Congratulations on getting your muse back! I know exactly how you feel. I'm still stuck in 'can't write' mode atm, which stinks.
Sarah
Sarah
Can I tell you a secret? But don't tell my family!
- Thread starter WriterofWords
- Start date
stress free writing... got to love it!
Today at lunch....
Today at lunch I sat down at the table with my mound of bills. I was happy I had actually sat down and wrote down this months budget, leaving enough to get my soldier husband home after his 15 month stint in the Iraq war. Boy, wouldn't he be proud of me for not going TOO much in debt while he was gone. After all, the kids really needed that oversized inflateable swimming pool from Toys R Us. It's really unfortunate that a mouse chewed a hole in it already this fall as it was stored away in the garage. Hopefully I can patch that next summer...we'll, have to see.
My old navy card is nearly paid off. Who's idea was it to have a store credit card? Oh..it was that extremely jovial young guy who said I could get 10% off that days purchases if I applied for thier card. Heck, a card?! I may as well get a few more things then. I don't have to pay it all at once after all.
But now it was all due...and we just had Christmas...seems I didn't think those purchase out very well. That's a humdinger. I like that word. It's my new word. I learned it from the local weather guy. He said a humdinger of a storm was coming. It makes me happy to say it. Humdinger.
I had to hurry to seal the envelopes and to find the stamps....I just bought 2 sheets of stamps. Where were my 2 sheets of stamps? No, no, no....39 cent stamps wouldn't do...I can't even make it work with the 2 cent stamps....there's a wood duck stamp with 29 cents...none of these will do. I could double up...but I still wouldn't have enough for all of them. My mother was coming to drive my daughter to speech and wouldn't it be nice to get these out in the mail? Most are overdue anyway... at least they sent me a letter that said, If you've sent payment disregard this notice... so I decided to live in denial and disregard their notice.
I heated my girls left overs. I brushed their hair as they ate. I even put on my 7 year old's shoes as she finished her plate. It was official....we were ready for Grandma to arrive. And there she came....rolling up the drive.
But wait, why is she walking so funny on my gravel drive. Oh it's iced over. Too bad she didn't have a hover craft. Oh look at her little shiatzu mix dog...she got a haircut!! HA HA HA...it's about time. Poor dog.
Oh Grandma...she forgot the car seat. I run to my van and grab mine out and put it into her car. My seven year old is "skating" on the driveway and is quite pleased. Grandma is less than thrilled. I left my 2 year old in the house CRYING that she thought we were all leaving without her. I assured her that mommy was coming back and Zoe was only going to speech and not some FUN place like Chuck E. Cheese without her. It didn't matter. She still likes the adventure and doesn't mind sitting and waiting at the speech office.
I got back into the house after sending Grandma and my 7 year old off down the ice rink...and I thought, how quiet my toddler got. I was thankful that she was able to settle herself down. As I kicked off my boots and unzipped my coat...another thought came to mind...a thought of uh oh...maybe it being THIS quiet was NOT a good thing. I rounded the corner to find my youngest very intent on PAINTING.
The girls got a painting craft this Christmas. It has little wooden ornaments and paint. They have already painted several and I have very carefully packaged the unpainted ornaments in a bag with the ties and in another bag, I placed the little containers of about 8 or so colors, paint brushes, and 4 glitter glue pens for safe keeping.
Well, I arrived in the nick of time to see my toddler straddling two kitchen bar stools that swivel...a foot on each stool....her arms clutching the bags, one ornament so carefully picked out, and her little fist clutching a paint brush and trying to uncap the red paint. Who knows how many ornaments she would have painted if I had taken longer. And who's to say the paint would have stayed on the ornament? After all, I had just paid a bill on the phone and mommy's bill, wallet, and phone book were right there in front of her. Let's just say she wasn't really happy that mommy came in to tell her how to manage her painting time....you know....let's put newspaper down. Let's do one color at a time...one orament at a time...rinse your brush after each color....we have to let it dry...only make a little squeeze with the glitter glue or too much comes out and it makes a messy....
Yeah...she was having a hard time doing it mommy's way and not HER way.
....so what DID you do for lunch today?
me,
g
Today at lunch I sat down at the table with my mound of bills. I was happy I had actually sat down and wrote down this months budget, leaving enough to get my soldier husband home after his 15 month stint in the Iraq war. Boy, wouldn't he be proud of me for not going TOO much in debt while he was gone. After all, the kids really needed that oversized inflateable swimming pool from Toys R Us. It's really unfortunate that a mouse chewed a hole in it already this fall as it was stored away in the garage. Hopefully I can patch that next summer...we'll, have to see.
My old navy card is nearly paid off. Who's idea was it to have a store credit card? Oh..it was that extremely jovial young guy who said I could get 10% off that days purchases if I applied for thier card. Heck, a card?! I may as well get a few more things then. I don't have to pay it all at once after all.
But now it was all due...and we just had Christmas...seems I didn't think those purchase out very well. That's a humdinger. I like that word. It's my new word. I learned it from the local weather guy. He said a humdinger of a storm was coming. It makes me happy to say it. Humdinger.
