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How to Procrastinate in Six Easy Steps

Get busy writing!
Get busy writing!

The plan was to spend the day writing.  It was an easy Sunday morning and I didn’t have anything planned.  The kids were busy doing homework so I was distraction free.  As night fell, I realized something about myself.  I am the world’s best procrastinator.  Let me show the way is six easy steps:

  1. Wake up and immediately turn on the television.  I figured I would watch  30 minutes of Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC.  That turned into an hour and a half.  But no worries, it is important to stay informed about current events.  It can only enhance my writing.
  2. Check email.  You have to keep the inbox clean.  Besides, all those emails about publishing, blogging and writing can be considered research.
  3. Now I’m hungry.  Prepare a late brunch of pancakes and sausage.  You can’t write on an empty stomach.
  4. Cell phone dings.  It’s my turn in Ruzzle.  I discovered this game on Friday when my co-worker sent me a request.  I am hooked.  50 games later I took a break.
  5. Check in with the hubby.  Daily communication can only strengthen a long distance relationship.  I can’t help it if we talked for over an hour.
  6. Now it’s time to cook dinner.  Have to feed the kids.  After supervising the cleaning of the kitchen and getting things taken care of for the next day, I’m too tired to focus on the characters in my head.

When I named this blog, Unwritten, I saw it as a call to action not a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I’ll do better tomorrow.

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Does Absence Make the Heart Grow Fonder?

I don’t say it enough when you are around

 But I feel it acutely when you are gone

I take it for granted when we are together

 But I long for it when you leave

I can smile without you being here

But I feel more alive in your arms

Long distance relationships suck.

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On to the Next – 2013

2013 new year

 

2012 was a year full of changes.  Looking forward to more positive moves in 2013.

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A Parent’s Worst Nightmare – Newtown, CT

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I’m all cried out.

When the news broke on Friday, December 14th about the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I watched in horror along with the rest of the country.  Another school shooting.  But this one was different.  This time someone targeted babies.  Little kids aged five through seven.  This murderer killed 20 children and six adults.

I am a mother and I felt this event on a very personal level.  I send my children to school every day fully expecting them to return home.  Just like those parents in Newtown.  Now that illusion is shattered.

All that you are left with is the why?  Why did this happen?  Can we stop the killings from happening?  And we look for someone or something to blame.  The media and politicians will talk about gun control, help for the mentally ill and the need for more security in our schools.  There are hard questions that should be asked.  There are solutions that this country needs to enact.  But will it really keep us safe?  Will it really protect our children from evil?

Past events have shown us that an individual intent on doing harm will find a way around our laws and our protections.  Evil is persistent like that.

Yet, we find a way to wake up in the morning and feel positive about the future.  We find a way to cherish the moments we have with those we love.  We find a way to comfort our children and promise to protect them from harm.  We pretend that we are in control.  We rebuild that illusion for our own sanity’s sake.

What happened in Newtown, Connecticut was every parent’s worst nightmare.  I pray that they find peace in the support on a nation.

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Live the Quote – Weekly Affirmation

Too much fear and all you’ll get is silence.

Be without fear.

                     – A. L. Kennedy

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Unplugging Your Kid

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My daughters, Princess and Diva, are typical teenagers.  By typical I mean that a cell phone and/or iPod is always attached to them like an extra limb.  This fact is relevant to the story.  Let me back up for a moment.

Diva got into trouble at school.  Trouble that required a phone call from the assistance principal.  I hate getting those phone calls.  Consequences had to be suffered.

I did what any parent would do.  I did the gadget strip.  Gone were the cell phone, iPod and school issued tablet.  Access to the home computer and phone were restricted.  She was on a major timeout.

And she was miserable.  Which played into the genius of my plan.  Having a gadget junkie for a kid means that the most effective punishment is one that deprives her of her stuff.  (Insert Dr. Evil laugh here.)

However, there was one side effect that I didn’t anticipate.  Diva got on my last nerve.  The kid was utterly lost without the technical means to entertain herself.  She was bored.

I suggested reading a book (books are boring) or watching TV (my show isn’t on).  I told her to write in a journal (we do that in school) or clean her closet (I already did).  My suggestions were shot down in rapid succession.  Her solution was to find me no matter where I was in the house and tell me she was bored.  Then we had to have the discussion about choices and consequences.  She would disappear for a while only to reappear and we would have the same conversation.

I’m losing it, people.  But I must remain strong.  The punishment must be complete.

(Here she comes again.)

“Hi, Mom,” she says.

I silence a scream.  “Hey, Diva.  Want to read “The Hunger Games”?  I have it on my Nook.”

“No, I don’t like to read.  I just want to mess with you.”

I ask you.  Who is really be punished here?