Monday morning

Ugh! Normally I love the peace of Monday morning, after a busy family weekend. But today was Just Awful, and it's only 9:30!

We got up late, because I stayed up until 11:30 writing and chatting with Michelle G. and Kristal on Yahoo. (Thanks, girls, for your encouragement!) I didn't notice that DH, in a fit of zealous dishwashing, had taken the filter basket and coffee pot off of the coffee maker and washed them last night, leaving them in the drainer. I know, I know it's stupid of me, but I can't tell you how many times I've stumbled into the kitchen in the morning, filled the pot with coffee and water and turned it on, only to have the coffee cascade over the counter and floor. It happened again today!

DS is getting worse and worse with his pickniness with food, probably because I'm pushing him to eat a wider variety so, like a mule, he's digging in his heels. I had no idea what to put in his lunch, so I tossed in the ubiquitous cheese stick, which will probably come home untouched, and a packet of pretzels and some juice. My hair is disgusting because I haven't washed it in two days preparatory to coloring it, so I put makeup on and stuck my hair in a ponytail under a ball cap and we left for school.

DS wanted to race, and ran down the sidewalk, his backpack bouncing on his shoulders. I didn't discourage this - hey, he's exercising! - but I should have, because he tripped and fell on the cement, prompting tears and protests that he didn't want to go to school. I promised him a Band-aid from the nurse when we got there, but he dug in his heels - literally - and I had to threaten and drag him the rest of the way, feeling like the worst mom in the world for not stopping him from running. Not to mention the fact that we drew stares from all the passing neighbors. (The crossing guard, however, was sympathetic.)

So I walked back home, thinking about all the things I have to do and the loan we're signing tonight for the new windows and the fact that the Caravan is making funny noises again, and wondered for the umpteenth time if it is really worth the struggle to write this fantasy novel and if I should just go get a job. I cleaned up the coffee and made a fresh pot of REALLY STRONG caffeine, had a couple of the delicious homemade cookies that DS refused to eat last night (oatmeal-chocolate chip-walnut-raisin-cranberry), and read my Bible. This is what I read:

Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my just reward is with the LORD,
And my work with my God.’”
-Isaiah 49:4, NKJV

I just have to keep reminding myself that, for whatever reason, God has put this story on my mind and heart to write. I was telling K. and M.G. last night that the characters don't even resemble the actors I had in mind when I first started writing it a year and half ago. They are their own people, so real, it's almost frightening.

(later)

P.S. I take that back. Faldur still looks like Hugh Jackman, I just forgot that it was Hugh that he looked like! I mostly think of him (Jackman) as Wolverine from the X-men, all moody and withdrawn. And besides being incredibly sexy (the hard-to-get ones always are), that's an important part of his character: his reticence. Like Aragorn, he's got a lot of secrets and has to be very careful what he reveals and to whom.

P.P.S. DS ate the cheese stick, and seems to have recovered from the emotional impact of his mishap. And my class went really well this afternoon! We got into the beginning of the pre-calculus stuff: namely functions and the difference quotient
f(x+h)-f(x)/h.
Call me wierd, but I love that stuff!