And to all a gooooood night!

I tried. I did.

Most of the things on the boys' lists were either expensive ($250 Lego set?) or no-gos (a cell phone? You're 10. And you never make calls) or just not happening (pet).

So I found stuff they would like, not necessarily what they asked for.

I was also trying to get out a bit cheaper than usual - though I don't spend all THAT much any year.

So DS2 didn't like anything. At all. The remote control car he wanted - because his cars and only his cars never work right - DH got him an RC helicopter that is mostly uncontrollable. He got one, small lego set because I thought someone else was getting a big one for the two of them to share. He had already read one of the books (though he will likely want to read it again!). He liked the bathrobe until I went to take a picture of him in it. So, of course, the boring stuff like clothes were an affront and an offense.

DS1 was happier, but then, he got three small lego sets.

DD is pretty happy all around. She's easily pleased and we did get her stuff that we knew would please her.

I got some cool stuff and some chocolate. Woohoo! I'm waitin' and hopin' that my present from my brother was a couple of books that don't come out until the 28th.

DH didn't get a whole lot. He never tells us what he wants and then the slippers allegedly in his size don't fit him.

I'm trying to talk DH into the pet still. I think a cat or two would be great.

Right. Moving on into Christmas

No shopping done yet. Not even stuff I have to mail.

Need to get oil changed in car and SMOG test and registration done by early January.

Tree is up and decorated. Spare decorations around the house. Need to do outside lights.

Need to bake Xmas cookies for cookie exchange.

Need to bake banana bread next Thursday for both kids' classes.

Need to get holiday presents for teachers. If I want anything shipped, I have to get BUSY. (right. ordered t-shirts for 2 of the 3. Not sure what to get for the last one)

And I swear if DS2 gets any more wound up about Xmas, he is going to spend it in... in... in the North Pole.

NaNo and my life

I hit 75K yesterday and am now looking around and everything else I need to do.

DS1 has his red tip test (pre-test, I guess you'd call it) for his junior black belt on Friday. And he hasn't finished all the home stuff he was supposed to do, so unless his moves are completely flawless, he's not going to make it. He can do it in the spring and maybe he'll understand that he has to start early...

I keep meeting with my critique partners (the new one and the brand new new one) and this is the 2nd week in a row that I have nothing for them to read, really. I have to bang out a new ending and some edits to a book that one of them read for me. I also need to finish reading the stuff they gave me last week. So I shouldn't be on the internet.

And 2 parties this Saturday, then no parties at all after that, I don't think.

And Xmas shopping out the yinyang.

And some sewing. Poor DS2 has almost no long trousers and there are some in my sewing heap. Plus warm PJs for those who wear them and maybe a fleece for the boy who doesn't, because he needs jackets, too.

Right. Off to get the toddler down for a happy nap.

Curse you, perimenopause!

Thirty-six freaking days. Which, hey, is better than extra short cycles, right? Only I was PMS-y for about three weeks and have been cramping for about a week.

Stupid hormones.

NaNoWriMo - 50K and counting!

Two days ago, I wrote my 50,000th word toward a new novel. It was only the 14th, but I was really flying, with my characters thought about and my outline done.

So, big celebration! Woohooooooo!

I think I'm 3/4ths of the way through and since I hit 50K, I've been... well.... not writing.

OK, so I spent some time with the toddler today when I would usually have been trying to concentrate. I picked up the dang toys from all over the room that I'm working in (we have a LOT of toys). I read and commented on some chapters for my critique partner and have started revising a draft that she commented on for me (and realized that I managed to give her an older version - which I can't even find in my computer now, so where did THAT come from???)

I also have to get on DS1's case more, because he's way, way behind in the home practice for his karate black belt. Way. Way. Way.

And then, my characters have to spend another week in a carriage and go to the Paris region, where they have to find out if Helene's family are the ones who are trying to kill her. (SPOILER: They're not, really, but they're the key. And it wouldn't really bother them if she croaked)

The happy halfway dance

I've written 25,000 words this week. Whew!

I'm still only about 1/4th of the way through the outline, having added some scenes. Some of it is repetitive and some dull, so there will be cutting. But only after Dec 1st.

But! Halfway through the official word count!

And looking at birds outside the window instead of writing more, even though I'm part of the way through a scene.

It would help if the kids weren't all being completely insane right now. All over the house.

more pictures. a.k.a. Toddler rules the camera

She built these tracks herself, with minor fixes from me to make it so we could actually drive over the hills.







I take a picture while she tries to get the camera from me.

Then, the camera was all hers:









This was the pile of clothes that she wasn't wearing.






Then she decided I didn't need socks.

NaNo is tomorrow! (part 2)

I've been thinking far too much about my NaNo novel. It might either keep me focused or else make me get really tired of it before I get done. I've always been a "pantser" instead of a "plotter" so we'll see.

