During the last couple of weeks, I learned that my first novel, Wedded to War is a Christy Award finalist in two categories as well as a Golden Scroll Award finalist, and my second novel, Widow of Gettysburg launched. These are newsworthy items, so yes, I've posted about it on Facebook, and received many congratulations. But just in case anyone mistakenly believes that my life is glamorous, I invite you to take a look at just one week in my shoes. This week. You might just find that is it SO ordinary you don't even get to the end of it! Ha! OK wait, let's back up to a week and a half ago, the official launch date of Widow of Gettysburg. Wednesday, May 1 4am: My four-year-old wakes up from a nightmare and asks to sleep in my bed. The answer is no. I take him back up to his bedroom and agree to stay with him until he settles down. 5am: "Is it morning time yet?" he says after an hour of trying to go back to sleep. I let him watch Stuart Little in my office while I catch up on some emails. 6:30am: My daughter wakes up and we begin our before-school routine. Elsa makes my coffee for me (Keurig), makes my bed, then asks, "Mom, is there anything I can help you with today?" She looks crushed when I tell her everything is under control but brightens again when I tell her to load the dishwasher. 
Ethan makes me another cup of coffee. Just as he should. ;) 8:35am: I take the kids to school and preschool. I'm back home and working by 8:50. 9:45am: I pick up Ethan from preschool for a dentist apt. 10:30am: We're done! Ethan was a total champ at the dentist, but he doesn't want to go back to school. I bring him home. 1:30pm: We pick up Elsa from school (every Wednesday she gets out early) and we truck on over to Grandma and Grandpa's house, as is our Wednesday tradition. 4:30pm: I am super tired from my 4am wake-up call, and have no idea what to do for dinner. There is an AWANA Fun Fair at church tonight, which the kids were looking forward to. Hotdogs, a bouncy house, etc. I was hoping to eat out the night of the book launch, but that is not what I had in mind. 5pm: I call my husband Rob. He suggests we go out for Mexican and he'll meet us there. Afterward, he'll take the kids to the Fun Fair for the activities, and I can drive home to relax. This is what we do, and it works beautifully. 7pm: I put away some laundry and notice something new on the easel outside the kids' bedroom. Elsa apparently made this to-do list last night. I had told her today was a special day. 
This explains her behavior before school today and makes me eager to hug and kiss her. :) 8:30pm: Rob and the kids arrive home, and both kids have face paint on. I spend half an hour scrubbing their faces clean before bed. 9pm: The kids are in bed, an hour late, but oh well. Rob and I watch something funny on Netflix. 10pm: Exhausted, I fall into bed. (Tomorrow's forecast, by the way: snow.) Fast forward to this week. Monday: I wake up and smell something awful. Sewage is backed up into our basement again because our river has exceeded the flood stage. After taking the kids to school, I receive the news from the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association that the book I co-authored with Karen Whiting, Stories of Faith and Courage from the Home Front, is a Golden Scrolls Award finalist. I'm delighted. And then I put on some old shoes, put on a mask I found from our mold remediation times, and descend into the basement to push as much water/sewage as possible back down into the drain. "Just a few more days," I tell myself. The plumbers are coming on Thursday to put in a one-way valve. This should be the last time I have to do this. (Also the only time, since Rob usually does it.) That evening Rob and I attend a homeschool co-op meeting because we've decided to start homeschooling Elsa next year. After shopping their used curriculum sale, we have time before the meeting begins so we step out. On the way to Arby's, we notice a huge sign in front of the Toyota dealership. "Hail Damage! Save thousands!" WHAT? TERRIFIC! We are in the market for a mini-van, and get all excited about this. But we found no hail damage on the vehicles we would have been interested in. Bummer. After the homeschool meeting, I'm totally jazzed about this group and what they offer (which includes ZOO SCHOOL, by the way.) And then I think--oh man, I have two novel deadlines during the coming academic school year. How on earth... ? Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Tuesday: I'm up at 5am to work, but the Internet is not working. I make banana bread instead. (From a box, lest you be impressed. ha ha) When Rob wakes up, he fixes the Internet. Bravo! But it goes offline again soon after I take the kids to school. I troubleshoot, restart the computer, still no luck. I call the utilities company and they help me get it back online. Moments later I read an email sent the day before from Ethan's preschool. "Please send a sleeping bag along with your child for preschool on Tuesday, May 7, for a special camp-out activity." I stare at the screen. That's TODAY! It's 9:24. I call the preschool on my cell phone as I run downstairs to grab his sleeping bag. Voice mail. I jump in the car and drive to preschool, deliver the sleeping bag, and come home. In the afternoon, Ethan and I spend an hour digging up dandelions in the garden. It's not enough. How can I write a novel when my garden is a mess? I declare tonight "Green House Garden Night" and everyone helps me rake out dead leaves, dig up baby (unwanted) trees, and pull weeds.
