This month the Goddess is Pax.

Go to the publisher’s web site http://magicalchildbooks.com/newsletter.html to sign up and get access to this and other free coloring pages on the yahoo group.

Have to exercise. Still had a houseful of kids yesterday morning so couldn’t do my usual AM routine and got so engrossed in a drawing that I never got to it in the afternoon. Aiming to lose 15 pounds more by October. Have hit a plateau. Must. Work. Out.

I’ve been banished from the living room. The kid is having a sleep-over for Neville’s birthday. (From Harry Potter fame.) The kids are glued in front of the TV watching anime — Fruits Basket and something else. I loaded the coffee table with munchies and sodas and vacated the room.

I figured I’d post this doddle tonight instead of tomorrow morning.

Now I’m going to take these old, cranky bones of mine off to bed and a good book.

I still seem to be battling against bad habits, but the daily doodle habit is starting to form and take hold. It’s kind of like remembering to brush your teeth. Eventually, it becomes automatic, not needing focused thought to accomplish. Except on those occasional days when your routine is thrown off.

When that happens, you wander around for a while wondering what it was you forgot to do. And suddenly remembering and feeling much better as soon as you can get back to that danged toothbrush and scrub the fuzz off your teeth.

Last night, I didn’t want to do the daily doodle. My hand and arm were aching from slaving over a hot keyboard all day. But I felt off all evening. I finally just caved and grabbed my pen and sketch pad. And metaphorically brushed the fuzz from my brain. I am hopeful this new habit will carry over into my “real” work. I do know I always feel better about myself when I am creating art as opposed to not creating it.

On another subject, the City Streets Department is doing something loud and destructive at the end of the road. I can’t see what from here. There is our car port and a couple f houses in the way. But, whatever they are doing, not only can I hear the thump s thump a thump of it, but the whole house is shaking as if there’s an earthquake going on. It very disconcerting. I will have to try and draw my straight lines in between the shaking!

I have a feeling they are putting in new sewers or something. The surveyors came through last week and marked the road in all kinds of hot pink, orange and green.

One can only hope that once they are done with whatever project they are doing, that they also manage to fix the piece of alley that is crumbling away and causing all the trash and recycling trucks to bottom out when they cross from our alley to the other one on the opposite side of the street. Honestly, it’s so bad there are actual gouge marks in the street from the trucks!