Randomness Leading to Birthday

It's been a full week again, and I've more or less kept up with it, thanks to several naps and chocolate bars from IKEA.

First, the haircut, which I love. I may keep it this short even after I don't need to keep it out of Liam's reach. It's very easy, I can still pull it back, and I think it makes me look a little more put together even when I'm not feeling particularly put together.

I finally made it out to spend my gift certificate from IKEA. And I made out well! While Kate played in "the pit" as she calls it (they have an awesome ball pit in their children's area), I bought bins with lids for Kate's toys that will need to stay out of Liam's reach. I picked up another pitcher so I could keep sweet tea in the fridge along with a pitcher of water. I got another fitted sheet for Kate's bed, as the two I'd originally bought are too short, for some reason. I think they are toddler bed sized, and her bed is a twin. I picked up some chocolate bars (love their milk chocolate bars!). But the biggest score was the above picture.

A couple of years ago, I received a lovely chaise lounge for my birthday from Mom and TC. The slip cover fabric on the chaise is the floral patterned one on the pillow in the picture. I love having slip covers--I can pull them off and wash them whenever I need to. We have two pieces of furniture from IKEA--my chaise and our sleeper sofa--and while the slip covers are holding up very well to the cats and Kate, I've always wanted to buy a second for each so I could change them out periodically and extend their usage.

Only the slip covers cost between $100.00 and $200.00, so this is a distant goal at the moment.

Until this week.

While browsing their "as is" section, I saw several holiday discount bins in front. And I found this denim and white striped chaise cover on mark down.

FOR $9.00!!

Yes, $9.00! Regularly $129.00!

The chaise lounges come with either a left- or right-sided arm. Mine is a right-sided, but the sign on the mark down said they were left-sided. I picked up a package, and the picture on it was for a right-sided.

So, I bought it, after making sure I could return it. Worth a try, right?

And it so was. It was a right-sided cover slip, fits perfectly, looks pretty good with my rather eclectic decor, and now I have two slip covers for my chaise and saved $120.00. So awesome!

And Kate got a frozen yogurt before we left IKEA.

She also got treats from Nana from Nana's beach trip last weekend. Salt-water taffy and this chocolate frog. Only Kate won't unwrap the cute chocolate critters until I take a picture of them, so she can remember them. It's cute, so I indulge her. And after I snapped this, she indulged herself on chocolate frog.


It's been a full week of preparing for Liam, too. The bassinet, crib, changing table, blankets, clothes, diapers--all are ready for him. We used the new bins from IKEA to empty some of Kate's stacking bins, which I moved into the living room to fill with her old baby toys. I'm amazed that I kept everything! Liam is set!

Kate tried them all out for him, just to make sure they were just as playable as they use to be. I'm glad she did, because a couple of them have those squeakers in them when pressed, and they sound just like Beau's squeaky toys. So while Kate squeaked them, I worked with the dog to make sure he understood those were not his toys. And explained to Kate how important it was that she not use the baby toys to tease the dog, as he might try to grab the toy from her and if he tried that with the baby, we might not be able to keep the dog. She took it very seriously then, and after an hour, Beau wasn't even flicking an ear when she squeaked the toy. It's nice to have such a clever dog.

And then, yesterday. My birthday. 39 years old. It feels great! I never understood the aversion to aging and as I'm now staring down the last year of my 30s, I still don't get it. I think the 40s are going to rock!

To kick off the day, TC and I went to tour the birth center where we'll be delivering Liam. It's huge! The rooms are great, all the staff we encountered were very sweet, and we're excited the we'll be in a place where, once there, we won't have to move and Liam won't be removed from the room, either, not even for tests. They do all the tests right there in the room, now, which is nice. TC had to follow Kate around a couple of times when she had her tests, and I, of course, fretted the whole time she was gone.

Then TC treated me out to breakfast at Natalia's. Love their pancakes! Afterwards, I was feeling the need to nap, so we came back home, where the contractor had arrived with a digger to start clearing the lot.

I knew they were coming, so I took before pictures that morning.

