Never Dig Straight Down.

WORD COUNT: 27,094

Welcome to the day two-third of the year's National Novel Writing Month novel could be, should be, done. At least according to the website stats, where at 1667 words a day would put you at day's end with 33340 (no commas until I've achieved this, ok?) -- but the pace is different for everybody, I understand. Trust me, I really understand. But I figure right now that I get in 3000-ish words a day I'll be done just after Thanksgiving. THEN comes the task of uploading the novel so I can get that first draft validated (I've written it so out of order and on so many media that I think it will take me a day just to gather it all together!) which actually can be done as early as today this year.

But hey, my life is more than writing. Although this morning for their daily RAH -- Reading At Home -- the kids read from Toy Story 2, a Minecraft book we had gotten Jeffrey at a school book sale last month (today's title is Rule #1 of Minecraft), and toward the end of our reading time Sarah turned to my journal where I was finishing writing out passages from the eleventh chapter of Ezekiel and the fifth chapter of Hosea and various prayer requests. She started reading it from the beginning (depending on the book my journals take three to four months at a time; this one starts September 30 this year) and I was impressed by some of the words she pronounced as they were written there! Civilization ... transgressions ... abundance.

In the words of Doc Brown, "It's a science experiment!" At least that's what I thought of when Sarah and Jeffrey came down early this morning -- they'd already woken up to see Martha off to work -- and they told me what they had done with the lights in Jeffrey's room. They hang overhead and we have to turn them on and off by means of a ribbon to the light switch (so Jeffrey can reach it) and the light bulbs are not covered. Well, there is a rotary fan in Jeffrey's room missing its cover right now -- the fans are for summer, but sometimes they just have to have them running to sleep -- and Jeffrey says Sarah urged him to tie the end of the ribbon to one of the fan blades. And turn the fan on ...

So the lights went off on off on off on off on until the bulbs burst! But after they told me this story downstairs, they DID volunteer to clean up the mess with broom and dustpan without me losing my cool. Really, it was hard to be mad then and I've needed and asked for prayer to keep my temper the vey valuable possession of mine that it is -- I don't want to lose it -- so I am grateful. I'm not sure whether to praise the kids on their physics lesson or curse them because they started to clean and did not finish; I did after I dropped them off at school. Then Marketplace for my weekend work schedule, Coffee With The Boys at Bethany Lutheran as well as setting up a few things for Parable Playhouse this Sunday, then a few minutes gallivanting at Main Street Books, then a day at the office ...

Oh, and more words on "We Have Seen His Star In The East".

Stay wonderful, David