You Should Rest...

I hate being sick. I mean, who doesn’t, right?

But I think I hate it because I get frustrated easily. Take this past weekend: Over the last week, I’ve felt more and more tired, my throat hurt on and off, and my brain just wasn’t up to speed. I blew it off as some extra things going on at work and popped some Vitamin C. Woke up Friday morning and my immune system had given up the ghost!

Turns out I had sinus and ear infections. I spent most of Friday and Saturday sleeping. That was the best thing for me, BUT I was frustrated.

Like most people, I have a list of things that need to get done (mine’s an actual list, as opposed to a mental one). Its hard for me to ignore it for any reason. (An online instructor recently got on to me for not playing more.) LOL So when I’m walking around on Sunday, moaning and hacking, and the hubby tells me to go back o bed, I say, “But I have so much I need to do.”

Now, I’m not stupid. Logically I know I need to rest. I’m sick. But I still feel the mental pull of that To Do list, of all the things that were supposed to get done this weekend. The result? Frustration.

Am I the only one with this problem? Because I have no idea how to turn it off. I did what I could Sunday morning until I HAD to lay down. Then I got up and wrote this blog – because it was On The List.

Heaven help me!

Angel

Coming Soon!!!

Join us on Wednesday when Harlequin Special Edition author Helen Lacey visits the Playground... all the way from Australia! :)

Sick Children

I have been dealing with sickness in my house off and on for the last month. I'm ready for us all to be well! Zilla had a virus...he NEVER gets sick. And therefore, when he does, he's miserable and mopey and I feel the need to pamper him.

The girls have both been sick. Sweet Pea three times in the last month. In fact, she started not feeling well yesterday and is currently curled up with her blanky, pillow and some movies in the vacant office right now. I will be calling the doctor's office as soon as they open.

Last week is was Baby Girl. I lost Thursday and Friday to staying home with her. You'd think I'd have liked having a couple extra days off. Not when I have so much to do. I'm ready for my life to go back to normal!

All things considered, it could be much worse. I mean so far (knock on wood) we've managed to avoid the swine flu. They certainly might feel yucky but not enough to really scare me. I'm just tired of the constant interruptions to my schedule and my life. I had stuff planned for today that did not include a 2 hour trip to the doctor's office!! The second one in two weeks I might add.

At this rate I'm never going to get to chapter three. Sigh.

Am I being selfish? Are you dealing with illness in your life? Have you fought the swine flu?

Instigator

Cough, Hack, Wheeze

I'm sick as a dog at the moment and a bit loopy on meds right now so I figured I'd share something that always makes me feel better. I'm posting pictures of hot men. Sorry, ladies, I'm keeping pics of DH for my eyes only so you'll have to content yourselves with these. Gonna go cuddle with my baby and feel better.





Instigator

P.S. I've got a TV show theme going here in case you're wondering.

The Three Things

So, in staring at the blank screen of my computer trying to come up with a topic for my blog today I realized something. I can basically break my life down into three topics of conversation that keep reoccurring: illness (mine, the girls, the animals), Animals (goats, cats, dogs, chickens) and family (Zilla, the girls, the Playfriends). This flash of insight came while I quickly ran through and discarded several topics all centering around these three things.

This makes my life seem very boring. And perhaps it's the pounding headache and experience of trying to hack up a lung that's affecting my general optimism...but I'm not exactly happy about that.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I have a fantastic life. I'm living my dream - difficult as it might be sometimes, but everything worth having is worth working hard for. I have a fantastic husband, 2 amazing children, amazing friends and on occasion I get to feed a baby goat a bottle of milk. No one is deathly ill. No one is unhappy. No one spends the day crying - although I really do need to break Baby Girl of her nasty habit of whining. In my head I realize that boring is GOOD. Boring means everything is going fine.

And I suppose I do have my writing to escape to when I need adventure and pulse pounding moments. And books, there are always books to read if I feel the need to slip into someone else's pretend world for awhile.

So, I'm going to take some Tylenol, head to bed and be thankful for my boring life (and lack of interesting blog topic. You knew I'd get to that, right?). While I do that, why don't you tell me what three topics your life would boil down to?

Instigator

P.S. The winner from Heidi's guest blog with us on Tuesday is Caroline. Please email Problem Child with your snail mail address to claim your prize. As always, prizes not claimed within 7 days will be re-awarded.

Life After NaNoWriMo

For twenty-nine days in November, I ate, drank, thought and slept writing. And somewhere around 6 PM on November 29, I hit 50,000 words and became a NaNoWriMo winner. I walked around the shopping center where I'd been writing all day at Barnes and Noble and I don't think my feet touched the ground at all.

It was a surreal feeling. I'd actually done it. I'd written 50,000 words. And I had no idea it would feel so damn good. At 50K, the book wasn't finished though. I still have two chapters to write, and once I do that, I will have to edit and polish.

I actually skipped a chapter on that last day. It was an addition to the book during the pre-NaNo organizing days and when I got to that chapter and was still short of 50K, I just skipped it because I knew I would dither my time away and accomplish zip. I knew what happened in the next chapter so I wrote that instead.

On November 30, I just enjoyed the last day of having #2 son home for the holidays and goofed off around the house. On December 1, I came down with some horrendous virus and/or cold and spent the next six days in bed or on the sofa watching countless episodes of Law and Order, a couple movies and some Food Network shows I'd never seen before.

The NaNo gods held off the sickness until I'd hit 50K, or at least I like to believe that. If I'd had a week like last week during November, I'd have never made my goal.

Of course, now I'm back amongst the living, the Christmas shopping is almost complete (anybody know where I can get a Mario Kart Wii with Wheel at a reasonable price?) and I've even started on a few things due in January. But I feel like an absolute slacker because I'm not working on the novel. I didn't feel like it last week, but I have no excuse now, especially after the Playfriends helped me brainstorm the missing chapter over the weekend.

We'd all gone to the NaNo TGIO (Thank God It's Over) party and went by the coffee shop afterwards because we just don't get to spend enough time together. When there was a lull in the conversation I said, "I need some plotting help with my book, and I'm sure that's a question you never thought you'd hear from me." Well, they jumped right in and gave me some great ideas and I believe I have a handle on chapter 10 now. I just need to put on my mystical muse beads, light my special candle, put the creativity CD on with the stereo headphones and write, write, write.

Have you ever gone after something really big and then felt a big letdown after you achieved it?

P.S. Here's a little Playfriend fun. Y'all didn't know we were so talented, did you?

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