See those mounds of brown and green along the left side and back of the picture? Blackberries. Taller than than me, as long and wide as Nana's van. Once, I'd had them all cleared, the first year we were here. Last year, when I couldn't keep up with the lot and our yard, they all grew back.

Revenge is sweet.

They are gone now, dug out by one of those huge yellow armed diggers. Tired as I was, I had to watch for a while, grinning madly as I did. Sweet, sweet revenge.

They cleared most of the lot yesterday and dug up and set aside the hedge row in the before picture. I've nurtured those old boxwoods since we got here, unburying them from ivy and blackberries, tending them as they more than tripled in size. I'm hoping I can keep them alive until I can get them back into the ground in our yard.

I napped, then, to the sounds of the digger, which wasn't too bad at all. TC picked up Kate from Nana's, where she'd spent the night, and took her birthday shopping. Then they fetched me and up to Nana's house we went for pot roast dinner and, my favorite birthday cake in the world, Green Cake!

It's really Pistachio Cake, and Mom use to make it for the holidays every year when Greg and I were kids. But we didn't know what a pistachio was then, so we just called it Green Cake, and soon, it became a birthday favorite. Has been ever since.

Kate helped me blow out the candles. And then she and Sage and Chloe brought in my presents. I was so fortunate and received lots of books, some fun horse toys from Kate (who played with them to make sure they were playable, too), a gift card to Blockbusters, which will be handy once Liam is here, and an awesome watch from Mom. It's the same type of watch she had when I was growing up, a bracelet watch with scarab shaped gemstones like Lapis Lazuli and Tiger's Eye. I use to practice my colors using her watch. We'd talked about it a while back, and she managed to find one that looked almost identical! It's amazing and I love it!

All in all, it's been just an awesome week, regardless of how tired I get so quickly or how uncomfortable it is to stand or lay down. I live a blessed life and I know it, and I'm trying to enjoy every moment of it.

So I started today with left-over Green Cake for breakfast. What better way to start the first day of the last year of my 30s?

The Lot: A Parable in the Making

September, 2006. We buy our first home. It's set on the corner of a street that T's with the cross-street. Next door is a full-sized lot that is part of the property. It is covered with blackberry bushes and a mound created out of fill dirt that was dumped and never spread. The neighborhood kids love to play on "The Mound" and have dug a mini-trench into the top of it. TC and I exchange looks. "Your mom could build a house here," he says to me. I think about all those daydream-style conversations Mom and I have had about getting a parcel of land and putting houses up nearby. The Beaman Family Compound, we call it, after her maiden name. "We have always talked about that," I answer. We both point this out to Mom when she sees the house for the first time.

May, 2007. Mom and I go on a mother-daughter get away at Leaping Lamb Farm. We have a nice, relaxing time, sleeping in, cooking for each other, watching videos, hiking the countryside, and chatting with the owner as she does her farm chores. "I was thinking about the lot," Mom tells me during the trip. "Maybe I will build a house there, if you and TC think it's a good idea."

"We've always talked about the Beaman Family Compound," I answer. "And Kate would love having Nana living right next door."

Summer, 2007. I spend the summer fighting blackberries and struggling to mow The Mound. It's a losing battle. Mom and I start looking into what it would take to sell her The Lot and for her to build on it. It shouldn't be too complicated, right?

Fall, 2007. Why is this so complicated? We need permission from our mortgage investor, which is a many stepped process, each costing money. We need permission from our down-payment loan company. Mom starts designing house plans. We begin the process of clearing out her house to put on the market. There's still blackberries to battle.

Spring, 2008. Our neighbors rent a digger to flatten their back yard. We go in half with them and they level The Mound and push the worst of the blackberry bushes to the back of The Lot. The neighborhood kids watch in awe and horror. I cheer with relief.

Summer, 2008. Surveys. Appraisals. A complicated discussion over fencelines with the neighbor that we take to county arbitration to help settle. Paperwork. More paperwork. The house plans come together. Mom's house is nearly cleared out. She puts it on the market, but the real estate market is tanking. Construction loans are getting scarce. At least she has a contractor she trusts. Only he's not finding work and his business is starting to suffer. "This seems like a lot of work," TC says.

