2 Out of 3 Things I Hate For $700

I've always hated exercising. I don't even like walking unless it involves a mall and a wallet full of money. But I've been diligently going to the YMCA three to four times a week and working out. I can't tell if I have had any results yet because I never measured or weighed myself to begin with. Yesterday I did the bike at the Y for four miles and a few other machines. Saturday I ran for a quarter of a mile straight (I know, big deal, right?) and walked two. There are a few machines I really like (and not just the ones with the tvs attached). I'm going to set up an appointment soon to learn a group of other machines. They offer three free appointments with a trainer so I might as well take advantage of it. I have a standing date three days a week to meet my girlfriend (with the kids). She's keeping me motivated and I love having someone to talk to while I sweat it out.

I don't think I've ever been on a diet. Actually, scratch that. When I was sixteen I was on a hot dog, milkshake, peanut butter and banana diet to gain weight. I weight 90 pounds until I quit smoking at 23 then gained a whopping 13 pounds where I stayed for years. Lately though I've noticed my jeans not fitting quite as comfortably. And my shorts not fitting at all from last year! I didn't think I looked any different, but I must. I'm blaming it on my unnatural love of toast and mint chocolate chip hot fudge sundaes (not together of course). Either way, I'm going to need to change my eating habits. The problem is that I have colitis which means I can't eat yummy things like raw veggies, wheat or grains. But ironically I can have sundaes and toast. Go figure.

Ah, writing. My true love. Well, my goal of getting a first draft done by July 7th is slowly dwindling. While I have lots of ideas for my wip and jot down notes, it's very hard to find the time to actually write. But that doesn't mean I'm giving up. It just means it'll take me longer that I had planned. Getting off of Facebook is one of the best things I've done to cut wasting time, but joining the Y more than made up for that time (in a good way, of course). So, I still don't have a lot of time yet, but I will. The baby (now four months old) is sleeping better at night so I'm not as tired during the day. I need to just carve out a half hour here and there to sit and write.

But first...I have a garage sale to plan!

The Benefit of Being Up at 4am

As I've mentioned before, we've had ten babies in the last five years from foster care. The biggest drawback to taking in only babies, is getting up in the middle of the night. I hate being woken up because one, I never know what it'll take to get a baby back to sleep. Sometimes it's just sticking the pacifier back in, and others I quickly realize he doesn't want a bottle and it's time for a middle-of-the-night guessing game. Secondly, I have a very hard time falling back to sleep. I take 1.5 mg of melatonin every night just to help me doze off, otherwise I'd be awake tossing and turning all night. No matter how exhausted my body is, my mind doesn't shut off without the melatonin.

Anyway, I was up again at 4am this morning with the baby. Luckily he drank a bottle and went back to sleep. I, however, did not fall back to sleep so quickly. Instead of getting frustrated or taking more melatonin (which I've learned not to do at 4am because it only makes it harder for me to get up at 7), I started thinking about writing. I have to say, being in that in between dream state does absolute wonders for my writing. I just wish I had someone there to record everything I come up with. Most of it is garbage, but once in a while I hit on some good ideas.

This morning I started thinking about a certain comedy show that I love. Little by little I started to piece together my own version of an episode of it. I was fortunate that when I woke up at 8am, I still remembered my ideas (rare) and after feeding the kids, cleaning the house, starting laundry and doing homeschooling, I was able to sit down and write out an outline of an episode. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but it felt really good to have a beginning, middle and end come to me so clearly. I haven't written a tv/movie script in a few years, but I might give this a shot and see what happens.

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

I've always been an impatient person. I can't stand still waiting in a line, I check the clothes in the dryer so often it's no wonder they don't dry quicker, and you'd think the house was on fire the way I rush my family out the door when we're going some place.

But ever since we got the baby from foster care, I think I've gotten worse. I feel like I'm always rushing to get everything perfect so I can do something for myself like write or read or take a shower. The thing is when you homeschool a five year old, take care of a three month old, are a foster parent (which has many, many pain in the butt phone calls, visits, doctor appointments, etc. that go along with it) and run a cleaning business, everything is not going to be perfect.

I just got a family membership to the YMCA and it's one of the best things I've done in a while. I've been going with the kids and our good friends three times a week for the past few weeks. We put the kids in child watch for about 45 minutes and we use the machines and walk the treadmill (we're up to 2 miles!). Then we get the kids and take them to the play areas or swimming. It's one of the few things I've done for myself lately and I love it. Even if I am a little sore. The down side is I come home to a messy house because I'm not here in the morning to clean it. But I guess that's a small price to pay to feel healthy and have fun with the kids.

My (ymca) girlfriend and I are also starting our own homeschooling co-op. We're both highly organized and love teaching our kids. We think alike and work well together. We've helped each other organize our school rooms, traded schooling ideas and our friendship has grown so much over the past year.

