March Report Card

I must apologize that this blog was so quiet this month.  I feel that I was very up front with you all about how I feel about the month of March, so even if you were prepared, I'm sorry if I let you down.  I take some comfort in the fact that March seemed to be a very quiet month in the blogging world in general.   Many of the blogs that I like to read were just as sparse as mine.  But that's probably due to the fact that everyone else is crazy busy with super fun things, and not sitting in the stagnant waters of the late-winter doldrums like me.  But there is good news: life is springing up everywhere.  The grass seems to be greener each day.  I've seen a few daffodils poking their sunny heads out of the brown ground.  A whole new crop of babies are being born or being announced that they are going to be born this year.  Things are looking up.

I actually accomplished my goal for the month of March, which is a pretty big deal.  My goal for the month of March was to send out the middle-grade novel I wrote last year.  First of all, any writer who has ever tried to actually sell a story knows what a big deal this is.  Oh, the actual process of putting a stamp on the envelope (or attaching the document in a email) is simple, but gearing up for it is really hard.  It's hard to send something out that you know has a 99% chance of being rejected.  It's very tempting to just not do it at all.  Plus, I decided to send the story to an agent rather than to a publisher, and even the agency required quite a few things in addition to the sample chapters.  So, lots of work for probably no return.  My husband just reminded me that I'll have all that work done for the next agency I send it to.  The point is, I did it.  And in one to three weeks I should have my answer from them.

Here is my updated goal list:

January - Move.

February - Make a Homemaking Binder.

March - Send out my story.

April - Make a Felt Doll Set.

May -  Plant Garden Pots.

June - Make a Sourdough Starter.

July -  Make Homemade Laundry Detergent.

August - Make hair bows.

September -  Make throw pillow covers.

I'm all set to make the felt doll set for Pumpkin Pie next month.  The only thing I think I need is some pinking shears.  (I can't believe how expensive those things are!)  And I almost scrapped my May project of planting garden pots.  Gardening stuff is all over the place now, and as I was walking through Walmart I began to feel ridiculously overwhelmed.  So I've decided that I will probably plant only one pot.  Maybe two.  I already have a strawberry pot, so I should probably see what I can do with that.  Now I just have to decide what I want to plant in my other pot.  I'm trying to decide between cucumbers and tomatoes.  If I can make a go of one pot, maybe I can add another next year.

And maybe you've noticed that I've found a project for September.  Now that I have my very own sewing machine I'd love to make some covers for these terribly tattered throw pillows that we have.  We actually bought new ones to replace them, but I saved the old ones for such a project as this.  Simple Mom posted this blog and I immediately knew it had to be one of my projects.

And here is my reading list for the month of March (titles in red were books read for book reviews.)  Now you can see what I've been doing instead of blogging:

A Quiet Strength by Janette Oke
Like Gold Refined by Janette Oke
Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers
Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider
Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot
Life Is Friends: A Complete Guide to the Lost Art of Connecting in Person by Jeanne Martinet
How To Be God’s Little Princess by Sheila Walsh
Secrets by Robin Jones Gunn
Queen of Babble in the Big City by Meg Cabot
Queen of Babble Gets Hitched by Meg Cabot
City Girl by Lori Wick
Attack at the Arena by Paul McCusker and Marianne Hering

And finally, a random fact for you: my next post will be my 100th post.  I'll try and make it count.

Book Review: Attack at the Arena

It is pretty safe to say that Mr. Whittaker and the Imagination Station are a part of most of our childhoods.  Who doesn't get warm fuzzy feelings when they think about Saturday mornings, listening to the adventures at Whit's End on the radio?  These stories are alive and well.

In book 2 of the The Imagination Station series, cousins Patrick and Beth take off on their second adventure in the Imagination Station.  Mr. Whittaker is on a quest to save an ancestor of his, but for some reason can't use the Imagination Station himself.  So the cousins take off for ancient Rome with the instructions to find a special silver cup.  The cousins quickly become separated, as Beth is enslaved to the emperor and Patrick meets up with a monk named Telemachus.  All three end up back in the Roman area in the midst of the dreaded Roman games.

This book is a fantastic read for ages 7 and up.  It's easy enough for a second-grader to read to themselves, but I'm pretty sure their parents would want to read it with them.  It's fast-paced and fraught with age-appropriate suspense.  Any family who loves the Adventures in Odyssey will love this book.

Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a free copy of this book as a part of their blogger book review program.

