I’m sure you all know the Warren Zevon song “Excitable Boy”. No? then go listen.

Today is Excitable Girl day, though - my advance is here!!! Of course it came after the banks closed for a 3 day weekend, but that’s minor in the grand scheme of things. I am soo happy and squeee! Now to buckle down and write more - got 10 pages done yesterday, more today.

girls are happy and excitable too

Amelia taking a rare break from activity with a nap. The red is from nail polish, independence can leave some marks.

I’m busy with my book (eeep! first chapter submitted!), deep thoughts about religion and life, taking care of the dogs, playing Scramble on Facebook, and homeschooling the (active! excited! fun-loving!) girls. We’re studying ancient people - reading about nomads, first farmers, etc, and also the Old Testament stories from that time period. Our coop has started up again, too, with some great activities and friends. There are stumbling blocks and some of the balls drop when I’m juggling, but overall life is good.

2 of my friends have shirt designs up for voting at Threadless. If you click “Buy this as a T” and then click 5, it’ll register as a vote. Ok, you can also click for lower scores, but Sokowa and Patch are cool people with fun designs. As a bonus, with Threadless you can just create an account to vote - you don’t need to buy anything (unlike the Shirt.Woot Derby where you need to have bought something from one of the woot sites to vote). However, there is a nice 12 dollar shirt sale for women at Threadless, and they make great quality shirts!

A collage of pictures taken recently in my Nana M’s garden. The rose bush brings her extra joy because my brother and I gave it to her 6 years ago for her 80th birthday. The star jasmine brings a wonderful scent to the front walk. The cone flower serves double duty - first as a beautiful flower, then as “nature’s bird feeder” as the birds eat the seeds from the cone. The butterfly bush was pruned by my brother, and then we collected the flowers so Nana could enjoy the scent and beauty for a little while longer, before it flowers again in the Spring.

Take some time today to find joy in your journey. Stop and smell the roses. Stop and enjoy the flowers, the joy, the children, the pets, the world around us, and life. As I heard recently, “May we fill our lives with those things that matter most.”

(and now I have to get back to working on the book!)

Today I submitted a chapter and a revised table of contents to the editor for my book which includes many of my recipes.

I am freaked out, excited, and anxious. No matter what, though, I am lucky to have a supportive family. It warms my heart to look at these pictures, women who have helped me so much and have made so many wonderful foods for me.

So Poof! We vanished. We left for a week in a neighboring state, and visited my grandparents and some friends. It started with a wonderful day of tie dye with old friends, an activity we kept meaning to take part in when we lived there, but kept missing.

My friend K was totally amazingly awesome. Not only did she drive up to pick us up (and then drove us home!), but she also made her house allergy safe. While I was at my Nana’s house for a few days helping her with errands, chores, and life, my kids were with Karen and her 2 kiddos helping them…. um, stay energetic and making sure there wasn’t too much silence.

I was able to get some work done on the book while I was there, thankfully. I now have more of the recipes restructured, and more blocks of text, too. I received a similar book to look at, and also talked with the editor about plans for the cover! Eeeep!

All of us came home very energized and encouraged. It’s wonderful to spend time with family and good friends. I was able to see my brother for a few hours last Saturday, then on Sunday my girls and I visited with my grandparents (my other Nana turned 91!) and my uncle & aunt. On Tuesday I was able to be there with my Nana and Grandpa Bob while the delivery man brought the new dryer (yay!), while the girls were at a homeschool park day with our old friends.

We had a blast. Unfortunately, I came home and promptly got a fever and sinus infection, then lost my voice. but I’m climbing out from under the covers and getting back into life.

Lets see how many balls I can juggle this week!

I’m in the middle of taking a week away from the mundane to spend time reconnecting with friends and family. My friend K and her kids P&P drove up to our house, then picked us up and brought me and the girlies to their house.

After spending a day and a half at her house (and learning how to tie dye!), they dropped me over at Nana M’s house. I’ve been hanging out and helping out here, and have also had some nice quiet time for writing.

Tomorrow my brother will be visiting, and on Sunday I get reunited with the girls, plus my Uncle Peter (who you can see playing music on NECN) and his wife will be visiting. Fun for all, for sure!

This weekend I will see my Nana R. for her birthday (91 on the 22nd), as well celebrate a bit for Nana M’s husband Bob’s birthday (94 on Oct 5). It’s my half-birthday on Monday, too. Nana R and I are 6 months apart, well plus a few years.

We’ll spend the last part of Saturday and Monday with K and meet up with some other friends we knew when we lived nearby. We’ll leave for home on Monday, bringing our trip of reconnecting with family and friends to an end.

The girls spent some time yesterday and today working with their Easy Bake Ovens. Since the mixes have gluten & dairy, we adapted some recipes, and created Chocolate and Cinnamon Easy Bake cakes, which they have proudly baked and given to the whole household. Yum!

The girls did great with measuring stirring, etc - they followed the recipes beautifully! I’m so proud

Current status:

• 41 pages of recipes

• 11 pages of writing
• Outline - 8 pages

So, as distractions, I’m playing scramble on Facebook, learning Skype, finding a Sarah Palin doll, and playing with the Sarah Palin name generator.

No matter what else is happening around here, I still need to make meals. Last night I made Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo, and it was a big hit. I will be emailing people about recipe testing in the next week or so (I’m listing folks as vegetarian or not, too).

Currently the girls are making baked donuts in their Easy Bake Ovens.. they smell divine.

As another note, I’m traveling again to CT this week, and the girls are coming down with me. Visiting both Nanas, one of whom will be 91 a week from Monday! Life keeps chugging along!

My colleague and I have signed the book contract! I’m just waiting for the advance check now!

Updates will be minimal. I still have some hand and wrist pain, so I’m trying to limit most of my typing to book-related work.

I’ll contact people in the next couple weeks about testing recipes to be testers.