"Who knew," I answered.

Fall, 2008. Mom's house sells, less for what she'd hoped, but more than we feared, and in fairly quick order. She finds a rental house in the area. We submit all the paperwork for permission from our end to sell The Lot to her. She's still trying to find a construction loan. We're hoping to see construction start by spring. The blackberries are starting to come back.

Spring, 2009. One of the banks where she's trying to get a construction loan is seized by the feds. She's down to one option, a bank in Seattle, and he's playing the "hurry up and wait" game. She sends and resends the information he needs over and over again. The blackberries have returned.

Summer, 2009. We're going to have a baby! But early pregnancy illness makes it difficult to keep up with the yard, let alone The Lot. The blackberries return as if they'd never left. Tired of the "hurry up and wait" game, Mom finds another option for a construction loan. "Maybe we can build this Fall and be settled by Christmas," she says. I agree, but not as enthusiastically as before.

Fall, 2009. Every conversation that begins, "I have news on The Lot," tends to end with more problems than fixes. Still no construction loan. I keep contact on my end to make sure we still have permission to go ahead with the sale. So far, so good. Just waiting for Mom's new loan people, who are moving faster than the Seattle Slug. We begin the process of separating The Lot from the one our house sits on. We stop short of filing the separation for fear of being stuck two taxable lots if the loan doesn't go through. Mom's contractor isn't finding work. The real estate market has plummeted. The house across the street from us went into foreclosure and sits empty until late fall, when the bank takes over and starts prepping it to show. The neighbors who helped us level The Mound put their house up for sale. Neither is a good fit for Mom, though we look at them as possibilities instead of building. I don't bring up The Lot anymore, though Mom does when she has news.

Winter, 2009. Another Christmas in the rental house for Mom. Kate stopped asking about when Nana will be living in "our garden." The new construction loan is looking promising. A week before Christmas, she has a tentative approval, but it means separating completing the separation of the two lots. TC and I discuss all the potential pitfalls of doing so before filing. We've come this far. It's good to hear hope in Mom's voice again. She has an address for the house she hopes to start building at the beginning of the year. She got to pick the number since the range between us and our neighbors was several digits.

New Year, 2010. Mom's construction loan goes through. She and her contractor begin the process of filing for permits with the city and we have a title company now for closing. I contact the companies holding on to our permissions to sell to let them know we're finally looking at closing on the sell. I don't hear back from one. The other says its been too long and we need to file a new appraisal. More worry. More $$. Every time the title company calls about some issue trying to follow up with permission people #1, my blood boils. I blame pregnancy hormones, but I know I'm just tired of every aspect of dealing with The Lot being a problem.

January, 2010. Finally, finally, finally! New Appraisal submitted and contact made with other company. They are set, though why it takes three emails to explain what the title company needs from them, I'll never know. I let it go, because it's done on that end. Still waiting for final number from company #2, but pass that on to the title company to hound-dog. I can see my end of all this coming to a close--but still no closing date.

Mom jumps through hoops with the city and new home building rules that went into effect at the first of the year. But finally, finally, finally she's told her building permit is ready. Only 4 weeks until baby arrives. I tell TC about the building permit being ready, happy to have good news at last. TC brings up fears of construction happening while we're home with a new infant. I honestly never thought of it. He wants to postpone building until April. Mom's contractor might be moving out of state in May--so she can't postpone.

I spend a rough morning liaising between them on whether we go ahead with the building or stop the process now. They make an easy compromise that, again, I should have thought of at first. We're going to set up a nursery at Mom's as a fallback place if it is too noisy during the day for us to be at our house with the baby. I'm thankful we have almost two of everything for the baby, so it can be ready before he arrives.

Mom asks me to pick up the building permits. I go downtown with the biggest check I've ever seen to pay for them. The ladies in the permit office are sweet. I leave with approved house plans, building permits, and a receipt. I am shaky with relief after handing it all over to Mom.

The next day, which was yesterday, utility people start painting lines and their strange glyphs on the street and yard. Mom's contractor comes out with one of his people to walk The Lot again. I take only one phone call about The Lot, compared to about nine or ten the day before, and pass on the last of my permission-getting responsibilities to the title company.

