Work-at-Home Mom – Page 4 – The Cynical Woman Website

I Got A Life!

By Cynical Woman April 23, 2007 April 23, 2007 Stay-at-Home Mom, Work-at-Home Mom, Writing

Last Monday, while my folks were still visiting, I dragged Michael out to see Great Big Sea. Talk about amazing! It’s been years since I’ve been to a concert, and I can’t recall the last time Michael and I went out on a date, so you can only imagine how happy I was to get out of the house. Great Big Sea is wonderful, a Newfoundland band that plays traditional folk music with a hard rock beat. They also have plenty of original music that they play as well. Funniest part of the show? When the lead singer admitted they once opened for Barney the Dinosaur and bombed. “When Barney’s fans come to see him, they don’t want to see no one else! They cry if someone else comes on stage. They soil themselves and throw tantrums!” Ain’t that the truth?

So the concert was great, as was the convention I went to this past weekend. Yes, that’s right. I went to a science fiction convention. RavenCon must be the first sci-fi convention I’ve gone to outside of Marscon in over five years. I spent most of my time either at the artist panels or at the pod-casting panels. The artist panels were a huge boost for me, as I don’t normally get a chance to discuss making art, digital or otherwise, with other folks. I got several handy tips on improving my life drawing, plus lots of encouragement to keep working. As for the pod-casting panels, they were probably some of the best panels I’ve ever attended. There was a lot of technical detail there, but the fellow running it was Tee Morris, one of the authors of “Podcasting For Dummies.” I’m interested in starting a podcast right now as a means to promote the e-book I’ve got coming out. We’ll see what I can come up with.

Anyway, I’ve been out of the house twice in two weeks to attend two very different social events. Michael paid for both outings, and handled the kids at RavenCon, so I owe him big time. Remember, you can’t buy child care that good, you gotta sleep with it! Not that I’m complaining. Michael is a stud.

I’m off to work!

No comments

When It Rains…

By Cynical Woman April 10, 2007 December 8, 2009 Bitching & Moaning, Stay-at-Home Mom, Work-at-Home Mom

Michael is out of town, so you know life around here is a living hell at the moment. The morning he left, I had to hop into my car six different times to run six different errands – doctor’s appointment, bring Cassie a blanket at preschool, banking, grocery shopping, etc. Only the doctor’s appointment was planned. Sam got a little pissed the fourth time I strapped her into the car seat to head out the door again. “Fer cryin’ out loud, lady! Can’t a baby get a break?”

Naturally, Cassie came down with the stomach flu last night. She came running into my room at 1 AM complaining that her tummy hurt. Dumb me, I thought she was just hungry because she blew off dinner. I took her downstairs to get a bite to eat. The first time she threw up, it went all over the kitchen floor. The second time, I was carrying her over to the mop bucket. She got it half in, half out. The third time she puked, she finally made it into the bucket. Of course, there was a lot more puke the first and second time around.

So Cassie stayed home today, we all slept late, and we’ve all been way off schedule today, which I hate because that makes it impossible for me to get any work done. Somehow though, a miracle occurred around 2 PM. I managed to nurse a screaming Sam to sleep, then came downstairs and found Cassie zonked out in her bean bag chair. She was so out of it I was able to mop the entire downstairs before she woke up. So at least that got done.

My folks show up tomorrow. My sister shows up the day after that, the same day Michael gets home. His parents show up on Friday. Sam gets baptized on Saturday. I won’t have the house to myself again until Tuesday. I wonder if I’ll be able to get anything useful done between now and then?

One Comment

Why I Haven’t Posted Lately

By Cynical Woman March 2, 2007 March 2, 2007 Parenting, Sleep, Stay-at-Home Mom, Work-at-Home Mom

Here are my top five excuses…

1) I’m hip-deep in a new short story, and it’s giving me almost as much trouble as the last one. You’d think I’d learn. By the way, the last story was rejected, albeit very nicely, by the editor of the anthology I was submitting too. He said the story was wonderful, but because of the downer ending and an extremely unlikable narrator, he didn’t think he’d be able to convince the publisher to go with it. However, he said I had talent and I should continue to write. You tell me, do I laugh, or do I cry?

2) I’m tired. I go to bed at 10:30 PM. Sam wakes me up at 2 AM and then again at 4 AM wanting to nurse. I’ve been trying to ignore the 2 AM howling, but she still wakes me up, thus totally screwing any chance I have of sleeping more than four hours straight. I’m so tired that I can’t get out of bed at 5 AM, which is when I really should be getting up if I’m going to get a good start on my day. Oh well.

