I just looked at my calendar and then I looked at the last time I updated this page. Well, that more than anything, exemplified a writer's life!

First, there was the interrupted summer beach vacation due to weather. Then there was the lengthy illness and eventual passing of our guinea pig, Latte. Added to the mix was the herniated disc in my back and a death in the family. Then school started and along with that all the homework, projects, after school activities and general angst of two middle schoolers. My husband travels a good bit so a lot of the time I'm the POD-Parent On Duty. There is no vacation or time out for this position, I have discovered.

Other things I've discovered: no one in my family knows how to pick things off the floors or counters and laundry baskets are for decorative purposes only. So, in addition to being a writer and the proprietor of this website and therefore responsible for its updates, I'm also laundress, chauffeur, social director, tutor, psychiatrist, chef, errand-runner, cheerleader, referee, and general Poobah. Did I mention I have a book due March 15th?

At the moment, I'm typing this on my laptop at a school basketball game. My son plays on the JV team and my daughter is the captain of the varsity cheerleading squad. This means that about three times a week I'm at a basketball gymnasium somewhere in Atlanta for about four to five hours. My son warmed the bench for the entire game, not even playing for the usual 15 seconds his coach usually puts him in and is very upset. My daughter is getting the cold shoulder from some of her teammates because they don't like the way she's calling the cheers. I tell you, I can't take the stress. I've already been through middle school-do I really need to do this again?

I'm sitting here trying to put it all in perspective, trying to make meaning out of all this. I mean, that's why we're forced to grow older, right? To learn things. So, to my son I say-life isn't fair. Find the thing you love and do it not because you're the star but because you love it. For my daughter I say you're the captain. Enough said.

In life, the writer's life and otherwise, everything is in cycles. Like the seasons and the phases of the moon, everything changes. One day the wind's at your back and the next day it's pushing you backwards. Stick with it. Work hard. Keep trying. Then you're on top again. Enough said.