This morning, I wake up early, having good to bed early the past couple of nights. I don't dream of phone calls beginning with "About The Lot." Instead, I think about what might start happening next door in the next week. I plan to take a picture of The Lot every Sunday until the house is built. I stop thinking about what could go wrong next and feel the daydreams tugging at me again. It's hope, settling in once more.

I thumb my nose at the blackberries.

Keeping On Keeping Up

Today was one of those rare Northwest Winter days that give us a glimpse of the Spring to come. The sun was shining for most of the day. The weather was comfortable to be out with only a sweater, or just shirt-sleeves for those who were bike-riding or running around. The birds were singing. The windows were opened. The neighbors gathered at the sitting wall to catch up while the kids kicked around a soccer ball and played tag.

It was a rare day for me, too, in that I managed to fit in every one of my goals without straining or over-doing it. I made the bed first thing in the morning. I swapped laundry around and finished two loads. I washed all the dishes. I tidied the living room.

While she was at school, I got farther along in my edit and read through of my still unfinished story. Yes, I am working on it, and yes, it is taking me longer than I anticipated, mainly because I can only sit at the laptop for so long before Liam or my back begins to protest. No position is helpful, unfortunately, so I've resigned myself to taking my time finishing it rather than push myself too hard and end up not being able to work on it at all.

I also took a short walk outside with Beau and spent well over an hour out while Kate played. She rode her bike. I sat and read through a magazine in the sunshine.

And to top off the afternoon, I sorted through Kate's baby toy bins. I now have those bins arranged by age and I have a plan for where to put the toys and board books to have them in easy reach for Liam but not clutter Kate's room any more than we have to so she'll still have space to play in there.

Yes, a rare day. A good day. A very good day. With sunshine on top.

Journal Keeping

Summer, 1986. Somewhere between Canada and Indiana. I'm on a road trip with my family after spending a few weeks with my dearest and oldest friend, Andrea, at her new home in Maryland. My parents and my younger brother drive out to pick me up afterwards and we drive up the eastern seaboard toward Canada.

I have a few vivid memories of this trip. The homeless man who tried to wash our windows as we made our way through New York City. The peace and loveliness of Lake Champlain, where I sat for hours waiting to catch a glimpse of its resident monster, Champ. Buying my first Dragonlance novel, based entirely on the magnificence of Larry Elmore's cover art.

And purchasing my first journal.

It was a perfect-bound, 5x7, lined-paged book with a zebra stripe cover. In it, I began recording my life at my new high school that fall. I was a sophomore living in the city for the first time. Not a huge city--it was South Bend, IN. But I had just spent five years living in the country, running wild in pastures and creeks and riding horses and playing tag under a sky full of stars. Now I was living only a handful of blocks from Notre Dame University, trying to learn how the drive around streets that often ran one-way, and make new friends at a new school where I felt like a freshman all over again.

I didn't write a lot in my new journal. A few lines here and there. I taped school pictures of friends old and new, movie stubs, ball game tickets, anything that caught my fancy. I wrote a few entries in the secret code Andrea and I developed while writing letters back and forth.

Aside from capturing in short-hand my life in 1986 and 1987, that little journal began my love affair with journal-keeping. It's been almost 24 years and I still keep a journal. I've kept one ever since.

Oh, not always faithfully. There are whole chunks of time missing from my collection of journals packed away in the basement. Years, at times, have gone by between entries. At times, the journal simply ends part-way through and then a new journal picks up the tale when I felt the need to document whatever was going on in my life.

I've been more faithful in the past several years. I've completed each journal I've begun since leaving West Texas in 1999. I've added to them, too, keeping one for Kate where I wrote a letter to her each month the first year of her life and thereafter on her birthday.

But sometimes those letters went half-written and I had to scramble to finish them, shaking my memory to catch the details I want to save for her. And whole months have passed me by lately without much written in my current journal.

