This week marked the second week of school. This year I have in essence three new classes. I have never taught leadership before. After being the class officers’ adviser last year, I wanted to take this class on. The other class is Spanish Culture Studies, and elective that I designed to help give a taste of Spanish through the culture more than the language. The third class is my seventh grade Spanish class. I taught seventh grade last year, but it was that group’s first exposure to Spanish. This group had a half semester last year as sixth graders and struggled. So, I wanted to change things up. All three classes are more student run. The leadership class will have projects to do and create ideas then put them into practice. The Spanish Culture Studies will explore topics of interest of the students. It will be a hands on type of class. The seventh grade class was able to choose their own topics of interest as a class and we will explore Spanish through those topics. All of those ideas sounds fun and good, but I have to create lesson plans that match them and include standards of what we are aiming for. All of this is suppose to happen before I begin teaching the unit. Needless to say, my first couple of weeks of school were quite busy.

However, I can’t stop being mom. Seven o’clock each morning, I have left and gone south past the high school to drop my eighteen-year-old off at work in a field where he is changing irrigation pipe. My thirteen-year-old earned a part in the local adult theater group’s Christmas play which means extra trips north throughout the week.

I have been so busy with school and family that several book events have fell to the side. Wednesday while at school, I had a moment to check email and saw a Twitter notice of a blog post. It was my post on Vox Dei’s webpage! I had forgotten it was to air that day. As my eighteen-year-old says, “Face palm!” The next day, I had another similar experience. I checked email just before lunch during my prep period and found a Twitter announcement of my cover reveal for The One Who Sees Me. How could I have forgotten that! I knew I needed to get a better grip on my calendar.

Saturday loomed big in my vision. I had to be ready for the book signing and release party of Dragon’s Future. My husband and eighteen-year-old would be off at a men’s retreat which left my nineteen-year-old and thirteen-year-old at home.

Grandprize packet of swag and a signed book went to a high school senior.

My thirteen-year-old and I enjoyed the Cranberry Parade at the local festival, and then we headed to the art gallery and used book store which was hosting the signing. After frantically trying to find parking, I was able to elicit help from some friends to carry books and supplies to the gallery. My three hours were fun and profitable. Many came through to purchase books, and I even met a journalist for the local paper who wants to do an author interview. We’ll see what happens.

In the meantime, I am ready for another week of school. I will try my hardest to be better at budgeting my time between family, school, and author work. It is a challenge this year, but it can be done.