merry christmas moments!!

just stopping through to wish everyone a very merry christmas! it's all happy mayhem at my house today! and i'm enjoying every moment of it! :-) the younger three boys are happily playing with their new unexpected wii game, hubby and oldest son are putting together a popcorn machine and girlchild is napping after a busy morning of playing snow white princess!! :)

happy snow day

i love having snow! lots of snow, so much that no one expects to be able to go anywhere or do anything and the kind where places close up. it's a weekend, we're expecting 12 to 24 inches of snow (it was 6 to 12 when we headed to bed last night). now ideally this snow would show up tuesday next week, giving us two days off school and thus a nice LONG christmas break. but it's also a good birthday present for my youngest son. he is 7 today.

the things i do

seems as though i do a lot but at the end of any one given day, what i have done amounts to nothing. today i spent the day making cookies with girlchild. then filling cookie bags, making cards for the bags and putting the whole box of bags in the car. i made turkey meatballs for dinner, with the intention of making sandwiches. they looked so nice in the magazine photo. but they never turn out looking the same. the boys didn't like the cheese, hubby and i did, at least. at least the meatballs came out well. last time i made meatballs it was a disaster!!

one of my favourite christmas movies is on tonight, christmas in connecticut. so i'm recording it, again. i will watch it a few times then delete it from the dvr. i haven't seen the bishop's wife listed, but i am sure it will turn up. we started watching the original stargate movie tonight too. i'm a new stargate fan, i've only seen stargate universe. and it was the scottish accent the drew me in (as it does). but now i like the premise, so i'm interested in seeing how it all started, back in 1994 :-)

where does it go?

where does the time go??? some days i think it drags and drags and then suddenly another week has passed. now we're heading into youngest son's birthday weekend, and then of course christmas. birthday first for us. although he is as excited about christmas. i'm being over-cautious about his almost christmas birthday. i refuse to allow his birthday to be any less important than his siblings!! and having grown up with my mom's birthday just after christmas, i was always aware of the need to differentiate (plus hubby's brother's is this week and he still talks about how his birthday was less than his sibs).

presents are, i think, all bought. birthday completed yesterday, candles purchased, clone wars accessories, plans for the annual birthday donut cake and taking in donut balls (munchkins from dunkin donuts) on friday for a treat. last year his birthday was the day of the kindergarten gingerbread house building day. he wore his birthday boy button and although we didn't share birthday treats that day, they did sing happy birthday to him!! :-) i love that they make such a big deal about birthdays at school :-D

i'm still adding words to my story, what there is of it. so far it's not very pieced together and i doubt i will share it. but it's moving along, from out of my head and onto a word document!! i'll keep typing away, best i can.

i am also determined to finish these last three books before the end of 2009. i'm not counting pages or even books, but just want to be DONE with them!!!

voila

inspiration and holiday spirit seems to have finally hit me. well, just a little bit. i think it's the music and the cold weather!! i still wish there was more time in the day and that someone would help me with shopping and ideas, but it's not too bad!!

we're on our tenth or so viewing of the grinch. that one seems to be the kids' favourite holiday movie. i like them all really, but am rather partial to the grinch and santa claus is coming to town. frosty has never been one of my faves, although the frosty returns is amusing if only because it's just not very good!!

my laptop went belly up again, and i am dragging on my writing!! all the writing and my outline are lost. now i know why i need to write and save it to google docs....so i am going to try to jot down some ideas there today. and then revamp my outline...it's not about perfection but about getting it all written out!!!

more writing

a friend of mine on facebook did the nanowrite thing...she did really well and wrote some extraordinary amount of words for her book. she has actually published a book, so for her it was finding the time and making the words hit the paper. she has a lot more dedication than i do, and a lot more faith in herself i think!

that leads me to try to write something THIS month. it's my own nanowritemore. i'm starting with an outline today. i've never used one before, but my kids use one to write their papers for school. or maybe a storyweb, like my 4th grader uses. same idea, different format. then maybe i can organise my thoughts, see them and make them pan out onto paper!! or at least computer!

