Tired

I think I'll start a new feature here at the Soap Box: You Know You're Too Tired When...

...When you try to wash your hands with toothpaste.

I did that today. It took me a minute to figure out that it was toothpaste and not soap, never mind that soap doesn't come in tubes.

My Day

Dear Reader, today was very busy. We have company coming tomorrow, so I spent most of the morning cleaning. To break up the monotony, I cleaned in shifts, spending 15 minutes in one room, then 15 minutes in another and so on. The house looks great, but I'm exhausted.

I gave the three older girls haircuts, and they all look pretty decent.

The angel is sick. She threw up in the van on the way home from church. Poor little thing. She had to take another bath(she hates baths), and go straight to bed. Hopefully, she'll be better tomorrow.

Guitar

I've been playing my guitar a little bit every day. I'm getting much better at playing the same songs over and over, but I've been thinking about getting some sort of instructional video to improve my playing over all.

In other news, I had another actual conversation with my father-in-law yesterday. We talked for about an hour, covering subjects ranging from driving practice to disciplining children. This is good.

Locked Out

I wasn't having the best day today. Mostly because I'm foolish enough to let my husband teach me how to drive. Between him and the attitudes of my in-laws(that's a whole other post), I'm stressed out to the point where I don't care if I ever get my license.

So, I did what I often do when I'm stressed out on a Summer's evening: I grabbed my guitar and headed out to the nearly empty barn for a little concert for the cattle. I was out there for about 45 minutes. When I came back to the house, it was locked. My husband only remembers to lock the door half the time, but Murphy's Law dictates tonight should be one of the nights he remembers. I knew he wouldn't hear the doorbell. I couldn't call him because the barn phone has been disconnected. I went around to the back porch, which is next to our bedroom, and knocked. He was sound asleep, and couldn't hear me.

I went out to the shop and got a screwdriver, pried open the bedroom window, and shouted at him. I asked him politely to let me in. He got up sleepily, and unlocked the door. He did apologize for locking me out, but I'm still not too happy about it. I'm sure some day I'll think it was hysterically funny, but that day is far off.

Little Known Artist of the Month

I think it's time I resurrected this feature. This month, we have an accompanying video. The Little Known Artist of the Month for July is:

Debra Lyn

Here is the video for Debra's single "I Can't Remember to Forget You":

Feelin' Hot

I really don't care for hot weather. July is terrible for heat, and it only leads to the humidity of August. Thanks goodness for rain and air conditioning.

The garden plants love this weather. They're growing like crazy. Unfortunately, the bugs seem to like this weather, too. Hundreds of little grasshoppers ate the tops of my carrots. I have done better keeping the weeds at bay, but the insects have gotten the better of me. Next year's gardening strategy shall include some kind of bug spray.

Writing

Dear Reader,

My writing pace is bugging me. It seems awfully slow. I write about one chapter a week, each chapter being approximately 2,000 words long. At that pace, I can write a bit over 100,000 words a year. It may sound like a lot, but once I get to editing, about half of that will eventually be deleted, and I'll have to add a lot more before the story is in decent enough shape to be published.

This is my first novel, and I want it to be as good as I can possibly make it. It may take another year after I finish the first draft. I've been writing it for over a year already. Tolkien took twenty years to write the Lord of the Rings trilogy, so I guess there's no big rush, though I don't expect to write anything of that caliber or popularity.

Anyway, I should get back to writing. I'd like to get 5,000 words written this week, and time's a wastin'. Wish me luck.

My Rules of Writing

Dear Reader, my last post gave me an idea. I'm going to list my Rules of Writing. I may add to them later on. If you should have any suggestions, feel free to share them in the comments section.


Patronized Saint's RULES OF WRITING:
-------------------------------------

1. Don't Write Crap*
2. Stay True to the Characters
3. Review and Revise
4. Editing is Never "Done" Until Publication


*This rule may be broken only in extreme cases of writer's block, and anything written in such cases is then especially subject to rule number 3.

Procrastination

My procrastination has spread to my writing. I've spent days with the intention of writing chapter 92, and I've written maybe one of the five pages. The short length of the chapters makes the offense worse.

I think I need to just sit down and write four more pages, even if they turn out to be crap, just so I get it done. But that would violate my first rule of writing: Don't Write Crap. However, I may have no choice, as re-writing doesn't seem to be so difficult.

The Orchard

A few years ago, my husband and I started an orchard. We now have a cherry tree, two apple trees, and a pear tree. The past two years, the apple trees and pear tree have come under attack by tree-hating rabbits. Or maybe they're tree-loving rabbits? Anyway, we thought the smaller trees were done for, but they grew back a couple of times. Something is eating the leaves off the little apple tree again, but not stripping bark this year, so we have hope for it.

We actually have apples this year! We've never gotten apples, not even from the old McIntosh that grew out of a bunch of apple cores that were buried 10+ years ago, so this is exciting.

We also got cherries this year! Yay! We got enough to make into a pie, which I made yesterday. It was delicious. I look forward to many more years of making pies from homegrown fruit.