I had to hurry to seal the envelopes and to find the stamps....I just bought 2 sheets of stamps. Where were my 2 sheets of stamps? No, no, no....39 cent stamps wouldn't do...I can't even make it work with the 2 cent stamps....there's a wood duck stamp with 29 cents...none of these will do. I could double up...but I still wouldn't have enough for all of them. My mother was coming to drive my daughter to speech and wouldn't it be nice to get these out in the mail? Most are overdue anyway... at least they sent me a letter that said, If you've sent payment disregard this notice... so I decided to live in denial and disregard their notice.
I heated my girls left overs. I brushed their hair as they ate. I even put on my 7 year old's shoes as she finished her plate. It was official....we were ready for Grandma to arrive. And there she came....rolling up the drive.
But wait, why is she walking so funny on my gravel drive. Oh it's iced over. Too bad she didn't have a hover craft. Oh look at her little shiatzu mix dog...she got a haircut!! HA HA HA...it's about time. Poor dog.
Oh Grandma...she forgot the car seat. I run to my van and grab mine out and put it into her car. My seven year old is "skating" on the driveway and is quite pleased. Grandma is less than thrilled. I left my 2 year old in the house CRYING that she thought we were all leaving without her. I assured her that mommy was coming back and Zoe was only going to speech and not some FUN place like Chuck E. Cheese without her. It didn't matter. She still likes the adventure and doesn't mind sitting and waiting at the speech office.
I got back into the house after sending Grandma and my 7 year old off down the ice rink...and I thought, how quiet my toddler got. I was thankful that she was able to settle herself down. As I kicked off my boots and unzipped my coat...another thought came to mind...a thought of uh oh...maybe it being THIS quiet was NOT a good thing. I rounded the corner to find my youngest very intent on PAINTING.
The girls got a painting craft this Christmas. It has little wooden ornaments and paint. They have already painted several and I have very carefully packaged the unpainted ornaments in a bag with the ties and in another bag, I placed the little containers of about 8 or so colors, paint brushes, and 4 glitter glue pens for safe keeping.
Well, I arrived in the nick of time to see my toddler straddling two kitchen bar stools that swivel...a foot on each stool....her arms clutching the bags, one ornament so carefully picked out, and her little fist clutching a paint brush and trying to uncap the red paint. Who knows how many ornaments she would have painted if I had taken longer. And who's to say the paint would have stayed on the ornament? After all, I had just paid a bill on the phone and mommy's bill, wallet, and phone book were right there in front of her. Let's just say she wasn't really happy that mommy came in to tell her how to manage her painting time....you know....let's put newspaper down. Let's do one color at a time...one orament at a time...rinse your brush after each color....we have to let it dry...only make a little squeeze with the glitter glue or too much comes out and it makes a messy....
Yeah...she was having a hard time doing it mommy's way and not HER way.
....so what DID you do for lunch today?
me,
g
Git 'r dun!
Congrats! I never did manage to balance being a mostly full-time art teacher and a working artist at the same time. I ended up cutting my hours WAY back. It seemed that the more creative juices I got to come out of the kids the less I had. The reality was that I was putting all of that drive and energy into creating an engaging curriculum and ended up not having anything left for myself. It's fantastic that you are finding yourself able to both teach and write. Balancing self with the needs of students is an ongoing challenge, but if we don't take care of our own artistic needs we'll end up cranky and burned out. Kudos to you for making yourself a priority.
pssst Kate your secrets safe with me...just make sure you keep posting......
- Thread starter
- #17
Quote:
You are so right, I've been so busy teaching others to write, or editing others writing, or taking care of others, my own work has gone by the wayside. I have my students write for 15 minutes every morning in a journal, I do my roll, grades, whatever during that time,,, well tomorrow when they come back that changes! While they write, I write! When they share, I'll share. They all love reading my works that I have in the classroom, so I think they will enjoy my sharing my works in progress with them too. I told my Principal my plan yesterday and she thought it was a great idea and maybe I should share that with the other teachers so they could model writing in their own classrooms. I thought that might work except I can tell you guys one thing, two of our upper grade teachers can't write, they can't spell, and they know nothing of grammar,, at least in English. They always have me help them.
You are so right, I've been so busy teaching others to write, or editing others writing, or taking care of others, my own work has gone by the wayside. I have my students write for 15 minutes every morning in a journal, I do my roll, grades, whatever during that time,,, well tomorrow when they come back that changes! While they write, I write! When they share, I'll share. They all love reading my works that I have in the classroom, so I think they will enjoy my sharing my works in progress with them too. I told my Principal my plan yesterday and she thought it was a great idea and maybe I should share that with the other teachers so they could model writing in their own classrooms. I thought that might work except I can tell you guys one thing, two of our upper grade teachers can't write, they can't spell, and they know nothing of grammar,, at least in English. They always have me help them.
WoW - As skirbo said, congrats on getting your "muse" back. Stick with it. Writing is a very creative and cathartic outlet. I've only done a short number of short stories, never a larger volume like you appear to have done.
Good on ya!
Good on ya!
Congrats to you! Keep it coming and no more blocks
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