NaNoWriMo 2013

 Just sayin'...

Aah, November... my favourite month of the year.  But also a month when I'd rather be getting ready for Christmas and doing my Christmas cards... because now I'm down to 25 days until the big day and I'm just starting to think about it. So, really, this challenge should occur in January or February when spring still seems so far away and we've grown tired of the shriveled apples that pass as produce in the stores and I have nothing better to do with my post-bedtime quiet hours.

Regardless, this is the fifth time I've attempted write a novel in 30 days and the fifth time I've successfully crossed the 50,000 yard line (without actually finishing the story)!

This one was hard for me to write.  I think because I went back to work and my life is a bit chaotic now.  But the story has been percolating in my head all fall, so I plunged in without an outline or a plan. It's about a couple of kids who get kidnapped.  That's all I'll say. I skipped ahead a bit in the story last night so that I could I could write the conclusion, which I finished this morning while I neglected my children and let the television baby-sit (now if only the television could cook and do laundry), so the novel does have a distinct beginning, a middle, and an end. This one definitely has some gems in it; the stuff I wrote this morning to get to 50K is gold.  I'm very pleased and I typed out almost 4,000 words in no time!  But it also has a lot of crudworthy prose that I'm going to have to sift through as well, as there was more than one night where I fell asleep on the couch, laptop in hand, mid-type.  So, going back through for the re-read should be an adventure.

Maybe after I retire I'll get around to actually publishing something! :)

Insert clever caption here...

I think the photo speaks for itself...

Crazy Hair Day

An annual tradition at my children's school is "Crazy Hair Day."  This year was actually pretty fun because Kirstin has long hair, so we had something to work with.  She decided she wanted four pony tails and a braid.  She also insisted that I NOT brush her hair that morning.  

 Connor chose to wear a wig that his brother gave him last year.  I made him swear up and down that he wouldn't let any of his classmates try it on.  He promised he wouldn't.  So... let's hope no nasty critters come home on his head in the next few days.

Yesterday, coincidentally, we got the dreaded "One of the student's in your child's class has head lice..." - my deepest public school related fear.  Not necessarily that my kids will catch lice, but that they'll catch it and pass it on to me.  I can pick their scalps if I have to, but how the heck can I do my own... if you've met me you'll know that I have been cursed with insanely thick hair.

So, yeah, I was all like "You can take the wig to school, but don't you dare let anyone touch it..."

And then there is poor Alex.  We wet his hair down, applied liberal amounts of goopy gel, tousled it, scrunched it, shaped it... finished off with mousse... and in the end, he had a lovely bunch of curls.  Just exactly like he does right after coming out of the swimming pool or the rain.  He looked like... well, like Alex!  So I bobby pinned a card to his forehead, at the last minute.  It was lame, but he seemed pleased. 

 Brooklynn didn't want to be left out of the action, she posed for me, too.  Here's baby bed-head.  That's pretty much always what her hair looks like... but don't tell her! :)

My little people

I took this photo last week, on Kirstin's first day of Kindergarten.  Alex is in Grade 4 and Connor is in Grade 1.  I go back to work in three weeks. Time is flying --- it's cliche, but it's so true!

 I have been very blessed to be able to take a year off to spend with Brooklynn.  I'm ready to return to work, but I'm going to miss being with her 24/7.  I'm pretty sure she's going to miss me, too.  The first few weeks are the hardest on both of us and I'm dreading the transition.

Anyway, I don't have anything clever to say about this photo, I just love it so much I wanted to share.  My last few posts have been pretty "baby-heavy" so I wanted to remind myself that I do have 3 other children that also are achieving milestones.  I am very proud of all of them and everything that they can do, even if I don't catch it all on film!

Dancing Queens! :)

My two beautiful daughters playing together tonight.  I love how babies (at least all mine, anyway) just instinctively dance when they hear music. I don't do that, just drop everything and dance, and you probably don't either! We should.  Maybe it would keep us young!

We caught my parents dancing in my kitchen last week because a good song came on the stereo.  They do that a lot.  It's charming!  (And how cool that my kitchen is so spacious I have a dance floor!)  They haven't lost that instinct, which is probably why they're still together after all these years.  Maybe I still have it too, buried somewhere deep down, lying self-conscious under all those negative voices that keep saying, "You can't dance, so don't try".  I'll have to test that theory... take a break, crank the tunes, grab someone's sticky little hand and see where it takes us!  Before my kids stop dancing, too.

Anyway, enjoy!  If you want more, there are 3 more videos just like this!  Just ask, and I'd gladly bore you with more!  :)

Dance party at our house...

Crawling

Baby Yoga

The Cobra

Swimmer's Pose

Plank

Downward Facing Cat