Children and Shelfari

Most of you will be surprised to learn that I have not forgotten about this blog. Unfortunately life has been a combination of busy and complicated. My son is now 3 1/2 years old and seems to be catching up on the infamous "terrible twos" and "terrible threes" that all parents of older children seem to delight in telling new parents about. Actually, he's not that bad. We have had some issues recently with following direction and a rebellious attitude. I am aware that this behavior will continue to an extent as he grows older. My wife and I have been challenged by this and have discussed at length how to best handle our son, including how to best discipline him when necessary. I believe that is always a challenge for young parents. You get to a point where the kids have you run to a level of exhaustion that starts to try your patience, and then you have to stir up that extra endurance which prevents you from snapping and disciplining your children inappropriately primarily based on your level of exhaustion and not on the nature of their discretion.

Our daughter is nearing six months, so we don't have near as much to do in the nature of discipline and making sure she follows our instructions. However, a six-month old does not always follow the same daily schedule as us.

All in all, we're both very happy about our children. We love them very much and enjoy seeing them grow and develop. Our son, Christopher, is now at the point where he is reading half of his bedtime books to me. And our daughter, Nanami, is trying valiantly to roll over on her own. I know that I've never focused on family in this blog, and that may change in the future, but I thought everyone deserved to know some of what is occupying my time.

That said, I am working on some essays concerning various writing topics. These include dialogue, setting, point of view, etc. I am currently working on dialogue, as this has always been one of my challenges as a writer. I am also continuing to do research for and make background notes for a story I am working on currently. This is one I mentioned previously involving a modern fantasy set in both the Midwest of America and in Japan.

I will leave you with a link to my Shelfari account. You may have noticed in the sidebar the virtual bookshelves displayed there. And even though Goodreads has its benefits for keeping track of, and discussing, the books you own, have read, want to read online, I have the majority of my books listed on Shelfari. In fact, I have 307 books listed on my account right now, and have not gone through three boxes of books, or entered about 3-4 additional shelves of books. Now these include many of the books that I have read and previously owned. But the majority of them are ones that are sitting on my bookshelf...or on my desk, or on the side-table in the living room, or on the floor by my bed. Well, you get the picture.

I still need to go into my account and start rating and reviewing all of these books, but I at least have them listed there. Feel free to send me a friend request if you happen to be part of Shelfari, or of Goodreads. I'd love to meet avid book addicts like myself. If you'd like to learn more about what Shelfari is all about check out their own description here.

I do hope I can share more with you in the near future. Look for those essays on writing somewhere down the road, and I'm always looking for great stories and pictures from Japan to share with you. Until then, be well.