I have no idea. I was hoping you’d tell me. But, here it is, 5:20 pm and I am now slowing down enough to go uh-oh, dinnertime!

I think I have ground beef in the fridge….but no hamburger buns, so ixnay the hamburger idea.

So….what to make? Meatloaf…nah. Lasagna….hmmm…takes too long.

Whoops…and I’m out of time, because I think my husband just pulled into the driveway! Ack! Better think of something quick. :D

The reason being that I was holding out for pictures….or at least, that’s my story.

The boys had off from school today for some sort of teacher training, so we headed out to our property to bring my hard working hubby some lunch. I pulled in the driveway and he was standing on our second floor!

Of course, I had to try it too! And let me tell you, as I stood on the floor looking out at the view beyond, with the sun shining down on me, I was ready to move in. Never mind that I had to use a ladder to get to the second floor. Forget the fact that we have no pluming or electric, second floor walls, roof, or windows/doors. I could just move my stuff in and be perfectly happy!

So you can bask in the glow of my happiness, too, here’s a couple pics:

We have about half the second floor down. The side that is not down is going to be the master bedroom. So, I guess that means if I’m going to move in right now, I’ll have to learn to tightrope.

Next picture is of the “view” from the second floor. Still doesn’t do it justice, but it’s better.

And lastly, a picture of where our front door will be….and for some reason my ear.  

So, now you know. What my ear looks like, I mean.

Yep, that’s me. Although I have a valid excuse. Sorta.

I’m inching along with my progress on the WIP (check out my progress meter on the right hand side), and trying to stay away from temptation…like email and blogs and all that good stuff. The problem is, I still don’t think I’m being as productive as I could/should, because now I just pace around getting frustrated that when I sit at the computer NOTHING comes to me.

I think I might be trying to push myself too hard. You know, telling myself that this needs to be completed in two weeks and I need to write 10, 12, 20 pages a day. I’m pressuring myself and my brain is not liking it! So, I’m easing off, clearing my head and hopefully that will help.

I’ll blog more tomorrow. Promise!

As I prepare myself to go the distance on the last remaining pages of my ms, I’ve hit some roadblocks that have me second guessing the journey from point A (where I am now) to point B (the end).

I’ve tried to write all day, and although I’ve made some progress (roughly 5 pages), it’s the teeth-pulling, jaw-scraping, what the hell am I doing?, kind of progress.

I needed a break, so I decided to open up my ‘first draft’ document. This was the document that I completed during that long ago fast draft exercise over at Romance Divas. I’ve pulled from it here and there during my second draft phase, but I stopped referring to it when I decided to go in a slightly different direction.

So, I scrolled down to just about the place I’m at in the story right now, and started reading. And I liked it. I liked the direction the story took off in, and now I’m starting to second guess the changes I made. If I decide to follow the original story, it wouldn’t require major rewriting….in fact, probably just some rewriting/tweaking of the last chapter (or two).

But, I can’t decide which is best. I’m telling myself to listen to my gut. Unfortunately, I’m just not sure exactly what my gut is trying to tell me. Darn it! Maybe talking it over with my husband later today will help me decide…he’s been my #1 brainstorming partner through this entire story and has really helped me create some exciting plot elements. Hopefully I can decide my direction and move on for tomorrow. I’d like to stick to my deadline.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

And, a quick house update, since I didn’t get to one yesterday. The first floor walls are done! I stopped by the lot on Friday and it was so great to see where the doors and windows are going to be. It’s definitely starting to take shape. Today my husband is working on the garage walls. And, soon, it will be time for the second floor! I can’t wait!

Where has the beginning of the week gone? Ugh. Okay, now I’m beginning to feel stressed. I had so much I wanted to accomplish this week, and so far, I haven’t come close to doing it. I helped out in Daredevil’s kindergarten class this morning, and will again, tomorrow, because they are going on a field trip to the apple orchard. So, that has wiped out two of my mornings where I’d hoped to get some quiet writing time in.

It’s time for me to take a deep breath. I really want to finish this ms (rough–not polished) by the end of the month, which gives me, what, about two more weeks? To do it, I’ll have to dig deep–really deep–and just write. Don’t overanalyze, don’t freak out, just write. Whew. Easier said than done. Especially since I’m wrestling with one particular issue: I know exactly where I need to go, but I’m having trouble getting it on the page.

Time to muddle through it, I guess, but boy do I hate that “muddling” feeling.