3) I’m lazy. Let’s face it, I don’t feel like doing anything right now. Today for example: I woke up late, didn’t care; I fell asleep after putting Sam down for her morning nap; I spent the afternoon shopping for blank books and gel pens, neither of which I really need. I just don’t feel like doing anything I’m supposed to do right now. I’m just in one of those moods. It’s probably tied to my writer’s block. Hopefully both will pass soon.

4) I’m busy. Because I oversleep, I’m always running late. Oh, and I’ve added something to my already full schedule. Cassie started karate lessons this week. Now I’ve got to stop work twenty minutes early to pick her up and get her to the dojo on time. So we’re a bit hectic right now.

5) Sam won’t cooperate. As I type this, she is latched onto me and slapping me in the face with her tiny little hand. She’s also kicking the crap out of my arm. I think someone is going down for her afternoon nap real soon, no?

Uh-oh. I just put Sam down in her crib and she is howling. She looked absolutely furious at my betrayal. Apparently smacking me in the nose while I’m trying to work is her right and her duty, and I am an evil tyrant for depriving her of it. Oh well. I have a steamy sex scene to write. She’ll just have to fuss it out.

No comments

My Real New Year’s Resolutions

By Cynical Woman January 6, 2007 January 6, 2007 Parenting, Stay-at-Home Mom, Work-at-Home Mom, Writing

Okay, forget the “no eating anything larger than my head” list. This is the real deal. Right now, I’m sitting in the glider, nursing a seven month old bundle of LUV, and I’m thinking about the upcoming year. I’m only a little sleep deprived (Sam woke up twice last night, Cassie once), so I should be clear-headed enough to write something coherent.

Resolution #1: Do less. Yep, you heard me. I resolve to do less. Usually, at the beginning of a quarter or a new year, I usually put together a long list of projects that I want to complete, along with a detailed plan of how to do them. I do have the list, and it’s pretty long – a series of short stories, a novel to begin work on, some computer graphics, some animation, and oh, I promised Rick some illustrations for his video – but I am actually looking at doing less. How, you may ask? Normally, I work on a couple of projects at once. I dedicate my morning work hours to writing, my afternoon work hours to graphics and animation. Not doing that any more. I’m working on one project at a time, and only one. Sometimes a project may get interrupted, like say a short story with a tight deadline may take priority over the novel I’m working on. But that’s okay. I’ll finish the short story and go back to the novel. My hope is that by focusing my efforts on a single project at a time, I’ll actually accomplish more, not less. I plan to do this for at least six weeks. By the end of February, we’ll see if it’s worked or not.

Resolution #2: Draw a little every night. Even if it’s only for fifteen minutes. I’m not talking masterpieces here either. I want to do a little cartooning, a little doodling. Some of these cartoons may end up in my new paint program, Art Rage (it was only $20 and it works like a charm!) and get the full on treatment. We’ll see. But all I really want to do is fill a sketch book, maybe even several sketch books over the course of the year. Who knows what might come of this? At least I’ll be drawing.

Resolution #3: Set aside a little time every day to think and daydream. Thinking and daydreaming are the foundation of everything I do, especially the writing and the art. I bought a bunch of composition notebooks yesterday and labeled them all with the names of stories and ideas that I want to work on. I’d like to take some time each afternoon to just sit at a table with a cup of coffee and write out ideas for those projects in the notebook. J. K. Rowling actually writes in notebook at a café, and I love that idea. I can’t afford the café, but I can make my own coffee at home and write there. This way I can capture all those wonderful story ideas that keep popping into my head without actually doing more than one project at a time. I just give myself 15-20 minutes or so each afternoon to write in a notebook. This will hopefully save my sanity.

Resolution #4: Do a little physical therapy every day. Even doing just two exercises a day would be a huge help to my knees. And I need my knees, if I want to get down on the floor and play with my kids.

Resolution #5: Learn to relax and enjoy my family. If there’s anything I suck at, it’s taking time off and spending it with my husband and kids. I just about went crazy this holiday having Cassie and Michael home for ten days straight. I felt positively ill because I could not find time to sit and work while all the holiday stuff was going on. How wrong is that, I ask? I need to figure out how to take time off from writing and actually enjoy it. I need to remember that my family is my first priority, and work is a distant second. I don’t know how I will accomplish this, but somehow, I’ll figure it out.

