Fourth of July

This morning we went to the ward's Fourth of July breakfast. By the time we got home from that it was too hot to go for a run. I realize this is relative, since DH is experiencing temperatures a good 30 degrees hotter than we are, but it's still hot enough that exercising in the middle of the day isn't very smart.

I did finally manage to get DD's outside toys taken care of finally. Some of them have been out there, but not all of them, and they needed to be rearranged. So I rearranged her toys, finally screwed the playhouse together, set up the sand and water table, and brought the rest of her toys out. DD had a great time playing with all the toys, some of which she hasn't seen in 6 or 7 months. in fact, I had to pick DD up and carry her, kicking and screaming, into the house for a late nap.

After her nap, we went outside to play in the sand table again for awhile. It's amazing how long a toddler can stay absorbed in one thing (in this case, playing with the sand and the water in her sand table). I was playing with her, and periodically she'd trade toys with me, or say 'oner side, oner side' so we could switch sides. Other than that, she was happy as a clam for quite some time. I had to drag her away again when it was dinner time. She did not want to stop playing! This is good, though, because it's the extra incentive I need to spend more time outside. I don't really like spending time in the backyard because there's not a nice lawn (it's too dry to use water on both a front and back lawn, and the front wins out), so there's lots of itchy weeds and dirt, and there's lots of bugs (I'm really not a fan of anything that makes me itch: weeds, bugs, etc). I need to get a nice lawn chair that'll get me up off the ground, and then I can read or work on my book while DD plays.

I haven't been working on my book lately, and I've realized I really need to. When I'm spending time mindlessly surfing the web, looking for interesting sites, it's a good sign I need to be doing something more productive with my time. I've been a little stalled out on dialogue and such, so I decided to change things up and start jotting down the basics of what happens in a notebook, then I can use that to type more detailed scenes. I've done some jotting today, and after I finish here, I'll start typing and see if it goes more smoothly than before. Part of the problem is I know most of the big picture, it's the smaller details I need to solidify. So whether I should do it in outline form or as I type is the question. I'll probably do some more experimenting as I go on.