Krista

I've said my piece with you already @wildone, you never listen. That's why you stay in trouble. All of it is ick. Addictive icky nonsense. I said what I said.

I missed the survey as well. But I've barely been on GA for over a week or so. I doubt my answers would've skewed the outcome any by looking at the results. It looks massive, this change. I wonder how many times I'll manage to break something. It will be interesting to see the implementation of it, as I am more likely to complain about... or enjoy something after I have access to it. Although I am a bit worried we're moving towards a "Recommendation" heavy system. I'm not going to break my back trying to get readers to react, review, or recommend. But I also don't want my stories buried in searches for the lack of them either.

Sometimes you have to sit back and read the whole picture. What you think is clunky, cumbersome or unnecessary hides itself well and actually fits the writing in general. It is just you tunnel visioning on how you have pictured it in your own head. Possibly many different times, and you have a feeling the words don't match the imagining. I suggest taking your hands off the keyboard. You see a typo, cringe and ignore it. Missed punctuation? Keep going and try not to focus on the structure as much. Focus on the message, the scene, the flow of it from start to finish. It may take you reading the chapter before and the chapter after, before something clicks. We've all been there. I do spot edits all the time as I read, re-read, and read it again. Reading my own story grounds me in it, maybe some of your over editing is because you've lost some of your footing with the story, and you might need to reconnect at that spot where you are most comfortable. You can also over-prune something.

I am so jealous. Australia is No. 1 on my bucket list, but I don't want to be on that long of a flight over there... --- @wildone I think if I too also went quiet around the same time, people would start worrying about you. Thinking I finally made that 'road trip,' up to see you after one of your little attempts at being cheeky. I can imagine the screaming tot, but that poor dear had its whole schedule upended and it was too young to reconcile that. Poor dear. That is one of the things you have to contend with whilst traveling with wee little ones. I will be demanding all the more juicy details from your trip. There is no way on this earth that you behaved. It would be a shock to your system. Lastly, this man also didn't remind me of his trip. So I spent those days thinking someone got to him before I did. I was worried. He knows I cannot remember dates worth a damn. He's had these conversations with me, I forget holidays. I've walked my happy ass into work on holidays before... but does he remind me, no. He up and disappears. Rude behavior.

You can cry, I'll be snockered off my ass.

Don't burn your biscuits, Wildthing, you're Canadian you're not used to that.

Good luck y'all. Be sneaky... and all that. I'll be uninvolved. Probably.

I do not think I've touched the information in my profile for over a decade. Yikes.

Dark mode. I cannot stand to read digitally for very long without switching.

I already take care of one man-child - we all know who that is, I do not need two more. I have a full time job. And I've told @wildone more than once. If I wanted to tell my side of the story to a jury, he would've already been dealt with. Miles is just an excuse to go sightseeing, vacations do exist. Although, I'd have to book the trip for the one month in Canada where there's the lowest chance for snow, so he'd expect me around July. I like the element of surprise, but I do dread snow...

When you're three aisles into grocery shopping, you have your oldest meandering beside you, because she's learned to behave... but two toddlers strapped to you via backpack leashes. The cereal aisle becomes a testament of patience. All those colorful boxes... all that cartoonish writing, and childish advertising. You can overlook the first crash of cereal boxes as your little tot finally got enough 'line' to reach a box. Pick them up, tell them no, too much sugar. Three aisles deep, a buggy half full of necessities you're not going to put back, because you're outnumbered and two sets up lips are puckered out and you see the oncoming tantrum. Twins - you piss one off, you've pissed the other one off... that happens from Birth onward. All those whispers from ladies that no longer were outnumbered by toddlers and children under the age of six in a grocery store and their judging eyes because you have two of them strapped to you like dogs and not little young people. I think that gives me the right, forever, to embarrass the brats. Nothing is more embarrassing than dragging two toddlers, both holding cereal boxes, because you've given up through the store on their butts, because apparently, if their hands are full their feet no longer work. Now they're teens. Paybacks are coming. ---- As for my parenting style, I am looking around and I no longer see parents actively placing expectations on the shoulders of their children. They wander through life being carried, partially, and give little in return. I knew from the start that my children were to have expectations. I mentioned this a few times to other parents and they blinked at me. Some would say, "kids that young?" And I would always answer with, yes. My kids were expected to gather their dirty dishes and give them to me, or place them in the sink. They were expected to clean their rooms. They were expected to bring their dirty laundry down to be washed. They knew they wouldn't be allowed any screen at the table, or in the family room when their attention and involvement/participation was -- you guessed it, expected. They come in from school, they do their homework. They do their chores. They eat their supper and we talk about their day. After we clean the kitchen together, afterwards they're free to decompress and do what they wish. When they were younger they'd bring their crafting, or toys, or whatever they wanted to do to the family room, not because they were told to, but because they wanted to be in the room with us whilst they played. Now they're older and stinky teenagers, so they do like their rooms more. But that went for the adults too. To place expectations on the shoulders of children, you should place them on yourself as well. Flexibility is key. Children have bad days. The world burdens them. You will never know every single burden, but you hope you've prepared them enough to manage it, or you've given them enough openness they will come to you when they can't. One of these days I'm sure one or more of my children will come to me and tell me something that happened to them, and it will shatter me. It may even be my fault in the end. Social media we do not allow though. I explained and rehashed my reasons for them not to be on social media. The oldest is driving now, and she still isn't allowed on any platform. I'm sure they get doses of it at school, the blocks on content are easy to get around, and they're allowed phones during down time and between classes to get that fix. They have friends, most of them with poor posture and eyes glued to their phones. I know I've done something good when they come home annoyed because their friends are addicted to scrolling endlessly looking for fifteen seconds of whimsy, and my children can't understand 'why' it is necessary to be on phones/tablets all the time and not engaging with the people around them. My children are also different individually. I worry about the boys more than I do the girls. They seem to take the punches the world gives them a lot harder. I admit that I am a beast when it comes to incidents that happen at school. I know what y'all are thinking. She's one of those.. "Little Jonny can do no wrong..." sorts. No, I don't think I am. I have explained to them that school disciplinary actions are important, they will follow through with them. I've told them after each incident there are better ways to handle it. That I understood heat of the moment situations are difficult to digest, but they are expected to handle it better in the future. I was privately proud of them both though. They stood up for what they believed, they just didn't choose the right words or way to do it. Most of you may be thinking... 'well they take after her...' But I am still a beast. Especially when I think the teachers were unfair. So far though there's only been two incidents that prompted a visit from me. They're mostly well behaved and I get great feedback on them. It was the two girls that I got called into the school over, not the boys. I won't go into detail about the incidents here, as they're rather specific and one of them even made the school's newspaper and I'm rather certain that publication is open to public viewing and not restricted behind the school's log-in, so I will not talk about that. Just know that my daughter wasn't the only one upset with that teacher that day, but you best believe I was the first one in that office and that teacher left having heard my opinion. I do get told that I am one of the most involved parents. I make it a point to be. I want to know what they're learning, what their assignments are, when they're due. I want to know how they're graded. I know each child's syllabus for every class. More parents should, we all have access to that information at least at the school my children are enrolled in. I went back and forth on whether or not to say any of this. I try to keep my footprint on social media rather minimal, so I don't like to specifically talk about anything to do with my children and family, jokes aside. I think I've kept this all vague enough. Only a few people know how I came to be a mother. It wasn't conventional. There was a time in my life when I thought I would never get the chance to be one. My husband showed me that it was a fight worth the fighting for and we made it happen, with a lot of help from my mother. Someone who I think I get a lot of my strength from, she doesn't know where I got all the sass though.

