Reflections and Ramblings of a Not-So-Superwoman

We've had more adventure this month. My fourteen year old flipped a Go-Kart Sunday afternoon and broke his upper left arm straight through. After being transferred from the Cape to Children's Hospital in Boston via ambulance for prospective surgery, they decided to go ahead and try a cast with a neck sling instead. Of course, this was a twelve hour process because nothing happens quickly in hospitals. We're thankful to have a great one in our back yard though, so no complaints.

Well, maybe a few complaints. Like the fact that our camera is still broken and hasn't been replaced and no one with a good camera phone was there to commemorate the moment. I have a photo on my phone but no idea how to get it off the phone and onto the Internet. I'm phone challenged.

And the fact that I must admit to getting older, as the doctors and nurses seemed sooo young (Yes, Carri Ann, the whole Doogie Howser thing was true!) and I still don't feel fully recovered from the all nighter in the ER.

And those hard plastic chairs. If we have to sit in a room all night, could we at least have something a tad more comfortable? Just a thought.

So now he is a one-armed typer, still intent on completing his NaNo novel by the end of the month. If he can do, I will be super impressed. Maybe I'll start referring to him as Is-So-Superteen. Or not.

In other news, my coffee machine broke and I ordered a new one on ebay. A fancy, shiny one at half the cost because it's refurbished. I've had success with re-furbished products before and was hoping this would be a good thing. 'Cause coffee is a good thing.

No luck. I received it today minus the promised gold tone filter and with a hopper that won't lock, rendering the unit useless. The seller is Top Seller Rated and has a 100% Feedback rating, so I am hopeful he will make it right. Stay tuned.

The NaNo novel continues. I had hit a writer's block and decided to write through it with an extraneous scene involving a regular, fun day for my MC who rarely has any fun. Lo and behold, a new character showed up and somehow the plot moved forward when least expected. Hmmm. Somehow writing nonsense works. Which is a good thing because the challenge of the day is to add space pirates into the story. Can I make it fit the plot? We shall see.

I still have reviews to write as well. I've been disappointed in several products this year and feel like such a scrooge when I write negative reviews. I have to be honest though, or the reviews are pretty much worthless. So Scrooge I remain. I do have a couple of positive ones soon though. Yay for liking things!

My daughter is weird. I knew this already but there is yet more evidence. We took our 16 year old and 12 year old to the eye doctors yesterday. The 12 year old is nearsighted, no surprise there as both his parents are as well. But my daughter? She has one nearsighted eye and one farsighted eye. Who knew? Poor girl can't see coming or going. In a week she'll discover the world is no longer beautifully fuzzy. But she will be able to read her own subtitles, so there's that.

I haven't reflected or rambled in a very long time. I'm in the midst of reading the book, A Novel Idea (review to come, there's my commercial), and as I was reading today I came across the encouragement to make time to write, even if you have nothing to say. I haven't had much to say in awhile and what words I have are being used up by my reviewing. Bah, I still have words left. I'm female after all. But I haven't felt motivated to find the spare moments to blog.

But here I am. Blogging about nothing, but blogging.

So what's on my mind today? Scheduling for one. I am schedule resistant. I want to run with the wind, go with the flow, move with whatever whim the day brings. I've discovered with home schooling that having some kind of schedule to fall back on actually gives me more freedom. I can pick up our Sonlight Teacher's Guide and decide to read the entire week's worth of history one day, the week's read aloud another day, and science the next. Which is actually what we did this week. So maybe I need to develop some kind of blogging schedule. A day where I have to write anything or nothing on this blog. Just because.

There could be freedom in that.

NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, is also on my mind. I am at it once again. Last year at this time was when I became ill and couldn't continue with my 50,ooo words in one month. So this year I am picking that story back up and writing 50,ooo more words. And my five youngest kids are joining me. My 14 year old is going for the full 50,000. My younger kids have created their own goals on the Young Writers site. We're having a lot more fun with it than I could have imagined. Today we challenged each other to Word Wars. This may become a November family affair.

Cigarettes are also on my mind. Not to smoke them, I never was a smoker actually. What I'm trying to understand is why anyone would pick up the habit today? Not only do we now know they cause cancer but the suckers are expensive! I was standing behind a guy at BJ's yesterday when he bought a carton of cigarettes. $65. Sixty. Five. Dollars. That's just nuts. Is it really worth your health and your wallet?

I'm not seeing it.

Coffee is good though. And frequently on my mind. And in my hand.

So there you have it. Reflections and Ramblings of the woman who's Not-So-Super.

Until next time...

I finally posted about our first day of school on my review blog and thought some of my personal blog readers may be interested. First Day of School- A Month Late.

