Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Worst Case Scenario

I had a headache earlier today, and so I took some Excedrin. This was a difficult decision, since it was already around 3:00. I had to weigh the options: Excedrin now, headache gone, wired until all hours of the night vs. no Excedrin, headache all afternoon, nothing else gets accomplished for the rest of the day. So, on the bright side, I have no headache anymore. I made it through the afternoon, got some more laundry done, and even made a batch of from-scratch biscuits to go with brinner (you know, breakfast for dinner) tonight. After dinner, I watched the kids play outside and ended up being drafted into a baseball game involving Ben, several of his neighborhood pals, my Hubby, and the step-dad of one of the neighborhood kids. It was loads of fun. On the not-so-bright (in fact, quite dark... the only light in here right now is from my computer screen and the light over the gecko's tank) side, it's 1:37am. And I'm still wide awake. Yeah.

But I figured, I'm up... there's nothing else to do right now... there's nothing good on tv, and by the time I finally choose anything on Netflix, it will probably be dawn. (Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed by all the possibilities... I love Netflix. A lot. But it's a complicated love. A love that fosters heated internal debates over the merits of various movie and television genres. ...but I may just be making it all more complicated than it needs to be... I do that sometimes.) So, I'll blog! Except I really don't have much to say right now. (Major let-down, huh?) So I'll leave you with this gem from my lovely daughter, instead:

Olette: What's this bite on my arm?
Me: Probably a mosquito bite.
Olette: No it isn't; mosquito bites are littler.
Me: Ok, well then why don't you tell me?
Olette: I think it's a spider bite. (dramatic pause) Probably a tarantula.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Another Apology

I really, really, really had hoped to start my new features and get back to posting at least every couple of days. It just hasn't worked out that way. I'm sorry. So, much like my recent decision to stop caring whether my house was clean until school starts again (and lest you think that's gross, I just mean I've given up on following my kids around picking up the chaos they leave in their wake and settling for sifting through it every couple of days instead. Dishes are still getting washed, trash is still getting thrown away and taken out, and laundry is still getting washed and dried. In other words, it doesn't mean I'm allowing my home to become a biohazard zone, just choosing not to stress out over the clutter), I've decided to give myself a pass on blogging, too.

This may be a bad idea-- it doesn't make a ton of sense to say, "Oh yay, I'm a writer now! I hope people will pay me!" and then just a short time later say, "I'm busy, sorry. I'm gonna take a break, even though my blog serves as an obvious example of my ability to form meaningful sentences and paragraphs." (I should probably avoid words like "gonna," too. And writing in a southern accent in general, but since it is my blog, my Home on the internet, if you will, I'll excuse that behavior. Dear People Who Might Possibly Pay Me To Write For Them: I promise I do not do use contractions or quasi-words when writing professionally. I use whole words and real words only. Unless you specify otherwise, of course.) But right now, I just don't have the time to give this my full attention. And if I want it to become awesome-- or even just decent-- I need to have time to devote to it.

Oddly enough, we're not really that busy. Between the price of gas and the current tightness of our budget, we haven't been able to do the sort of summer vacation things we usually do. It's been a lot (oh, and do I ever mean A LOT) of just hanging out here at the house. (Hence the constant chaos and mess around here.) But there are certain realizations hanging around in the back of my head, and these are what's making it hard for me to find time to sit down and blog. Things like: This is Olette's last summer of pre-schooler-hood. She's starting school-- school! My baby girl is starting school!-- in less than a month. It's pre-kindergarten, but it's still school. It's still saying goodbye to my baby girl every morning and not seeing her again until that afternoon-- or that evening, should I ever find one of those elusive jobs I've been looking for. So, please forgive me if I spend time that I could be using to blog to paint her fingernails, or dress a babydoll, or just sit on the couch and snuggle, instead. I don't have many of those moments left. And then there's Ben. He's going to be starting third grade this year. And I would love for him to get a head start there. But with Ben, you have to be sneaky. You can't just come out and say, "You're going to start learning multiplication this year; would you like to practice a little bit?" Because the answer, every time, will be "no." So, forgive me if I sit down to blog and instead end up using something we just saw on tv, or a video game, or even in the refrigerator as a great way to sneak some "basics of multiplication" into him. Basically, what I'm saying is, Being their mom? That's the most important job I have right now.

I love to write, and I'm still very much stoked about the idea that I really, really could do this professionally. So. I'm just going to leave you with this: The first day of school is August 15th. I may or may not post anything until then. I hope you'll come back and see me!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Because I Needed One More Thing To Keep Up With...

... I now have a flickr account. I only have one picture up so far. But more will come as I figure out all the features and such. So, check it out sometime:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikamtaylor/

Sunday, July 17, 2011

So... Um...

Sometimes I am a fountain of creativity and motivation. A lot of times however... I'm... um... not. I'd like to apologize for my absence here lately. I've been with you in thought, for sure. I've got some great stuff planned for my blog, and almost all of it is coming out of the planning stage and getting oh-so-close to seeing the light of day. I'm sure you'll like it.

Summer vacation is going by quickly-- we're down to just under a month left! It's sort of the stay-at-home mom home stretch. In between mediating argument after argument after argument, I'm working on soul-sucking, never-ending, wholly unappreciated housework. Really, it's no wonder my creative juices haven't been flowing so freely!

I hope to have the new stuff going up this week. Or next week at the latest.

Friday, July 8, 2011

I Know, I Know

I'd like to apologize for my extended blogging absence! I promise I've got some great stuff planned, but we've been crazy busy this week with one thing and another. Next week will be blogger-ific, I promise!!