Okay, I think that’s plenty of resolutions for now. I don’t want to add any more to my plate. And hopefully, some of these resolutions will take some things off of my plate.

No comments

Must Have Been Something I Said

By Cynical Woman December 15, 2006 December 15, 2006 Erotica, Humor, Work-at-Home Mom, Writing

We went to the pediatrician on Wednesday for a follow up appointment for Cassie. That makes seven visits in two weeks. The pediatrician joked that she was going to start charging me rent, I spent so much time there. I said I was just going to find an empty office space nearby and set up shop there. That way I could write between doctor visits. That led to her asking how my writing was going, and she was overjoyed when I told her I had a contract for my pornographic novel.

“Is that what you write?” she exclaimed. When I said yes, she grinned and asked if I wrote from experience.

“Oh god no,” I replied. “I’m not a gay man.”

She laughed so hard she almost couldn’t walk out of the examining room.

No comments

Sick And Teething

By Cynical Woman November 30, 2006 October 27, 2009 Bitching & Moaning, Parenting, Work-at-Home Mom, Writing

Cassie is home for the third day in a row with her ear infection and the flu. I can’t believe I got this kid a flu shot. She’s been sick twice since she got it. Meanwhile, Sam is teething. I swear, in the history of teething this is the longest time a child has ever taken to cut a tooth. She’s been fussing and drooling for weeks. I made the mistake of giving her Anbesol right before nursing her, and now my left nipple is numb.

And of course, I’m still struggling with the writing. I may or may not have had a break through on the “two gay guys and a horse” story last night. I at least was able to write the ending, which was good. However, I wrote it by hand in a notebook while taking a bath, so this afternoon I get to decipher my sopping wet notes. Note to self, buy a small hand-held recorder and get a bath tub tray to make this easier next time.

Cassie is currently tucked in bed for a little morning rest. I can’t stand the idea of her sitting in front of the TV all day again, even if she is sick. I pulled out the comforter we were saving for Christmas and told her it was a magic fairy blanket from Grandmama and it would help her get better if she’d get in bed and curl up with it for a while. There are actually fairies on it, by the way. Wish I had a magic fairy blanket to curl up under…

Sam, meanwhile, is nursing away. I’m wondering if she’ll be awake when she’s done or not. If she’s asleep, I’m going to sit down and write and let Michael run to the pharmacy. I hope she stays awake though. I’d rather work through her afternoon nap. She blew it off yesterday and it just about killed me.

Since both kids are quiet right now, maybe I better get to work while I can.

No comments

I Cannot Get A Break…

By Cynical Woman November 27, 2006 November 27, 2006 Bitching & Moaning, Parenting, Work-at-Home Mom

Michael and I went to bed last night around 10:30PM. Sam woke me up crying at midnight, so I did what any sensible mom would do. I turned down the monitor and went back to sleep. That may sound harsh but honestly, the kid is almost six months old and weighs about as much as a small SUV. She needs to learn to sleep through the night.

Of course, her sister woke up screaming and came running into our room about an hour after that. She complained that monsters had woken her up. I let Cassie sleep in the bed for a little while until it became obvious that she was more interested in playing than sleeping and I had Michael pack her off to her own bed.

Then Sam woke up screaming bloody murder at 2:30AM and this time I couldn’t ignore it (although somehow Michael managed to sleep through it) so I got out of bed and fetched the baby. I nursed her in bed for twenty minutes, right up until she decided to stick her fingers in my nose. Then she went back to her crib.

Around 3:30AM, I woke up to hear Cassie crying. With a HUGE sigh, I got up again and checked on my eldest child. She was sobbing about the monsters again, so I brought her back to bed with me. After about half an hour of being poked and prodded, her father announced that if Cassie couldn’t keep still, she’d have to go back to her own bed again. So Cass turned over and started poking and prodding me and I immediately told Michael to take Cassie back to bed.

My alarm goes off at five these days. Somehow I managed to crawl out of bed and get a shower, finishing up just in time to hear both children wake up screaming (again I wonder, how the hell does Michael sleep through that?). Sam is apparently teething and Cassie complained that her ear hurt. So after a long sleepless night, guess how my day went. No really. Guess.

Yep. Cassie stayed home from school and both she and Sam spent most of the day screaming. Somehow, I don’t know how, I managed to finish off the paperwork for my new publisher (I have a publisher! Joy!) and send that out, but most of the day was spent rocking one child or the other. As of right now, it’s 6:45PM and I’m desperately hoping I can get both kids in bed before 7:30 so I can have a drink and pass out. I really, really need the sleep.

