I believe it really is common sense to not drink a lot of something (tea, in my case) before you go to bed, but for some reason I did it anyway. I can stand to stay up late; I just do not fancy the thought that I may have kept my father up. I hope I did not.

Now, as for that schedule my mother suggested I post . . .

Everyday to-do's for Meaghan:

Morning hours: Rise, dress, go downstairs for breakfast. If it is warm outside, eat out of doors. Plan meals for the day, decide what activities you will be doing; perhaps take a walk or read a book if you have woken early.

Afternoon hours: Meet with father, see him off (if he has come home), have lunch. Clean the kitchen then usefully employ yourself reading, writing, sewing, painting, taking a walk, playing with Emma, tidying around the house, doing laundry, among others (see below). Have tea mid-afternoon, around 3 pm, with a light snack. Offer to help with dinner.

Evening hours: Have dinner, clean the kitchen, and the remainder of the of the day may be spent as leisurely as you please. Do try not to watch too much television. Go to bed between 10 and 11 pm. Do not forget to eat something before you sleep. You may read or write for a short time before settling in, and you may begin to plan for the next day.

Other employments: Most of these are not done everyday, done more than once a day, or done whenever I have time. Cook treats, help around the house, bathe, look after Emma, change linens, tidy your bedroom, go out, learn to play the piano or guitar, meet with the neighbors, water the plants and see to the garden, draw, write letters, do a bit of school (like Latin, stargazing, reading the dictionary), edit any writing you need to, write in your journal, and if you have not collapsed from exhaustion, have a sit-down; review any work that must be done for Tazier, family outings, watching movies, doing puzzles, family bonding, and others.

There! I have to say it looks very, very busy indeed. When we went out yesterday, I missed tea time and forgot to clean the kitchen when we returned, so I felt like my whole day was thrown off! Hence why I had tea time later and I could not sleep well.

Now for more imaginary book titles! The forbidden book of the forbidden; Myths to frighten your children; Madam Grimley's good manners; Madam Grimley's book on raising children; Past rulers of ___ (Twenty-eight volumes); Love gone awry; My lovely mollycoddle;  Tips on keeping secrets and being elusive (or evasive, they mean the same); How to be happy; Find the man or woman of your dreams; and finally, Curing the injured and the ill.

A 'mollycoddle' is a boy or a man used to being coddled or pampered; it also just means anybody being coddled.  Along with thinking up book titles, I have also been thinking up author names. Most are pretty common, like one is J. J. Blackie, but one I made is Barty Chemise. I wrote a note down saying it was no wonder nobody took him seriously - a chemise is a lady's undergarment. I have yet to decide what he writes.

Well, as it is now considered spring - regardless of the snowy, cold, and windy weather we're having - I will now post in the Spring catagory. How sad it is that the weather is so frightfully bad . . .

In other news, I did begin to write my story again, but it was not long before I had to cease it and deal with something in the story I had not dealt with yet. I did write some yesterday, though. The other day I wrote what my day would be like if I was to make a schedule for it. The result? A very hectic day, but also very leisurely for me. I would certainly always be doing something I liked, so it could not be too bad or too tiresome. I am not sure if I will at any point follow it. However, I do find it helps me with remembering to eat or make food.

Today we put in a new pellet stove, and it was my parents' 18th wedding anniversary - or I think so. It took a very long time to get the stove in; now it is running nicely. We did not do anything for Easter. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad

The one thing I have really been working on is imaginary books for in my story. I made a staggering seventy-nine! I will not endeavor to type them all up here - I will be off in a moment to watch something on the television. I do hope none of these are offensive. There are such titles as:

The practical book of avoiding the unwanted; A boys' guide to mind-reading and other magical tricks to impress your friends (and charm a lady!); Marrying off your daughter, the easy way; Understanding the abstruse; Memoirs of a simpleton; A lifetime of dim-witted mistakes (and how to prevent them); How to become bluestocking and agreeable; Meddling and troublesome children: tried and true ways to set them straight; How to understand the easily understood (in eight volumes); The villains' guide to conquering any village, continent, or world - for all ages; Acceptable and unacceptable men and women's professions; A young ladies' guidebook to chaming young gentlemen in the appropriately fashioned and socially acceptable way; All of the Unknown Sea: an exceedingly short history.

You know what? Lists are awesome. Why did I not think of making one sooner? I made a long list - fifty-eight items so far - for what I must do for my story. I found instead of attempting to solve one or two problems, and being unsuccessful, if I have more than one option it is so much easier to deal with it. Most of it is for only the first book, and some preparation for the second. I have lots to do. It also helped me remember things I'd forgotten and think up new things that I should have thought of before. All in all, a very helpful thing in the story department.

We have still not gone to see the neighbors, though they have had many visitors over already. I remember when we first arrived here, Rosella made us some very delicious cinnamon rolls. Mmm . . . I could really go for some of those right about now. Oh, Sarah has come back, too, since Saturday. I haven't the time to write a long post today, as I really must go work on story things.

P.S. I do not believe it - my pajama pants are becoming too short! This is funny, for I am dreadfully short . . .

I mustn't  ever make things up again without running it through a search engine, you know, because again I have taken something that already existed and thought it was something I thought of. I do not know if I took it directly from a book we have, called the book of lists which has, unsurprisingly, lists of things in it, like best novels of all time - Pride and Prejudice was number four! (War and Peace, some book with ridiculously small text and nearly a thousand pages long, was number one. We own it, but I believe nobody has read it . . .) - and things of all sorts. Anyway, they had a list of extinct birds - or I think it was a list of ones that couldn't fly. As it turns out, one month I have for my story, Moa, is actually a bird, which became extinct in the 17th century or something. It was some sort of ten-foot-tall turkey, according to them. This book was published in 1977, so most of everything is outdated by now. Still, I think I may have known this when thinking up my months, but I lost this book around September of last year and only found it a few days ago, and I think it was already lost when I made up those months. I will still keep it.

Sarah has gone to visit Addison and Kaytlyn (my brother and my sister-in-law) until Saturday - I guess I should take this opportunity to work on that third chapter, but I have not been thinking about it much so I have no real ideas for it. My eyes have improved, too - I do not know if I have said that - and I am trying to take it easy. No looking outside too much - it is very snowy everywhere, and very sunny, and therefore very bright - if I look at lights too long, my eyes will hurt. I can't watch the television too long either, since it's making me tired lately. But I can write all day, or as much as my hands can stand to. I know eventually the ideas I need to continue with my story will come to me. I cannot skip ahead, though, and keep on writing - that is a bad habit of mine as things are, and if I do that it is exceedingly likely I will have to write the part or parts all again, which is dreadfully a nuisance. However, at times I do not much mind it if I have found there is much more I need to add anyway.

My mother has just read the title of this and inquired, 'Moa? What's Moa?' and experimented saying it differently, though the first time was right, and I told her I had written about it before with exaggerated disappointment. She mumbled something as she went away about me being crushed and I told her it was explained in this blog entry. Oh dear, we are far too sarcastic sometimes.