The Three Rs (only one of which is actually an R, but whatever)

A dash of random for you today....

READING:
You know how sometimes you can't get into any book for weeks (or it seems that long), then suddenly everything you pick up is amazing? Yeah. It's been like that. As usual, I'm in the middle of lots of things...

Like Ruta Sepetys' first book, really amazing but massively difficult to read,
because the main character's life is so painful.

Technically I'm listening to the audiobook, masterfully narrated by Josephine Bailey.

This is for Caroline Starr Rose's Read-along, and just because I love it.

I'm also reading a lovely MG fantasy for a critique partner, and an advance copy of a fascinating scholarly work on the Hunger Games, titled The Many Faces of Katniss Everdeen, by Valerie Estelle Frankel.

WRITING:

Ooh, I had a great writing week. With only two days that I managed to get any large chunks written (blame blizzards and illnesses), but they were two really good days.

I debated vehemently with myself over whether to attend the New England SCBWI conference this year. I really really really wanted to go, to connect with many writer friends, to hear Sharon Creech give the keynote (love Sharon Creech), and just to be re-invigorated about writing. This year, since it's just over an hour away, we could skip the hotel fees, and because our baby is actually a toddler, we could leave the girls with my mom. But...they didn't make up the term "starving artist" for nothing. It's what I would be if I spent that money on a conference instead of groceries. Sigh.
However... my family is awesome. My mom and dad and sister agreed to pick up the girls this Friday morning and watch them at their house so Mark and I could have our own private full-day writing conference. I've got the Youtube videos of various writers' speeches lined up (even Sharon Creech ;), fresh notebooks and pens at the ready so we can tackle some writing exercises (from Ursula LeGuin's Steering the Craft), and my new chapter printed out for a one-on-one critique with the cutest writing partner ever.

ARITHMETIC:
Really? You thought I would talk about arithmetic? You'll have to be satisfied with the mention of balancing fees and expenses above, because that's the most complicated math I've been doing. Oh, well, there's teaching Lucy to tell time and count money. She's coming along...but can someone tell me why they made the dime smaller than the nickel, not to mention the penny? That just seems cruel and unusual and highly illogical to my way of thinking.