Thursday, December 15, 2011

Monday, December 12, 2011

Quiet On My Blog

Things on my blog have been very quiet.

Very hush hush.

There are just too many secrets going around right now and I'm afraid my big mouth, er fingers will type faster than my brain can edit. Let's just say, I've been wicked busy, and leave it at that. ;)

There are some things I can share... like the 8 kazillion pictures to follow. I'm so happy the camera is working again! Yay!

Hope you are all happy and well, and I promise I'll be more interesting when I can. Pfffft.

We've decorated in the house and over at church.

We have our usual table setting:




Our little Christmas Winter Village:




And the mistletoe:





The "middles" wanted to be in charge of making the candy this year.











Dale and Benjamin cut our tree and brought it home Saturday, and then we decorated it yesterday.











Here Esther got her hair caught, and like any good Mama, I laughed and took her picture instead of helping her get free.







I assure you amidst all the tom-foolery we did get the tree decorated!



We have less than two weeks until Christmas. We are actually celebrating on the 24th so we can have a leisurely day in our pj's. For the services at church on the 25th we have some special music planned, and a candlelight service at night.

This week I have cards and "stuff" to get sent, projects to work on like crazy, and some special baking to do, and some wrapping, and oh yeah, there is a HUGE pile of ironing that got neglected and I haven't caught up on yet.

All semester Dale and Benjamin have been auditting a course on Baptist History and tonight is the last class. Dale wrote a short paper, and has been trying to finish up the reading.

As for our home classes, we break on the 22nd for two weeks for the holidays. I think we are all looking forward to it!

Friday, December 2, 2011

The End of National Novel Writing Month




I'm sorry to see November go! I loved the writing experience, and rekindled my old literary addiction.

I was able to meet the 50K, though around Thanksgiving, after a few days where I had trouble finding time and energy to get around to typing, I wondered if I would be able to finish up after all. It was a point of determination. I had been going strong all month and I was NOT going to lose it in the final few days and few thousand words.

So, I am happy to announce, that I am an official 2011 NaNoWriMo Challenge winner! Woot! Okay, I hit the 50K, but the story isn't over yet. I'm sorry, I just couldn't wind it up that fast. Dale said I should finish it up as I find time. Well, I haven't touched it since I hit the 50K on Wednesday, and thus begins my frustration. I really need to FINISH what I have started because I don't want to forget what all is coming next, and the event I want to happen to bring it all to a conclusion. Plus I left my heroine in an extremely precarious position, and Elizabeth, who has read up to that point said... "You can't leave it like that. It isn't fair!" (picture a teenage whine there). So, Lord willing, I am going to try and finish it up before too much time passes and I no longer have a clear vision on how the story should finish playing out.

Of course, we have hit the wonderful holiday season, and the schedule is all ramped up again, and I'm finding myself already stressing out. That can't be right, this early in the month. I've also already informed the family that if I don't get cooperation and help, I'm cancelling Christmas, and we are doing extra schoolwork and chores that day.

We did get a good deal of decorating done today, despite the fact we had to take Benjamin for an orthodontist's appointment to have his braces tightened. He could still talk after, so I guess the Doc didn't do a very good job. Tomorrow promises to be another insanely busy day. My basic schedule is up early, to the gym to workout, then to meet the trainer at 9a.m. I strained/pulled a hip muscle doing running intervals on the treadmill Tuesday, and she is going to show me some good hip flexor stretches. Then I get home, Dale leaves for visitation, and I change, and we go over to church to decorate as much as we can before Dale gets back. We'll do lunch, then we have some errands to run in the afternoon, then home for dinner, and I NEED to tackle a pile of ironing that has been sorely neglected for longer than I want to admit.

Hopefully I will get in some writing time. Somewhere, somehow.

Oh, and I've been working on some projects in my "spare" time. Ha!

Let's see I made a..... Oh wait, I can't tell you that right now.

And then there was a ..... OOOPs... can't say anything about that either.

I'm working on a..... ummm.... nevermind.....!

And a..... hmmmm... well, I guess you all will have to wait until after the holiday to see pics of that.

Speaking of pics, the camera is now working, no thanks to the Ding Bat who didn't charge the battery enough and didn't think to check it until last week.

Clever, eh?