What I'm Not Doing

There are many things I'm not doing today. Today, I'm not:

1. Meeting and greeting 2,000 other authors, editors, and agents and trying not to fawn over the stars.
2. Running all over parts of whatever Disney compound is down in Florida (I am incapable of keeping them straight).
3. Worrying about my hair, makeup, outfit, or whether it's too hot to pull of cowboy boots in the middle of summer in the ol' Sunshine State.
4. Hanging out with fellow authors around a pool, sipping delightful adult beverages even though it's only lunchtime.
5. Attending invaluable presentations on craft, marketing, and surviving the publishing business.
6. Getting truckloads of free books.
7. Offering words of advice and comfort to pre-published authors who are new to all this.
8. Seeking words of advice and comfort from published authors who have been there and done that.
9. Cheering for Heather Snow at the Golden Heart Awards.
10. Overpaying for tea, and really overpaying for wine.
11. Eating banquet food.
12. Having a hell of a good time.
13. Wondering how tomorrow could possibly be better.

No, instead, what I'm doing today is this:
1. Wondering if I should shower now, or if The Kid will just throw up on me again in fifteen minutes.
2. Laundry. Again.
3. Scrubbing carpets.
4. Scrubbing floors.
5. Scrubbing everything else.
6. Wondering how a child who has consumed nothing more than three sips of water can produce so much liquid.
7. Wondering if it makes me a bad mother if I think about paragraph transitions while The Kid throws up. Again.
8. Wondering if there is such a thing as human/canine stomach bug transmission--and then scrubbing the carpet. Again.
9. Counting the hours until my husband comes home.
10. Watching movies all day long--not the ones I want to, but still. Movies.
11. Rationing crackers.
12. Not getting paid because I didn't go to work.
13. Praying that tomorrow will be better.

So for all you authors living it up down there at the Romance Writers of America National Conference in Orlando, Florida, please--I'm begging you--have a little fun for me!

Done Enough

I pronounce this project "done enough." Experienced remodelers know what I'm talking about. It's not done. No home improvement project is ever really, truly done. The touch-ups alone will probably take another 2 days, and we still need to put a new coat of poly on the interior of the windows, which could easily take weeks--if we get to it at all. But functionally, that room is done enough for The Kid to move in and set up camp. See?

Before:


After:

Before:

After:

Before:

(This is but a small selection of the toys in our living room.)

After:

My Gram is coming to look at the new, improved sun/toy room this weekend. She thinks it's going to be pretty. She doesn't realize a five-year-old boy has already moved 85% of his stuff into it, or that Gater has already permanently wounded that cute little chair by eating part of the dust ruffle off of it.

But it's done enough. And that's good enough for me.