I love it when a plan comes together....

Took the girls to the local garden centre for lunch and bought a fridge magnet, to remind me not to fuss over the wee trivialities (e.g. Little Tootsie only wanting to eat the chocolate off the top of her cake, which cost me £1.70, and Big Toots insisting on wearing her glasses to go and read what the different cakes were, even though I told her she didn't have to wear them at that point).  We were heading out the door, me feeling very harrassed, when I spotted the magnet.  I don't even know why I was looking in that direction - it was just one of those moments where I was being pointed at something valuable.  It reads:  While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.  So - next time I get a cake, I might just eat all the chocolate off the top.

So far today, I've written one paragraph.  Not much, I'll grant you, but it's quality rather than quantity.  And it highlights one of the themes of the book:  Sometimes things are simple.  Sometimes things are complicated.  Sometimes they're both.

There are some days when I feel pressure to put my head down and just WRITE something, but I'm giving myself a break.  I have ideas bubbling, snippets of dialogue forming.  But if I rush to write it down, I'm going to spend a whole lot longer re-writing, editing and potentially ending up with something pretty rubbish.  In my 2 hour post-lunch writing slot, I get interrupted.  My girls are good (they're absolute angels compared to many other kids their age!) but they're still too young to fully understand that my writing time needs to be uninterrupted.  So I get called to bring more juice, or cut up a kiwi, or simply to tell me what exciting programme is starting on the telly.  Plus I can already hear what's on the telly and it's distracting.  So I use the time to browse on Authonomy, read chapters of my reference books and jot down ideas.  Then, when they go back to their Dads at 6pm, that's when I switch on the laptop and the kettle.  I know I'm doing well when I reach for the cuppie and find it's absolutely stone cold!