Trying out some new things.
Please forgive my dust these next few days.
And the Cats Watch
I fear spiders. Note, there will be no pictures of spiders in this post. You will have to Google them if you want to see them.
I didn’t always fear spiders. When I was a child, I would play with them. Yeah. I know. I had a deprived childhood. But I would hold them in the palm of my hand and giggle as they ran across my forearm. Or I would build little labyrinths for them, which they mostly just climbed over the walls.
All of that changes when we moved to Seattle, and spiders went from being a run-of-the-mill insects (okay, arachnids), to creatures that could necrotize flesh.
Seriously.
My sister was bitten by a spider. I won’t describe how awful it was, how painful, or the scars the bite left.
If you want an idea, go look up brown recluse bites. Yeah. They are awful.
That completely changed my view on spiders, and I went from playing with them to smooshing them. Or fleeing from them, as the case may be.
Then I moved to New Orleans.
In addition to brown recluses, they have black widows. And brown widows. And a slew of other really nasty and unpleasant things.
So, yes, my fear was solidified.
These days, I have two cats. One is a former barn cat. These boys should be able to take out a mere spider, right? Especially now that we live in the frozen tundra, and there are no brown recluses or wolf spiders here.
Yeaaaaah, about that. Apparently, we didn’t set expectations properly.
As I was getting out of the shower the other night, both cats had managed to get into the bathroom. If you don’t close and lock the door just right, they can jiggle it open. And both cats love to join me in the shower.
Whoever said cats hate water don’t know my two.
As anyone who owns cats knows, cats love to get their hair all over you. And one of my cats is a 26 pound long-haired Maine Coon. What better way for him to get hair all over me than to rub up against my bare wet leg?
As I was about to step out of the shower, I noticed a spider on my floor roughly the size of my palm.
I managed not to scream.
But I am in the shower. I don’t have shoes on.
So, I do what anyone else in my situation would do and call for my husband without trying to scare the kids.
He must have heard he urgency in my voice, as he came before I called for the third time.
During this entire process, both cats are simply watching the spider crawl across the bathmat as I stand in the shower waiting to be rescued.
Fortunately, my husband arrived and squished the spider. At which point, both cats had the nerve to be disappointed that the thing was gone!
I swear, those little beasts aren’t worth the cat food we feed them!
Serial Micro Fiction: Miracle
Makayla whispered a prayer to Dracor.
Better to die from an archer’s arrow than fall to a vampire.
Another arrow shot from the woods.
And another.
Each felling a single enemy.
It was the miracle she needed as she carved a path through the remaining thralls and their vampire masters.
Lean In?
I have never denied how busy I am or how many more hours I would like in a day.
Spouse, children, day job, writing, family…I never feel like I have enough time for everything.
When time management books tell me to cut back on my television time…I can’t tell you the last thing I watched for me. Yes, I have watched Nailed It with the kids, and I have seen waaay more than my fair share of Octonauts. But other than that, I have not watched TV or movies for myself in ages.
And now I consider whether or not I should take a more active role in my girls’ love of dance. I will never be a “dance mom”, and I will never see dance as more than an enjoyable way for them to move their bodies and get some exercise. We live in a really cold state. It’s an indoor sport. Seems like a good fit.
And they love it.
My youngest daughter was running around the house pretending to be Link from Legend of Zelda wielding her sword and shield and taking on “bad guys”.
Why, yes, she does have gamer parents. Why do you ask?
When it was time to go to her dance recital, she was singing the theme song to Dino Trucks as we got her dressed in her beautiful purple sparkly dance dress kind of like this one.
I love the variety little girls have to choose from today!
She was so excited to be going to her dance recital, and she couldn’t wait to show us “her moves”. My little one, who is normally not a fan of the spotlight, got up on stage in front of a sold-out theater and did her best.
My oldest daughter overcame stage fright so she could dance.
Not sure I am allowed to admit this, but I am amazed how graceful and coordinated she is on stage! If you saw her off stage…
We are also blessed that we found a dance studio that truly is inclusive. The girls range in size from almost six feet tall to barely five feet. Some are thin some are not and some are very heavy. But all move together beautifully, and I love seeing the diversity on stage. I love seeing girls, of any size or shape, dancing and enjoying the freedom of movement.
Of course, now my oldest daughter wants to do “everything”.
Dance is expensive. Then, you have to drive them to class and wait for them. And she has a sister who will want to do “everything” with her.
As we’re trying to figure out transportation, which classes we can actually do, how many is “too many”, etc, I am also asking myself if I should be more involved.
Should I volunteer for things? If this is really going to be important to my daughters, how much should I get involved?
Do I want to?
Well, no.
Do I want to doing something with my girls that’s important to them?
Of course.
I am just not sure how all of this works. What the right path is.
It’s all new territory to me. And the parenting books forgot to mention this back when we were trying to learn all about the joys and pitfalls of children.
Serial Micro Fiction: Rescue
Even holy Knights of Valor made mistakes.
Her unit was overwhelmed.
She fought valiantly, but the men around her fell to the onslaught.
As the vampire lord snapped the neck of the man guarding her, his single arrow dipped in holy water pierced the vampire’s heart.
One shot. One kill.
Maybe I Can’t
No, this is not a de-motivational poster.
I discuss time management a lot, and I realized something important.
I just can’t “do it all”. No matter what society tells me. No matter what society expects of me.
Sure Sheryl Sandberg wants us to “Lean In”, but I can almost guarantee she has never had to figure out how to pick up her child from dance class, get laundry done, and make sure dinner is on the table.
I guess this really hit home as I was looking at the list of writing projects I want to achieve, what I have achieved this year, and even where I have failed.
Successes
- I will publish Knight of Valor this year.
- I will publish A Knight’s Redemption within 6 months of Knight of Valor
- I finished Leikar and Annabelle’s first draft
- I will finish Rohan and Makayla’s first draft
- I completed a third revision of A Knight’s Second Chance
- I will complete a fourth revision of A Knight’s Second Chance
There will still be a few months left in the year for me to complete my other goals of:
- Writing a third first draft novel
- The really hard first-second draft revision of Rita (name may change) and Logan
Misses
Deadlines. They seem to go whooshing by.
Areas to Focus on
- Accepting that creative endeavors are not the same as corporate finance. I am understanding a little better why we’re still waiting for Winds of Winter.
- Accepting that I might have had unrealistic expectations for myself. Because that never happens…
All in, I am happy with the way the first half of this year went, but writing down goals put a little more stress on me than I was anticipating. Still, I think it has really helped me to focus and shown me how much I do accomplish.