Summer Day Eight: Create, Create, Create!

I woke up this...afternoon with a great idea.  The reason I slept so long is because I spent the whole night in the hammock on the porch with an idea rattling around in my head-I watched the sun come up and when it was too bright to pretend I could fall asleep out there, I came in.  The idea grew in my sleep and burst forth upon me finally waking up and some got on Chandler and now we have been sitting for  hours with pens and paper, creating a world and a back story for our characters.  I have not been this full of 'it' in a long time, that feeling that I am making something.  I am jotting notes like mad, she is drawing the main characters, I am mapping their world out, the ideas are flowing and the story is evolving and growing, it's the best feeling.

Today we are staying home, I ran errands yesterday and got us all set for the weekend so we can stay holed up for days if we want!  I picked up the hose for the van and put that on last night, I hope I can now report no more check engine light, ever again. 

We had a big huge salad for lunch and I made a batch of spaghetti and we had picked up some new goodie like a pizza roll, but made with garlic bread and stuffed with mozzarella.  THAT was a win.  The last disc of True Blood came in the mail for Matt and me to watch tonight, the boys and Matt are playing a new game together that involves a LOT of running back and forth and yelling.  I am going to set the kids up with pogo sticks to go from room to room, I think it will be quieter.

Research

After I sat down to start on NaNo for this year, I found myself not surprisingly looking over my list of sad facts.  It's actually a list of things I need to repair, replace or repaint in the house and yard and van.  I decided the best thing would be to not have so many things that need tinkering and the only way I could live this far from any sort of town and NOT need a working car with tires and brakes and oil and NOT have to bother fixing the heat pump or the dishwasher would be to not have anything electronic.  It would hardly be an issue if none of them worked, anywhere, at all.

So, I started my story.  Then I realized that while I like to think about being lucky enough to outlive nearly everyone else (I made her single to begin with because I could not kill off her family) I don't really know how I would get to that point.  Most post-apocalypse stories start...post apocalypse.  You don't know how.  But...I want some kind of how.  So, ensuring the government will have me on several lists, I started looking at viral warfare, I checked out books on survival from the library and I picked up a book on how different germs kill people and which ones are the fastest.

The Oatmeal kindly outlined a potential story for me here, but zombies would only take care of some of the aspects.  Mainly, I want nearly everyone dead, no repair bills and I want to drive a tractor with weapons.  I mean, my hero protagonist does.  Not me...at all.  Plus, she's going to loot the neighbors and take a pig and also shoot some local dogs for barking.  Again, not me.

After thumbing through my copy of 'The 10 Most Effective and Lethal Viruses and How To Survive and Outbreak (Including What Supplies to Always Have On Hand)' I wondered if the government REALLY cared what I used my library card to get.  Then I remembered seeing this at the park just after we left the library:

I don't usually read TOO much into random graffiti (Though don't date Bridget S., apparently she's a skank) this one seemed fairly straight-forward and informative. 


My final research for today's writing session was this, I thought maybe I could use pets as home defense in more unusual ways than the normal 'bark, bark, there's a stranger'.  I think that last one is a viable option, as we have been nearly euthanized accidentally.

Ken Cussion

Jake has started writing a script.  Ken Cussion is a crime fighter/video game tester who looks EXACTLY like Jake, thank goodness, or they'd never be able to cast the part.

His powers were activated when he received a blow to the head from radioactive material.  That may or may not have come from outer space.

The current wardrobe considerations involve a belt of power that has so much bling, I am unsure if it's safe to wear outside.  The crows may attack.  The kids are so hyped up, I wish we had a decent video camera, but at least we have cameras with video!  It could have been a flip book! 

Stay tuned for updates on KC!  if you can handle the AWESOME, that is.  I, myself, currently have purple glitter nails in honor of the event, fingers AND toes.  And...the leg of my pants and one knuckle and also a little on the couch.

Juices Flowing...

Creative, that is. 

I have walked 5 miles in the past 2 days, yesterday I listened to some of my playaway book, it's Firefly Cloak and I love the lady reading it, she's real Southern sounding-exactly the right twang.  

Today, Ben walked with me, rolling his counter wheel the whole time.  3 laps really is a mile!  We did 4 laps-nearly 7,000 feet-and then I mowed the whole front yard from the east fence to the old driveway and back to the back fence.  Tomorrow, I will see about knocking out the parking area and the hill, the backyard and under the trees.  Then there's Judy's yard that has not been mowed in 3 weeks.  With no rain, the grass is not high, just weeds here and there shooting up, looks like both yards have cowlicks.  Her gardenias and magnolia tree are in bloom, we walk up there just to smell the air.

