TOTAL WORD COUNT: 5, 283 (Wrote 1,767 today)
HOW LONG I WROTE: 1 hour (From 7pm until 8pm. I wrote using my laptop while sitting on my bed in my bedroom. With the door closed. And the timer on my phone counting down the hour for me.)
WHAT ELSE I DID:
Got up at 6:45am. Took a shower. Got dressed. Made the kid’s lunches. Put the dishes away. Got the kids up. Made breakfast for the kids. Signed their agendas. Packed their backpacks. Finished a letter I need to mail. Gathered my own stuff for my own bag. Kissed the hubby bye (ahem). Drove the kids to school. Waited with them ’till the bell rang. Talked to one of the parents. Drove to work (stopped at Tim’s for coffee). Worked from 8:45am ’till 1:45pm. Went to the bank(s). Drove to the kid’s school. Picked up the kids. Hung out with the kids. Played cards with Miller (apparently, she’s into cards these days!). Prepped a three-day workshop on personal narrative I’m giving later this week. Finished a blog post about teaching (that was due in October!). Put a load of laundry in the wash. Got dinner ready (realized needed extra, sent a text to the hubby to pick it up). Ate dinner. Cleaned the dishes/food off the table. Swept the floor. Wrote (1 hour, precisely). Switched clothes to dryer. Folded clothes from previous load. Watched The Voice. Wrote this post. Put heat and castor oil on my knee (it’s been hurting!). Helped get the kids ready for bed. Read with Miller and Jett.
*I have to say that even though I only wrote for one hour, what came out of me was…invigorating and surprising and I feel like…where did that come from? I felt like I could have kept writing and writing but Miller came in and asked me to help her with her art. And she was so alive and fresh and beautiful. I could write and write, but then the things I’d miss…are heartbreaking. The words will wait. They’ll always wait. The kids…well, we need each other to make the words magical.
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 