Feels like months since I made a goal post.

Last weekend was focused on taking care of my son as he recovered from getting all four wisdom teeth out.  He was doing better by Saturday, but got tired really easily.  The med schedule was a headache at times too.  Sleeping was another problem, so both of us went back to school/work on Tuesday with fatigue.  Thankfully, he’s doing much better and only has some residual numbness, which is normal.

I never got around to tackling chapter 6 of Darwin & the Deadland Queen.  I had my hopes slightly up, but I knew it was a long shot.  Too many things going on and my stress levels were bad.  Terrible enough to give me stomach issues for days.  I tried to look at the outline to prepare for chapter 6, but didn’t get very far.  My hope is to write part of it this weekend as long as the storm doesn’t knock out the power.  If so, I’ll try to work more on ‘Coven of the Gray’.

My chances aren’t high though because we have a family event today.  It’s here, so the storm shouldn’t cause a problem.  Might mean the house stays full into tomorrow morning.  Not a problem though.  I have to wake up and brave the storm to get my son to a open house at his top college choice.  They aren’t cancelling it, but that could change.  They said it would be primarily indoors and the tour would only be if you really want it.  The wind is supposed to be really bad, so I don’t want to risk our good umbrellas.  We’ll just have to see what happens.

Court . . . I cannot even begin to explain what is going on.  At least on a public forum.  It’s still in progress though.  Really wearing on me, especially since work was stressful.  We started going to work sites, which is fun.  It’s also nerve-wracking when you have students out there for the first time.

The only progress I made on anything was finishing the jacket for my son’s Halloween costume:

Took a lot of sewing and figuring out issues.  The zigzag on the front was a major headache. I originally sewed pieces on, cut them down the middle, and added clips to close the jacket.  The clips didn’t close it completely, so the halves didn’t match up.  I had to undo everything and think it through again.  The answer was the make a complete zigzag piece and use Velcro dots to attach it.  Now, it can simply be taken off when my son needs to get in or out of the jacket.

The final piece are the claws, which aren’t going well.  I have thimbles for the bases, which I’m going to glue to the gloves.  Been trying to use aluminum foil to form the claw, but it keeps looking flimsy and lame.  Going to be experimenting with it over the weekend, so fingers crossed.  Took a break from typing the post to mess with the only one I made and there are options my son pointed out.  Popsicle stick cores and folding the long claw over to make it thicker is what we’re going to look at.  Still resembles aluminum foil and I have no idea how to change that.  My mind is more on the spring cosplay contest than the Halloween costume, which might be why I’m taking this so hard.

Finished this too:

Minas Tirith

Before anyone wonders how I did that and not writing, I will point out that I started this at the beginning of summer.  I needed to clear my craft table for the claws and took a little time each night to do it.  Couldn’t carve out a 3 hour block for writing when I had the energy.  Better luck next weekend maybe.  Actually, my son has the SAT and then a school event on Saturday.  So, I might get the full weekend.

This coming week is going to be another one of mayhem.  Storm isn’t helping.  There are a bunch of appointments, including court.  More could turn up at any moment.  I really need to go food shopping as well because I’m going to have to be doing dinner for a while in a bit.  Got all of my dishes planned, so I won’t buy anything that I don’t need.  I’m starting to realize why people only get far as authors when they’re retired, rich, have a supportive spouse, or at least minimal responsibilities.  Juggling far too much to keep my energy up these days.

Goals of the week:

1. Finish the Dr. Xeno claws.
2. Celebrate niece’s birthday.
3. Court.
4. Help son prepare for SAT.
5. Food shopping.
6. Sleep.
7. Work on Darwin & the Deadland Queen.