.  I may have not handled today well, but tomorrow is a new day. I have my families love and forgiveness.  We’ll erase today with some better memories tomorrow.  What is your favorite get away activity for a stir-crazy family?

To cap our day off, we had a fried chicken dinner.  Then we watched movies as a family.  We laughed, and we talked.  We spoke to family and friends sharing love.  By the way, if I missed you, please know you’re loved.

So how did I do overall?  Let’s look.  Here’s a reminder: I’ll list the category, then the percentage followed by what grade I think I should get in each area. (Some things aren’t an everyday thing, so if I don’t have anything that needs to be done I get those points free. Yay, me! There has to be some benefit to making the rules.)

• Family – 30% – 30: Did I mention that I was on top of things today?
• Foster/Adoption Work – 10% – 10: Communicated with DHS by email today.
• Bible Study – 10% – 8:  I was tempted to bypass Bible study tonight because of all the family activity, but then I thought about the message this would send to the young folk.  I made myself do my study and enjoyed it.  I stayed up a bit longer than I wanted, but definitely worth the effort.
• Writing – 10% – 5: Again nothing but blog.
• Work – 10% – 10: I finished what needed to be done.
• Health – 15% – 5:  I took my medicine and ate fairly well.  However, I didn’t record my meals and didn’t do any exercise.
• Home Organization – 5% – 3: Kept up the progress we made during the weekend.
• Church – 5% – 5:  No church today.
• Social Life – 5% – 5: Saw my lovely friend, Sharon, at work today.  Went to lunch with hubby and a co-worker.  And of course, I communicated with others by Facebook or text.

Final Score 81:  My writing and health were the places that I found myself lacking today.  I really can’t think of a time that I could have fit exercise into today, but I should have entered my meals into MyFitnessPal.  Still, a “B” is, I’m discovering, not a bad score to receive when one is trying to do so much everyday.  What tips do you have for working health into your everyday routine?

One thing that I did notice in my comments is that a few thought I was being too hard on myself.  I guess that’s possible as people in general tend to be harder on themselves than on others.  With that in mind, I thought I should look at each of the 10 areas and define the criteria for achieving full points for each item.

Tonight, we are going to look at Family, and what it means to me to get the full amount of points for that category.  First of all, doing the basics should garner only about 15 of 30 points.  That means that everyone has been fed, has clean clothes, and a clean home.  Beyond that there are points for each family member that I spend quality time with.  And the last 5 points, mean that I have communicated and/or visited with a family member who lives outside of my home.

Some of you may argue that my expectations are too high, but I don’t think so.  If I truly want to be able to say family is important, I need to include those who live outside of my home.  My parents, siblings, and in-laws are all important.  It is needful for me to stay invested in their lives just as it is needful to have them invested in my life.  It’s not always going to be possible to get all 30 points.  My hope is that in general I’m able to get 25 points.  I also hope that a complete 30 happens quite often.

What do you think of my criteria for the Family category?  Do you have any other suggestions?

So how did I do overall?  Let’s look.  Here’s a reminder: I’ll list the category, then the percentage followed by what grade I think I should get in each area. (Some things aren’t an everyday thing, so if I don’t have anything that needs to be done I get those points free. Yay, me! There has to be some benefit to making the rules.)

• Family – 30% – 25: I spent quality time with everyone. I fed everyone healthy foods. I have Valentine’s presents all ready to set out in the morning for everyone.  Yay!
• Foster/Adoption Work – 10% – 10: Sent emails to DHS worker asking for information.
• Bible Study – 10% – 10:  Bible study done, and I posted on on our private Bible study page.
• Writing – 10% – 5: Again nothing but blog.
• Work – 10% – 10: I finished what needed to be done.
• Health – 15% – 12: I ate decently and posted in MyFitnessPal.  I exercised my ankle and took the stairs several times today.
• Home Organization – 5% -  3: Fixed dinner with plenty extra for meals tomorrow.
• Church – 5% – o:  Missed business meeting to help a sick friend.
• Social Life – 5% – 5: Communicated with some on Facebook.

An “80″!  I made it to a “B”!  I’m so excited to get to a “B”.  I keep falling asleep as I write this, but it is so worth it to make it to a “B”!  I hope at the end of the day that you, too, feel great about what you’ve accomplished.

One of the things that I noticed today is that everyone in the house gets very cranky when we haven’t eaten. We all were tired before lunch, so we all went to sleep.  Around 1 p.m. most everyone woke up.  I haven’t been shopping yet, so the quick fix meals were long gone.  It didn’t take long for baby to be fussy and all the adults to be short-tempered and irritable.  I whipped up a quick stew which I am going to share with my friend, Lisa, who has the Tea and Cornbread blog.  Then I made some peppermint sugar cookies.  Within an hour everyone had eaten and moods improved dramatically.  Lesson learned: no early naps without sandwich supplies.

So how did I do overall?  Let’s look.  Here’s a reminder: I’ll list the category, then the percentage followed by what grade I think I should get in each area. (Some things aren’t an everyday thing, so if I don’t have anything that needs to be done I get those points free. Yay, me! There has to be some benefit to making the rules.)

• Family – 30% – 25: I spent quality time with everyone. I fed everyone healthy foods. It was a really good family day.
• Foster/Adoption Work – 10% – 10: Had two DHS meetings and went to baby girl’s WIC appointment.  Also, started putting all my paperwork in a binder.
• Bible Study – 10% – 2:  I didn’t do any Bible Study today.  I did, however, go to the FaceBook page for my Bible study group and post a comment.  I’m giving myself credit for that even though I only thought of that as I was typing.  I wanted to do something positive towards this goal.  Although it was thrown in at the last minute, promoting conversation and fellowship in our group is almost as important as the study.
• Writing – 10% – 5: Again nothing but blog.
• Work – 10% – 10: I finished what needed to be done.
• Health – 15% – 12: I ate decently and posted in MyFitnessPal.  However, I didn’t get in any exercise outside of chasing a baby.
• Home Organization – 5% – 5: There was quite a bit of cleaning going on today.
• Church – 5% – 5:  No church today.
• Social Life – 5% – 2: Communicated with some on Facebook.  I checked in with a few more by text.

Well, if you did the math, I got a 76 “C”.  A “C” is average.  I’ve done the minimum amount required for passing.  I should just admit that these low scores are humbling for the girl who breezed through school with A’s.  That said, I’m also very excited to have a 76 considering the past few days.  Is there an area in your life were you are happy to reach average?