Well then, good for Gabriel, because sudden heel turns is a big and massively used trope. So, he was spared from that fall from grace, at least. Now he's just the boring, but hot, 'never really a choice' trope. And I say boring compared to the sunshine and storms that Ryan is by comparison. Not that he's boring, boring. I don't know which is worse.

I saw the twins inclusion. And I was thinking... Don't do that full on orgy... But also, I know the most consistent and really endearing thing about Percy is that he doesn't share. He may look, think about, weigh the options, but at the end of every thought he knows he doesn't share. Then Five comes right into that line of thinking as well. But still... the rating on that scene would reach filth heights I would be afraid to imagine.

They were so puppy dog innocent and cute this chapter... my goodness me. Madison finally landed a blow, and it stung. Good for her, finally stepping into the shoes she's been trying to get on for 10 chapters. But Sloan threw her into the trash like a fruitcake on Christmas morning though. If this was completely Sloane's ambitions and she is caught out, she is flirting with being expelled entirely. If pushing is zero tolerance, then digital bullying and everything that entails would likely hold just as high and strict no tolerance rules. She may be finishing her year home schooled... I wonder if she did it. Lex shows up, without Steve he shows himself to give good advice. Madison's stock in the school has to have fallen. Even with people seemingly scrambling to clear her and point fingers elsewhere. She was bested by Sloane, her rival. Then told off by three people "far beneath" her. How many falls is she going to take before she can't get up off the ground? This sort of felt like an ending. Ryan and Skylar wrapped up their relationship and formulated concrete terms and left little on the table as far as feelings and expectations are concerned. What they've set out to do will be difficult, but Madison should already know, she has to. She's already 75% there, she's just banking on Ryan not playing the same type of ball Skylar is, but even then, it was Ryan that broke up with her and lacked support for her, she's self-absorbed, sure, and that could be the only saving grace the two of them have. Gabriel must've really just been a Lassie type dude. Huh. Is this where you prove me wrong, when I am finally no longer squinting all twitchy in his direction?

Yes, they finally got all their words right, out in the open, laid bare, and all that. Some people need smacked in the face by everything in order to get there. Apparently some people need to be plowed like a field in early spring. --- I do have an out of pocket guess as to who is hovering over Five as well. That very grateful dude with the injured kidney could've healed up enough to come waltzing through the front door. If it isn't Ethan. I guess most people lean Ethan, because Ethan seemed to want to mess up Five's attempts with Percy in the writing and it kind of fell through. Scorned, jilted, and bested... who knows. If I am correct then you've thrown one hell of a curveball. Is Percy Baby good at throwing curveballs? 😮 I actually forgot what position he plays... --- If Bethany will never pawn a gift from Five, then she is rather accepting of consequences. But, she did send him out to stud up Percy for a month to see where his feelings were. Maybe she is that selfless. I'm saying this still in possession of an engagement ring given to me by the one person that broke my heart and nearly wrecked me for over a year, so. Apparently I am not the pawning sort either. --- I know I've weighed their relationship against how I approach relationships and that's where most of my ranting comes from. Aside from interesting characters giving me fits. If I was looking at this without those shaders on, I would see all of them more fluid. A lot of wiggle room, so to speak, than I would allow my characters in most circumstances in my writing. Like I said, that's what makes them fun. I'll just rant though.