Hello. Hi. Howdy. Sometimes I miss just coming here and chatting. This month, however, choices must be made, and my choice this month is to devote as much time as possible writing my 50,000 words. That doesn’t always leave time to come here and chit the chat.

Today is no different.

We are in week four (maybe five, I don’t even know anymore) of at least one child being sick. Coughs and sniffles, broken up occasionally by a sinus infection, strep, or fifth’s disease, have been passed around my household, keeping us all awake for several hours each night. Finally, last night, I was felled by some bizarre combination of headache, sinus pressure, nausea (no, I’m not pregnant, thank you for thinking that) and sore throat. It’s a greatest hits of all my kids’ illnesses for the four weeks (maybe five).

So today I wrote 1800 words, which normally I…