I wanted to update on Jake as well. He had the tube removed and is back to work and play. He does have to take it easy, as there is a 50/50 chance it will re-collapse in the next thirty days. But so far, so good!

Who says life is boring? I could use a little snatch of boring now and again!

This week has definitely not been dull. I've been down with a week long flu but my 18 year old son one-upped me (two? five? fifty? What exactly does one-upped mean anyway?) with a spontaneous collapsing of his lung on Tuesday.

Here he is in all his ER glory. He's dubbed this photo; Jake Dying.

Thankfully, he's not really dying. A collapsed lung is nothing trivial though and this Momma was pretty worried as I sat at home waiting for an update. My husband didn't want me infecting the ER with my germs and left me home. Without a vehicle to rush off to the hospital in despite being sick. Grr.

They inserted a tube into his lung and sent him home, looking like something out of one of those Sci-fi movies I adore.

Bionic Man.
Yes, the tubes are hanging out of his chest cavity, sutured onto his chest. Ew.

Yesterday morning he was in a good deal of pain and there was blood in the tube so we rushed back to the ER (WE. I was not being left behind again. I sucked on Certs every time anyone came into his section, so I wouldn't cough. And yes, I washed my hands a lot. I'm not stupid. I'm just a mom who was not staying home while her son was in the hospital!). They gave him pain meds and weren't concerned about the blood. Once we knew the blood wasn't a problem, we found it slightly humorous how it would move around the tube as he breathed in and out.

Hospital humor.

He went back for follow up this morning. They closed the valve to see if his lung would stay inflated. It didn't. He's got to keep the tube in until Tuesday. The tube causes quite a bit of pain, so he'll have to manage it with the pain meds and pray it's okay by Tuesday!

Maybe October will be boring. Boring's good.

I am in bed, sick with the flu. Yes, I do seem to catch everything lately.

But even miserable and unable to breathe, I can't wipe the grin off my face. Two things are making me smile right now.

The first is that I had the opportunity to submit an outline for an article for an e-book coming out in the spring and it was accepted. This is a paid article and is the first time I will be paid for a piece of writing, so I am psyched!

Now I just have to write the article.

The second is a bit of Whedony goodness. You should know by now what a Joss Whedon fan I am. I'm laying here in bed anyway, so why not watch the Emmys and surf Whedonesque.com simultaneously. I waited with baited breath for the promised Dr. Horrible invasion and loved every second.

Hang on a sec, let me check...Yup! Grin's still there.

Here it is, in case you missed it;

*I have not posted in a very long time, all my blogging energies have gone into my review blog at this point (and even that hasn't been as much as I'd like!), but I thought I would repost this from last year. I may put it on my review blog as well. It's important to never forget.



I remember when I was younger, finding it odd that everyone knew where they were when Kennedy was shot. They could describe exactly what they were doing when they heard the news and yet it was so long ago. Then came September 11th. I can remember receiving a phone call from my husband at work, telling me to turn on the news. I can remember staring at the television set, having a difficult time comprehending the reality of what I was seeing. I remember when the understanding came and I called my husband to come home and we sat as a family, staring at the news as the events unfolded, too shocked to hide anything from the children.

My now fifteen year old daughter was sorting through her memorabilia last week when she came across her journal from when she was eight years old. I could not read her entry for September 11, 2001 without crying. She journaled as she watched the events unfold.

Here is her journal from that day (in thirteen sections), unedited except for spelling. May we never forget that day. Here is a reminder, through the eyes of an eight year old.


9/11/01 Larissa, Age 8

Today has been a bad day and I mean bad because there were two planes that crashed into a skyscraper. How? People crashed the planes. And Mr Tho****'s relative was in the building 'cause he works there. And there was an explosion. And now the building fell down. And now the other one fell down. And war has been declared.

And there was a bomb in a car and it blew up. And now the pentagon is on fire. And they have the Air Force on duty. And now a plane is headed toward the Pentagon. Another plane is headed toward the Pentagon.

And people were jumping out the windows.

And part of the Pentagon fell down.

And more than 9 thousand people were killed.

And they won't let any planes fly except the Air Force and all the planes that are already flying, they try to get down as soon as possible.

And the Pentagon was hit by a plane because a plane crashed into the Pentagon on purpose. And the Air Force is still on duty and some people were killed and some people just really hurt.

And it is scary. People jumping out of windows and crying and dying and people screaming. It's just scary.

It is the worst time in all of history and it's really bad.

And all the planes that are already flying they sent to Canada.

It is really, really, really, really bad. And my mom is really, really scared.

and it's a disaster. And it's crazy. And people are really scared. And so am I.

Well, the planes have stopped for now and the Air Force is still on duty.