T-minus 35

T-minus 35 days until my manuscript deadline. What I did not think about when I suggested November 1 was that my amazing, talented, smart agent, Laurie Abkemeier would want to see the aforementioned manuscript before I send it off to HarperCollins. She's a fantastic editor, and I am grateful for her edits, but I didn't really figure that step of the process into my mental planbook. 

This has all happened so fast, and it's all been so mind-blowing that sometimes I have to just stop and catch my breath. For all of my new readers, here's the story of how I got to T-minus 35 days in "The Anatomy of a Viral Post," Part I, Part II, and Part III. 

Anyway, I've been attempting to keep my sanity by doing this:

and this: 

and this. 

All of these things have helped, but I am, for better or for worse, also doing this:

and this:

and added in this: 

and [a lot of] things like this: 

So life has been a little crazy. 

Today, I'm under the weather, so while I just turned a chapter in to my agent, I'm resting with our two new kittens, Lucie and the little one (who has four names, depending which member of the family you ask). So today, T-minus 35, looks like this:

So thank goodness I had a sane moment and realized I could not also do this, the thing that started it all:

But in all the madness, a piece of my heart resides there, with my students, in that leaky, creaky, absolutely beautiful classroom.