And then I found The Red Leather Diary. It's a five year diary kept during from 1929 to 1934 by a young woman coming of age in New York City. The diary allows only a few lines each day, but shows the same day on each page for each year, revealing the growth of the girl becoming a woman. The book about the diary captures life in 1930s New York as seen through a first generation daughter of a middle class immigrant family. It is captivating reading for someone as enamored of the early 1900s as I.

But more, it has inspired me to a new form of journal keeping. Oh, I still intend to wax dramatically in my regular journal when the need arises. On its pages, I write to sort through conflicting emotions, solve problems I don't want to air out loud, or just record the magnificence of the day. But I'd love to keep something daily, just a snippet, a snapshot of my life that day to pass along. Good or bad, lovely or challenging. All it has to be is honest.

And how better to record Kate and soon Liam's growth as well? The big moments are always nice to write on and on about, like first days at school, birthdays and travel trips, but what about all those daily events that get left behind? Like how Kate was side-stepping through the house this evening in mad dashes, calling out to me with each pass, "How do I get these feet stopping?" Or how much Liam kicked and kicked last night as I laid in my chair trying to relax? These are the small moments that combine to make a grand life.

As The Red Leather Diary quotes from a play called "The People": We are living now. We shall not live long. No one shall tell us we shall live again. This is our little while. This is our chance.

This is my chance to hold on to just a little piece of it and pass it on.

Daily Tasks

I was awake at 4 a.m. again. Rather than toss and turn, I browsed through the blogs read. One of the sites, The Happiness Project, is newer for me, so I spent some time reading through old entries. I found it incredibly inspirational. I think I'm going to pick up the book written by the site's author, Gretchin Rubin. She has some clever ideas and touching wisdom.

One of her concepts is based on the idea that "what you do EVERY DAY matters more than what you do ONCE IN A WHILE." I like this concept. It follows a bit of advice my wise Shakespeare professor once said: "Your daily career doesn't define you; it is what you do with your free time to defines you."

These two bits of wisdom might seem disparate on the outside--what I do every day defines my career as a stay-at-home mom, while what I do once in a while, during my free time, defines me as Carissa. But they go hand-in-hand, giving me guidance on how to best spend my time doing what not only needs to be done, but doing what makes me happy and content, as well. Quite often, doing what needs to be done ends up making me feel happy and content, which leads me into wanting to do something else that makes me feel happy and content that I've put off doing in order to meet my responsibilities.

It also makes sense to start simplifying my daily goals to prepare for Liam's arrival, when I'll have less time to spend hours doing one task, but time to do short tasks on a daily basis.

With all this in mind, I've been working on my daily accomplishment list. Here is what I have so far:

• Finish one batch of dishes each day.
• Finish one load of laundry each day.
• Make the bed each day.
• Tidy one room each day.
• Keep a one-sentence journal each day.

This is a very manageable list so far. I'm resisting packing it with everything I think I need to do in a day, keeping it to the essential household tasks that, when finished for the day, will leave me time to do the other things I'd like to do.

In my head, each of these tasks has an addendum. For dishes, I need to empty one side of the sink each day. If I can empty the whole sink, and clean up any dishes hanging out on the countertop, so much the better, but some days just emptying one side of the sink is enough to keep me sane.

Same with laundry. Finishing one laundry doesn't necessarily mean starting the load in the washer that day. All it means is that one load of clean laundry gets brought up from the basement, folded, and put away. I like this idea, because it suggests that I have a load in the washer ready to move to the dryer, and then can started another load in the washer. So laundry is constantly in rotation instead of ganging up on me, rather like the dishes tend to do if I don't try to keep one side of the sink empty.

Making the bed is one of my sanity savers. My bedroom is rarely in much disarray, since we really only use it to sleep in. Except Liam will be in there with us soon, as will his changing table. And I fold all my laundry on my bed, so keeping it made makes it easier to bring up that one load to finish. When I'm feeling overwhelmed or in need of space, I retreat to my room to read or just stare at the wall, or journal. A made bed with a throw at the end invites me to lay back, relax, and renew. Some days, its enough just to look into my bedroom and see the tidiness and inviting bed with all its heaping pillows to feel refreshed.

