My Twice Baked Potato

If you are a parent, moving back and forth from good to not so good is typical.

Going to the park is good.  Falling and getting a skinned knee is bad.

Trip to the kid’s museum is good.  Explosion before making it to the bathroom is bad.

Smooth morning where everyone feels happy is good.  Rough, tiring afternoon is bad.

This is how last week felt for me.

I started out the week with a plea for help from the blogosphere for homeschooling suggestions.  My only child was consuming all of my energy and I was exhausted before the more difficult afternoon hours arrived.  Then, I received kind words of support and excellent suggestions that turned the week around; the result were some of my favorite days in a really long time.

One reminder that I received was trying a scavenger hunt.  I have done these before, but I guess in all the tiredness, I forgot how fun they could be.  My TBP took four of his Lego figurines and hid them in the house.  After the secret locations had been identified, he wrote clues to help me find them.  It was an activity that broke the cycle of crankiness and turned around  a rough part of the day.

This is how it goes, right?  This is parenting.  We have to have our tool belt filled with ideas so that we are prepared to save a day that is headed south.

Personally, I experienced this as a writer.  I mustered up enough confidence to submit a book that I am writing.  I love my manuscript and I think others will to, but I am fairly new at this and not sure how the whole thing works.  Days later, I received my “thanks, but no thanks.”

I was disappointed.  I know it seems silly.  I mean…most likely it was going to be a “no” but I let myself get excited.  In reality, it was a really nice “no” that didn’t come in a cold form letter.  The agent wrote about the book’s “potential” and that it just wasn’t “right for her” and wished me luck.

I received this email on my one-day-a-week-away-from-the-house-to-write morning.  It sucked away my mojo for a bit.  All of a sudden, I questioned what I was doing.  What I was writing.  All the time that I was spending. Each word that I had previously selected, I was now scrutinizing.

What was I thinking?!

The next day, I received a “yes” for an article that I had submitted.  In addition, I reminded myself that I was one of the writers that had work selected for an upcoming Moms For the Holidays anthology.  These were my “goods” after the disappointment.

It’s funny how things can change so quickly.  I still work on embracing those ups and downs, knowing that no matter what…they both appear all the time.

By the way, that book that I’m writing…I’m still going to finish it.  I’m still going to submit it.  I’m still going to get that “yes” but it could be after a few more “thanks, but no thanks.”

That’s how it goes.