It used to be that I couldn't write when there were dishes in the sink. Then I had a child, and now I can write if there's a corpse in the sink.
- Anne Lamott
I can't remember where I read the second one, so I can't remember who said it either, but I have thought about it often when I have decided to run upstairs to the computer during nap time to do some more editing instead of wash up. It goes like this:
You can't have a finished book and a clean kitchen.
This is painfully true. And so today I want to show you this:
 |
| My kitchen, right now. I can hardly bear to look. |
and tell you that Hypothetical Future Baby is finally, being released on September 3rd!
I'm so excited I can hardly stand myself. Online launch party invitation to come, as well as details on where to buy. For now, please save the date!
Woohoo - 3rd Sept it is :-) Can't wait. And (not sure what this says about me) I think your kitchen is just fine! Ours has been so much worse (and the only reason our kitchen is semi-tidy just now, and only semi-tidy mind you, is that we're showing the house to prospective buyers.. am hoping they like the "lived in" look!). One questions I do have however is.. what IS that green stuff you're drinking?!! Okay, counting down the days..
ReplyDeleteWell, I tell the children it's 'monster juice' but really it's spinach and apple and lime. Actually surprisingly nice. And I keep hoping that drinking it will compensate for the giant bag of chocolate almonds I just ate.
DeleteHoly cow! Just in time for my book club to come back from summer break. How do we get this book????
ReplyDeleteIt will be on amazon, barnes and noble.com, the apple bookstore, the sony Kobo bookstore... basically every place on the internet that sells books. Don't worry, I'll be posting plenty of links!!
ReplyDeleteMy kitchen looks worse that yours does, Claudia (in fact, my own blog post of today is called "Tornado Alley" and I'm referencing the state of my house!), and I can't even use the excuse of writing a book! But, similar to you, there are things I've realized over time just cannot happen simultaneously with having a very clean house - for me those things are time with the kids just BEING. Sometimes my hubbie walks in the door at the end of the day and I just know he's thinking 'what the heck have you been doing all day' as he stares about the messy kitchen with dinner only half cooked...and I almost get to the point of trying to explain myself away when I realize I just don't have to - I know that the times I 'should' have been cleaning the kitchen, etc, I spent it reading to the kids, or delivering a reading lesson to one child or another, or playing some board game with them, or wiping away tears from one of a zillion owies. It sounds like your priorities are just where they should be.
ReplyDeleteAnd many, many congratulations on the book, Claudia - that is, quite simply, a dream come true for you!!
Hugs,
Ruth
PS. Spinach and mango work really well in a smoothie, often with a green apple thrown in.
that is a really, really good idea on the mango - it's a bit tangy, and that's what the spinach seems to need.
DeleteAnd I can't believe all the things you do with your kids, Ruth - especially schooling three who are all at such different stages. It's liek you have three full-time jobs before you even get anywhere near thinking about cleaning the house. Doing it all is SO not possible. If Geoff doesn't like that, he can come home and clean on his lunch break :)
OK, so your words are really far too kind, Claudia...but oy, I'll take 'em anyway 'cause they just sit so well in my heart. Thanks!
DeleteRuth
One more thing...my kids LOVE a smothie that combines 2-3 cups of packed spinach, a bunch of mango, and a bunch of wild, frozen blueberries that we get in huge bags at one of our big-box warehouse stores. I add water to it, sometimes some plain greek yogurt, and always a scoop of raw hemp seeds, a scoop of chia seeds, a scoop of Greens+ vitamin powder. If it needs any sweetening (which usually it doesn't, thanks to the mango) I'll add a spoon full of jam or a squirt of agave nectar. It's truly awesome and my kids inhale these smoothies.
DeleteAnother version we all love: lots of spinach, packed down til it gets about 1/3 of the way up the VItamix (a good 3+ cups); about a cup+ of frozen mango chunks (same big box warehouse store); about 2/3 of a head of fresh parsley; a handful of blueberries; a half lemon; 3-4 big leaves of kale (slightly steamed in the microwave and then crammed into the Vitamix); enough water to make it work; and a couple of squirts of agave nectar to sweeten it a bit. Yum.
What an amazing accomplishment!! I'm so happy for you and so excited to see the actual date :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, lovely A.
DeleteCongrats! I love the photo! It looks like my kitchen!
ReplyDeleteit's amazing we don't all have food poisoning. Maybe we're all tougher than we look.
DeleteYay you!
ReplyDeletehigh five!!
Deleteso on the top of those cabinets on the left in the pic.... is that like, 10 bottles of wine? Just a thought but I bet if you drag some of those bottles down and open them up you would care a lot less about the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteCONGRATS on the book! Yes, please list links! Woo hoo!
It would be even more if I had shot further across. And THAT might explain my extra ten pounds.
DeleteSo fantastic! Well done! I truly cannot wait to read it.
ReplyDelete(Also, my kitchen looks like that - or worse - on a regular basis, and the only things I write are blog posts.)
yes, but that's actual work for you! And you have a tiny. Your kitchen can be as messy as you like.
DeleteCongrats!
ReplyDeletePs! Your kitchen doesn't look too bad...I don't see any evidence of corpses at all. ;-)
yeah, they're buried under the eight layers of dishes. Fooled the cops, too.
DeleteCongratulations, Claudia!! So excited to read it.
ReplyDeleteYou know you have to celebrate at each milestone, right? So how are you celebrating? ;)
That's a good question. And the honest answer? I'm going to watch a LOT OF TV, guilt free.
Deletewoot!
ReplyDeleteI love that you say woot :)
DeleteYay!!!! Cannot wait to read it!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Molly!!!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to get my hands on your book! One of "us" (an adoptive mama) wrote a whole book (with Twins!!) ... I know I don't actually know you, other than blog-know, but for some reason I'm tickled pink & just so proud that you've managed to do this :)
ReplyDeleteJennifer, blog-know is knowing! At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
DeleteBig congrats; very excited for you and us!
ReplyDeletethank you, my lovely.
Deleteso proud of you, and I can't wait to read it. congrats!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, C, you're a sweetie :)
DeleteYay! Can't wait!!
ReplyDeletethank you!!!!
DeleteI'm way behind on everything going on with my favorite bloggers' lives, but this is just fantastic. Congratulations, lady! I also really appreciate that quote, and the whole messy kitchen thing. I definitely find myself wasting time cleaning and cleaning and cleaning to avoid my 'real' work (writing). They also make so many lovely cleaning products now that are natural and smell like herbs and cucumbers and sea mist, which doesn't help...
ReplyDeleteI have a lavender one... LOVE it. So much more fun to lavender-ize my kitchen than do anything remotely resembling work, right?
DeleteWait, more annoying questions about your book! I'm on Amazon and it looks like this was released already?!!! Will it be available via ereader, you know, in favor of a cleaner, less cluttered kitchen?
ReplyDeleteSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Don't tell anybody!!!!!
DeleteAmazon sometimes puts things up a few days earlier than they should - to iron out any glitches in the listing, I suppose. Annoyingly I can't make them keep it until exactly Sep 3 - but I'm shutting my eyes and whistling loudly and pretending it's not there until Tuesday. Promise me you'll do the same?? (And same to anyone else who is reading this??)
It IS going to be on e-reader - Kindle first (by Tuesday), then others within a week or two.