i would like a clone, please

There's not time enough to do all I want to do.

This week, I became a homeschooler again. And I have to say, I'm loving it already. We started with a pretty basic schedule yesterday, but by this morning, I was ready to add some fun to those basics. I pulled a Bach CD from the top of a shelf, where it had been collecting dust, and filled the house with music. Rumaged around until I found Along Came Galileo and Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book and The Sign of the Beaver. And then, because we're starting a new venture and new ventures call for new materials, I scrapped the old Book of the Centuries notebook I'd started with Zac ten years ago, and spent the morning printing out bright new sheets for Tera. The girl should have her own fresh BOTC, don't you think?

If I had a clone, she could continue sharing such details. I'd instruct her to tell you about all the "Life Skills" I have planned for Tera -- the knitting, sewing, quilt-making, cooking and baking. My clone would know just how to describe the delicious but unorthodox pumpkin muffins Tera made for her first solo baking adventure this afternoon (she added 1/2 cup of flour instead of 1 1/2 cups ... so we're calling it "delicious pumpkin pudding"). She'd write while I attended to the nineteen other things needing my attention right now.

I don't have another me. But if I did, she'd be busy. I'd set Shannon-b in front of my desk and toss notes at her all day long--bits of description I want her to include in a blog post, or remembered dialogue. Story ideas for a novel I want to start. Email I need to send but have no time for.

She'd tell you about the radio interview I had Friday. She'd tell you I didn't faint, I liked the interviewer, and it actually went well.

She'd then go on to describe the retreat I taught at over the weekend, and how much fun we had, and how nice it was to connect with a half dozen friends I had known in past years but lost touch with.

I can't write all the words I'm hearing in my head, because too many other voices are calling to me. There's the voice that says, "Supervise Tera's flute practice," and the one that says "Start dinner," and the one that says, "Weren't you going to edit another chapter today?"

It's noisy in this head. I would like a clone, please.