Sandra Tayler's Blog, page 138

A Working Anniversary

Some days are not so much about the effectiveness. Instead they are about having half a dozen conversations via email which would have gone much faster on the phone, but did not actually involve the phone because I was trying to stay focused on work. The work which never actually got done because I kept being distracted by other work. It was a day about taking care of lots of random tasks which needed doing, but which somehow never quite made it onto the To Do list.

Among the things I...

Sorting my notes

As a result of all the cleaning and organizing I've been doing, I finally located all my writing notebooks. In theory I only have one notebook at any given time and I carry it with me. The truth is that sometimes I'm hit with an idea I need to write down and my notebook is not where I expect it to be. Then I grab a new notebook or an older notebook that still has blank pages. Right now I have one completely-full notebook which I need to refer to, and two mostly-full notebooks. And for...

The Process for Generating Ideas

"Where do you get your ideas?" my neighbor asked.

It is a question familiar to writers everywhere. Usually we cringe when we hear it, because the answer is not simple. There is not a single source for ideas, but a multiplicity of sources that are synthesized by the writer. So when a writer answers the question with "everywhere" it is the bare truth, but often unsatisfying to the person making the query.

This iteration of the question was a little different. My neighbor was asking about...

A list of cheerful things

It is the fourth Thursday of the school year and it is the first Thursday which has ended without a massive meltdown from some member of our family. I regard this as hopeful progress. It does leave me with the dilemma of figuring out what to write when I have no drama to report. I've pretty much covered all the possible landmines I fear for the school year and I'm pretty tired of trying to predict them. Also I wrote that nice post yesterday in which I tried to convince myself not to...

Without financial considerations

What would I do with the next year if money were not a concern?

There are things I would buy (like new glasses or a replacement for the embarrassing front room couch) that have been waiting for a long time. There are home repairs I would pay someone else to do. But the most important expenditure of money would be to hire some one else to be the business manager/shipping clerk. I would turn over all that product design, email management, convention preparation, and book shipping to someone e...

Fragments from today

It seems that picking up my daughter from high school transforms our van into a shuttle service. Thus far we've given rides to 6 different teens on at least 8 different occasions. Since there have only been 14 days of school we're giving rides more often than we aren't. It impacts my afternoon a little, extending the drive home by as much as 15 minutes, but I figure I'm using fuel to haul my van around anyway it might as well be full. Kiki likes it. Particularly when she gets to do the d...

Opportunity cost and the digital recorder

I am pondering the usefulness of a digital voice recorder. I've actually pondered it for a long time. I do a lot of reading out loud to my kids and have thought that it would be nice to record some of that. I've also thought of the usefulness of letting kids record their spelling lists as practice. Kiki could use it to record her Japanese vocabulary words. And the biggest motivator of all is that Link needs practice reading aloud. I could have him read to the recorder so that his...

The thing I am meant to do

Today's church meeting was full of things for me to mull over. Mostly it is still percolating, but one piece has bubbled to the surface. One of the speakers talked about not wasting time, but instead getting out and finding the thing we are meant to do. I pondered the question of what I am meant to do and the answer is multitudinous. I do not have one big thing that will define my life. I have many things which need me to accomplish them.

This is actually a relief. If I mess something ...

Helping an Introvert Survive Public High School

Kiki has been miserable since the first day of high school. The second day of school ended with her in overwhelmed tears. This was not particularly alarming or unexpected. So I began actively helping her manage her homework load. We got it all done. She finished every assignment on time. She got As. But by the end of the next week she was in tears again. She still felt overwhelmed. More than that, she was depressed. Everything seemed leached of joy and she cried at the thought of...

Bits and Pieces

I did not think I had racked up quite so large a physiological deficit, but the four hour long nap I took from 9am to 1pm tells me differently. Some of that was lack of sleep, but I believe the larger part was the various emotional tolls of the week. This was an emotionally costly week.

The last hour or so I've spent carefully watching the tribe of animal warrior children who have created a fort in the corner of my yard. Gleek has somehow become the tribal leader despite the fact that many ...