It’s So Good To Be Back!
Yeah, remember that song, Sister Golden Hair by America? I always loved this line:
“I’ve been one poor correspondent, and I’ve been too, too hard to find, but it doesn’t mean you ain’t been on my mind.”
As the song says, it doesn’t mean I wasn’t thinking about all of you out there, blog followers, and fellow WANA’ers. I will be catching up and getting back in the round of reading, following, blogging and tweeting away this week.
Some of the time I was dealing with life issues, some of it I was helping some friends through a few crises, some of it was my own body needing some down time, and demanding it by catching cold.
Mostly though, I needed to step away from writing. Part of that was my own process in writing my WIP, but I also had a breakdown in my faith in myself. How many of you out there have had that moment of questioning: “Is this really worth it? Can I really make this writing thing work?”
The short answer is yes. No, I’m not getting paid yet, but in the round of distractions that kept me from the computer, I kept finding my thoughts straying to, ‘oh, I should write that down’, or, ‘that’d make a great blog post.’ I found the direction I needed for the major conflict in my WIP. I found that even though the words slow down for a while, they always come back.
I recently read an article that said our best solutions come from our unconscious. When we ‘let go’ of an issue or problem that is bothering us, it frees our subconscious mind to put its supercomputing powers to work. I have had plenty to take my mind off my writing angst.
What distractions? I have 26 of them to be exact; chicks arrived! A little over a week ago, Hub went to the post office and collected our order of chicks. Yes, post office, they came through the mail from McMurray Hatchery. And yes, they do just fine without food or water for the trip. They still have a remnant of yolk sac that provides them with enough nutrition and hydration, so they do not need to eat or drink for the first three days. This adaptation allows mama chicken to hatch all her eggs, which can take a few days, and then she takes them out of the nest to get food. It also allows hatcheries to ship live chicks via priority mail.
They have been a handful to care for! Feeding and watering twice a day, changing their litter, plus all my other animal and people chores meant I fell asleep as soon as I was done eating dinner, at 8:30. It’s a good thing most of them won’t be around for very long, the 16 meat birds will be ready for the freezer in 2 months. The 10 egg-layers are going to be the only permanent residents. Here’s some pics of the little darlings. They’ve grown amazingly fast just in the first week.
I’ve also started my garden for the year. Hub built me my first cold frame:
There is sits, with carrots, lettuce and spinach seeds safely tucked underneath and, hopefully, germinating. This weekend I’ll work on getting my tomatoes, beans, peas and corn going. I might try peppers too. Those seeds I’ll start inside though, too cold still for those tender things outside.
So hello again to all my friends out there in the CyberWorld! It’s pretty fast paced out there I know, hope you all remember me. If not, I’ll remind you! I’m looking forward to catching up on all of your blogs too!
