Sandra Tayler's Blog, page 146

Teaching the Children

One of the heaviest responsibilities for me as a parent is to make sure that my children are firmly grounded in the religious beliefs that I hold dear. This is primarily important because of what I believe about this life and life hereafter, but it is also important because faith has been an essential tool for me in handling life. When I am faced with things that are difficult or frightening, I turn to prayer, church, scriptures, and personal revelation. These are the means by which I...

The Schlock Mercenary Anniversary Party

Being a blogger is a serious disadvantage for certain activities, such as planning a surprise party for your spouse. For the last week and a half my head has been full of stuff about which I could not blog. I've been chewing my nails looking at the weather, stressing over the fact that the party time was scheduled at the same hour as the book signings of some friends, and trying to guess whether everything would go well. It did.

Howard was pretty sure I had something up my sleeve for...

Schlock Mercenary is 10 Years old today

Ten years ago today the first Schlock Mercenary strip went up on the web. Howard had only been drawing for a couple of months. I still considered the whole project a nice hobby for him. I supported it, because I believe it is good for people to have hobbies, but I had not yet bought into the vision. I had no idea that this one little strip on the web was the beginning of so many dreams fulfilled. I had no idea of all the work ahead of us, or of the things I would need to become to help t...

Unexpected Evening at Home

I planned my whole day around the fact that I was going to escape my house and hang out with adults in the evening. It was all arranged. Kiki was going with Howard. Link would babysit. But then the scout camping trip changed locations from a campground somewhere to my neighbor's back yard. Link heard the news and suddenly switched from being glad to miss it, to being excited about going. I could not look into his bright, hopeful eyes and say "No you can't camp out with your friends...

Short updates

This week I have been focusing on getting myself and the kids out of the house more. It is working. We've been to a park, a church activity, and gone swimming. I'm beginning to fulfill the promises I made to the kids about how this summer would go.

This week I am also prepping for shipping. Janci and I sorted invoices. I've got all the t-shirts and will be folding them tomorrow too. I even placed my first orders for shipping supplies. Next week there will be more invoice sorting....

Patch and the bike

It seemed like a good plan to send the kids out to ride bikes. The only trouble is that Patch felt himself too big for the little training wheeled bike, but had not yet had time to learn how to ride on two wheels. I was distracted by the piles of invoices on the kitchen table. So I barely paid attention other than an absent admonishment to Link that he should help his little brother. It did not go well. Link wanted to help, but did not really know how to teach someone else to ride a...

Short update, Second week of summer

I'm having trouble finding my writing head space. Partly this is a normal effect of having the kids home all day. It is also due to the fact that my laptop still refuses to speak to the internet. I've got a friend coming to help trouble shoot later in the week. But for now it leaves me blogging down in my basement office. I much prefer to do my writing in a room with windows.

We had family home evening tonight. Its the first time in weeks. It is the first time in even longer that...

Sprinkler Rainbows and Cottonwood Fluff

I stood at the kitchen table and announced plans for next week, which included a day trip to Salt Lake and a swim day. The older two kids nodded, but the reaction from the younger two kids was to lament that we did not go swimming this week. It was the first week of summer and I'd promised we could go swimming once per week, but we had not yet actually gone.

I felt frustration and anger with their reaction. I spent the whole week a a dead run, scrambling to adapt to a new life rhythm while ...

Endless Saturday Afternoon

So far the summer feels like one endless Saturday. This is because all the kids are home all day, just like they are on Saturdays. So I float anchorless through the week, continually surprised to discover that today is in fact Friday (Or Tuesday, or Thursday). Sundays are anchored by church, everything else floats.

Despite the drifting nature of the week, I am still getting lots of work done. This is good and necessary. Every day brings us closer to book shipping, GenCon, and AussieCon. ...

Observations on June 3rd

At 11:30 last night I was falling asleep on my feet, but I did not want to go to bed because the house was so quiet. I was in need of quiet. So I lay on the couch and dozed off while Howard played Oblivion. He woke me at 12:30 so I could go to bed. I shambled up stairs, changed into pajamas, collapsed into bed, where I found myself awake and fretful. I realized that the QFT preliminary layout was looming in my mind and making everything else feel impossible. So I got out of bed and...