progress, a puppy, and pendragons

I have writing progress to report! This makes me so happy! Can I get a gold star?

I sat down last night and started editing the first chapter of my children's novel (It's complete, but not ready to go out yet. Still needs lots of cleaning up, cutting, and character voice). So my writing progress this time isn't how many words I wrote, it's how many words I cut. I worked on the first 2400 words and managed to cut it down by 282 words (which is slightly more than the recommended 10%). I also re-wrote some sections, including the first whole page. The dreaded FIRST PAGE! It must be perfect - most people browsing through a bookstore will only read the first page (or even just the first paragraph) of a book before deciding to put it back, or read more.

Topic #2: the puppy. I broke down and let B get a puppy. Now we haven't had very good luck with dogs so far in our marriage. We've tried a few - his sister "rescues" dogs at the vet clinic she works at and has tried to place several with us. We decided we weren't going to try any adult dogs anymore, they come with too many problems, and we have too many kids to have a problem dog on top of it. That was also my reasoning for not getting a puppy - as if we aren't overwhelmed already with 4 small children running around the house! But B heard about these black lab/rottweiler pupppies at the pound, that there were 9 of them that needed adopting. He brought home an application. He begged me, just go look at them. I said, no way. But then he did a smart thing. He left the application in my purse, and said "I'm leaving it up to you." I would have continued to fight him if he had tried to insist, but when he just gave up and let me decide... well then, awwww shucks... so, now we have a puppy. B, of course, is completely responsible for cleaning up ALL his messes. And 2 weeks now into this adventure, he's keeping his word.


His name is Remington (Remy). He really is heart-meltingly cute. I will report back in 6 months with whether or not I still have a soft spot for him - let's see how much of our house he chews up-

Topic #3 - Pendragons. I really don't have any reason to mention pendragons except that I've always thought it was a neat word and it seemed to go with the post title. What exactly is a pendragon? I envision a tiny dragon the size of a match, and if you try to write with it, it flames out. Personally, Ithink my definition is better than Wikipedia's: Pendragon or Pen Draig, meaning "head dragon" or "chief dragon" (a figurative title referring to status as a leader), is the name of several traditional Kings of the Britons.

In my last blog I had also mentioned parenting frustrations and foolish New Year's resolutions. I'll skip the parenting frustrations, for now (last week was bad, but this week has actually been great with the kids), and as far as resolutions, I've NEVER been able to keep any of them, EVER, for more than like 2 weeks, maybe, probably not even that. So this year I found this quote on one of my friend's Facebook posts and decided to adopt it as my new philosophy: "I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's."

Nevertheless, I did commit to three things this year. One, I signed up for Beth Moore's scripture memory challenge - memorizing two verses a month. I've got Galations 2:20 memorized and now I am working on Matt 9:12-13. Here goes: Jesus said "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. (check) But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Then, I also decided to try to do a Bible read-through this year. I haven't tried this since 2005 (only got about 1/3 of it read), and I haven't actually completed a read through for 12 years now. The first month is always easy, because Genesis is fun to read. I wonder how motivated I'll be when I hit Leviticus. I think this time I'll try to jump around more, for variation.

Finally, I signed up on TrackDiet.com to try and keep myself motivated to lose weight. It's been two weeks now, and I haven't logged back in yet. Hmmmn...

I'm hoping that the first two challenges will help me on the spiritual side, so I can be more successful on the physical side. But really, it boils down to prayer. That's the only way I can fight the call to the pantry (or, right now, the vending machine...)