I don’t know about you guys, but it’s a month-plus in, and I am sick of 2010 already. It’s been a wild six weeks for our family: the hacker fiasco, a busted water heater, craziness at work (for both of us — and I’m not referring to my clients!), a death in the family, resuming graduate classes after two semesters off with the baby, drama in both our families and with a couple of important friendships….. And in the middle of that, teething, crawling, baby-proofing, growth spurts, crazy cold weather, etc. And there’s more snow coming this weekend.

It’s all leaving me with that “stop this thing, I want to get off” feeling. You know that feeling? Like the fun roller-coaster ride that you waited in line for three hours for, is actually just going to jostle you around and leave you with an upset stomach and a sore neck? [Or some far better, more articulate analogy.]

What’s amazing is, all this turmoil seems to be churning up the old creative juices. In the last few weeks, I haven’t had more than two complete nights’ sleep, but I have started three major creative projects (one with my best friend — a long-awaited opportunity for us to work together); and I’ve sketched out thoughts on two or three more. It seems that the best ideas come to me when I’m busy putting out fires in my life; maybe because I lose my tightly controlled grip over everything and all those dormant ideas see their opportunity to escape through the gaping holes in my consciousness.

So be on the lookout for my crazy ideas in the next few months, running around with pants on their heads like escapees from a mental institution. And in the meantime, note to the Universe: Thanks for the jolt of stimulation. I’m good now. Really.

MJ Pullen

M.J. Pullen is a distracted writer and the mom of two boys in Roswell, Georgia, where she is absolutely late for something important right now. Her books include quirky romantic comedies and playful women's fiction. She blogs erratically with writing advice, random observations, and reflections on raising very loud kids and dogs. Join her Distracted Readers newsletter list for updates, free content, giveaways and more.