It's Okay

My blog has been so quiet lately, hasn't it? And that's okay. Because my kids and my husband have all been home. It's been Chris...

Cheesiest Christmas Song Contest Winners!

I loved reading through the entries for the Cheesiest Christmas Song EVER contest . (Thanks to everyone who entered and left comments. I wis...

Let It Snow

If you haven't already, don't forget to enter my cheesiest Christmas song contest here . I'm giving away chocolate. All you have...

A Story A Week: View from the Tenement

Our tenement row got its own cloud today. A dark, black one that stretched from one edge of the neighborhood to the other. The blue sky came...

Verse Novel Challenge: Carver

I did it! I finished Caroline Starr Rose's Verse Novel Challenge ! The last verse novel I read (I actually hope this counts because tech...

Cheesiest Christmas Song EVER & Contest

Some days you just have to let yourself be a Scrooge. This week on my blog you are allowed to be as Scroogie as you'd like. This is a gu...

Pregnancy Brain

I haven't blogged too much about being pregnant. Mostly, I don't want to bore everyone. But today I'm going to make an exception...

A Story A Week: Sashawalla Nutcracking

Whose idea was it to make a Mother Ginger costume out of a Simplicity pattern? Not mine, if you’re asking. It’s December 10 today and the te...

FitG Update: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

I jumped straight out of Octavian Nothing into Diary of a Wimpy Kid , which was on my Fill in the Gaps Project  (FitG) book list. Talk abou...

Octavian Nothing

I just finished The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing  (Volume I: The Pox Party), which I won through a contest on Dawn's blog . Than...

Give a Book, Give the World

Have you noticed the amazing project Jackee Alston has started over on her blog, Winded Words , to celebrate her 200th post? If not, you hav...

Life Happens

Isn't it true that life doesn't slow down for very long before something new pops up? Sometimes it's a good pop up (like a Pop T...

A Story A Week: Squalor

Donna observed the squalor from the middle of the living room floor. Duplo blocks, two undressed dolls with patchy yarn hair, an upturned re...

Snow and Sombreros

The Dashingly Handsome Sidekick had a birthday yesterday. We celebrated with Mexican food, the entire family, a vanilla raspberry cake, and ...

Turkey, Adoption Stories and Lots of Links

The blogosphere has been so quiet this week. Makes me think that I wasn't the only one kidnapped by a giant turkey named Fred. Fred. (If...

A Thanksgiving Plea

Today I made two apple pies using this recipe . (I'll let you know how they turn out.) The Dashingly Handsome Sidekick and his father al...

Snow & Irrational Panic

This was yesterday. Beautiful, freshly-fallen snow. There was a two-hour snow delay from school, but I decided to keep the kids home all day...

In Which I Compare Querying to Toothpaste

Toothpaste is essential to good oral health. If you want to get a book published, querying is also essential.* Toothpaste has its faults. Qu...

In Which I Learn a Writing Lesson from Star Wars Legos

I'm a tidal-wave writer*. My son is a tidal-wave Lego builder. In other words, we work feverishly on a project until we're done and ...

Happy Birthday, Gabe!

This is my son... ...after losing his first tooth. (Lost it while he was still six. He was very happy about that. He's a late-tooth-lose...

Dog Tired

Ever have one of those days where you just need to sit down?

Veterans Day

Hooray for veterans! Today is Veterans Day in the U.S. The two handsome guys in the picture are my two grandfathers. They were both World Wa...

Learning from Literature: A Swift Pure Cry

Ugh. This book. I have a love/hate relationship with it. The subject matter is hard to stomach, but the writing is so beautiful, I'm com...

Alice Dancing Under the Gallows

Because of Blunt-Brain Syndrome (ie. I'm not accomplishing anything and my brain is fried) I thought I'd do on my blog what every gr...

In Case of Fire...

My darling preschooler came home on Monday excited to teach me something: "Mommy, I know what to do if you catch on fire. You STOP, ROC...

How Green (and Yellow and Orange and Red) is My Valley

 The view from my window gives me so much joy. Yesterday evening. This morning. Happy November, everyone! I love November. The changing colo...