Avast me hearties, we be learnin’ new lingo! We changed Facebook’s language to English (Pirate), learned small talk in Pirate, then had a second lesson about violent acts and threats, and listened to the TLAPD theme song.

Nobody wanted to walk the plank or swab the deck. Arrrr! And BG climbed the riggin’ to belay an order of keel-haulin’. She not be inclined to accede to me demands, arrr!

(quick tip – if you want to find out which of your friends has maintained a good sense of humor, start talking to them in Pirate on TLAPD and see how they respond. I was very happily surprised by my awesome friends!)

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Eeeeeeep!

I haven’t done one of those in a long time. Like 3 or 4 years long time. This should be interesting.

I may get to grocery shop alone afterwards, which would be cool as well.

So any lovely vibes tomorrow at 1:30 Eastern would be happily accepted. Starbucks gift cards, too.

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Mrs. Perfect is Jane Porter’s newest novel. If you read Odd Mom Out when it was released last fall, you will recognize several of the characters, as Mrs. Perfect is also set in a well-off Seattle neighborhood. If you didn’t have a chance to read it, the storyline in Odd Mom Out focused on Marta Zinsser, a newcomer who moved into the area as a single, working mother when the other moms in the area are well-dressed, wealthy, at-home moms with nannies. Taylor Young, the main character in Mrs. Perfect, is one of those “perfect” moms from Odd Mom Out, but now we learn the rest of the story – sometimes life isn’t as perfect as it looks. While both books can be read as stand-alone novels, I highly recommend reading both, and not just because Jane Porter’s novels are addicting; they are great reads.

Jane Porter has written more than 20 romance novels for Harlequin, and has written several wonderful chick lit novels for 5-Spot as well. Jane has taken incidents in her own life, and spun them into fiction that captures your attention and imagination, pulling you along for a fabulous ride. Jane’s writing skills help blur the line between romance and chick lit – her characters in her romance novels come alive just as much as her chick lit characters, and while she uses her memories of time spent traveling in her romances, she seems to put more of her self in her books for 5-Spot. Jane was nice enough to chat with us about the lines between fact and fiction in books today.
Read the rest of the review

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In another book giveaway, The Parent Bloggers Network is offering a copy of Felicia Sullivan’s memoir. Just comment and you could win the fabulous book The Sky Isn’t Visible from Here: Scenes from a Life.

Keep your eyes out for more book giveaways!

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BG keeps running up to ask what goes in the toss or keep pile. I think she’s teasing me, though. C’mon – my college diploma? My journal of a trip to Washington DC? A framed collage of my college roommates? Duh. I hope I don’t have any secrets hidden there…

Once it’s all cleared out, we move a bed, her new pink ikea dresser, and some other cool accessories in. The last step is sorting through her clothes, and figuring out what she needs. Once it’s all set up we are going to impose on a friend to make cool curtains and a canopy for the bed.

I started reading The Crazy School, by Cornelia Read, last night. The storyline is fascinating – a teacher with her own issues starts at a school for teens with emotional and behavioral disorders. It’s set in the Berkshires, MA, an area I drove through a lot in the time period of the story on my way to and from college.

It’s a fascinating story, but the chaos in the house combined with the chaos in the book makes me feel a touch unsettled. So LG and I are off to spend gift certificates at Target. Lets determine wants vs. needs…. Is the DVD of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a want or a need?

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The first real snowfall of the season arrived yesterday! The girls wanted to play in the snow right away. They were convinced that they could make snowballs and go sledding, even though the snow wasn’t deep. (as an aside, thank goodness for hand-me-downs and buying big! This year we don’t need any snow gear! [touch wood]) There’s a whole flickr set of snowball fun so far this winter.

The cool part was that they were making snowballs and tossing them to Jack, and he was catching them like they were tennis balls! Of course, he spat them out, but who could blame him? Today I used the fabulous Chuckit -Ball Launcher to whip balls across the yard. Best Dog Toy ever! Gets them good and tired without a lot of excess work from a tired and achey owner… Though we need some new Tennis Balls.

Unfortunately, the snow wasn’t deep enough for snow angels, and there wasn’t enough for making snow men either. The girls had a lot of fun in their snow suits pelting each other with snowballs! Snowball fights are great when no one gets hurt!

LG looks so cute (and warm and dry) when she’s wearing some pretty pink clothes from Paris and her pretty UMI shoes we won from Cool Mom Picks!

