So my dad did not go home yesterday and decided to stay and go to church with me and the kids today, which was awkward because a) it was our first service back in person, b) the sanctuary is so small that with social distancing and our regulars there was no room for visitors, c) we tried to do a hybrid service for people that wanted to stay online and it failed, d) there was a lot of joyful crying because EVERYONE CAME BACK and we were really concerned they wouldn’t, e) I had to stop and fill out visitor forms on the way in for my dad because he couldn’t figure out what they were asking him to do, f) I needed to officially join the church before I could become a trustee (something they discovered after they asked me to become a trustee), and my peeps could not figure out how to people while I was away, g) and also I officially have An Abundance of Catherine’s (however they happen to spell it, which varies so much), h) back to the weirdness, Ree decided to walk home, Greg went to hide in the car, and the retired pastor who sometimes leads us asked where my kids went and when I shrugged she just laughed and said “oh yeah, you have an older child, too, so you’ve reached the resigned stage of parenthood” and my dad laughed so hard I thought he might die, so we left right after that, i) that was awkward because I hadn’t said goodbye to everyone yet, but a certain older gentleman really wanted a hug, so I hugged him and my dad was all “Is that old man bothering you?!” and I laughed hysterically because I’ve probably talked to that gentleman more than I’ve talked to my dad this year and they would have really liked each other because they are the same age and both like stamps. j) after all that I hyper focused on cleaning the house and 1/4 of the garage is spectacularly clean now and the laundry is done, and the kitchen was spotless, but then Nick used ALL THE THINGS cooking dinner and now it’s a wreck again.
Blog
I will be speaking this Monday at the East Texas Writers Guild members meeting at 6:30pm via Zoom. This one is a little last minute (their scheduled speaker fell ill), so I am cobbling a few of my 20 minute lessons into one hour long speech about “Bringing Creativity to NANOWRIMO.” Hope to see all you local writers there! (If prompted for a password, it is “2020”.)
Things you can do when you don’t have a lot of energy, but do have some time you need to get work done during:
Organize digital stuff.
Tag old photos, or make albums.
Organize your printed recipes.
Write draft replies for unanswered emails.
Create to-do lists per life/work/cleaning category.
Do short-medium-long term planning.
Work on time-consuming important, yet not urgent projects.
Make an inspiration board for the future – shopping lists, lists of movies to watch, books to read, places to visit.
Make a list of friends + plan when to call/interact with each one.
Crochet or cross stitch something small, yet meaningful.
Inventory stuff you have at home and/or plan on how to reorganize it.
Update your resume or explore jobs.
Do inventory of your health issues and make notes for future appointments.
Peaches lie all over the ground, tossed down yellow,
too early, by this morning’s storm. Bahia grass shushes the singing birds,
heads held high despite the damp. Melancholy swims up
and over me and clings as snug as the humidity.
The old neighbor appears, their new fence recently painted,
which clashes with their pile of old slate landscaping stones,
ivy springing eternally around everything in sight.
More peaches fall
and hit the rotting stump of the once towering
loblolly pine. Only one of the original five still guards the threshold separating
their wet grass from mine, but he’s not lonely. The gray squirrels
still swing from his branches and little finches nest in his crevices.
The Tuesday sound of lawn care services
blowing leaves from yard to yard interrupts
the hum of traffic as it crushes past too fast
on its way to the college down the road.
The harsh machine noise echoes through the trees
And sends our animal friends scurrying.
I yearn for neighbor’s past who cared
for the yards themselves, sweating
in the sunlight while joking about my use
of yellow fabric shears while I knelt weeding at the curb.
Their azaleas that smelled so heavenly
the day we moved in, now lost to occupants
who replaced them with easily maintained gravel,
which smells of guano from the bats.
Next I imagine they’ll try to replace the bats, to the delight
of the ever present mosquitos.
I smell damp earth and the light, sweet smell of the peaches.