Addendum: Michael went to karate class tonight. I stayed home with the kids. Sam was out by 7PM, but it took forever to settle Cassie. I gave her a bath, hoping that would calm her down, but as soon as she came out, she vomited all over the bathroom floor. She’s finally asleep now, but I may have Michael sleep on an air mattress in her room, just to keep an eye on her. I’m going to try to finish my evening chores and take a bath myself. Since Cassie still has a temperature of over 102 degrees, I will be keeping her home tomorrow as well. It may sound callous to think of work when my child doesn’t feel well, but if the kids keep getting sick, I have no idea if I’ll ever be able to work again. This is driving me crazy!

No comments

Thanks!

By Cynical Woman November 25, 2006 November 25, 2006 Bitching & Moaning, Work-at-Home Mom, Writing

Well, I don’t know about you, but we had a nice Thanksgiving here Thursday. What made it particularly nice for me was the fact that I got to spend two hours writing, even though both Michael and Cassie were home all day. I have this little problem, you see, when those two are here. I just can’t get anything done. It’s been especially aggravating the last six weeks as I’ve struggled with writer’s block. I just know that having some time to actually sit down and writer would solve that problem, but it’s almost impossible to do that when the house is in a complete uproar.

What is it about having my husband and eldest child home that makes things so chaotic? It’s probably scheduling, or the lack there of. When I’m home alone with Sam, I’ve got a routine that we follow as close as we can. Nap times are at 8:30AM and 2PM. Bath time is at 7:30AM. Afternoon play time is from noon to one. Etc., etc., etc. I know what we’ll be doing and when, and I’ve built the entire schedule around Sam’s naps which, by the way, are my work hours.

Michael, however, doesn’t have this schedule memorized. Why should he? He’s not home most of the days and he doesn’t do the breastfeeding (which is also done on a schedule). Plus, he doesn’t like to get up at the butt-crack of dawn like I do, so when he’s home on the weekends, he doesn’t set his alarm to wake him up. Without a definite starting point, his day runs in a state of flux. And that’s fine for him because he knows what he has to do and he’ll eventually get it done before Monday rolls around. Unfortunately, his state of flux blows my carefully regimented schedule all to hell.

Things really came to a head on Wednesday. Due to the storm that rolled through here, Michael stayed home from work. I tried to keep Sam on a schedule, but I hadn’t even considered that Michael would be home that day, so I ran around trying to do my usual thing and kept tripping over him. That put Sam’s nap schedule way off, and my work hours too. Plus Cassie was home as well, and we were supposed to do some fun stuff that day so even though I was massively behind schedule, I took a hour or two to sit and paint with her because I promised her I would. I even read her stories and got her down for a nap, but Sam woke up about then and that was the end of my hopes for my afternoon work hours. Michael did try to rescue me. He offered to take Sam for a while so I could write. But five minutes after he left, Cassie woke up, demanding to know where her father was. When she found out he’d left, she threw a major tantrum, one that lasted right up until Michael got home. And when he walked into the house, I decided to throw a tantrum too.

“I hate it when you guys are home! I can’t get anything done! I sold a book last week, damn it, but I’ll never be able to write again because you keep screwing up my schedule! I’m tired of my work being treated like a second class priority just because it’s erotica and I work at home. If I don’t get some time to write today, I’m putting you and little Miss I-Gotta-Scream out on the lawn and I don’t care if it’s raining!”

And on and on and on. To Michael’s credit, he stood there and took it all like a man. Then he slipped out of the bedroom and took Cassie downstairs so I could work for an hour.

After my little tirade, I decided something had to be done, so I printed out a blank schedule form and sat down with Michael that night to review what would happen the next day. We wrote down nap times and meal times, added time for Michael to cook Thanksgiving dinner, and put in my work hours too. Then I posted our schedule on the fridge where we could see it and went to bed. The next morning, I got up at the butt-crack of dawn and Michael got up at 7AM, just like we’d scheduled it. And the whole day just fell into place like magic.

It was amazing how well that worked. It worked so well I was caught completely unprepared when my afternoon work hours rolled around and I had free time to do whatever I wanted. And we sat down again last night with another blank schedule and filled in that one too. So far, the day’s working out as planned. I just can’t believe it.