Tidying one room has the same effect. If I can have a couple of rooms at a time in some sense of order, I feel less stressed to HURRY UP MUST CLEAN NOW NOW NOW. It only take five or ten minutes to straighten a room, put the cushions and tables to right, move any toys or trash or dishes to where they need to be, file any paperwork in the right place, and afterwards, I am calm. My family likes me much more when I'm calm. And so do I.

It feels very simple to take on these daily tasks, I think because I've been trying them out for the last month and have learned how these four tasks build upon one another. I can't do the dishes if I haven't kept up on laundry because I might be out of dish towels (we have no dishwasher). It's hard to fold the laundry and put it away when the bed is disarranged, so the basket of clean clothes sits in the hall, cluttering it. Dishes clutter the countertops as their number outgrows the sink because I haven't gotten the dish towels clean, which makes the kitchen a horrible mess, and that mess bleeds into other rooms as dishes get left in the living room and dining room because there isn't room in the kitchen for them until the entire house feels overwhelmingly filthy.

Much better to get up in the morning and, first thing, make the bed. Because then the rest of the tasks almost complete themselves.

And that makes me happy.

New Year Goals

I've already started on all three of my New Year goals. It's a good feeling to have plans in place, even if I can't whip through them as quickly as I'd like.

My first goal, to walk outside everyday, is going well. I didn't walk too far today--just down to the bus stop and back--but I'm counting it! It's raining quite a bit outside and I've several trips up and down to the basement to make, so I've needed to conserve my energy, which wanes far too quickly at this stage of pregnancy. But it was nice to be outside listening to the patter of rain against the umbrella, for even that short amount of time. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a chance to walk a little farther. And drag Beau out with me, if it isn't raining. For being part water-dog, he hates to get wet.

My second goal, to finish my Nano novel, Murder of the Unquiet Dead, is also progressing at a steady pace. I've finished the edit of chapter one and have started in on chapter two. I'd like to have chapter two finished today so I can move on to chapter three tomorrow. Editing one chapter a day is a good pace for me, and when I pick up writing on it again, I'll aim to write one chapter a week. My chapters average around 30 pages--sometimes more, sometimes a little less--so taking a week to write one is a nice, even pace that will give me enough time to work on my other goals.

The third goal being, make room for Liam! I started on it in earnest today. My plan is to have the bassinet and crib moved up into the house in two weeks. That way I can make sure I still have all the parts to build them and if I don't, or something is wrong with them, I have time to find replacements. Unfortunately, I have our tidy little cottage packed so tightly that to bring in one item, another has to be taken out. Which means taken to the basement, since I don't have superfluous furniture. Everything serves a couple of purposes at our place.

So to fit in the bassinet into our bedroom, the bookcase and comic book stand have to go. The comic book stand was easy, so I did it today. Basically, it is a brass-like wire rack for linens meant for the bathroom. Magazine boxes fit very nicely on it, so I filled it with those to hold the comic books and magazines we had collected over the last few years. The comic books are going to the basement with their elder ilk, to be boxed up until we can have them accessible again. The magazine boxes I'm breaking down to store in case I need them again. And the wire rack is moving across the room to use as a diaper stand for the dresser that will become the changing table. I've even got the few diapers we have already on it and the three-tiered stacking bins to hold wipes, nursing pads, and other bits and pieces ready to go.

Of course, yesterday I had to clear off the dresser off the three foot high stack of books that I'd gotten over the last year and sort through the magazines I'd read to recycle them. But that didn't take too long.

The bookcase is more problematic. The bottom shelf is all graphic novels, and those I have a place for in the basement, so down they are going tomorrow. The rest are all books and I don't want them in the basement. Comics store well in their plastic cases in boxes and graphic novels have slick pages, for the most part, that resist any possible mildew problems, but having spent four years living in a basement when I was younger I learned how quickly books mildew. So the bookcase has to stay up here.

It's getting moved to the dining room. Which means I need a place there, so the filing cabinets are going to the basement. Yes, paper in those, too, but they'll be protected in the filing cabinet more than the books would have been on open shelves, so I'm gambling that they'll last longer. And I'll keep the really important papers upstairs, just in case.