Wednesday: Elsa tells me, "Mrs. Nelson [school librarian] thinks you turned in Happy Pig Day to the wrong library." I promise to look into it. Ethan is upset that there are no cookies in the house. It's true, I have not baked in ages. I bake some gingersnaps at Grandma's house for him while he plays trains with Grandpa. I eat several. Elsa also informs me that since her birthday is Saturday, we MUST bring treats for her class on Friday. Lollipops or something. "Really? What about a healthy snack?" She shakes her head. "Azeem brought oranges for his birthday and no one was happy." Fine. Thursday: 
I go to the public library and see if I turned in Happy Pig Day. I didn't. This does not surprise me, but now we have no idea where the book is and must pay for it. Oh well. Back at home, the Internet goes down again. This time the utility company tells me my router is dead in the water. Must buy a new one. "All right," I think. "I don't need to be online all the time, I can wait until we get a new router, even if it's not until tomorrow." My mom picks up Ethan from preschool and plays with him for two hours so I can work. Yay Mom! After school, Elsa's teacher tells me she had "an accident." What? How is that possible? I don't even know. I think it was just an issue of not wiping thoroughly enough after using the restroom. "Mom," Elsa tells me, "The nurse wants you to bring my own wipes." Roger that. The plumbers call and postpone their work to the following Monday morning. Boo. Around 5pm I notice we have Internet again. Great! I check email and find two messages from my publicist, who had been trying to reach me for a live radio interview slot the next morning. "I'm in! Let's do it!" I tell her. I guess I did need to be connected this afternoon. At 5:35 a friend stops by to pick up three garbage bags full of kids' clothing we're donating to a garage sale. After dinner, we all go shopping for a new router, which Rob installs when we get home. Also, we take the kids to Toys R Us to spend some of their money on toys. We make them interact with the cashier, using eye contact and good manners. It takes some time, but no one else is in line behind us. Ethan gets a good lesson about wasting his money on that stupid game with the hook that is supposed to get a stuffed animal but rarely does. Elsa ends the day with: "It's Teacher Appreciation Week! It's our LAST CHANCE to appreciate Mrs. Moody! We HAVE to DO SOMETHING!" Face-palm. She's right. We have to do something. Friday: I send Elsa to school with:
- Wipes for the school nurse
- A note for the librarian about Happy Pig Day (since I couldn't find her in person yesterday)
- A bag of dum-dums to be distributed to her classmates at the end of the day.
I promise to get a small gift for Mrs. Moody and bring it when I pick up her up at the end of the day. At 9:15am, I have the radio interview with Nicole O'Dell, and it's super fun. At 9:30am, I get the great idea to do a blog post about my real life, not just my Facebook post life. I look up (right now) and see I've spent 45 minutes on this post. I read it over, tighten it here and there, and still think it's pretty boring to anyone but my mother. I consider deleting the entire thing but cannot stand the thought that I have just wasted this much time. I'm going to publish this out of principle, and then I'm off to buy a present for Mrs. Moody. Soon after, I'll pick up Ethan and his friend for a little play date at our house. See? So not glamorous. This is my real life. And I love it. :)
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