Discussion Topics

Things I do NOT want to talk about:

• Potty training
• When Honey Pie will move out of our room
• When Honey Pie will actually sleep through the whole night
• Why I will never be able to leave Honey Pie for longer than 3 hours, since she refuses to take a bottle and will only eat off of me
• My cooking attempts this week
• The month of March in general
• How a book I'm reading on hospitality made me feel bad about blogging
• Budgeting

Things I would be happy to discuss:

• Reality TV (namely Survivor, Amazing Race and the Bachelor)
• Crafting
• The merits of the Chick-fil-A menu
• The Wiggles
• Generic vs. name brand food

Book Review: How To Be God's Little Princess: Royal Tips for Manners, Etiquette, and True Beauty

As the mom of two little girls, I often wonder if I'm spending enough time teaching them the right things.  Yes, they are only 2 and 5 months, but I'm going to need to know what to teach them, because if I don't, someone else will and I may not like what that someone else teaches them.  And there is so much to teach, that I'm always concerned I'm going to miss something.

Enter this little gem by Sheila Walsh.  Written for young girls to read themselves, it is a full manual on how to act like a princess.  Not a spoiled, "serve me" princess, but a princess who lives the kind of life that God wants her to.  It is a how-to book filled with instructions on how to dress modestly and with flair, how to include others, how to treat adults, and even how to wear a tiara.  It is sprinkled generously with quizzes, puzzles and crafts that would make a little girl's imagination explode.

This book is fantastic.  I'm so glad I have it and I can't wait for my girls to read it (in about six and eight years, respectively.)  I feel like it gave me a great place to start in instructing my girls in how to be a lady, and maybe reading the words from someone other than Mom will encourage my girls in how they should live.  It has been the prayer of my heart that my girls will grow to be girls of influence and not easily influenced by the world, and I feel like this book will reinforce that.

I highly recommend this book if you have young daughters, or even if you work with young girls as a teacher or Sunday school leader. 

Oh, and the book and pages are pink.  How can any girl resist that?

Thomas Nelson Publishers provided me with a free copy of this book as a part of their blogger program called BookSneeze.

Dreading Road Trips

Hmm.  I seem to have been in a blogging slump lately.  Honey Pie was pretty sick last week and apparently when she's sick it drains all my words.  Here's to climbing back in the saddle and hoping to stay on the horse.

This summer we plan to drive out to visit my husband's parents and my grandparents, all who live in the great state of Missouri.  It's a ten and a half hour drive from our corner of Colorado.  It's a drive that I feel like I've made a thousand times in my life, since my family visited my grandparents every summer growing up.  I have very little respect for Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas, but for the most part I don't really mind the drive.  Except now we have small children.

We didn't make the drive at all last year. My in-laws came to visit us during the summer, and then made the trip again at Thanksgiving since we had just a six-week-old baby.  It was so kind of them.  Anyway, the last time we made the trip Pumpkin Pie was 18 months old.  And it didn't go very well.  She cried quite a bit.  Which really really really annoys my husband.  And there wasn't a lot I could do about it.  I tried passing her a variety of toys, and it just didn't really do anything for her.  It was only slightly better than the drive we made when Pumpkin Pie was 5 months old.  She SCREAMED for about 6 hours on the drive home at that age. 

So maybe you can see that, while I'm actually really looking forward to visiting out there, I am equally dreading the drive.  Pumpkin Pie will be 3 this time, and Honey Pie will be 9 months.  I feel like Pumpkin Pie might do okay, since she can color and look at books, but Honey Pie already hates her car seat if she has to be in it for more than 20 minutes.  Let's add in the fact that at 9 months they are still rear-facing.  If I could put Pumpkin Pie's car seat in the front seat and then have myself sit in the back with Honey Pie I would, but that is obviously not an option.  And no, I don't feel comfortable enough with my knowledge of pharmaceuticals to drug the baby.

I'm trying to not think about it, while at the same time come up with plenty to do for the girls.  We'll leave at three or four in the morning in hopes that we get a good chunk of the road behind us while they sleep.  And I will definitely be buying my husband some ear plugs this time.  That should take the shrill out of any crying for him. 

T-minus four and a half months until our trip.  I hope I can come up with a plan before then.

Armed and Ready

My creating fever sent me into hunt and gather mode.  So far all my hunting and gathering has been on the internet, so it has been fun to get the mail for the past couple of weeks.  As you can see, my sewing machine arrived.  I also have the supplies I need to start experimenting with hair bows, and the felt I need for the felt dolls I plan to make for my April goal.  All I need now is a glue gun.  And some pinking shears.  And some fabric.  And maybe some more ribbon...

Don't Ask Me Why

This may be very telling of my very boring personality, but working at a library really appeals to me.  I always think about it when I go there with Pumpkin Pie.  I've always loved to read and the library is filled with possibilities.  However, actually working at a library is probably just keeping track of stuff.  Constantly putting books back on shelves where they belong.  Witnessing first hand the abuse of things that don't belong to the people who use them.  The people who I see working at the library never look very happy.  Shelving books must be very tedious.

But it still appeals to me.  Maybe that's what I'll do when I grow up.