i'm also going back to doing the writing challenges on my other writing blog. i stopped for a bit, although i have done a few of the one word paragraphs. i think the whole commenting on others' writings got overwhelming for me. so i will do the writing bit and leave it at that :-)

spirit and secret

seems this time of year is all about secret wishes, wants and desires. hiding presents and keeping secrets about what we bought or might buy. santa and dreams and hopes. it's also a lot about expectations. the ones we have for each other and especially for ourselves. like how the house across the street had 10,000 lights on it, and our house must be as beautiful with 10,001. bigger badder faster longer and more stylish.
this is probably why the spirit seems to have gone out of the holiday.

i'm still searching for my holiday spirit. my only dreams are of spending time together with my family, laughing and cooking, looking at lights and watching smiling faces as we watch the grinch once more. the corny holiday decorations at our local breakfast place, the yard up the street with the 10,000 lights (or more), the santa hats that adorn the giant evergreen trees along the road to school. these are christmas to me.

oddly noted

~girlchild being a cat and mewing at me to rub her belly.
~sons 3 and 4 lining up train set wooden trees on pieces of white paper and drawing scenes under the trees.
~two sets of friends on facebook discussing the same topic of parents taking children christmas shopping (that is very strange, so maybe others are discussing it as well).
~the winds that were blown from the uk to our area of the east coast and how quickly the weather seems to change lately
~feeling somewhat more creative since re-creating this blog (though i haven't actually written anything down and i should).

finally mid week!

last day before thanksgiving, a little mini vacation at home!! other than thanksgiving, we have nothing big planned. the weather doesn't look as though it will cooperate, so we'll see what outside events might occur. i'd love to get the outside christmas lights on the house, but if it doesn't dry out, that won't happen anytime soon.
hair cuts last night for oldest son and myself. i thought i would try to grow it out, but the hair on my neck was making me a little crazy!! so it's back to chin length (shorter really since it curls up so much). now to decide between reds!! :-)
santa visit tonight....happy thanksgiving eve!!

what is is

i'm adding little bits back onto this blog. not sure where i am going with it just yet, or even if anyone is still reading. which is fine really. i think everyone who read once is long gone, or on facebook! :-)

is it friday yet?

well thank goodness it's finally getting chilly here. i've been warm for months, i'm looking forward to the coolness!!! half the time i am freezing and the other half i am roasting hot. there is no happy medium any longer. the trick is layers, so i needed some new clothes for that, right? ;-)

conferences this afternoon, always make me nervous, as though i am the one on trial. i think i am finally past the 'it's not me' feeling....well mostly. i am never sure if i am overdoing or underdoing it. i think it depends on the teachers.

posting every day on this blog might get me into writing more on my other blog. i seem to have lost the writing process for prose and short stories. my mind wanders and then then i lose the plot. that's about me in real life too! hehe!! ;-)

what happens when...

who knew? i've been requested to help at the cookie baking event at church! it was fun last year, it won't be the same this year i am sure. nothing repeats well in my experience. the minister is apparently not going to be there, so at least it won't be uber organised. when the ladies are in control, we tend to do just fine ;-)

what school days there are this week, the younger three boys are on half days. nice for them, but a bit more work for me. i have to feed everyone lunch at home and make sure i'm here and organised when they get home. cos we all know i will get nothing done once they arrive home!! ;-)

obviously i have changed things around here. moved my old blog to a different address, but left the link in the sidebar, for a while. i was actually hoping to almost start over again. i'm not sure what will happen. i like writing in facebook, but sometimes i want to write more (and some of my friends do), but when i do, someone always makes a sarcastic comment!! :-(

feel the feeling

today is a bright and shiny new day. i just finished another book and feel really good. who knows what lives we touch just by being who we are (good or bad). it's an interesting concept.

the kids are really enjoying watching UP. it seems so sad at the start, and then having to explain why the couple did not (could not) have a baby. why the baby's room is empty and why they are sad.

new moon was really good. better than i expected. i thought it was a lot truer to the book than the twilight movie. but i really LOVED the twilight book and was less enthused over new moon. but i am re-reading new moon, i wonder if it's one of those books that reads better at a different time.