Never enough spoons.

I knew that I was pushing my proverbial spoons to the limit with this Camp Nanowrimo project. I didn't realize just how much so until today hit. I have 15k to write to meet my goal of finishing by the end of tomorrow. I have resigned myself to not fulfilling that. The kids were especially bad today and we had to send them to bed with out dinner.

Jumping on the couch, running around the house screaming, getting into fights, and generally refusing to listen to the parental units makes this happen. Beloved and I are not pleased with this development. I am trying to stay optimistic that this is just the weather and that as soon as the weather clears up and the boys can run around outside again this will improve. This is my hope.

I have a ton of housework to catch up on. I tried to find something in our bedroom today and had a shock. Not that I literally shocked myself (though I wouldn't have been surprised with how much static electricity has been in the air today, despite the humidity and rain). A necklace that I was convinced had gone missing for good just appeared at the bottom of a pile of laundry. I was most upset with the disapperance of this necklace because it was made from the garnet that was part of my promise ring that Beloved gave me when were were dating. The diamonds that were on either side of it got put into the engagement ring. After a hospital stay last year, it seemed that the necklace had vanished from the face of the earth.

Finding them today was one of the bright points of my day. The other bright point was spending time with my MiL and my SiL. My MiL and I did some spinning while Beloved's sister told us all about the production of Phantom of the Opera that she went to a little while back. It sounds like they did a nice job of it. A part of me is curious what changes may have been made compared to the run that I saw up at the Pantages theater in Toronto many years ago.

I feel a bit ... cranky right now. I'm trying to unwind. I've noticed that Beloved giving the boys a stern talking to has resulted in absolute silence from them while they're laying in bed right now. I just need to calm down now. Perhaps I'll go fold that mountain of laundry that is on the bed. Most of it is mine, after all.

Break time!

I'm making good progress on this manuscript. I am just finishing up the section discussing the interpretations of the major arcana. I expect that the minor arcana will move along faster. My word count is pretty good for the fact that I had lost a week of time. Today, I am at an average of one thousand six hundred and something words. I am going to try to bump that number up a bit. This way I get myself to where I have to write about a thousands words a day to finish this thing by the end of the month.

I am a little over a quarter of the way finished with the manuscript by NaNoWriMo standards. Considering how challenging this thing has been, when I hit 50k, I may just call it done. I am pleased with the fact that my research into tarot is finally getting put to use, though. It's one thing to be just reading the cards. It is so entirely and utterly different to be writing about how to read them.

On the whole, I think that writing non-fiction agrees with me. I just think that I picked a project that was boatloads harder then what I should have done for my first long non-fiction piece. But, I tend to do that when I am working on stuff. I'll pick the hard thing first and then go about wondering why it's so bloody hard. Kinda ridiculous of me, but it seems to be a habit of mine.

I've been doing well sticking to my diet. I allowed myself a cheat day today. Breakfast was vegetarian but I had the other half of my delicious sub from last night for lunch today. Dinner tonight is going to be pizza. I need to scrounge around in the kitchen to see if I have any packets of yeast kicking around. I don't think just the one pizza shell is going to be enough for my boys. If I don't have any yeast, I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing to compensate.

Maybe I'll make the pizza for Beloved and I. Then give the boys their favorite thing for dinner: pizza sandwiches. I suppose you could say that they're still getting pizza, just in a different format. I made pork chops for dinner Wednesday night. The kids flat out refused to touch it. I tried cutting them up into chunks and giving them ketchup to dip it in, but no dice. I am pretty sure that they're not going to like it next week when I make pork chops again. The true horrors of it all will be that I'm going to do the same thing I did this week if they refuse to touch it. I'll just make 'em have it again for dinner the next day.

I will not tolerate them refusing to even try something just because it isn't their favorite food in the whole world. My kitchen is not a restaurant. And yes, the boys have been hearing that phrase a fair amount over the last few days. Fortunately, however, tonight is pizza night so they shouldn't get too up in arms over this.

Oh boy!

I just read the weather forecast and they're calling for it to get into the high 60s tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to this. It looks like we just might be done with the white stuff after all. I know the boys are going to want to play outside when they get home from school today. I'm going to get out my gardening gloves and pull some of the dead plant matter out of that spot I'm trying to reclaim for a flowerbed while they run around the yard for a while today.

If I can manage it, I will get the old soil from my plantings last year down and the plastic sheeting that I bought at the store over it all tomorrow before the rain moves in. Between ripping up the old, dead weeds and putting down the soil, I should have a reasonably good base to start planting things in when the weather gets consistently above the mid 40s. I am now at the point where I am starting to actively plan what I want to start planting and such.

I am really hoping to grow some of those miniature sweet peppers that I have been really enjoying from the store. I'd like to get some flowers going too. As fun as it was to grow peas last year, I think I am going to put down something else where I have that long narrow planter and trellis. I'm thinking about Morning Glory.

