a better day

...
Just as busy today, but DS2 was way less obnoxious and that made all the difference.

DS1 left a door open on the van last night, so the battery was dead and I needed to call my neighbor for a jump-start. I'm so thankful he was home... he came over with his 2 little ones, and I held onto his screaming DD (15 months) while he got everything set up. The whole thing only took about 5 minutes but it was an inconvenience for him. It's nice to have nice neighbors!

So then we took DD to school and went for a drive, taking the long route to Joanne's craft store to make sure the battery got charged up. I bought some yarn for more mitten/hat/scarf projects. Then we went to Border's and got DS2 his cookie before story time... that point marked the distinct change in his behavior, he has been back to what we call "Personality A". He even did all the songs and dances during story time! That was a first, after going for 5 months now...

The rest of the day was a blur of picking up DD from a bday party at Build-a-Bear Workshop (she had a blast, fussed about having to leave the mall) and a late afternoon trip to Trader Joe's, cooking dinner with Mom... I have no idea where the time has gone.

Oh, wait -- I've been in here responding to PMs and journal entries and the occasional odd post! I'm definitely going to have to watch it in here, this place is like entering a time warp!

I read Lora's latest journal entry and of course had to add my own reply. I sat there like an idiot for literally 15 minutes trying to figure out what to say, and completely failed to come up with anything coherent. So I just gave up and went short with my sentiments, but I wanted to say something about my feelings here where it's OK to be a goober if I can't put the right words together...

I'm accutely aware of how Lora has re-arranged her life to make all this possible. I've made monetary donations to LCL, but not nearly enough in terms of "value received". This may seem tangential, but bear with me: I subscribe to the Writer's Weekly ezine, edited by Angela Adair Hoy (I strongly recommend this to any aspiring writers out there: Writer's Weekly), and I've learned a tremendous amount about writing from Angela. One of her strongest admonitions to new writers is never, ever write for free, "for exposure". She has editorialized, compellingly, on the subject several times, and I agree with her 100%.

Yet, I am about to launch a column in LCL Magazine, a gig which pays no cash. Why am I doing this? Because I can. I can write, and one of the best ways I can contribute to LCL is by adding content. It's not "the least I can do" to show my appreciation for what I get from this site, it's the best I can do. I would never be able to make a cash donation to LCL equal to the "value" of my columns, because I'm not earning anything at all right now. I am producing, though, and I'm happy to contribute some of that production to LCL Magazine.

Things are in a nascent stage right now, and I'm looking forward to see how they change and grow. Whenever I can help, I will.