The workshop I went to last weekend with Deb Dixon was really good, even though my brain froze at 3 and it went until 5. I do have notes, including ones she handed out, general ones about the topics, and ones about my upcoming NaNo story.

Of course, talking and reading about Goal, Motivation, and Conflict, I was sitting there thinking it was obvious and that I understood my characters, but trying to make a chart of their "GMC" is pretty hard. Like how do I know if something is internal goal or external motivation or wait... what?

So now some pictures out my front window:


Rose bush (where I just saw a mouse)


I noticed a couple of days ago that my red maple was suddenly RED


Yes, we still have leaves and grass. We don't generally lose the rest until late November when it finally frosts.

NaNo is tomorrow!

Which means that Halloween is today!

The kids are ready, I guess. I'm not. I wore my "human" t-shirt to the Harvest Festival, so maybe I could put that on again.



The school's Harvest Festival was Friday. Here are my lovely children ready to head out.


Ninja and Beaver again.


Ninja, beaver, dinosaur enjoying an unhealthy snack.


We did the haunted house (pirate ship theme this year. I loaned them my pirate shirt and vest, so I don't have a costume) first and then DS2 started insisting he wanted to go home already. DH had dropped us off and had gone to do an errand, with the intention of coming back and hanging out with us. By the time he got there, we were all pretty much ready to go.



This morning in a "ponkin" t-shirt.

writing it right

So... In meeting with my critique partner and in trying to edit a first pass through the were-fox novel I wrote in a month, I am discovering that it really is 2 books with the same characters. So do I try to expand each half to make a series of short-ish books? Or do I cut most of the first half out and/or repartition it as backstory?

I loved this book as I wrote it. I dunno. Maybe two books. The first half could almost be YA fiction, but the second really couldn't.

This is why authors drink.

I love writing, I just hate making my books readable.

Sunday rambles

So far today:

I've spent far too much time hoping someone would post something funny on facebook.

I printed out Raley's coupons and went grocery shopping. With sales and coupons, I saved a lot of money, but still was well over $50, which is the cutoff for getting 50 cents off per gallon at their gas station. The Toddler behaved as she ran around in a Christmas sweater and charmed people.

We got two fairly large "ponkins" at $1 each (coupon!) and then paid whatever per pound for a smaller white one. I'll probably still take them to a pumpkin patch next week when they have half days due to conferences. Maybe even Apple Hill?

There's a neighbor across the way cutting with a chainsaw. I might take my computer and move someplace quieter, ie not right by the front window.

They are predicting a little rain for this afternoon. It looks, feels, and smells like it and there are already a few little sprinkles.

I'm getting excited for NaNoWriMo. I have an outline that I want to read over and add some things to. I'm also reading a book about Louis XIV and might even get to Mme de Sevigné's letters. Maybe. I got distracted yesterday by a contemporary romance by Jill Shalvis that I bought when it first came out about 3 weeks ago and which has been langushing, unread, until now. I also went through my library requests and put a freeze on everything that I could that's not a movie for the kids, etc. I'm already returning more books than I read these days.

We just had grilled cheese for lunch. "Grilled" in the sense of toasted under the broiler, because the Brits call that the grill. See? At least I amuse myself, right?

Peepee and poopoo in the potty sometimes seems like the biggest moment of the day, you know? Toddler's, not mine...

TMI again

DD seems to have figured out how to poop in the potty.

She still wets her 'unnies' just slightly (or sometimes completely) every single time.

PICTURES

A friend wanted this out of her yard, since her baby is 8. So we paid her and went and took it apart and I put it together alone, which took more brains than brawn, which is why it took me an extra half hour or so.









DS2 mowing. $10 for the whole yard, including trimming. I might pay more, but I have to do a lot of supervising and nagging.



I got a box of books and stuff from a blog I read, Book Binge, which was giving away stuff. So my pink-clad girl got the sunglasses and hat, at least for a few minutes. If they had fit better and if she ever ever ever kept a hat on, I would consider letting her keep them. The books are MINE, though!

picking and choosing.

They had some other ones, and I'd really like a monkey with a typewriter, but these are good.

Intrepid monster-hunters

Defending the homestead from monsters.


Maybe monsters don't notice her sneaking up on them if she doesn't wear clothes?




Neighbors' house: under lockdown. Watch out for those monsters.








Intrepid monster-hunters checking the mailbox.

Another week of DS1 cooking for the family

raw meat! yummy!

weekly cooking pictures

Well, we totally forgot about taking cooking pictures. He made shrimp fried rice this week.

So here's a bag of rice! And DS1 working at the computer!




Beautiful DS2




And the toddler doing some drawings:


That's a, um.... horse, I think she said?



And this one was.... Oh, beats me. That's my lovely rendition of a leaf next to it.