Slowly making progress.

I am working on a manuscript about how to be psychic. It's actually a combination workbook and instruction manual. I didn't get much done on it last week. Today, however, I got about 3k words written and finished the second chapter. If I can manage to get myself caught up to about where I wanted to be for my total word count by the end of the week, I will be pleased. The target word count per day is 1.5k. I figure if I manage to do 3k everyday this week, I should get myself caught up just in time for the kids to go on break and throw a monkey wrench into my word count.

It's ok, however, because I'm planning to write at night during those days. My blogging may become more choppy but I don't expect that to be a terrible problem. As long as I make a point of posting at least one paragraph, I will be pleased. That blanket I've been working on has just been sitting off to the side over the last several days. Rather then writing when the kids are on break, I will be doing spinning and crochet.

I figure between that and my writing, I should have enough stuff to keep me out of trouble for a little while. I keep telling myself that today is the first day of the rest of my life. If I keep an optimistic face forward, the rest will fall in line, right?

Camp NaNoWriMo

It's April. The folks at NaNoWriMo are doing another 'write a book in a month' challenge. They're calling it Camp NaNoWriMo. I am participating. Instead of a fiction book, which I did every NaNoWriMo for the last few years, I am writing a non-fiction work.

The working title is A Psychic's Handbook. I will probably give it a different title when it is done. I'm a little over 2k words in. Most of the time I would have been writing over the last few days, I have been busy with other things. Today, I have been journaling and dealing with the kids. I figure after my shower, if the kids are not watching videos, I will do some work on my manuscript and try to get 1k written today.

DIY Turkish Spindles.

I whipped up a pair of ertaz Turkish spindles. One is made with two sets of chopsticks and a dowel. The other is using four barbecue skewers for the arms of the spindle. I haven't started spinning anything on the set made with the chopsticks. I think I'm going to give it a whirl (pun intended) tomorrow when I take a break from my writing.

I am currently spinning a bit of silk on the bbq skewer one. My goodness is this thing light. The stuff that I am making with the silk would definitely be declared to be frog hair by my Mother-in-Law. I honestly have no idea how many yards I have made thus far. My little ball of thread is almost the size of a large marble. The spindle is still terribly light for that bit of thread. My best guess is the weight of the thread is approximately equivalent to fishing line, at best. This is my first time spinning silk and my first time using this spindle.

I am fairly certain that I can not go any finer then I am right now. I will be plying this because I don't think it would have the tensile strength to be used alone for anything. I was kinda thinking that it would be nifty to make a wedding ring shawl. It looks like I am going to have the materials to make one from wool and one from silk now.

All I need to do now is find a pattern I like and finish spinning up this silk.

Proselytizing for Dummies.

I recently had a comment submitted to this blog that was a blatant attempt at proselytizing. I don't generally take issue with such things, as I have family who work as ministers and are active in their churches. Proselytizing is just part of the territory when you have relatives who are engaged in such things. I try to view it with a sense of good humor.

I deleted the comment in question, however, not because it was offensive. As far as proselytizing goes, it was one of the most polite versions I have encountered. The problem, however, was two fold. First, it was completely unrelated to what I had posted. If you are going to try to hook me on a conversation regarding religion, that's awesome. Religion is one of my favorite subjects to discuss. I have two blogs dedicated to the subject. The problem is when your comment is a complete non sequitor in relation to the blog entry you are replying to, I am not going to give you the time of day. It makes it fairly evident that you are just spamming me and didn't bother to take the time to even read what I had posted.

Please, if you want to try to sell me on your religious belief system (or anything else for that matter) try to keep it related to the topic at hand. If the conversation shifts to something else in the course of discussion, that's fine. It's natural for a conversation to progress in that fashion. If you're particularly skilled at the art of conversation, you can even manage to control where the discussion goes and present your arguments in such a manner that I might even agree with you on a few of them or at the very least entertain the thought.

My second problem with that proselytizing comment was the fact that it was a dense wall of text and scarcely legible. I have a few habitual typos that I make. I try very hard not to do so. If I am misspelling something, I do my best to make it on purpose and make it clear that I am doing so. Additionally, I attempt to use proper grammar for the sake of making it easier for my readers to comprehend what I am saying. I recognize that my readers are not necessarily going to hold to this convention. However, if you want me to seriously consider what you have to say, please present your arguments in a fashion that I can actually read them.

If you really want me to pay attention to proselytizing efforts, you will definitely get it if you post on either of my religion oriented blogs. I'll even write a post quoting and responding directly to your comment. I actually invite anyone who is interested in such a discussion to do so. Links to my other blogs are at the right. Take a moment to give them a quick look and consider what I have presented there. You may or may not wish to continue with such efforts upon reading. Either way, I've said my piece and done my blog entry for today.