This morning-here is the creative juices part-I hauled out photo albums from when the kids were little and we looked at them for a couple of hours.  I took notes on all the places we went and the kids recounted what they remembered the most about different things we did.  I have been wanting to write a children's book about homeschooled kids, unschooled really, because there are fewer than 40 books out there and they are mostly 'Billy at the kitchen table' or 'Sarah goes to the zoo' type stories that could be from summer vacation or homework time-nothing that really hits home for me anyway.  

I thought I could start off writing something for my kids about their memories and how they learned from things we did and go from there into something with more story to it.  I already know what I will call them in the stories and Matt and I will be Mom and Dad.  Or, Dad and Mom as it were.  And we will have a dog named Rosie Jo.  I think that's about the best dog name ever (this week).  LOL

Our vacation plans for next month have stalled out.  Matt is looking at taking a week before Thanksgiving week, giving us 2 weeks together.  That opens up a good many possibilities for travel...of course we all immediately suggested Disney. It's hard to give up on something we all know we will really love.  But I am digging in my heels to go somewhere new.  We'll see how it all works out.  To get another week, we will have to go unpaid for at least 3 days, plus there's the budget to consider...it would be nice to have lots of money!  i guess I will just have to be content with being good-looking instead of rich.  ha!

Word

Katy posted a link several weeks ago that went to a post about choosing not a resolution or a couple of goals for the new year, but choosing a word to focus on.
There is a worksheet (.pdf) to delve more deeply into finding a word, it also explains the power of having a word to focus on.

I have spent a few weeks now thinking over what I want from the year.  Travel, Adventure, Joy.  I want to Attract new experiences, Explore, Enjoy.  I want to Shine and Transform.  I want Passion and Intent, I want to be in the moment I am in, not thinking ahead or back or distracted by a parallel universe in which I am probably doing a better job of things.

I want to recall details later, not JUST the details I captured via my lens.   I want to be where I am, to find the thing in each day, each experience, that means the most to me.  The things I can walk away owning and the things I can walk away from and release.  Let go of the negative, even if I have need to chew that bitter flavor a little while.  Ultimately I want to spit it out instead of swallowing it.  It does not belong inside me, I have no room for that.  I don't wish to spend any more of my time tending gardens of slights, making mountains of memories best dropped into a well of forgetting or tossed into a hot fire and allowed to fly out as ash, bringing a brief light into the world and giving some small nutrients to the plants.  Not festering in my way, not being mismatched socks in my psyche or nagging doubts when I want to try again or try something totally new.  

I had thought immediately that my word would be Create.  But...I do that already.  I don't really want to make more of anything, even if I do desire to improve my current ability.  I want to understand.  I want to filter and decide and make decisions based on my needs, the needs of my family.  To not do things because I should or because it's expected.  What I want for myself the most for the year turns out to be Truth.

Nano Dunno!

I had a writing jag today, 4k words!  I hit the 50k mark and validated my word count and now I am 'done'! 

I still really like my story, I will keep working on it, I am not even halfway through the story arc, Henry is on his way to the largest settlement in their world, at the junction of two rivers.  There are still so many little plot holes and places that need to be filled in, questions I had to research to find answers for so I just highlighted them in yellow and went on.

There were a couple of places that I was stuck and could not move the story ahead-I knew where I wanted to be next, but could not get my characters moving that way because I got mired in the detail.  I told Matt it was like that song about a feather on a bird in an egg in a nest on a twig on a branch on a tree in a hole in the ground.  And the green grass grew all around all around and the green grass grew all around.  Instead of just saying there was a feather.   So I highlighted those in blue and just jotted down a few lines that had them awake the next morning and on the way again, no long paragraphs of details about the way to soak rice before cooking over an open fire. 

I am quite pleased to be finished, I hope the kids are able to wrap up their stories quickly as well.

Tomorrow, I am going with Daddy to find and photograph various graves of various relations.  I found out Thursday that he has already bought a site in the cemetery we are going to first and already has a marker erected.  With his name and birth date already on there.  I hope I don't come unglued when I see it, I thought I would have years and years before I went to his graveside.  At least I will have him with me this first time.

