The Use of Pictures and other stories

Ah, New Year's Resolutions. For the first time in my life, I've actually looked back at my goals folder over this week, worked on things, and added more. Successes include: dragging myself out of bed in the dark every morning half an hour before Lou's alarm, adding 5500 words to the draft I'd like to finish by the end of January, and using the curling iron on my hair every day.

I think it helps that in making my lists, I included pictures:

Not that I've worked on the garden yet. It's just one of my favorite pages.
And no, those aren't pictures of my actual garden.

Now I just need to go add pictures to the page that talks about getting on the rowing machine.

* * *

Lou and I discovered, after having to work very hard to get Christmas books onto shelves—his new commentary got stuck sideways on top of a packed row—that, once again, we were out of bookshelf space. So we built more:

Room to grow!

Just one more step toward my goal of living in a library.

* * *

Maia: Ooh, I like the little rocks in this dirt. My favorite!

Me: Maia, DON’T DIG UP THE PLANTS.

Maia: I LIKE THE LITTLE ROCKS IN THIS DIRT. MY FAVORITE.

Me: $%^*#^*&

Which of us is winning? You decide:

The cat who can't dig, or the crazy woman with masking tape on her flowerpot?

* * *

Writers' link of the week: quirks, with room to comment, over at Rachelle Gardner's. I enjoyed both video and comments, and wish I could claim coffee and Oreos—or more likely, chocolate chip cookies—as part of my must-have writing process so I could justify having them every day.

* * *

Music of the week: after Monday's post, all I can do is put up some good modern Christian music, right? Here's some Messiaen, whom I can never decide if I like or not. I've never understood purely atonal, cacophonous music—which is yet another glass of Haterade—but at least he wasn't just throwing paint at canvas. Sometimes I almost feel as if he's making sense, as below.


* * *

Random amusement of the week: while we're still barely inside the Christmas season, Do-It-Yourself Star Wars Snowflakes.

For something less random and more amusing in the sense of getting the mind involved, check out Masha's blog for 50 Days of Self-Reflection. If the next 47 questions are anything like the first three, we'll all learn a lot of unique and fascinating stuff about ourselves and each other.

* * *

And now, having dumped the cat off my lap to fetch the camera and thereby guaranteed myself some ankle attacks later in the day, I'm off to clean house and write more story.

Happy weekend!