I want a pet... any pet will do.

So, this morning, Don and I were off to the Seminary for a placement meeting. We got to learn all about the paperwork and important deadlines that are coming up this year. It is an exciting time.

We left our children home alone.

We know that when we leave them home, they will sometimes do things that they would never do if we were here, mostly because as parents, we stop these things before they happen.

So, while I was still taking off my shoes in the entryway and Don yelled from the kitchen, "Come here, quick." I was sure there was some disaster.

But, this is what I found on my kitchen table

They caught a mouse, and built a house for it out of Lego's.
Oh, and they fed it a cracker.
It seemed very happy to just hang out in the little house and eat its cracker.
"Can we keep it?"
"No."
"But, I want a pet."
"No."
"But, look how cute he is."
"No."

I made them put the mouse and its cracker in a bag and take it out to the trash, because I'm just a mean mom like that. Mice carry diseases; this is no pet store mouse, it used to live behind our freezer, it can't stay.

Now, they want a hamster.

Writing Contest: Prize? A publishing contract!

So, I just promised all my readers that I would write you a novel for NaNoWriMo.

Then, I stumble onto this interesting little tidbit from Harlequin and Mills & Boon.

They are looking for manuscripts. Do you have a novel just sitting in a drawer that you hope someday will find the right place to send it?

Well, it won't magically get there on its own. I've heard it said that you have to get out and do the leg work of getting your name known. You have to go out and send your work to lots of places and face years of rejection letters if you ever want to get published. The publisher is never going to just come knocking on your door and say "Hey, do you have a novel just waiting for me to read? I'm sure I'll love it."

It's true. That's probably never going to happen. But, this might be the closest thing.

It looks like a cool and fun contest, but the first chapter is due in 6 days.

I don't think I can pull it off, but if you have a manuscript just waiting for you to brush off the dust... it might be time to polish up that baby and send it on in. Here's the link to that contest again.

Good luck! Let me know how it goes!

What if I wrote you a novel?

What if I wrote a novel? Just for you.

Have you ever heard of NaNoWriMo? It stands for National Novel Writing Month. It happens every November. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

It's all about quantity. Just getting those words out as fast as you can.

It is supposed to have a beginning - middle - end and it should read like a novel; but it doesn't have to be a good novel.

I've participated in NaNoWriMo for the past two years. The first year I attempted it and failed. Well, I didn't fail exactly, since you really get credit just for taking on the challenge to begin with. But, I didn't make 50,000 words in 30 days.

The second time I tried it - I committed, took it seriously, cleared my calendar and I DID IT!

It wasn't a great story, but it all came together and made sense and the ending brought all the problems to a reasonable conclusion, and isn't that really all we can ask from a story written in a fit of literary abandon?

So, I propose a new twist to this year's challenge. I want to write a novel for you.
I can't promise that I will succeed, only that I will give it my best effort.

I'll have 6 children at home and the only thing on my calendar is having a baby somewhere around the 15th of November. But, rather than obstacles, I'm looking at these things as inspiration. What could be more emotionally moving than bringing new life into this world? What could be more challenging or rewarding than raising children? Isn't that what a good novel needs; challenges, rewards and emotional movement?

I think that's a good place to start.

I don't know what the story will be about; how it will begin or how it will end. It's a mystery for us to explore together. So, I commit to showing up on November 1st and posting the first words of this crazy tale. Will you be here?

NOTE: So as not to confuse the novel posts with my regular real-life blogging, I will create a Label for NaNoWriMo2012 and all of the novel will be posted there.

It's Time To Live With Less

With my past 2 pregnancies, my nesting instinct led to redecorated bedrooms and lots of painting. That was back before we were renters. Now, it isn't my house... in fact, most of it isn't even my furniture. So, this time nesting will look very different.

I've tried to set some goals for this year.

1) Less books. I know that this doesn't seem to make any sense, but being pregnant meant that in our last move, I didn't do much of the heavy lifting. My husband says that if I had seen the looks on the faces of the men who helped us when they saw 'another box of books' I would understand that some had to go. So, I'm working on it. First, I'm trying to read as many as I can - check out the Professional Writing label on this blog for book reviews as I finish them.

2) Less clothes. It's hard to know when we have too many and when we don't have enough. I try to purge and take inventory, but then I always have a child who can't find anything to wear. So, I've taken to labeling all the dresser drawers and keeping labeled boxes in the closet with spares and up-sizes of just about everything. I'm trying to stop there. This is especially challenging as we are all so excited about the new baby coming that we want to go out and buy MORE clothes. I think 5-7 outfits per child, especially the older ones who don't spill food and run in the mud so much anymore, is plenty. But, the older they get, the more attached they are to their clothes and the less likely they are to give them up. It's a vicious cycle.

3) Less paper. I've been writing for a long time; mostly on paper. These little scraps add up. I've granted myself a clear storage tub that I can lift by myself (even when I'm pregnant and it's full). My goal is to pare down the amount of paper, either by typing up the handwritten copies and printing them or by simply getting rid of some of the old garbage.

