Progress

Even though this will post on Saturday, since I’m typing at the end of my day (2 A.M.) on Friday, I’m considering “today” yesterday. 😉

Today’s been a day of amazing progress. Only the second day of summer and my son has already learned how to ride his bike. Last night, as I was watering the flowers, he pulled up beside me on his bike and announced, “Mom, it’s time! To take the training wheels off!” So I did, and he managed about one revolution of the pedal before he’d start to fall. Today, he jumped right on and rode in wide circles.

This sudden improvement might have something to do with our new point system. We’ve introduced a new tool to our repertoire meant to fight off the Stagnancy of Summer. Various actions earn various points.

Saying thank you without being prompted: 1
Brushing and flossing teeth: 2
Making bed: 5
Learning to ride bike: 101

He’s a genius, I tell you. Jumped right to the big ticket item on the list.

Almost every positive or negative behavior/action has a point value assigned to it. The things we’re really trying to promote on a daily basis–Bible story, reading, self-control–have higher earnings.

So far we’ve only had to use the corner once over the last three days because the Removal of a Point is corrective enough to halt any unattractive behavior. No fuss, no repeating, no frustration. Remind me to update you at the end of the summer.

There’s also been progress around the house. The feeling I’ve had–okay, it’s more than a feeling: it’s a conviction–that my intense focus on my writing was shortchanging my family led me to come up with a new plan of attack. First, I set a home/family-related goal. Then, after I accomplish it, I tackle my next writing goal. Back and forth, so on and so on. Hopefully, I’ll make strong progress in both arenas and not feel as behind in either.

On the computer front, I’ve reinstalled almost every program I normally use. I’ve yet to save all my documents onto the new hard drive, but I will when that’s my next writing-related goal. And, after more than two years of slogging along with dial-up, we found a great deal for satellite internet! (For some reason, the only page the new system doesn’t like is this page. It has loaded every other site I’ve typed in, but it won’t load what you’re reading. Anyone have a theory of why or how I can fix this? Is it a satellite problem or a blogger problem?)

I did find a few days here and there to spend time on medical research needed to clean up certain scenes in my current manuscript. So progress on this book…and the hope of the other book, co-written with Mom, moving forward. Our two favorite editors are in the process of discussing On the Threshold and we might have news to share soon.