So there you go. I’m grateful for schedules that work and husbands who put up with temper tantrums and children who nap. I’d be grateful for the husband and kids even if they didn’t act like such angels yesterday, but you know what? It makes all the difference in the world to know they care about whether or not I get work done.

No comments

Writer’s Blockhead

By Cynical Woman November 15, 2006 November 15, 2006 Bitching & Moaning, Work-at-Home Mom, Writing

I think I can honestly say, I would rather go through another vaginal birth than deal with writer’s block. Yes, vaginal birth is extremely painful. There is nothing quite like having another living being rip its way out of your uterus and then tear up your clitoris as it exits your vagina, but I gotta tell you. At least you know that eventually, the pain will end. You will somehow eject that sucker from your body, and if you can’t, someone is always willing and waiting to cut a four-inch hole in your gut to get that kid out of you.

Writing is not so easy. I have a story stuck inside me. I’ve been working on it for about a month now. I’m twenty pages into it. If I had to sum it up in one sentence, I’d say it’s about two gay men who both love the same horse. No, not THAT way. Get your mind out of the gutter…

Where was I? Oh yeah, I’ve got twenty pages of story written and it’s all crap. I cannot get past page 20 to save my life. I keep going back and rewriting the same scenes over and over. I have ideas for what should come next, but those scenes are still a little ways down the line, like at page 32 or there abouts. What I need to write is what comes between page 20 and page 32, but I can’t figure out what goes there so I keep going back through the first twenty pages hoping I’ll figure out how to get from point A to point C.

If you’ve been hearing some very loud screaming and cursing coming from the southeastern area of Virginia, you now know what it is. It’s me. Oh, and that repetitive crashing sound? That’s also me, smashing my head against a brick wall.

Unlike a baby, no amount of pushing is going to get this story out of me. I know it’s there. I can feel it dancing around the edges of my conscious brain. I just can’t get a hold of it to put it down on the page. And unfortunately, there’s no doctor standing by waiting to cut it out of me, fully formed and ready to go. So I’m screwed. It really is like having the baby’s head sticking out of your wazoo and not being able to get it out any further, and I fear I may go through the rest of my life like this because that’s how bad writer’s block really is.

I tried today to work around the block by sitting at the computer and just typing out whatever ideas came to me, but that wasn’t very productive because SOMEBODY (Sam) decided she’d rather scream than take a nap. Screaming is not conducive to defeating writer’s block (although I must admit, I have been doing a lot of it myself; see my earlier comments above).

I’m hoping a hot bath and a glass of wine might loosen my brain tonight and allow me to figure out what to do with this stupid story. I’m also hoping that if I get Sam up at the crack of dawn, she will go down for a nap with very little fuss. I’m hoping. But if you hear more screaming coming from this corner of the world… well, you’ll know what’s going on.

No comments

Good Day, Bad Day

By Cynical Woman November 8, 2006 October 27, 2009 Work-at-Home Mom

Monday was a good day. I got up at 4:30 AM, was at my desk with a hot cup of coffee by 5:30 AM, had the kids up by 6:30, and saw Cassie and Michael out the door by 7:30. After bathing and nursing Sam, I had her down for a nap at 9:15 so I could go back to work. She didn’t wake up until 11:15 when we headed out the door for the YMCA. Got some karate practice in, did a little swimming, made it home a little too late to have lunch with Michael, but I still got to kiss him on his way out the door. Then I played with Sam a while and had lunch. When she went down for a nap at 2 PM, I went right back to work and didn’t stop until it was time to get Cassie from preschool at 4:30. Dinner was at 6, and both kids were in bed by 8 so I could have a nice long bath and get to bed before 10. Yep, Monday was a good day.

Tuesday, on the other hand, was a disaster.

Sam woke up around 2:30 AM and kept me up for the next two hours, kicking me in the stomach while I tried to nurse her back to sleep. It was 4:30 before I finally managed to get her back into her crib. Normally, I like to get up at 4:30, so I can have a perfect day like Monday, but after being pummeled for so long I was wiped out, so I figured I just forget about my early morning work and catch up on sleep. Ten minutes after I climbed back into bed, Cassie came running in screaming. I couldn’t understand what she was screaming about, but figured it was the usual problem – monsters (i.e. the cats) climbing into her bed again and waking her up. So I let her into bed with us and told her she could sleep safe for a while between Daddy and me. Only she couldn’t settle down. Turns out there was a reason for this. She had an earache, a very painful one, but she couldn’t stop crying long enough to tell me about it. I finally figured it out when I noticed how she kept clutching at one ear.