Ups and Downs

Well, here is the report for my recent projects:

1. Local History:

I now have a list of everyone who has owned this house/land back to the Civil War.  Before that, it was just USA on the list.  I have started making some calls to see if anyone around here knows about those families, I go next week to the town hall to look at the records and I am going to meet the local historian for the down-low on the town.

2. House Training ZipZap:

She is a nut, good thing we all love her.  No accidents since the Last Straw the other day.  She was left in her kennel today and was not in the kennel upon returning home, but no potty inside, either.  I am taking that as progress.

3. My Recent Wreck:

Got the van all checked out today.  Other than a scrape and a dented...something bar, there was no damage. That was just freak luck, it could have been a major problem.

4. My #$^*; Teeth:

Matt made me go to the dentist today, a single x-ray showed that tooth I had filled in September has abscessed and the nerve is exposed due to the infection eating through my jawbone.  I KNEW I was not crazy.  That mofo HURTS, and I was starting to get a little discouraged by the continued lack of anything to fix, as nothing was showing up on x-rays and the pain has never been localized, it's all over that whole nerve. 
I am on 2 meds now to get me through the end of the month, then it's off to yank it.  I don't want to mess with root canals and crowns and all that.  Just...go away.

5. NaNo:
Henry is currently bribing Neil to cover for him so he can sneak off and investigate the mysterious old man who has shown up near the village.  I am surprised, he seemed like such a goodie two-shoes, too.  Now he's ditching work and lying to his mama.  I need to hit 8335 before I go to bed.  Maybe I will take some more Lortab and type stoned.  hahaha!  The one I took earlier ain't working.

6. I have Ben's birthday planned, Jake's birthday planned, his stuff is ordered, but not in yet.  

7. I am gearing up to prod the girls into putting on a small play next month.  Because, December is just not stressful enough.  : )  We need drama.

 

ahhhhh

Matt came home with gap seal and I spent a couple of hours today sealing all the gaps around our windows and the front door.  At the moment, I can't see any light or feel air coming from any other them!  That will mean less ladybugs this month, too.  I can't begin to describe my dislike of ladybugs.

I hit 7k on my story today, I am both shocked and pleased at how well it's going.  I had a couple of years there where I plodded and finally just ground to a halt.  I think Henry may be getting up the nerve to head out on an adventure with a crazy old man he just met!  Well, just spied on, they have not met up yet.  

Jake is above his personal goal word count.  He casually said yesterday that he 'may want to up his numbers'.  I am SHOCKED.  Chan is in charge of helping with punctuation and she told me today that it was 'not that bad'.  I know he has a great imagination and that storytelling is not the issue, it's the writing.  He's currently typing about 700 words a day leaning heavily on spell-check, but at least he's able to pick out the word he meant to use.  Chan said she only had to fix 3 words so far.  

I picked up cedar and heat bulbs today.  I have one set up in the pig cage and one set up over Jessie and Kuma's hay nest.  They won't need theirs until it's below freezing, but the pigs starting tweeting and basking in theirs as soon as I plugged it in!  hahaha.  I changed it to a lower temp bulb for now, no need to roast them.

Of of that good stuff is helping balance out the horrible stuff, namely one small dog who has decided house training is for the birds.  After nearly 2 weeks with only a minor blip, she's pooped in the house 4 times!  We have blocked off all the rooms except mine and the living room and she has to be in her crate if no one is actively with her at the time. 

She has also been eating the remains of the MANY animals the cats drag up and leave and has thrown up more than once.  UGH!  I sent Jake all around out there with a shovel to gather the dead things and fling them into the trees on the other side of the fence, behind the trash cans.  There will be more tomorrow, there could be more right now.  grrrr.   All the other animals are making having the new one more difficult!  

But, Jess was a PITA to train.  8 months-with weeks between incidents, making us lower our guard.  Surely Zeph won't be as difficult, though I have read Yorkies and Shih Tsu's are the 2 hardest to house train breeds there are.  But Tater is trained, by golly.  He's also nearly 10...anyway, after giving her down the road for the poop today and putting her in her crate until I could take her back out about an hour later, she scampered out, did her thing, chased a leaf, sniffed a cat, pounced after the big dogs and came up with a squirrel tail, which she held at a jaunty angle in her teeth until I made her drop it.  She was not thrilled with that and has revisited the magic squirrel parts area of the yard several times. 

