my · life

Today was Kiera's first day. (She's going T, W, Th, 10-1.)

She loved it. She was so excited this morning that as we were going down the sidewalk toward the front door she burst out with "Huh-yay!! Preschool!!" She barely waited long enough to give me a hug before she was in the room to start playing.

I heard a few stories when I picked her up: they played with playdoh, and all the boys and girls had red, there weren't lots of colors; the teacher told them it's good to sneeze into your elbow so you don't get germs all over the place; they read a book about a boy who said glub glub. So apparently it was a pretty good day. She was very tired out though, but still too excited to relax and take a nap when she got home. So here it is 6:30 and she is already in bed, fast asleep.

I did all right too. :) I did a couple errands, then Glen and I went to lunch, then we came home and I paid bills, and then it was already time to go get her. So far, looks like this is going to work out fine.

Glen and I are going to be going on a weekend getaway, just the two of us, to New York City at the end of September.

I am overwhelmed by the number of places to stay and have no idea where to start looking. So, anyone have any recommendations? Specific hotels, or parts of the city to head for or stay away from? Also looking for good restaurant ideas. We want to take advantage of the chance to go places we wouldn't be able to go with a kid, so on the fancier side, but we obviously can't afford the super top-of-the-line stuff.

We plan to take the train from DC, so we'll be using public transportation, and would like to be close to that. And we're probably going to a Philharmonic concert one night, and probably no Broadway shows. That's about all I know right now.

So, ideas? Hit me.

The 15-minute cleaning break.

When I just can't think about a manuscript for another minute, I pick a room, set the timer, and clean for 15 minutes. It gives my eyes a much better break than browsing around LJ or Facebook or whatever, gives my brain time to process in the background while I do something I don't really need to think about, it gets my blood pumping again to give me a bit of energy back, and it actually gets something useful accomplished. It's impressive how much better a room can look after only 15 min.

I've tried many strategies for keeping things together on my own, but this is one I've stuck with for almost a year now. It's a keeper.

My other favorite trick for keeping the housework under control: Keep the kitchen counter clear of dishes. In order to do this, I deal with the dishwasher (empty/load/whatever) at three set times every day. 1) Every morning while waiting for my coffee to brew. That way there is room to throw the breakfast dishes in as I head out the door for wherever I'm going and I get to start the day with a clean counter and no dishes staring me in the face when I get back home at lunchtime. 2) After lunch, before K's nap. 3) While cooking dinner/after dinner before K goes to bed. It is so much less stressful to have a clean kitchen than a messy one. Even if every other room is messy. (Or all but my 15-minute break room of the day.)