Jezebel Part Deux

I have five weeks until the second draft of Jezebel is due to my editor. If that sounds like a long time, well, to a writer, that tempts a lapse into outright hysteria. But I have a modest goal, which I meet every single day, no matter what: ten pages. Ten pages added to the manuscript every day. I often work late at night, in addition to my morning hours, but nothing beats the peace that making steady progress offers.

That was my big lesson over Christmas. Normally, when all my little ones are home from school, the house is in tatters by lunch and my nerves are fried. I hate a messy house. I love the peace of a clean and orderly house, which is one thing no one at my old infertility clinic ever talked to me about. They did not warn me that these precious bundles would one day explode all over my living room, so to speak. So this season, every day, I cranked the hiphop and dance music up to ear-bleed level, set the timer for ten minutes, and we all did what came to be known as a Flash Clean. Just ten minutes of cleaning as fast as you can.  Then we were done for the day. And the house sparkled. I can't say it was peaceful, but it was clean and orderly, and we devoted ourselves to cookie baking, target practice, puppy wrangling, and all the other fun stuff that makes our family ours.

So now I am a huge fan of small daily goals. Ten pages a day. Ten minutes a day.  Life is good!