Random ramblings

Sorry for the late blogging start--I've fallen behind really badly in my housework, and I'm trying to get caught back up now that I'm feeling a bit better. 

Two months ago, I noticed that it felt like my thyroid meds quit working not too long after I got the refill.  I thought I'd gotten a weak or off batch, and jumped early on the refill.  It worked well enough to lift the brain fog somewhat, but my energy never came back up.

My next thought was that I'd need a stronger prescription, and we'd see next fall when I got my blood tests done. 

Odysseus didn't want to wait that long, and so he went looking online to see if there was anything that could be done to help support thyroid function--if I was eating something I shouldn't, or wasn't eating something I should--and found that there were a few vitamins, herbs, and minerals that might help.  He went on Thursday to the local health food store, and looked for them, finding a bottle marked "Thyroid."  So, he got it for me.  It was close to $19 for 90 capsules, but it's working.  I have enough energy to do housework for the first time in a couple of months.

So far, I have the living room most of the way cleaned up, the kitchen halfway cleaned up, the heaviest of the winter clothes packed away, and the tee shirts pulled out.  I've also got the laundry all washed, but for the bedding and the towels.  I still need to put away all the clean clothes, finish picking stuff up off the floor to vacuum in the living room, sweep and mop the kitchen, and finish with all the little stuff I've been ignoring in favor of getting the big stuff done.

And yes, the kids have been helping.  They've been helping enough that they're going to get extra in their allowance next weekend. 

The imp has been begging for new toys, lately.  So, we looked around Walmart for something he could buy with his allowance, and we found that there were some new engines and things from Thomas the Tank Engine Take 'n' Play sets.  We helped him count out five dollars of quarters, and then let him pay for his own toy separately.

The pixie asked to buy a toy, too.  I agreed to loan her the money, with the understanding that she'd pay me back as soon as we got home.  She chose a baby Disney Princess--Ariel.  And she handed the baby and the money over to the cashier herself.  She was so proud of herself (and so dang adorable).

She has since been singing to her new dolly and rocking her and feeding her with the bottle that came with her.

The imp played outside for quite a while.

She's still down for a nap.

He's trying to be quiet.

The cats, on the other hand, are not trying to be quiet.  Up until a few moments ago, they were thundering up and down the hall, chasing and tackling one another.

The dog has been up to her old antics: snatching the brush out of my hand and flinging it across the kitchen, throwing her squeaky toys under my foot as I'm stepping down when I have an armload of stuff (kids' breakfasts, this morning) and startling the shit out of me, and refusing to come in when I go out to get her.  I'm beginning to think I'm going to just need to feed her in her pen, because she wouldn't come inside until nearly eleven last night.

I have one more day of lecture on Tuesday, then working my ass off grading papers as fast as I can while they blog for the rest of the semester.  I only have four more class days, two of which are days with office hours.

(And part of the reason I'm working so hard on trying to catch up with housework is so that I can get caught up with what I'd let slide before class on Tuesday.)

Writing had, quite frankly, stalled again.  Between the lack of physical energy, having trouble focusing, and having had a tendency to fall asleep when I try to work, I've gotten very little done.  I've gotten back into it as of last night after I got the kids to bed.  So the revision of Pendragon Resurgent is coming along slowly but surely. 

I'm waiting for the final feedback on Lizzy's Tail (or Tale--I'm having trouble deciding), and waiting on the cover art, and then I'll be pushing that through the publication process.  I'm planning on putting that at the $3.99 minimum price, plus a $0.99 Kindle version.  

I've started building the bare bones of the story lines in Fire and Forge, the next installment in Modern Gods.  I've also decided how I'm going to write the appendix to make it worthy of a $0.99 price point as a Kindle story (and it's going to be my next project).  So, once I'm done with the children's book, and Pendragon is sent off to my beta readers, I'll be working on "Bar Tabs."

I think that's pretty much it for the week...