So first I have to empty the filing cabinet and have TC help move the files and cabinets downstairs. Which means I have to find a place in the basement that doesn't get wet to put the filing cabinets--or make room on a pallet for them. I have a place in mind, but it will require some shifting of things that I can't do alone. TC will just ~love~ to help with that. But once the filing cabinets are moved, I can empty the book case, have him shift it to the dining room, and voila. Room for the bassinet.

So now perhaps you see why this process will take a couple of weeks. I'm taking advantage of moving all this stuff to sort through it as I go and get rid of what we no longer need, too.

Putting the crib into Kate's room won't be as difficult. Her easel will have to go into the basement for now, and her spinning chair will have to find a new home--debating about basement or sitting room for that--and then the crib can go in. It's all the bins of her toys that are worrisome. She's got quite a hoard in her room now. I think we'll have to cull/store about half of it in the basement or find a more efficient storing solution for what's there. But that can wait. Liam won't be getting into her toys until he's actual rolling around. By then I'm hoping a solution will present itself.

I've already got Liam's clothing in bins and will start washing clothes and blankets after the bassinet and crib are set up. I think I'm on a good timeline to have it all ready, or close enough so, by the time he joins us. As long as he isn't too early.

You hear that, my boy. You've get seven more weeks. Feel free to take all of that time before you arrive.

Well, a week sooner wouldn't hurt. What would be the odds of having yet another family member born on the 18th day of the month?

[Photo: Kate in the old garage foundation, Jan. 3rd, 2010]

Master Work

Editing a story, for me anyway, has always felt like true writing, incorporating all the skills I've picked up over the years. Rough draft writing is more like exploring. I'm wandering through plot and character, feeling my way forward--in inches at times--until I get to a place I like and move forward, or get to a dead end and have to back-track.

Editing is like creating the map after the expedition, so that those who follow me can find their way with minimal difficulties.

I enjoy editing, but I easily get sidetracked and double think the plot and characters until I'm doing more rewriting than editing what's already written. So, to keep with my resolution to be adventurous in my writing, I'm trying something new. I'm trusting that the original story I wrote is strong enough as it is, and editing should be more about cleaning up what's there instead of replacing it with something new.

I do wish I'd come to this conclusion last week instead of this week, because I got so sucked into messing with the story that I mangled what I had and have to start all over. Thankfully, I kept my original copy intact. I have learned that much, at least.

So this morning, I used the editing notes I had in my OneNote files and my knowledge of the story so far as guides and read through the first chapter, stopping only to edit in those bits I'd noted or glaring discrepancies in the plot and characters. And not only did the editing go much faster, the story feels just as fresh as when I wrote it, without the wrong turns and wacky points of view and weak characterizations. And I find that I trust the story that's there and actually still really like it.

I know the opening scene is going to need more work to really punch as an opening scene, but what little I did to it this time around seems to have added mystery and a bit more character story that wasn't there there first time around.

Not all the chapters will go this smoothly, notably the opening scene of Chapter Two, which came out primarily as info dump and needs to be reworked extensively to make it readable, and a plot device I tried toward the end of what's already written that I've had to stew over for some time to figure out how I want to play it. I know what I'm going to do with it now, but two or three scenes will need to be rewritten to make it work.

So while I was hoping to start writing new scenes this week, it looks like this week will be for tweaking what's there and then getting to the last third of the story. But I think that is a better idea, since that plot reworking will be instrumental in what's to come. And I do have a nice, evil scene already planned for the beginning of the new chapter. Mwahaha.

I still have about six to seven weeks to finish the story, so I'm not sweating it. It's nice to be going in with a plan again instead of a vague "I'll write today" ideal. When I have a plan, I'm more likely to sit down and write. When I don't, it's easier to put it off until I'm too sleepy to deal with it and there goes a day of not writing.

So I guess I have my second New Year's goal. The first is to walk outside everyday, even if it is just around the block. The second is to edit the story as it is in the first week of January, and then write a new chapter each week until the story is finished.

That seems like enough goals to get the New Year started right!

Or is that started 'write.' ;-)