I took the afternoon off of work because I have far too much life stuff to do at the moment. A very dear friend is getting married in four weeks, so the next two weekends are full of festivities to celebrate her single life, and that which lies beyond — marriage. 🙂

I think our family’s next free weekend is in mid-July. We have family scattered throughout the state that I want to see this summer/fall, so I know more weekends will be booked before long. That’s the way the summers go. Add in extra outdoor chores and kids who want to be at the park every second…you get my drift. I know you do.

In the midst of the busy season, I’m craving time with my manuscript so I can do this revision justice and get this baby closer to publication. When I have the time the writing is flowing well. I hope other people like this book — a part of me is sure no one else will get it. But I can’t think about that now. What I need to think about is when to fit in writing.

Before I had kids, I used to write in the early morning hours, before work. That way I did my thing first, and felt good about it all day long. Back then it was a good writing time for me, because my internal editor was still waking up. But I’ve learned to ignore her when writing a first draft. That doesn’t threaten the existence of mankind, or anything, like I seemed to think back then. I’ve learned not to take myself so seriously, and I credit that with part of my success in word count over the past few years. Maybe a little of that is age, too? I was more concerned with people taking me seriously in my twenties.

Back to writing time. Evenings aren’t awesome, because my brain is tired. I get my best word count (quality and quantity) in the morning, and it seems like the earlier the better…which I guess means it’s time to start getting up earlier. I do get more sleep these days, now that my youngest girl is one and a half. The way it’s gone so far is that if I get up, the kids get up. (Okay, enough ranting J.R. — didn’t you say you had a busy weekend? Shouldn’t you be doing something productive?) Sigh. Yes I should. And off to it I go!