Meanwhile: my archives and old server are still down, and I can’t access them. However, my friend Jennifer of Partial to the Bean was able to get her entries since she was using blogger. She has a new URL now, so don’t forget to change your bookmarks!

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“I turned the chairs into cows, and then Jack and I were herding them.”

“I sneaked a piece of fudge last year, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t have an attitude! I’m a misunderstood girl.”

“I saw it on TV, but I know you won’t buy me anything from a commercial, so I made one instead.”

“Do you want me to wear this blanket like a dress?”

“Can I have popcorn for dessert instead of chocolate?”

“Yuki won’t be snuggling with you for a long time after this.”

“Dishes wash themselves in my world”
“I wanted to be warm, so I put on a sundress.”

I’m still waiting for my archives and data to be available – tomorrow will be a full week. Rachel is NOT happy… It’s a good thing I’ve got cute kids to make me smile!

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1 – I have, in my hot little hands, The Daring Book for Girls. The same book that is now being offered as a gift along with a $100 contribution to WBUR. This follows co-author Andi Buchanan’s wonderful segment this morning on NPR’s Weekend Edition. I’ve never had a book worth $100 before!

2 – Thanks to the organizational prowess of my friend Sue, I could find down coats, mittens, and hats at a moment’s notice! I even know where all the snow pants are! Go us! Mmmmm… labelmakers….

3 – I got everyone awake, fed, clothed, and with coats, hats, & mittens and out the door before 9am on a Saturday. Yay me! (OK, I forgot the backpack. But I remembered everything else!)

4 – LG is the next Houdini. She was buckled (tightly!) into the car seat (5 point harness!) wearing underthings, shirt, pants, socks, shoes, zippered coat, hat, and mittens. When we arrived at the meeting place so my mom & step-dad could take them for the day, she was down to: underthings, shirt, pants, socks. I think if I had given her more than the 30m drive she’d have taken off the socks too. at least.

5 – I still don’t have my sites properly functional. I’m going to be a nervous wreck until they are up. I feel so guilty that people can’t find what they are looking for.

6 – This will only make sense to 1 or 2 readers, but today’s purchases at Stop & Shop was cheaper than the same items at Market Basket. Two local grocery chains – the former is known for being pricey, the latter for being inexpensive.

The mind boggles. I think its time to go back to bed. Too many things swirling in my head, including the new jingle for NaNoWriMo. DO NOT LISTEN to Episode 5 of the podcast!

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Yesterday I fell down the stairs. We have really steep stairs, and the downstairs is thin rug over concrete. Thankfully, I didn’t hit my head. I did manage to bruise and scrape my butt and my arm. I also whacked my overly-sensitive back wonky. I lost one of my shoes, too. (Update: I found the shoe!)

Chronic Lyme has left me with a sieve-like memory. Yes, worse than “mommy brain”. Unfortunately this means that some people think I’m blowing them off, but I’m not. I’m just having trouble doing everything and remembering everything.

It has also robbed me of my ability to multi-task. I cannot think of two things at once, much less do two things at once. Not even listen to music and write.

It means that if I’m going to take a shower and brush hair, I know that I’m going to have aching shoulders for hours. Add that x3 if all the kids need help. Same thing for mashing potatoes. Thank goodness for helpful girls!

It’s robbed me of friends. Both because dealing with someone sick for 2 years is a burden so they withdraw, and also because I don’t want to burden others, so I sometimes withdraw first.

It’s also robbed me of things with my children – slinging LG as long as I would have otherwise, breastfeeding her as long as I would have, pushing on the swing, running with bikes flying kites, swimming in cold water, all those things.

Its robbed me of money. That $250/month again to medical expenses. There are a lot of other ways I’d like to spend that.

Most of all, Chronic Lyme has robbed me of my spontaneity as well as my ability to plan. I never know what each day is going to hold. Even now that I’m doing better, I still have good days and bad days.

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I agreed to review The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz with some trepidation. I had loved the content of The Dangerous Book for Boys, but really disliked the title, as I didn’t think it should have been published as a boys-only book. I was curious to see how this new book would deal with “boy” and “girl” things, and if it would be published as a companion or supplement to The Dangerous Book for Boys, or if it would stand on its own merits.

After reading and kid-testing The Daring Book for Girls, I can say that this book stands up for itself. Read the whole review…

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