Family Funnies

Here's a conversation between me and my 9 year old daughter.

Me: What do you want for dinner?

Daughter: Mom made food.

Me: Are you sure you don't want dad made food?

Daughter: No, definitely mom made food.


Last night when I put 9 year old daughter to bed, I realized she had put her pillow on the other side of the bed. When I asked her why, she said, "Just to spice things up a bit."

Wouldn't it be nice to go back to when changing the location of your pillow spiced up your life.


Since I'm close to being done my edits, my kids are off school, and it's my daughters birthday, I'm taking a break from blogging for the rest of the week.

Hope you have a great weekend with good weather.

Sticking to it

I'm almost done editing. I figure I have about two weeks left.

But....

I got an idea for another book. It's come to me in bits and pieces. First a premise, then a name and a setting. I'm itching to work out a plot.

But....

I only have two weeks left of editing.

So I've decided to stay with the editing, knowing that I have something fun waiting for me.

Do you work on two projects at once or are you a one at a time type a person?

Now for a little nepotism. My sister in law has an awesome voice. It's so awesome that she entered a contest to read the latest Neil Gaiman book. If you have some time to kill she'd love your vote. She's doublen. Here's the link.

Even if you don't vote, it's pretty interesting to hear different voices reading the same excerpt.

Naturally Good

Last summer after one of my soccer games where I played really well (scored 3 goals), my daughter who happened to be there, said to me. "Have you always been naturally good at soccer?"

My mind immediately went back to a video my husband made of my first game ten years ago, where I completely missed the ball and almost landed on my butt.

"No," I said. "Mom had to work really hard just to be able to kick a ball without falling over."

The same goes for writing. I honestly used to think that because I wanted to be a writer, I would just be able to, but that was when I was young and naive. Now I know differently. Writing takes work, lots of hard work. Even if you know grammar, proper punctuation, and sentence structure, doesn't mean you know how to write a good story. Yes, there are some people out there who have a natural way with words, but they still have to learn how to pace a book, develop characters, and keep the reader's interest.

I’m kind of word hoarder. I keep all of my drafts just so I can that I've improved. Just like that video shows me that I'm a much better soccer player.

So take a look back this week and see just how far you've come in your writing.

No post on Friday since it’s Easter and I’ll be spending some much needed time with my family.
Happy Easter everyone, hope you get to share it with loved ones.

Mind Numbing Middle

I've been doing another set of revisions and I've come to a conclusion. I love the opening. I love the end. The middle - meh.

Not to say that it's not good, it's just not as exciting as the beginning or end. Here, I'm introducing characters, setting, and plot. My pace is a little slower. I'm trying to build tension, but I think I need to stream line a few things.

Introduce my characters faster, only put the essentials in when it comes to setting, and make sure everything furthers the plot.

That's my goal this week: Strengthen my middle, of my book that is - although my core could use some strengthening as well.

Any goals for you this week?

Mother's Day comes early

The Crazy Daze Motherhood
written by Jane Isfeld Still

This book is filled with essays about the hilarious moments of being a mother that we don’t quite realize are hilarious until years later. Stories of children locked in bathrooms, overflowing toilets, bad hair days, and kids who try to help cook. The list goes on and on. As I read each story, I found myself chuckling out loud, nodding, and saying, it’s funny, because it’s true.

This would make a great mother’s day gift, as it an easy book to pick up a read even if you only have a few moments. I know this because I read it while waiting for my kids to finish school, basketball practice, piano lessons, and doctor appointments.

Here’s a little more information about Jane:

Jane is married to Rick Still, who she believes has the distinction of being the only man in history brave enough to give her earwax candles for her birthday. They had six children in eight years, and while her children were growing up, she discovered she had a great sense of humor. At least that was her take. Rick once said to her, "Honey, you know all those real corny things you say all the time? Who ever thought you could make money at it?" Her son Adam once told her, "Mom could you please stop telling jokes to my friends? It's really embarrassing." One of Jane's philosophies is, "You're not doing your job unless your children are worried about being seen in public with you."

To read more about Jane and her exploits visit her website at janeisfeldstill.com or her blog at janeisfeldstill.blogspot.com

She’s having a great contest just for being a follower and commenting on her blog. Prizes include:

1. Mother's Daze basket, soap, chocolate, lotion, decorative candles, and recipe cards
2. Box of blank cards with a smattering of Canadian chocolate
3. Chocolate

Trust me, Canadian chocolate is so worth winning. Happy Reading

A New Identity

I did it.

For the past ten years I have been involved with a soccer board in the small community where I live. Five years as recreational representative, five as competitive. On Thursday I hung up my boots and retired.

I'm not going to lie, it was hard. In fact, it demanded some retail therapy (I bought a nice pair of sandals and hoodie), but each day the load gets lighter and lighter – reaffirming that I made the right decision.

For so many years I've been known as the lady who was in charge of soccer. Now I'm going to have to find a new identity. Hopefully I can become the lady who wrote that book or I can follow the advice of a friend:

Your identity is you - not what you do. You can be a mom, a soccer lady, a writer - but you are still YOU, and everything that makes you great isn't changing. :)

So here's to being you and whoever you want to be.

Making Dinner

First off a big Whoo Hoo goes out to Jenn Johanson who announced this week that she has an agent. Jenn was one of the first blogs I followed, and I'm so excited for her.

Second, there seems to be a consensus that planning and making dinner is a royal pain for a lot of us. My sister keeps giving me suggestions like: put a roast in a crock pot before you leave for work, fry up a bunch of chicken and freeze it, take the meat out in the morning. My sister in law goes so far as to plan her meals for a month. A month. (I thought that begged repeating).

I try to plan for a week, but lots of times I get to Wednesday and I don't feel like making pasta, but this week I'm going to stick to my plan. In fact, tonight when my son asked what was for dinner, I said, "Whatever you want to make", which was what I had planned for Tuesday since I work until 6pm. So this week I'm going to try and stick with my plan.

The same can go for writing. If we don't plan, sitting down to write can seem tedious and hard, but if we make a schedule maybe writing will be easier. I'm going to try it this week and see how it goes.

How about you do you plan your meals or your writing?

It's all in the Attitude

I apologize for the emotional nature of my last post. It just goes to show that you should never write a post late at night after an emotional meeting.

The politics still continue to invade my time, but now I'm trying to have a better attitude about it. I can try to change things in a positive, meaningful manner, or I can be as snarky as possible. Both ways are fun.

This just goes to show that a lot of how you feel is about attitude. It's easy to get down on yourself, think your writing is crap and that you should just stop before anyone else reads it.
I know I've had more moments like that than I can count, but, as the saying goes, I'm going to turn over a new leaf. I'm going to try to have a good attitude about everything - even making dinner.

Side note: I've been bad as of late at visiting other people's blogs. I plan on rectifying that this week. I look forward to seeing what you've been up to.