Cold weather finally has made an entrance here. We had intermittent rain storms, wind and cold all day yesterday. I was home babysitting the workers who were installing the new heating and AC unit in the house. It was a perfect day for sitting at home doing nothing. Cold and gray and rainy. I lay on the sofa under a blanket for most of the day, drinking coffee and reading, with the dogs all around me.

Sadly, the crew was not able to complete the installation of my heater, so this morning dawns clear skied, but COLD. And I've got a bit of a prickle in my throat that may not bode well.

But I'm content. The depression and grim self-loathing I experienced all last week seem to have lifted, and I'm grateful. What's a little cold if you've got your own (mental) sunshine? I feel like I'm on the final stage of recuperation from a long illness or injury.

I've used a little bit of my energy on writing. Still trying to stay in the NaNoWriMo game, though I fell behind this week, and I'm hovering around 15,000 words. The book is giving me some difficulty, sort of twisting under the pen, metaphorically, so I'm not sure exactly where to take up the work next. Things keep changing. I'll be in the shower when suddenly I'll have a realization: "OH! THAT'S what needs to happen next!" Well, but in that case, then I need to go back and add this, or change that, or tuck in another character or change where my characters are or..... I think my brain is always turning over the bits of the story, whatever else I'm doing. Some part of my brain is always working on the book.

It's a good feeling, when it's working. The writing itself is, as all the books say it will be... hard. I resist, I drag my feet. I count words over and over to see if I can be done yet for tonight. I put it off. Amazing that something I've wanted to do all my life can be such a chore. It hurts so good though... I've been going back over and over for more.

Grayson's with his dad this weekend and I'm relishing the quiet. G's not a noisy kid... but he always has to have some sort of background noise going on as accompaniment to whatever he's doing. He may be completely engrossed in making Pokemon creatures on the computer, but he will still have the TV on as well, with Sponge Bob or Zach and Cody or some other dreadful kids show on. I'm sure if I was any kind of mother at all I'd make him turn it off and go outside. But I don't. We all have our little things that help us feel at home. That's his.

His dad and I met with Grayson's teacher last week. I was frankly worried that it would not go well. As I've mentioned, I'm not all that supportive of her classroom discipline technique, and I was afraid that .... I don't know exactly. That I would be driven to tell her so in the meeting. But it went fine. We were all very pleasant and discussed G's shortcomings in a civilized manner. Turns out that she thinks he's a very smart and capable kid, but she's concerned about his level of self-responsibility. i.e: he's forgetful. Also, he rushes through his work so he can spend more time reading.

This last was a bombshell to us. Apparently G reads all day at school. Whenever he has free time to do flashcards or play games, he chooses to read. He does worksheets in under 3 minutes so he can get back to his book, and she says when he's reading he's completely deaf to the rest of the world, utterly absorbed in his book. This is a complete and utter surprise to us. I make G read every evening for half an hour and sometimes it's like pulling teeth. He gets distracted easily, is always wanting to talk about the story with me or read passages aloud. He will ask if it's time to go to bed yet, and suddenly become terribly tired and have to go to bed a few minutes early. This is the kid who can't put his book down at school? Gray and I were bumfoozled. Why is he so different at school? Why doesn't he read at home? It's not like he lives in a non-reader household, for crying out loud. I spend hours and hours every week reading. I'm completely mystified.

I've decided to up our evening reading time to 45 minutes, though. I know now it won't bother him a bit to do so, whatever he may say.