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Check out my revamped blog. You can find me at www.treesarewood.blogspot.com

Yes, I'm Still Here...For Now

I have been chided for not keeping my blog updated (you know who you are). I find it a little amusing that during the time of year when I typically have nothing going on, I can't seem to keep up with anything.

Summer is my lazy time of year (well, lazier than usual :) ). We don't plan any vacations, we don't get away. We just went on our first camping trip of the season last weekend and summer is almost over. I feel like summer is my time to hibernate.

If that's true and I have been in hibernation mode, I can feel spring creeping up on me. Fall is just around the corner which means I will soon have no time for sleeping or relaxing or spending an afternoon catching up on Facebook. My beloved stories that I'm writing will be pushed to the side and my unread novels will just have to stay that way. There are far too many things calling for my time.

It 's almost time to start school up again. Along with homeschooling the 3 kids comes co-op. This semester I will be teaching two classes as well as accompanying Logan to two classes. It's only one day a week but it's amazing how much energy it saps from you.

I also have my usual slate of craft shows. During this season, craft shows are our livelihood. After the kids are in bed, I retreat to my cave and work, typically until midnight or 1am. Everything we sell is handmade and I have to make sure I have enough stock to last to December. Whenever I can, I also slip in a few hours during the day. Most of the time I enjoy it, but again, no sleep.

This year has an added bonus. My husband and I are in charge of our church's missions auction and dinner. It's a very big task but we feel so strongly about it that we couldn't NOT do it. It happens to fall at the end of October. The time of year when I am usually in my cave anytime that hubby is home and can take care of the kids.

Those that know me know I won't be seen for the month of November and only sporadically before and after. I always laugh when December comes and everyone else starts to feel the pressure and stress while I am grateful for the downtime.

I will do my best to keep up with my blog now that summer is coming to an end. And my movie blog as well since I have a whole page list of movies that I want to discuss. But just keep in mind that if I haven't written for awhile, it probably meant that I chose sleep over blogging!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I have a garden. I know it's hard to believe but I do. And it's actually producing edible food. If you know me at all, you know this is an amazing accomplishment. I'm great at growing houseplants but outdoor plants? Not so much. It probably wouldn't be so bad if I actually liked to be outside or if I enjoyed playing in the dirt but I really don't like either one.

So why start a garden? That's a very good question. Like everything else, I blame it on my mother. When I was young, my mom had a garden out back. She grew peas, zucchini, tomatoes and lots of other things that I don't eat. I can remember going out to the garden and picking tomatoes off the vine and eating them. I remember opening up the pea pods and popping those little green balls out and eating them right there. I've always told myself that I was going to have a garden like my mom did.

Now, I'm not a complete idiot. I knew that I needed to wait until I had the time (and yard) to devote to this garden. My house has the perfect spot and for the last 3 years, our friend and renter grew lots of things in it while I watched, shaking my head as she watered and weeded at 6 in the morning. She loved to be in her garden. I was content to watch her through the window.

This spring however, she wasn't here to plant her garden. I got the brilliant idea that I should keep it going. I spent days clearing out the space. Weeding, tilling, preparing the soil. My mom went shopping with me for seeds and starters and stakes and tools and gloves. Almost $200 and a few weeks later and my garden was planted. It looked perfect. For about a day.

What I didn't realize was that my friend didn't spend every spare minute in her garden purely for pleasure. It takes every spare minute just to keep up with all the weeds. Not to mention battling slugs and crows. I'm fighting a losing battle against all the critters that have found my strawberries so appealing. And it's not enough just to turn on the sprinkler and water every day. Some days it needs more water than that. And watering the plants also makes the weeds grow so I have to spend more time digging those out.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against a little hard work. I just really don't enjoy working outside...in the dirt...with all the bugs. I've come to the conclusion that my kind of gardening is best suited to flowering shrubs surrounded by beauty bark. You pull a few weeds here and there, do a little pruning and water occasionally. Done. I'm not even against having nothing but grass and then all I have to do is mow.

And I can't say anything tastes better just because I grew it. I'd rather spend the money to buy organic from the grocery store than to have to live on the fruits of my labor. Someone needs to keep those farmers in business.

So far I think the idea of having a garden and growing my own fruits and vegetables is so much better than the reality! But really, isn't that the case with most things?

Why Women Can

Why Women Can’t Sleep at Night

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Ahhhhh!

It's finished! Five months and hundreds of pages later, my first book is finished. I am so excited, it's hard to sit still. I've read and reread, edited and re-edited and I'm quite pleased with the finished product. I have passed on a copy to a select few to read and give me their opinion so now I just sit and wait...anxiously. My dream would be to have it published. Along with the next books that I have planned (some of which are already being outlined). I've already looked into the publishing process and I have a game plan. But for now, I am just living on the high of having completed my book!

Voices In My Head

My dear friends, let me start by apologizing for abandoning my blog lately. I haven't forgotten all three of you, I've just been a little distracted lately. Nothing major has happened, no crisis to deal with. Life just continues as always, busy but nothing unusual.

The problem is all these voices in my head. They have been consuming my every waking moment and I'm afraid I've been inclined to give in to them.

