Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Adopted Motto

"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Starting Saturday ~ Living Life!

What a gorgeous sunrise we had this morning.  I am sitting in my writing area, in front of two open glass doors, watching the peaceful sunshine, trees blowing in the breeze and the bright green winter wheat fields.  KennyG is as loud as I play it.  What a wonderful, and uplifting way to start my Saturday. The corn burner is keeping me toasty while I sip a steamy cup of soothing coffee. 

Yep.  Life is good!

Marathon cleaning day today.  I'm waking up the kids and putting a rush on chores.  It's too gorgeous to spend the day inside today.  My word count for NaNoWriMo is double today. 

Despite a cat fight outside my bedroom this morning, waking me up at 7am after I fell asleep, after my husband woke me up at 5:20am, I am starting the day fabulously.  We do really need to do something about that rat of a stray that won't go away. 

Friday, November 5, 2010

I have my first dedication!

This morning my 8th grader showed me her 18 page poetry project.  She was to collect poems, and write some herself.  She loves poetry.  As a child, I loved to write poetry, but my poems had to rhyme.  She dedicated her poetry project to me.  Check it out!

I feel so honored, and had to laugh too!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Hope Chests ~ Leave a Legacy

At one point, I actually had an article published with suggestions on what to put into a child's hope chest.  Today I read through this book from library, and felt it was worth sharing. 

Day 3 ~ A Good Start

Although I have a raging headache, I've managed to write this morning.  Despite laundry, sick kids and baking trail bread, I've written 957 words so far, and it's only 10:22am here.

My writing area is adorned with empty plates, an empty coffee cup (which needs filled up right now), and lots of old clipped magazine and newspaper articles.  It's actually been quite fun these first 3 days.  It's definitely a huge change to my daily routine.


Daily Word Total: 1800
Word Total to Date:  5361

There are a lot of people writing novels this month.  Today, I could not access the NaNoWriMo Web site at all.  Busy, busy, busy.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Day 2 - Go Mom Go!

Daily Word Count: 1974
Total Word Count to Date: 3561

It's day 2 of the month long novel writing month.  I've been able to write through leaps of dirty laundry, mounds of dirty dishes, and administer love and medications to 3 more sickies in the house.  It's only one month and I deserve to do what I've wanted to do for my entire life, so they will just have to deal with the mess or pitch in.

I almost forgot it was a school day, until my 6th grader's bus pulled into our drive.  With so many home sick I lost track of everything.  Thank goodness the youngest is feeling better, and that means one more goes back to school tomorrow.  Woo hoo! 

Writing today was much easier than the first day.  I went into this with a blank mind, no story at all.  I started out spending the first day tinkering with story ideas.

We have had our frost, so cleaning out the garden, putting porch furniture away, and splitting more firewood will be a challenge for November.  I have however, told my husband he is not allowed to read my novel until the month is over.  He's acting like a baby.  Too bad.  A writer Mom needs her space to some extent. Ha ha ha!  Who knows, I could include something related to him in it.  Now that would be a hoot!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Word Count ~ NaNoWriMo's Web site very slow

I have been unable to access the NaNoWriMo Web site this evening.  There must be so many people writing this month, the site is extremely slow and won't even load for me.  I attempted to log in my word count.  No such luck.  It took me until 11am to even get a plot, characters and setting.  It took me two stories to figure out what I wanted to write too.  This is hard work, but I'm glad I did it. Next year it won't be so difficult.  My goal was 2,000 words today.  I found it very difficult to concentrate after the older kids started arriving home from school.  I better get up earlier tomorrow.

Today's Word Count:  1,587 
Total Word Count to Date: 1, 587

The Count Down Begins ~ Day 1 of NaNoWriMo

I signed up for National Novel Writing Month yesterday despite child kids.  Today is day one of novel writing in 30 days.  I have one child home sick, so this will be a challenge for me. She's been vomiting for 2 days and from what the school is telling me, "it's going around."

I did start the day early by washing the laundry and hanging it on the line before 8am, however I think I will need to get up earlier this month.  I did get the joy of watching the most beautiful sunrise while putting the clothes on the line.  The colors were bright pink and blue. It was a pleasant way to start the day.

Other obstacles I have this month, are dogs and cats and housework.  The housework I can delegate, and will, but the dogs are another thing.  Right now one is whining to go out, and he's already been out.  I am sure it will be interesting on how well I do write.

Meanwhile, my daughter who is not able to keep down liquids, is full of anxiety due to a school story she was to write last week.  It's been bothering her for days now.  So she is now propped on the bed, with a clipboard, pencil and paper.  I guess after explaining what I am writing, and how important it is to me, she decided to start creating a plot for her story.  To inspire her, I gave her an over-sized ring for muse.  I told her that bling on her fingers will help her get her story on paper.

She had squares drawn on her paper to section out her characters, plot, and setting.  She's trying a Popsicle right now, so I hope it stays down so she can start recovering.  Even though I have encouraged her to sleep a bit more,  she is holding tight to her pencil.

The weather is also an obstacle.  It may be too cold to write where my "writing area" is currently located.  We don't have the corn burner ready, so we may have to move to the living room, were I can put a fire in the wood stove.

Thank goodness the sun is shining.  It sure helps keep me motivated.  I will also need to get my daily exercise to stay healthy.  I'm not sure which one I will do today, but my options are the treadmill (needing a new motor), the heavy bag, speed bag, free weights, and stretches.  I may start with exercise to warm up these young bones.