New Meaning

It's been seven years since I started Dinner. Bath. Book. Bed. and this is my second post.  I think I am really making a go of this writing thing.  I'm pretty sure I am the envy of most modern-day writers who are stuck up in little lofts on rainy, dark days, paralyzed with writer's block.  They must be truly terrorized by a writer who is as prolific as I am.  I mean, really.

I captured the title of this blog eight years ago because my two children were small and the routine of dinner-bath-book-bed was my lifeline to sanity.  Having small children is effing HARD.  I thought it was hard at the time and I think it was even harder than I thought, now that my kids are a bit older. I no longer have small children with endless demands on my time and physical and emotional energy, and I am starting to see a bit of a light.  A bit.  Don't worry, I'm still in the trenches just as much as those of you with small children are. I remember those days as vicerally as if they were happening NOW. My days are still filled with food preparation, fight remediation, wound tending, high-stakes sibling negotitions.  All that is still the same.

When I started this blog I thought I would share the routines I had established that helped create a sense of structure in my life.  I didn't cope well with the lack of structure that having small children or babies brings. I needed something to hang on to, and if a simple bedtime routine was it, then so be it.

I still have routines (although despite my best attempts none of them are related to housekeeping) and I still think my children's lives are better for it.  Although literally as I am typing this I am calling out, "Okay, five  more minutes until we go up to bed!" and then "Okay, two more minutes until we go up to bed!" and now I am purposely stalling them because I want to write this and finish it before we go up.  My wise daughter just asked, "Hasn't it been more than two minutes, mom?"  How did these kids get so smart?

Dinner.Bath.Book.Bed still really resonates with me and I want to continue writing under this flagship/soon-to-b- huge-writing-empire.  I still have a lot to say around this theme, although I am NOT going to write about routines.  I couldn't care less about routines now and I recognize them and honour them for what they provided me with when my children were toddlers:  sanity and a way to keep from feeling I was going off the rails.

I don't think there will be seven years until I post again but for those of you who so loyally follow me - all one of you (my sister) - I plan to be here a little more reliably.  I really am focussed on keeping those with writer's block shamed and terrified just by my abundance in the writing department.

For the naysayers . . . I even have a title for my next post:  From Scratch.  I hope you'll check it out and check back.