I had so much fun at the MREA fair in Wisconsin! It was such a pleasure to meet all of you who came to the show despite the heat (Friday), wind and dust (Saturday), and rain (Sunday). And it was great to see so many good folks rockin’ the BHM t-shirt! I was practically hoarse from flapping my jaw by the close of the fair every evening. That’s kind of unusual for me, since I am normally the shy type, but I suppose the difference at the fair was that A) we had something in common to talk about, namely BHM, and B) the Central Waters micro-brewery tent was always open (and possibly not in that order–that is some mighty fine brew). As we descend into deadline again (in fewer than three weeks) it’s nice to know you think we’re doing a good job.

Deadline is over, we’ve all pretty much recovered from our colds, and the weather is beautiful (it has been in the 70s or low 80s for weeks). But instead of being outside as I ought to be, enjoying spring and my beautiful seedlings, I’ve been glued to my computer, writing.

Writing is hard. I’ve been trying for months (and months) to finish writing my cloth diaper article, but one thing or another always causes me to run away and seek the nearest source of chocolate (which, unfortunately, is almost never my cupboard). But I’ve been toughing it out for the past few days, and I feel like I’ve finally finally gotten into a rhythm. I’m not sure I’ve made a breakthrough, yet, but I’m getting there.

Truth be told, I’m a bit nervous about finishing the article and turning it loose on the world. Will it be any good? Will you like my pattern? Will I die of embarrassment when I discover a typo in print? It’s been years since I published an article in the magazine, and even though there have been many requests for me to start writing again, I worry that I won’t live up to expectations.

I’ll just keep working at it, anyway. With and awful lot more work, a fair amount of luck, a couple pounds of chocolate, and a hearty scoop of courage, I’ll make it into the next issue.

…hot tea, fuzzy slippers, and brown moose.

I finished up the last article tonight that will make it into the issue. The quality of articles is especially fantastic this time–I can’t wait to put some of these ideas into effect around here. If you’ve been on the fence about subscribing, this is definitely an issue you don’t want to miss!

Tomorrow I’ll start building ads, and hopefully get a chance to start tidying up around here. My office will soon become the guest room when Erik’s folks show up. I hope to be all done with deadline by then.

It’s deadline again, and I’m swamped. I think everyone is, actually, because this is going to be a BIG issue–16 pages longer than usual. Of course that means 16 more pages for us to edit and finalize. I’m getting as much as I can done this weekend, because Erik will be in the field early next week, then his Dad and Step-mom will be coming to visit for a few days (they arrive the night before we get off deadline). Right now Erik is in the kitchen roasting a chicken and working on something else that smells delicious (I haven’t ventured out of my studio to find out yet). I know I’m going to really miss his help next week.