He doesn't pick up stories. He picks up books about the Northern Lights or ancient Egypt. Maybe comics, if it's Calvin and Hobbs. But never a chapter book. We read them together, alternating pages, for his school reading. But on his own? Never.
So the other day when he picked up The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and sat quietly on the couch for half an hour, I was shocked. And like it was no big deal he said "Yeah, I think I'll read a chapter a day, Mom."
Phases, I know. He'll go through phases with what he reads, like the rest of us. With what he writes. Like the rest of us. Some days he writes a story about a little lost comet that can't find his family out in space, the comet is constantly looking for his home. His place. Other days he writes nature and world and science facts in his "Book of Things I Know" journal.
Life inspires art. Imagination. Creativity.
~~~
I'm on the verge of diving back in to my manuscript. I've been dallying about it way too long{and of course after I posted I was going to work on something else thoughts of the first project won't leave my head!!}.
But breaks can be fruitful. I watched a video interview of John Irving {Thank you again Maggie May for the link!!} and in it he says something about writing novels and screenplays at the same time, and when the call comes in to work on the screenplay you drop everything and do that. So there's a break from the novel. And the best thing about any break from the work in progress is coming back to it with fresh eyes, seeing something that wasn't there before or couldn't have been without a change in pace - a change in life. I love that. I think especially for mother writers we need to be gentle with ourselves about taking time away from our projects, or being able to work on them for moments at a time. Life happens, especially when there are young children around. Take what you can, and take the breaks if they are handed to you {even by way of week long head colds!} and move on and go from there. You never know what life will have inspired during the interim.
Anyway.
I did want to come here and thank you guys for the support of that last post. It never fails to amaze me how supportive my community is when I share here. It just so happens that the post got picked up by Mamapedia, which is pretty incredible! If you are coming here from there - welcome!
There's also a few words of mine over on Melanie's Just a Minute: Moments in Motherhood blog site. On stealing the moments for ourselves... somewhat similar to what I was writing about in the paragraph on taking the moments that are handed to us. I wrote the post a year ago, so don't mind the age differences in the kids if you are a stickler for that sort of thing!
And because I'm tired of plugging my own writing... here's a few links that I've really enjoyed lately:
~ From Maggie May Etheridge, on finding your tribe regardless of where you live... even in Suburbia.
~ There's still time to sign up for Alisha's Liberated Lines which starts next week...
~ Kristen's review of the book Notes from a Blue Bike {on slowing down life...}
~ Angie Muresan's piece, Comrade Pauker. Amazing.
~ Rachel W. Cole's ode to sugar {not quite... more of an ode to moderation!}
~ Justine's post on getting outside, even when it isn't always convenient.
~ And Aidan's Friday loves {a favorite fun post to read each week!}
Happy weekend, folks.