She seemed unaffected by the time out, so at least I don't have another guilt-ridden mutt on my hands.  Jess carries the weight of the world, if she hears me yell FOR the kids, she will go get in her shed.  *sigh*  She's SUCH a good dog, it breaks my heart to think she feels like I am angry with her.

In other news, my jaw is still giving me grief.  Now it slips out while I sleep if I lay on either side.  Then I wake up and it feels like someone snuffed a match out in my right jaw joint/ear/neck for several hours.  Then, all during the day, I get shooting pains through that whole side of my face.  A jolt was so strong just today that I jerked the van OFF the road into a ditch.  The left front tire was in a hole, the axle slammed into the pavement.  I have not taken to to get looked at, it seems like so much effort.  I just won't drive it.

I can't chew anything with mass.  Gum, burgers-any meat-chips, chewy bread, any kind of candy or nut.  I have been eating veggies and pasta and mainly drinking hot tea.  That has to be cooled off because hot things are almost as painful as cold things.  I know I should go back to the dentist, but I also know that will involve opening my mouth to admit tools and hands and right now, I can't open it to brush the tops of my back teeth.  Sometimes I have to stop talking because it starts to burn and I know if I keep moving it around, it will keep me up all night.

I am taking 2 Aleve and then 2 Tylenol, swapping out doses every 4-6 hours, even at night.  I can't even imagine if I did not have at least that much of a buffer.  I have heard trigeminal neuralgia is called the 'suicide disease'.  I totally freaking believe it.

Then, times, like right this instant, it feels fine, no pain at all. It's like the weather, just wait ten minutes.

NaNoWriMo Day 2 part 2

Well, I started writing.  

What came out was a story about a perfect village and a boy named Henry.  He's thinking about the flood and how in recent years, the soil has been tainted instead of fertile.  I always thought people who wrote having no idea of the direction of the story were crazy.  LOL  I have about decided not to decide anything ever again, I have a recent list of about 20 things I have changed my mind over. 

Anyway, I added a word count widget at the top that should update along with my word count, we'll see!  Red days are really bad counts, green days are good counts. 

NaNoWriMo Day 2

I wrote a while last night, then my laptop froze up, then I restarted, it said it retrieved the file, but it was blank.

Spent all morning running checks to see why the computer froze up.

Pulled a muscle in my right shoulder/back hauling water to the cats. 

Word count at 10 a.m. on day 2:
0

Young Writers

http://ywp.nanowrimo.org

Roamschool is up and active with the kids and a couple of their buddies (hopefully  more will join!) making up our young writers team! 

I am so proud of these guys, NaNo is a great way to flex those writing muscles.

Check out the 100% non-lame workbooks here
http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/workbooks

They are available for anyone to use, even if you are not doing NaNo.

Good Luck, everyone!  One more day of sanity and then the fun begins! 

NaNoWriMo

Ah, as October thunders toward its conclusion, I am gearing up for another year of Nano.

November is National Novel Writing Month, or Nanowrimo for short, or...Nano for short..er.

The object is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, starting November 1 and stopping November 30.  The short time forces more writing and less second-guessing.  The first year I did it, 2006, I finished with a week to spare, which was good because we left Thanksgiving Day for Disney.  The next year, with less on my mind, I managed to squeak in.  In 2008, we spent the last 2 weeks of November in Florida, so I did not even attempt.  Last year...the month came and went and I ignored it. 

So, this year, I am ready to give it another go, I have a few ideas and most importantly for myself, names for my main characters.  Naming people and writing conversation are my 2 big ordeals.  If the names are perfect, I can write the characters.  My first story was about a young single mom, Magellan, who found herself knocked up and in a bad situation.  It was totally biographical, a rip-off of my own life.  It was like bloodletting, it was painful and it brought back all those memories and fears and in the end, freed me like nothing I could have imagined.  All that bile and fear and pain and just general pissed-offed crap poured out until what was left was clear, thought through, seen from older eyes and finally, filed away, done with. 

I love Magellan and her son, Journey.  I think about her now and then, wonder how they are now.  Yes, she was born of my experiences, but she was smarter than I was at 21, she had me at 32 to smooth a few paths and leave out a few details that were painful at the time and amounted to nothing later.  It was like talking to myself from the future and being able to reshape what was relevant and hang on to the important stuff.

I am getting excited, trying to organize a few ideas without doing myself in with too much planning.