I brought my camera with me yesterday when I went out to our house-in-progress. (Who hoo! I love saying that!)

The first floor is down:

What a thrill to see my ratty gym shoes STANDING on the first floor of our house! I’ve got a floor! I can picture where my kitchen is going to be and my living room. It’s beyond cool.

And here’s my husband, sporting the concrete grunge look in front of the first of our ‘first floor’ walls (and yes, he’ll probably kill me for posting this! :angel:)

The first floor walls are aerated concrete blocks, which are an awesome insulator as well as fire retardent. We’re planning on going with some sort of stucco type interior/exterior or something similar.

And, this last picture, is a hint of the view we’ll have from our master bedroom.

This picture doesn’t do it justice…not only because a storm was moving in, but also because I couldn’t get high enough on the small ladder to equate where our second story bedroom windows will be. But, once the second floor is done, we’ll have a gorgeous view of the mountains in the background, much to the dismay of the neighbors behind us (see the chimney sticking up on the left hand side) who we will most likely tower over. And yes, we will enjoy flaunting it.

I’m talking POV today.

I have a good handle on POV. I know what the different types are, what they’re used for, and how to use them, but sometimes I feel like I could use it so much more powerfully than I do. So, I signed up for a 4-week online workshop over at Earthly Charms on how to “power up” your POV (being taught by Alicia Rasley).

Well, we’re into week one, and in one of the assignments I griped about how I could write scenes in my hero’s POV like there was no tomorrow, but when I wrote in my heroine’s head, it was like having a root canal to get myself into her head and really into her thoughts.

Alicia suggested I try writing one of her scenes in first person (and, yes, I’ve had a couple of people suggest this and I’ve always went, “Yeah, sure, I’ll try that”…and then proceeded to just not even give it a go because it seemed like a waste of time). Well, I’m here–beaming–to say that it’s not a waste of time! It worked!

I wrote 7 pages of a scene that was driving me batty in the space of about an hour and a half (now, I probably could’ve written a little more, but naughty me still couldn’t stop my fingers from hitting the delete key and editing here and there).

And the best part is, I went back and read through it, inserting ‘her’ and ’she’ for the ‘I’ and ‘My’ and the thing will translate sooo nicely that way.

Oh, yeah, baby….I wrote a killer scene!!!! Talk to me tomorrow and see if I’m still riding this high. ;)  

I had such high hopes for today. But, here I sit, it’s almost 5:30 which means the bulk of the day is gone (I’ll soon be busy putting together dinner, doing dishes, making sure the boys get their baths and getting them off to bed…) and I’ve added three pages to the wip.

Yes, three pages is better than nothing. But, I’d hoped for more. Lots more. Like sudden, struck by lightning, motivation, where the words are just flowing out of me. So, what happened between getting up in the morning and now?

I wish I knew. I feel blah. I could blame it on the weather (it’s been rainy and cold all day, and this kind of weather usually puts me in a funk), I could blame it on my boys (but, really, they were pretty good today. I was only interrupted 1 bazillion times, which is way better than the 10 bazillion I normally get), I could blame it on PMS (yeah, that one actually sounds pretty good)….

but they’re all excuses and, deep down, I know it. So, I’m putting it away for the night and keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow will be a better day. 

You take the good,
You take the bad,
You take them both and there you have the facts of life.
The facts of life.

Er, um, okay that’s as far as I’ll go with that theme song….but, Science-boy learned an important lesson about life today when he took some toys (two Lego men from his Fire & Ice Dragons set) to school, and ended up losing one of them. Okay, well, HE didn’t actually lose one. He gave one to his best friend to play with at recess and then forgot to ask for it back when recess was over. When he asked the boy for it back after school was over, the boy checked his pockets and said he didn’t have it.

Did it get left on the playground? Fall out of the boy’s pocket? No one knows. Of course, Science-boy had a meltdown over it because he generally takes extremely good care of his things and losing prized toys upsets him. Which led to mommy’s little rant about how he shouldn’t have taken toys to school in the first place….which morphed into a rant about loaning out his things (because this same boy borrowed some pokemon cards from my son and never brought them back–said he lost them, then said his brother stole them).

I tried to explain that not everyone respects other people’s things and takes care of them the way he would. And, yes, it’s disappointing, but it’s life. After a lot of crying, he got over it, but I’m still said for him because he’s always ready to believe the best of people, and I worry that he’ll end up hurt many times down the road.

And, yet, his loving, friendly, highly forgiving heart is one of the things I love best about him.