And a Happy New Year to You Too

When we last heard from our neglectful blogger, she was >>this close<< to finishing her first novel. What gives?

Yes, I did complete my first novel, So Much To Lose, coming in at a whopping 95,000 words and 375 double spaced pages. What does that look like? Why, I'm glad you asked.

Yes, a tree sacrificed its life to print my novel.

The last week I was writing 10-12 hours per day trying to get it done and when I typed the words THE END, I cried. I couldn't believe I had done it. I couldn't believe it was actually done. I couldn't believe that I didn't have writing to absorb every spare moment of my time. I knew I had to wait 2-6 weeks until I could begin to edit and revise.

I promptly fell into Post Novel Depression. I wandered aimlessly trying to figure out what to do with my time. All my writing friends told me to start a new book. I thought they had lost their minds. But I brainstormed and before I knew it, I had a new plot. The week before Christmas, I started my second novel, which amazingly enough already had a title, a theme, subthemes and a bare bones plot. While So Much To Lose (my novel) took 6 weeks to write 26 chapters, the first chapter of Chosen took one week in itself.

The week after Christmas, I pulled So Much to Lose down from it's shelf, excited to begin editing. I started to read it and wanted to cry. It sucked. I knew that was okay. First drafts often suck. The problem was the first chapter of Chosen didn't suck, in fact, several people told me it was good. I was torn between putting a lot of work into a bad first draft or continuing on with a pretty good first draft. Which would you choose? Yeah, me too.

I've put So Much To Lose to the side and I'm working on Chosen writing a chapter a week. A much slower pace but I'm getting quality words. I've started an author blog in a few days I'm going to post part of chapter 1 of Chosen so you can decide for yourself.

Christmas. What about Christmas?

Christmas was quiet for us, just the nine of us. It started snowing on Christmas Eve so Cody and Gauge had their first white Christmas, much to Cody's excitement. I don't have any pictures because I can't find the charger to my camera battery. Ugh. I refuse to buy a new one because as sure as I do, the old one will turn up. The kids were supposed to return to school on Tuesday but got a snow day and then one today. It's snowing again.

As I was uploading this picture, I got the call from school saying there is no school tomorrow or Friday. Three weeks of Christmas break and Mom is going nuts. I love my children but it's easier to love them when they go to school, especially when they're cooped up in the house 24/7.

Pray for me.

Are you giving up your blog?

No, I'm really sad that I've neglected my blog so much. Ryan said something cute a couple of weeks ago and someone asked me if I journaled the cute things my kids did. I told her that I put them on my blog and then realized I hadn't been doing that for some time. I hope to make the time to put those funny stories on here. One of the main reasons I started my blog was to have a chronicle of my kids and the funny things they do.

Any resolutions for 2010?

Nope. Other than to be a better blogger, finish my second novel, try to get an agent, drop 2 dress sizes and run a 5K this spring, I don't have any resolutions this year.

Defying Physics

So its been a week since I made my 2009 "To Do" list. How am I doing???

1) Organize my paperwork.

Ah, it actually looks worse than it did last week. But I am making progress! Tonight I bought these:

I'm going to start sorting and filing any day now. Hey! I heard you laughing.

3) Fold my laundry and put it away the day it comes out of the dryer.

I did really well with this one for 2 days.

And then it all fell apart. I planned to just leave things in the dryer until I could fold but you can only fit so many loads of laundry in your dryer, even the maximum capacity ones. Maybe the answer is to get more dryers.

The landing looks better, though. I just moved all the laundry to my bedroom.

4) Lose weight and eat better.

Hmmm? Did you say something? I couldn't hear you over the crunching noise. I've decided to just "let myself go." All I need is a caftan and a big fuzzy pair of slippers.

5) Write my book.

I'm finishing my creative writing course, starting my other writing class in a couple of weeks and hope to get back to writing on my book next week.

6) Be a better mommy

To be announced at a later date. Work in progress. But we did eat pizza standing up at a kitchen island. Now that's fun!

2) Keep my house clean and looking beautiful.

What did my house look like today?

{I moved the little and chairs downstairs today to try to keep the babies snacks in the kitchen}

Yeah, well, I tried. But you know I'm fighting a law of physics here. Back when I was a 32 year old pregnant full time college student, I took a physics class. And in this class I learned about the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law states that some systems will turn into chaos and then reach a level of equilibrium.

(Now don't I feel incredibly smart, remembering that for a year or two, centuries, eons, over time.)

