summer days…

So all summer I keep wondering what is making it all go by so very quickly. I mean it’s almost August for goodness sake! But as I sat down now to write today I thought back on all that I have done in just the last week. And it started to click that while we haven’t done anything grand and vacationy this summer, we’ve been doing plenty to make the days fly by.

Last Thursday I enjoyed a night at The Classics at Brucemore…outdoor theatre featuring Shakespeare’s The Tempest. I have to admit I always enjoy the food, drinks (cucumber vodka and water please!) and gals I go with more than the actual performance (not that we don’t have amazingly talented performers in this fine city). It’s just that it’s all so picturesque and fun.

Then I spent the weekend taking part in the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in Iowa City. I participated in a picture book writing workshop where a fine group of aspiring and accomplished writers gave me very valuable feedback on my manuscript. (Now I just need to make time to implement changes!)

Then came a trip to the pool, a trip to the dentist (least favorite activity for sure), writing several stories, being assigned several more, swimming at our friends’ house, turning in our reading program materials at the CRPL, checking out a new spalshpad (are you sensing the water theme here? It’s been darn hot!), a parent association meeting (school is on the horizon) and a most enjoyable evening at Brucemore’s Outdoor Children’s Theatre. Such fun!

And those are just the highlights! I do have to keep up with the laundry and sweeping up all the hair the darn dog is shedding and grocery shopping (OK I haven’t been the best about keeping up with this lately!)

When I look at it this way I know why we’ve had such a busy–and FUN–summer.

Of course there’s more fun to be had (including an upcoming trip to St. Louis to meet my new favorite nephew!) and I fully intend to soak up every last minute. But I’m about to go break it to Tom that there are 24 more days left until school starts back up.

Wish me luck!

routines…

So clearly once again I have fallen off the blog wagon! I don’t know how this happens…life gets in the way I guess. Which is of course a silly and easy excuse. Because once I sit down to blog it takes all of half an hour of my day. I’d like to blame it on summer (which is FLYING by, by the way) and say I’ve been visiting wonderful vacation destination. But unfortunately that’s not true (not that I don’t love Kansas City and St. Louis our two summer getaways this year.)

I have been doing lots of writing though…local publications like The Gazette and CBJ Quarterly have been good to me as of late.

But anyway, a couple of recent…let’s call them “incidents” got me thinking about my lack of discipline for a routine. Example number one is the fact that I haven’t blogged for months…yes months! (I know you’ve been missing me.) For a while I was pretty good about doing it once a week…usually on Tuesday or Wednesday. And then I just didn’t get to it on my to do list (yes, I make one everyday that includes things like “shower” so I know I’ll at least cross one thing off…most days!) and it just didn’t get back on the list.

Then a few days ago I emailed an editor to send him a story and completely forgot the attachment. Nice!

If you thought that was bad, I followed up by sending a different editor my notes instead of the story I wrote. But to make matters worse, when I looked for the story I wrote to send the right version along I realized that in my haste I hadn’t saved the story in the right virtual folder and it disappeared into cyberspace. 1,000 words…gone! BOO!

After beating myself up a bit about it I’ve concluded that perhaps my working on writing at midnight (even though I am a night owl) isn’t my best option any more. Perhaps I need a new routine. One that includes blogging regularly again, too.

Until next week…promise!

ps…In the meantime, if you have any tips for whipping my writing routine into shape (please keep in mind my day is subject to interruption by a husband and two lovely children ) send them my way! My editors would appreciate it.