Needless to say, that pretty much killed my day right there. My baby was in pain and needed my full attention. With Michael’s help, I managed to get her and her sister up and fed. I had physical therapy, so Michael stayed home with the girls while I went to my appointment. When I got home, we rushed out to vote. Then, just before Michael headed out to work, he and I managed to squeeze in a small argument. Joy! After he went to work, I sat down to nurse Sam. Fortunately, Cassie agreed to play quietly in her room rather than demand an all day TV marathon. I did get Sam to take a quick nap, which is how I managed to get some writing done, but then we spent lunch at the doctor’s office, where I found out that I missed an 8:30 AM appointment the day before. It was supposed to be for Sam, and I could have sworn it was scheduled for the next Monday, but I guess I was WRONG! So much for Monday being perfect.

Cassie fell asleep on the ride home from the doctor. I got her down for a nap and then had to fight to settle Sam down. She was fussy, so I decided to take her temperature, only to discover that the digital thermometer was on the fritz. So she may or may not have had a temperature of 100 degrees. While I was trying to read Sam’s temperature, Cassie woke up screaming again. I couldn’t abandon Sam on the changing table with a thermometer stuck up her tookus, so I yelled at Cassie to come find me, which she wouldn’t do. She just stayed in her bed and screamed. Finally, I gave up on the thermometer and set Sam down in the bassinet in our room. I grabbed Cassie and set her on our bed and tried to calm her down. Didn’t work. So I headed downstairs to get the medicine the doctor gave me. It’s an oral suspension, which means I have to mix it with some water. While I was trying to measure out 4 ml of water, Cassie continued to scream even louder. Then Sam joined in, no doubt inspired by her sister. So I had two screaming kids when I came back upstairs. It took me a good twenty minutes to calm them both down. I finally had to resort to turning on the television to get some peace and quiet. Thank god for afternoon cartoons.

Sam eventually took her afternoon nap. Cassie stayed slumped in front of the TV for about an hour. I got a tiny bit of artwork done. Then I cajoled my eldest child away from the boob tube by offering to pull out her Play-Do and play with her. I spent the next hour alternating between making squishy cartoon characters and cooking up tacos. Fortunately, I was able to keep the ingredients for two such diverse projects separate. The rest of the evening went about as expected – dinner, tantrum, movie, tantrum, bath time, tantrum, bedtime, tantrum – with neither child going to sleep as early as I would have liked. As for me, you better believe I didn’t get enough sleep. I, fool that I am, decided to watch an hour of television, which mean that I stupidly decided to trade one hour of snooze time for one hour staring at the idiot box. Now that may not seem like a lot of time to watch TV, but consider that if Sam went down at 9 PM, I watch TV until 10 and then take a bath, I may not get into bed until 11, and Sam has a nasty habit of waking up crying at 11:30. She’ll usually fall asleep after twenty minutes or so, but I can’t sleep through her fussing with or without the baby monitor on, which means I will then be up for a while trying to calm myself back to sleep. One would think that as tired as I am, I would just drop right off, but no, I sleep about as well as I breathe mud, which is to say not very well at all.

I can’t decide if today, Wednesday, is good or bad. Michael stayed up late last night watching election results, and I usually can’t fall asleep until he’s in bed. Can anybody explain to me why the hell that is? Why does a husband have to stay up at least an extra two hours before lumbering into bed, thus keeping me up or, if by some rare chance I did fall asleep, wake me up as he crashes face first into the mattress and starts snoring? Any way, we were up late, so we slept late, except for Sam who was right on time with that 2:30 AM feeding. Not that it matters too much on Wednesday. Wednesday is play-date day, so I don’t plan on getting much work done then anyway, but man, it sure would have been nice to get up at 4:30 AM this morning and do a little work.

Now at this point, after rambling on and on through the tedious details of my day, I feel like shooting myself because I finally have proof that I’m growing old. I look forward to getting up at 4:30 AM to do a little work? Shoot me before I go any more insane, okay?

***

Okay, today was a good day after all. What makes today good? The artwork below, courtesy of my three-year-old, daughter. This is a drawing Cassie did this morning of her, me, and Sam (who in this picture is still in my belly). She’s also included Sam’s crib and something hanging below me that she calls “The Dump.” I’m afraid to ask what she means by that. But isn’t this picture amazing? I’m so proud of my little budding artist!

Me, Cassie, and Sam, by Cassandra Jane – 8 November 2006