I firmly believe that my house is one of these systems and that it has not even reached its equilibrium yet. To continue to try to keep my house clean is fighting a law of physics! How crazy would I be to try to disprove a Physics law? What am I, Madame Curie? And besides we all know what happened to her. No thanks. I have no desire to die an excruciating death from radiation poisoning.

So not only am I letting myself go, I'm letting my house go too.

It should be an interesting year.

I Hereby Resolve

I never make New Year's resolutions because like every other person on the planet, I don't keep them. So what I'm about to list shouldn't be considered resolutions but merely things I should be doing anyway and I resolve to really try to do them.

My 2009 "To Do" List

1. Get my paper work under control.

This is my current filing system for paperwork. Really? Really, really. (Sorry, watching Shrek with the kids) I know, I know, this is bad. I'm really going to be up a creek when I start my taxes in a few weeks.

See this beautiful filing cabinet? I haven't found the keys to it since I've moved and I put all my paperwork in this laundry basket until I found them. However, after 6 months I think I can kiss any hope of finding them goodbye.

I hereby resolve to get my paperwork under control and filed in actual files, alphabetized even.

{See I TOLD you that these were things I should be doing!}

2. Keep my house picked up and looking beautiful.

All right! You all can stop laughing now! Look at this:

And look at this:

Yeah, who's laughing now??? So I pick up all the live long day to keep it looking like this, so what? My house should be in a magazine. Or I should win some kind of award or something!

Oh, and by the way, these pictures were taken TONIGHT, not back on Christmas when all my company was here. So there!

3. Fold my laundry and put it away the same day it emerges from the dryer.

What? You think that goes with #2? One would think but this photo was also taken tonight:

See why I need #3? This laundry has been here 2 days. I think the key to keeping this resolution is to never take my laundry out of the dryer. (This is in the upstairs landing. Does that fact that my laundry is laying around the upstairs landing mean that I've already broken #2?)

4. Lose about 50 pounds and get in better shape.

Not that 50 pounds! And not even 50 pounds, more like 30. I suppose if I'm going to do that I better stop eating these Ruffle potato chips and French Onion Dip. Seriously, I'm literally eating them as I type, which isn't easy, I might add. I'm that talented.

What I really want to get is one of these:

Good luck with that! They were sold out everywhere before Christmas, believe me, I looked. But maybe after the Christmas excitement dies down I'll find one.

Does that mean that I don't have to work on this resolution until then?

5. Write and finish my book and actually get it published.

I'm working on this one! I'm currently taking a creative writing class online and the instructor read what I have posted here on my book blog and loved it. She told me it has real potential and encouraged me to take a Memoir Writing class online that works with you and your actual manuscript and helps you prepared it for submission.

6. Watch Lost.

That's really hard for me but I'll try really hard to do it. It shouldn't be too hard when I can see this:

Sorry, I've joined Team Sawyer. Sawyer had me at his line to Locke "You hurt one curly hair on his hair and I'll kill you." in regards to Locke forcing Hurley to stay with him at gun point. I already knew Sawyer had changed and was no longer the self centered guy he was 102 days earlier when he crashed on the island but this proved it. Plus, Jack's just gone wacko. Who needs that? I got bushel baskets full of wacko in this house. Not to mention that while Sawyer's beard looks sexy (sorry kids, I know you'll gag when you read this) Jack's looks plain nasty.

Even I have standards. I'm desperate but not that desperate.

7. Be a better Mommy.

Perhaps a good place to start is to actually feed my children real food instead of forcing them to scavenge for plastic grapes at Hobby Lobby. Or maybe even wash their face before I take a picture of them. (Example photo of Ryan #4 above) Perhaps actually read the books that I allow them to check out of the library. Or stop embarrassing them in front of their friends by singing High School Musical songs in the car.

Or not.

8. Redevelop a closer relationship with God.

I used to have a closer relationship with God, especially while Darrell was in the hospital. I was sure that God was telling me that Darrell would be healed. I now realize He was telling me that Darrell would be healed in Heaven. But the days and months after Darrell's death I felt betrayed and I didn't trust what I read in my bible. So I put it away. I've taken some Beth Moore bible study's since but with the babies and avoiding church nurseries, I haven't regularly attended church in almost a year and half. And I miss it. I need it. So I plan to find a church home and regularly attend and start daily devotions again. Because the first seven resolutions don't mean anything without this one.

I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year! I appreciate every single one of you. You make my life so much better!

Now, what are you all resolving to do?