1. Homework. I’ve had it with homework. Last night after once again having my kid work on it from the time she got home until I told her to stop because she had to get ready for bed, I went out and did some research. Turns out there is no evidence that homework for elementary and middle school aged children has any benefit at all, and it’s not uncommon for kids to find themselves in the situation mine is in, where the assignment is supposed to take 20 minutes but actually takes much longer to complete.

Monday’s assignment, for instance, took me 20 minutes just to explain and work through an example for her. THEN she started to do the work on her own, finishing at bedtime. From now on, she’s going to put in her 20 minutes and that’s it. Putting in another 2 hours or more of assigned work after a full day of school is too much to put on a small child.

2. Still working on my Mammoth Paranormal story. It turned out to be a story I’d started more than 10 years ago, and it’s always interesting to me how ideas ripen and taken on new forms and are suddenly ready to be finished long after I’ve even forgotten about them. Really excited to see this one done at last.

3. Sleep. Or lack thereof. I’ve reverted to tools like the Baby Go to Sleep CD on constant repeat because napless baby and sleepless nighttime baby is a recipe for psychotic breaks all around. Also not good for productivity. Blackout curtains are helpful, too.

4. You don’t know until you go. We had an aborted campout last weekend that we knew could end in rain and bad weather. But it also might’ve been fine and fun for everybody and ultimately the deciding factor was that we’d never know unless we went. Sometimes you just have to take the risk for something you want, even if you know it might not pan out. The alternative is to stay in a very narrow comfort zone.

5. I’m experimenting with writing on the go using iPad and Evernote with a keyboard folio. Not sure how I’m going to like it yet but I really want a good portable writing solution and I want one that just sticks to text and doesn’t get in my way.