Make time for the good stuff

The past week has been busy.

I wrote a little and took the rest of the day off Monday, started my work week Tuesday, and Tuesday and Wednesday are normally hard days for me at my newspaper gig at The Clarion-Ledger. Wednesday night the kids and I went to Wednesday night church, something that does us all good. I took a vacation day on Thursday to catch a Mississippi State game with my Gentleman Friend, and then it was back to work on Friday, theater that night (we caught "The Grapes of Wrath" at New Stage) and then today, Saturday, it was Make A Difference Day with Team CL at Mission First in the morning, followed by fun with the kids and some editing at the office in the evening.

On a normal week, I usually write 3,000-4,000 words, but I don't think I hit 1,500 in the past seven days.

But that is OK. Because I got to spend time with people I love, and I mean boyfriend, kids, church friends, coworkers, friends at Mission First, everybody. We cheered, prayed, ate, got some culture, painted a mural by Marshall Ramsey, planted a garden and beautified the neighborhood.

I take my fledgling career as an author seriously, but not so seriously I can't drink in the good stuff, and the past week, though busy, was loaded with some really good stuff. No book is worth missing that.

Make sure you make time for the good stuff, because it doesn't come around all the time.

When it rains, it pours

OK, our household plumbing disaster wasn't quite this bad, but anything that happens before 7 a.m. gets magnified.

I'm running off Special K and a pot of French Roast after staying up late for the Mississippi State-Kentucky game (Hail State!) and the Dear Son is upstairs taking a shower before school. All seems to be well so far.

Dear Daughter says her brother needs to get out of the shower. Just as I am thinking, "Why are they fighting over the shower when there is another one downstairs?" I look in the dining room, where water is pouring out of the light fixture. And in the living room, where water is coming out of the ceiling vents.

After becoming a single parent, I said on more than one occasion that if Bob Vila showed up on my doorstep, I'd marry him. Because plumbing is totally an area where I am a damsel in distress. I can plunge things and I replaced a flapper on a commode, but otherwise, I am clueless. The Gentleman Friend, who fixed a leaky pipe for me this summer, has been texted. So far, he's pretty good at rescuing.

Upstairs shower is now off limits, and we're thanking God for the downstairs bath and for more blog fodder.

Off to write ...

I try to remember that because I am an editor by trade. I run on deadlines. Everything has a deadline in my house. Kids getting on the school bus, me leaving for the office, etc.

And I write books on the side with deadlines in mind. I have to have a goal. Goals, to me, are like breathing.

That doesn't mean I reach them all, but I have to have something to shoot for. That is why I am already looking at planners for 2014. I have to write my goals and timelines down just so I can check them off. Everyone has their weirdnesses, and writing and scratching things off in a planner is mine.

So with the book I am currently working on, I am behind where I want to be. But I have some excellent reasons for that. And I like to think that I run my personal deadlines and goals -- they don't run me. Every good goal needs adjusting.

So with that in mind, I may write a little today, but I don't consider myself behind. I am good right where I am. Now, off to write.

Begin the begin

So today I was driving to work, and there was a five-car pile-up around every corner and curve, so it took a while.

You live in the city long enough, and you learn that you can either have a conniption whenever there is a wreck, or you can just drink your coffee and play your CDs and wait patiently. Having a cow about it doesn't speed anything up.

I got out a CD from a leadership class my employer was kind enough to send me to last year. I love it. Each of us had to name a song that said something about either personality, profession or outlook. This was the first one on the disc, from a colleague in Tennessee.

REM's "Begin the Begin." That one stands out because our instructions were, since we were meeting in Nashville, to pick a country song. This was a handicap for folks who don't like country.

It reminded me today that we begin again every morning. We're never stuck in the middle, mired in a rut. We begin all the time. So let's begin the begin today. And tomorrow.

P.S. Here's my song from Gannett's Leadership 5.0 class. Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Tender When I Want To Be." "I have a heart that's proud, you bet. I have a mind that won't forget. And I have arms that are strong yet tender when they want to be. You can be the will that finds the way. You can be the one who saves the day. But show me tender when it's time to say exactly how it ought to be." Pretty good advice, and you can dance to it.

A little paint, a lot of happiness

It is amazing what a little paint will do for your outlook.

I had a kitchen with plaid wallpaper. Bold green and pink plaid wallpaper. It needed an update, but I really had no idea what I wanted to do. My Gentleman Friend listened to me talk about saving up for a total re-do, and when I had gone on a while, he quietly said, "Paint doesn't cost very much."

And it doesn't. And he was right on the impact a little paint can make.

I started by looking at paint samples. Olympic has some that are actually Post-its, so I peeled those off and stuck them on different walls, trying to figure out what was going to work. I was also intimidated by coordinating colors, so these little cards that included four different coordinating shades made it super easy.

Here is how it's turned out. I have this yummy spicy color in the kitchen, a soft yellow in the dining room and creamy white in the hall.

I am quite pleased. We also painted the trim, baseboards, doors, chair rail and cabinets in the creamy white.

Here is the thing, though. For less than $100 in paint, the house got a new outlook. I still don't have re-do money but I don't think I needed a re-do. Just some fresh color and a change.

And I will throw in advice for free. Don't wait to freshen things up. Life goes by fast. Now I love my kitchen. It makes me happy just looking at those colors. It's amazing the joy that can fit in a can of paint.

Wise beyond her years

This blog post isn't going to be as dressed up as usual, because I am using the home computer, which is on its last legs, and because today is a writing day. My second book's not going to write itself, and after not writing Saturday, and not writing much on Sunday, I need to knock out some work.

But this blog post is a good one.

I was talking with the Dear Daughter Sunday night on the way home from her church youth group meeting, and she asked me how the book was coming. My kids are great like that -- I'm not just asking them how their day was at school. They're asking me how my day was.

So I said it's good, but I had hoped to write more than I had this past weekend and was still formulating plans.

And then she said, get ready for it ... this:

"I think writing a book is like driving at night. You may not see the whole distance, but you can see what the headlights let you see, and that's enough."

She is 12. Wise beyond her years, that one.

Sometimes I can be such a planner that I want to have all the information before I get started. And that could take a while. In so many areas of life, you may not see how things are going to turn out. You just have to start and be happy with the distance your headlights let you see, so to speak.

So this morning, I may not have a complete plan, and I am writing on a computer that I hope will hang on for me, but I have the headlights on. As long as I can see the next few feet ahead of me, I'm good.