Sorry I’ve been away so long. There’s been so very much going on here, good and bad. Including the fact that I broke my iPad yesterday. Yes, for those of you keeping track, that’s the second time in roughly six months. Did I not mention how endowed I am with the clumsy? So I’m now sitting in a coffee shop, writing to you from my laptop, hoping the battery holds out and that the repair place will make quick work of replacing my iPad screen. And, yes, I’ve already ordered a new, super protective case with a detachable keyboard.

One of the really great, yet very time consuming for the last six weeks or so, things is that Zoo Keeper is all set to enter kindergarten in the fall with his brand-spankin’ new IEP. For those of you unfamiliar with the wonderful world of special education, that’s an Individualized Education Plan. I’ve heard horror stories about the process from so many sources, many of them from friends with first-hand experience, some involving the very school Zoo Keeper will be attending. But his school has a new principal and she is fabulous.

Actually, I’ve just proven how short my own memory is because this process for Zoo Keeper was a nightmare until about two months ago, when I told them he was regressing. I took his ABA program manager to the meeting with me, fully prepared to fight to have him evaluated, but that meeting turned out to be merely an information gathering session to figure out what areas they needed to evaluate for him. They had already decided to do the evaluation. And every member of the team, including the principal who has attended every meeting, has been very supportive and open to collaboration. They want to work with me to make this the most successful experience that it can be for Zoo Keeper. I kinda wish it was fall already.

Anyway, I’m really just dropping in to tell you that the storm of stuff is settling a little, but it’s not over yet. School’s not out for another week and bunko is at my house on Tuesday (Hi ladies!). And Sparky and I are both starting our diets this week, we joined the Program’s alumni challenge and we each got a fitbit. It’s a pretty awesome device and, if you are trying to lose weight, I highly recommend it.

So I’ll be posting my weight here weekly, though the commentary may be a little short for awhile due to the fact that I’m going to start writing fiction again. I haven’t written any fiction for quite a while now and all the writing I’ve been doing for the last couple of months has been for another blog. That one’s a group blog and the writing component for me has relaxed quite a bit. Enough so that I’ve had an idea for a third blog that I set up yesterday. I know, I know, I just got finished telling you how I was going to start writing fiction again, so why am I talking about another blog? Because it will be focused on fiction. My fiction.

Over the past five years, I’ve spent chunks of time working on three different novels. They’re all in different stages and they’re all completely stalled. Then there was this news story I’ve been following that I realized I wanted to use as a plot for one of my stories. Then I realized I could connect the three stories into a trilogy, which exploded the characters for me, new thoughts on them every day, but I’m having trouble with the overarching plot.

Which is when I decided to blog about it. I’m going to put character sketches, song playlists, pictures of scrapbooks, background writing, and whatever else I can think of up there. And I’m going to do some stream of consciousness, brainstorming kind of writing and put it up there in an attempt to figure out where I’m going with this.  And it will be a place where other people can observe the process and offer suggestions if they want. Not the general public, I’m not that crazy. The site will be private, so you’ll have to register to get past the front page. But I’m hoping that you guys will drop in to check it out and maybe stay awhile.

Right now I’m not planning to announce the url in any public places, but I’ll email the link to people who ask for it. Just send me a request via email: michelle at lifewiththequirkyboys dot com. The site doesn’t have much content at the moment, as I just set it up last night, but I hope to populate it with lots over the next few weeks.

This may be a totally crazy idea, but I’m hoping it will hold me accountable for doing the writing, much the way it did for my weight loss on the Program. I’m hoping I’ll be able to stick to both this summer. More than that, be excited about both this summer and beyond.