Mulling things over

Donald just left for a six week training TDY in Montgomery, Alabama & right before he left his mother made a point to ask how she could talk to the kids while he was gone.  It occurred to me that Grandma making plans to talk to the kids (catch the plural there?) would be wonderful...except that she doesn't ever try to talk to the kids when their father is home.  Which means she's reacting to the fact that Donald not being here means (in her mind) that she can't contact the kids.  I would actually really enjoy it if the MIL would make a point to talk to the kids because that's a sign of a healthy relationship.  But...someone who only wants to contact their grandchildren because their son is out of the area and they're feeling threatened...that's pretty much the definition of a crappy relationship.  And my kids deserve better than that so it really pisses me off.


On a side note, we made these pumpkin pancakes yesterday and they were fabulous!  I'd highly recommend them with maple syrup and some whipped cream.

Bed time story

Last night at bed time for the kiddos I wanted to try something new for Friday nights.  So I sat on Lightning's bed with the boys and told a made up story for them.  The results were pretty hilarious, so I thought I'd share ;-)


Me:  Once upon a time there were two princes named Lightning and Dare
Lightning: But I don't want to be a prince
Me:  Do you want to be a knight?
Lightning:  No, I want to be a brother.
Me.  Okay so there were two brothers named Lightning and Dare who were trying to rescue their sister from the Snagglepuss (no, I don't know where that came from :-/)  The two brothers rode their horses across the plains to where the Snagglepuss was holding their sister.  Now (turning to Lightning) what do you think you should do?
Lightning:  Give him lunch!
Me:  Okay so we feed him and maybe he gives us the sister back.  (Turns to Dare)  What do you want to do?
Dare:  Kill him!
Me:  *blinks*  You want to kill him?  I guess we could feed him lunch and then kill him, but....(at this point I broke into fits of giggles, and the boys thought this was hilarious, so they joined in.  Enter Bess from the other room who heard us laughing and couldn't resist the urge to know what was going on.  I relayed the story so far to her & she was laughing to.  When I could stop, I continued the story)
Me:  So the brothers fixed him a wondrous lunch of cucumber sandwiches and lemonade & while the Snagglepuss was eating they were able to grab their sister and run back to their home where they never heard from the Snagglepuss again.


Both boys:  But we didn't kill him!
Me:  *Facepalm*

New Outlook

I have a dream of eventually becoming a published author.  That dream has pretty much been pushed back until my kiddos are at least in middle to high school so that I'm not constantly running after them as I do now.  School has also been a factor is pushing the dream back - when sleep becomes a priority you know you don't really have enough "you" time.  But...that may all be changing.  Because I read a recent blog of Neil Gaiman's that you can read here where he talks about how he once read that if you w!rite 300 words a day, you can have a book in a year.  HOLY CRAP!  This was a revelation to me - that I could possibly be closer to my dream of eventually being published than I ever realized.  Now, to be completely realistic, I'm going to shoot for 600 words a week.  Because sometimes even that small amount is very difficult in the rambling chaos of my life right now.  But...it's one step closer :)  

And for another fun & interesting tidbit, there's this great YA blog (that's really more of a YA blog for adult readers) which is hosting an awesome ARC giveaway right now.  So check out The Midnight Garden and their giveaway :)