Let me explain. When CJ went to TX over Christmas, I didn't do much sleeping. I read a new book every day and stayed up all hours in an effort to not have to go to bed alone. During this time, an idea starting forming in my head. If I was to write a book, what would I write about? Characters started to take shape, plots began to form, and I tried to keep up with all of it. I started writing a book. Honestly, it's more like five books.

You see, my characters are a family of five siblings. Each one is given their own book in which to tell their story of finding the love of their life. I would love to be able to say that I'm writing some deep, motivational guide or an educational children's story, but alas, it is merely romantic fluff. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But since they've been created, each character has been competing for space in my head and time at my keyboard. If my brain is not actively involved in my current activity, then it is filled with their voices. They're telling me what they want to do, how they act, what they like and don't like. They're revealing their personalities and shedding light on their individual plots.

Currently, I'm working on my fourth (or fifth) draft of my first novel. It's so close to being complete I can almost taste it. But darn it if life doesn't keep getting in the way. There are children that need to be fed and taught, a house that needs to be cleaned, a garden to be cared for, family, friends, church, chores and errands. Each one can be an unwelcome intrusion to my obsessive mind.

I want nothing more than to finish with this first book because the second one is already writing itself out in my head. I have outlined my story but when I sit down to write, it sometimes takes a different turn. The words flow out of my head faster than I can keep up and I have no choice but to hang on and enjoy the ride, anxious to see how it will turn out. It feels like the book is already written and I'm just struggling to match up the right words.

Even now, as I write this, my characters are yelling at me, demanding to be heard. How dare I spend a few minutes on my blog when that is precious time I could be using to bring them to life. Forget eating, just write. Kids don't really need clean underwear, write instead of doing laundry. Standing in line somewhere? Grab a notepad and write. Sleep is overrated, write instead. When I'm washing dishes, mowing the lawn, working in the garden, walking around the track, taking a shower, driving the car--all of these activities only serve to give free reign to my imagination and the people living there.

So please forgive me for neglecting you. I'm afraid there are others who have been more insistent in commanding my attention.

Saint Easter Fairy

I grew up believing in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I can't tell you exactly when I found out the truth about each one but I don't remember being very traumatized. It just seemed like a fun tradition, so when I had my own kids, I kept that tradition going. Recently, I've been second-guessing the wisdom in keeping those traditions alive. Do I really want to have to explain to my children that I've been lying to them all this time?

Doing without these traditions has benefits though. We've had to leave the Tooth Fairy notes on more than one occasion explaining that there was a tooth left but she probably couldn't find it under all the pillows so could she please come back and try it again? We were as polite as possible even though I knew full well that Tooth Fairy just fell asleep on the job!

The belief of Santa Claus brings with it an endless amount of questions that you have to try and come up with an answer for. Questions such as: How do reindeer fly? How can Santa get in when we don't have a chimney? I haven't been good all year, am I going to get coal? Why didn't Santa get me (fill in the blank) from my list? We provide answers for all of these but it's only more lies. And how do you tie Santa into the birth of Jesus?

The Easter Bunny is even harder to explain. We're supposed to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus and in order to do that, we put on new, frilly clothes and have a giant bunny come and hide colorful eggs that may or may not be filled with candy and treats. Where was the connection again?

I don't mind giving my kids a quarter or fifty cents when they lose a tooth; it's fun. But why does it have to be the Tooth Fairy that does it? Why can't it be Mom and Dad?

Why couldn't we explain the true story of St. Nicholas and let our kids know that Santa is really the spirit of Christmas? That the point is to look out for others the way that God was looking out for us when He gave us Jesus?

Why can't we have an Easter celebration without a giant rabbit? Couldn't we have an egg hunt and let the kids know that the eggs represent new life, the new life we have with Jesus? Couldn't it be about God instead of bunnies and candy?

The thing about starting my kids on these beliefs is I don't know how to stop them. My kids are 10, 8, and 6 and they all believe 100% in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. I've decided to tell them the truth before but I always sabotage myself. Before we went to Grandma's last night to dye eggs, I had decided that when we were done, I would tell the kids the truth about the Easter Bunny. Well, on the way home, a small brown bunny ran across the road. I stopped the car so all the kids could see it. When it finally ran off in a flash of white fluffy tail, I turned to the kids with uncontrolled enthusiasm and said, "Maybe it's the Easter Bunny!" What is wrong with me?! Of course the kids were excited. They thought it was great that they got to see the real Easter Bunny. Corban decided after we got home that maybe it wasn't actually the Easter Bunny, but he knows the real one is out there. So that meant I had to be the Easter Bunny for another year. They found eggs around the house this morning that you-know-who must have hid. It certainly couldn't have been Mommy and Daddy.

So how do I back track and get out of all this without breaking their hearts? I love to watch them light up whenever they think that one of the Trifecta of Holiday Gift-Givers has been to see them. They're so sweet. But it can't last forever. Sometimes I feel bad that I've let it go on this long, much less started it altogether. Because, really, Santa and the Easter Bunny and Miss Fairy have nothing to do with their respective holidays. They are NOT what my kids should be focused on. The question is, do I tell them now or do I let them find out on their own?