I've been off Facebook for over two weeks now and I still don't miss it one bit. I had given myself the deadline of July 7th to finish the first draft of my novel and reactivate my FB account, but I think I've changed my mind. I don't think I'm going to sign back up after all. My husband says he's not surprised (though I was surprised he said this...I figured he was shocked I didn't miss it). He says once I don't have something, I quickly get over missing it, if I miss it at all. Years ago we didn't have the internet for two weeks when we had moved. At the end of the two weeks I told him I didn't care if we ever got it, I didn't miss it. Same thing when I can pry myself away from eating sugar. Once I've stopped I don't miss it or crave it. That's how I feel about Facebook. I feel like I can't believe I wasted so much time seeing what other people were doing all day. Or saying what I was doing. Who cares? But we'll see what happens. I could always change my mind again. I am female after all.

Famous People I'd Be Scared to Be Friends With

 

1. Glenn Close
2. Hannibal Lector Anthony Hopkins
3. Christian Bale
4. John Mayer
5. Billy Bob Thorton
6. Gary Busey
7. Annie Wilkes Kathy Bates

Famous People I'd Like to Be Friends With. Please.

Top 10 11 Famous People I'd Like to Be Friends With (In no particular order):

1. Zooey Dechanel
2. Taylor Swift
3. Mark Ruffalo
4. Joaquin Phoenix (ok, maybe more than friends)
5. Maggie Gyllenhaal
6. Drew Barrymore
7. Greg Kinnear
8. Emma Stone
9. Goldie Hawn
10. Tom Hanks
11. Toni Collette

Rainy Weekend and Things I Missed Out On

What a blah weekend we had. I was up most of the night with both kids over the weekend and was tired all day. My five year old has had a fever on and off for the past few days, and the baby...well, we're still working on a schedule for him. But today I started him on baby food (besides rice cereal). We tried green beans for the first time and so far so good. I'm hoping that'll help in the sleeping department, or at least set some kind of schedule.

I was sooo bummed I missed the Rochester Teen Book Festival yesterday:( I've only been planning on going for an entire year! My girlfriend was going to go with me (so I'd have someone to talk to this time), and we even read a bunch of the authors' books to get ready. But I was so incredibly tired yesterday after being up most of the night, I just couldn't see myself sitting through the author's speaking. Even though one was Ellen Hopkins and I totally had my question planned out I wanted to ask her (and the nerve to do it). Ah, maybe next year.

We also missed my niece's birthday party today. I was going to suck it up and bring the kids, but the 40 minute drive, the cold rain, and the fact that my son still had a fever in the middle of the night nixed that plan. Hopefully we can see them next weekend.

On a good note, my husband smoked pulled pork and brisket overnight Friday (another reason I was so tired. Between him coming in and out of the house--and the alarm beeping every time he opened the door--and the baby, I was up for hours!). Yesterday we hit one garage sale and I got two pairs of jeans for my five year old (he had none), and a few outfits for the baby who desperately needed them. We got some other stuff too, and only spent $10.

And after taking the kids out in the crappy weather to go to Wegmans, just so I could get out of the house, I ended up moving our bedroom around. It's one of the few rooms in the house I can actually move stuff around in so I take full advantage. I did a nice spring cleaning in there and it looks so much bigger than it did before. My next project will be to go through the house this week and get rid of stuff like clothes (how did I accumulate so many?), kitchen stuff, toys, etc.

I also got some writing done yesterday on my ya novel. It's coming along nicely and I'm happy with it. And I started Deb Caletti's The Fortunes of Indigo Skye the other night and really like that. Nothing like a good book on a rainy day.

750 Words

If you like the Artist's Way Morning Pages (or even if you've never heard of them) you might love 750 Words. This site takes it one step further by letting you write online. It's private, free, and you even earn points and cute little animal badges as rewards. It's a great way to get all the junk out of your head and onto the page, where it can privately stay. Or, if you're like me and your laptop is always sick with a dibilitating virus, you can write your novel on there as your 750 words and still earn your points.

I Finally Did It!

I gave up Facebook. Well, for two months anyway. I've been wanting to deactivate my account for about six months now, but I just couldn't tear myself away.

I finally realized I'm not getting any younger, and my novels aren't writing themselves. I had to make more time for my writing, and what's my biggest time waster (probably most peoples' biggest time waster)? Facebook. So I deleted my account at 9:30 this morning and I don't plan on reactivating until July 7th. (No, that wasn't a tear).

I have big plans for the next two months. Huge. I plan on writing my entire first draft of my novel and....well, that's it so far. But that's big!

No more excuses.

I won't even blame the new foster baby that came into our home a month ago for me not getting any writing done. Nope.

I will write.

Hopefully every day.