A sociable squirrel we’ve named Randy
chitters at me through the screen,
daring me to keep him from his fruity treasure. A cardinal
stops to argue with him and he runs elsewhere
like always.
A copy of this poem also appears here, as part of a padlet of coursework from a writing class I’m taking.
I have a lot of chronic pain related illnesses, as well as a disconnect between my brain and my heart. I work from home, with a husband that works elsewhere and 2 kids and 2 cats in and out. It was hard to find friends in this city at first, but I eventually found some. I still don’t see the friends that often because we all work and have young teenagers that we are still driving around.
A typical work week day looks like this:
5:30-7:30 am get up, dressed, stretch/yoga, and make breakfast for self and kids
7:30-8 drop off kids
8am back from dropping kids at school, study a bit for lessons I teach other days
8:30-10:00 work
10-10:30 break for accountability time with another work from home friend
10:30-12 more work
12-1 husband comes home for lunch and we eat leftovers together
1-2:30more work/teaching
2:30-4 workout at gym, shower, change clothes
4-4:30 pick up kids
4:30-5 collapse in a heap or run errands
5-6 prep for evening meetings
6-8 some nights meetings, some nights house cleaning, dinner usually at 7pm regardless (husband cooks)
8-10 TV or movie or reading
10p-6a sleep, hopefully
Weekends:
6am get up, stretch/yoga, drink tea, read silly things to spouse off the internet
8am start breakfast
9am wake kids, eat breakfast
10am clean kitchen, get showered & dressed
11am church (Sundays) or reading/crafting time (Saturday)
Noon light lunch(usually leftovers)
1-3 board games or other fun with kids or shopping
3-5 writing or laundry
5-7 hang out in kitchen with spouse while he cooks (I usually help)
7 dinner
8-10 TV or movie or reading
10p-6a sleep, hopefully
Once a week activities:
Lunch with friend*
Coffeehouse Work time with co-worker*
Writer’s Guild
Author’s Greenhouse
Critique Group
Spiritual Discussions class
Church
Fun afternoon with kids*
Once a month activities
Girls Night Out*
Date Night*
Board Game afternoon with friends*
Visit Dad/Be visited by Dad
Dinner with in-laws *
*not since Covid-19
Pen pals in foreign countries (colleagues kids), international travel (for conferences he spoke at), cool random gifts from visitors who came to stay for research, exposure to a lot of different cultures & food, all the pencils and notepads a girl could ever want, and the feeling that there was nowhere so far away that my didn’t already have a friend there.
I spoke today at the Tyler Public Library’s Writing Club Facebook Group on “Elements of Crime Writing.” It went really well, even with Facebook’s pop-ups. As you can see from the screenshot, I was once again speaking from my son’s room. Isn’t online speaking quirky?
In any case, I started out by talking about ProWritingAid’s Crime Week – an online writing conference focused on writing crimes and mysteries. I learned so much there, so this lesson was a giant summary of all the tips and tricks I learned there over the course of the week.
If you are a member of the TPLWC group, you can see the replay of the live video here: {link}
I will speak at the Tyler Public Library’s Writing Club Facebook Group on April 28, 2021 at noon about “Elements of Crime Writing.” If you are a member of the group, you can see me speak and join in on the fun writing prompts here: {link}
Today at the Tyler Public Library Writer’s Club, we asked people to reply to the prompts with videos of themselves reading their responses, in order to liven up and build our sense of community. I did introductory videos and also read all of my responses to writing prompts in comments. Several other people joined in and it was a lot of fun. What a good experiment!
On March 31, 2021 at noon, I will speak at the Tyler Public Library’s Writing Club Facebook Group about “Community Building.” Well, maybe saying I’m speaking this time is a little disingenuous. What we are doing this week is a bit different and possibly a fun experiment in a new way to run our online group. Come and join the group so you can see me speak and work on the fun writing prompts here: {link}
Lisa Holcomb 