4) Less pictures. This has been an ongoing challenge. I love to take pictures. But, it seems that whether they are prints or saved digitally, my habit is to store them and never really put them to good use. So, getting the best of the best into albums that can sit on the shelf and be shared with family and friends and then purging the rest, I am going to make our next move with less pictures.

5) Less toys. This may be the hardest one of all. Every time I think I can get rid of a toy, someone tells me it's their favorite, and then I just can't let it go. Then, there are some toys that my kids may not even care about, but I personally love, and I can't seem to let them go either. But, my goal for this year is to move with less toys - I don't know what that means exactly or what it will look like in reality, but I do know that it has to be done.

So, with these goals in mind, I head into the last 9 weeks of pregnancy, motivated and already exhausted. Funny how that works.

Growing Girls book review

Growing Girls by Jeanne Marie Laskas ends with one main point. "Motherhood was my rescue" and it reminds me of 1 Timothy 2:15 "Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control." (ESV) even though it is not exactly what she means.

I should first confess that I know there is a reason publishers print stuff on the back of a book. It's not just for their own pleasure. It is generally intended to spout the virtues of the text inside. Why I ignored it in this case, I'll never know. But, had I read the back cover, I would have known that this book is not about raising daughters; at least not in the same way that Dobson's Bringing Up Boys is about raising sons. 

Laskas offers very little in the way of parenting advice; instead this book is more of a memoir about a city girl who moves to the country and happens to be raising two daughters. She spends more time talking about the animals they are raising than the daughters that are growing, but in a profound way she offers great insight into the heart and soul of motherhood. She does it in a "You have no idea what you're getting into." sort of way.

Laskas is honest about her struggles to overcome the feeling of being a 'bad mother'; a common thread among mothers of the world. She puts the reality of motherhood into a poignant perspective while at the same time claiming that we can't really explain the exhaustion of all that we do because we block it out of our memories, "Any mother who can't get rid of the memories of how exhausting mothering is would have to kill herself, leaving all those half-grown kids to fend for themselves." (60) It's sort of like the claim that if we truly remembered how painful childbirth is, no one would have more than one child.

I can appreciate Laskas's ability to bravely confess her own insecurities about motherhood; reminding readers that we are not alone in ours. I found I could most closely relate to her when on pages 127-128 she quotes Judith Warner. Laskas, having chased a career most of her life, found that when she wanted to have children, her body was too old, so she adopted two girls and she says of her years pursuing a career and competing with the boys, she says she thought "I was a uniquely neurotic young thing...too engaged with life to bother signing up for the tired grown-up world of marriage and babies. Special! No.... I was a product of a trend toward 'muscle-bound, tightly wound, uber-achieving, all-encompassing, never-failing self control that passed in the 1980's, for female empowerment.' A cliche'."

My story is the opposite, but I know just what she means. I gave up competing with the boys and chasing a perfect career at age 19, when I met my husband. I've spent the past 18 years learning all the things that "female empowerment" failed to teach me, like how to make a home, be a wife, raise a family, and train up the next generation. As I read Laskas' journey of discovery into farm life, I am reminded of the long journey that has brought me to where I am today as a mother.

Laskas quotes Warner who states, "...the chance that children wouldn't quite fit into this [female empowerment] picture - never entered our minds."

She's right, and it actually took me most of the first decade of married life to realize that I would have to fail at one pursuit or the other. I've always felt the pressure of my culture to pursue something more than 'just being a mom'; something bigger, better, greater, grander, something that is somehow more... it's as if I have failed my gender.

But, Laskas doesn't ever exchange her career for motherhood. She says, in her own words, "Worse - I am trying to do both. Like so many women, I am trying to do both. How ridiculous. What a perfect set up for failure."

She's right. She is still new at being a mother and learning about what it all means, but, despite her little experience, she puts into words the thoughts and feelings of women in our generation and mothers in general; thoughts and feelings that others would struggle to find the right words for. Laskas gives us those words.

If you've ever been a mother or wanted to be a mother; if you have even ever had a pet, you will appreciate this tale.

WHY DOES MY NOSE GET PREGNANT?

My nose! Yes, my nose is the most affected part of my body during pregnancy. I get all the other symptoms; terrible nausea from conception to delivery - hyperemesis even, pelvic bones that come apart due to my body's overproduction of Relaxin and cause so much joint pain that I have to have my husband roll me over in the middle of the night, a belly so large that I waddle instead of walk and of course, all the lovely things like pressure on my bladder and toes in my rib cage.

But, the worst is my poor nose.

EVERYTHING STINKS!!!

I mean everything.

The inside of my van smells like spoiled milk. I've vaccuumed, sprayed and Febrezed like crazy, but it won't go away.

Our couch smells like dog... we don't own a dog, but the previous owner did.

The baseboards by the back door smell like cat urine. We don't have a cat either.

The basement smells like sewage, especially when it rains.

The milk smells spoiled, the cantaloupe smells like old garbage, and the garbage cans, oh, don't even get me started on the smells that come from our garbage cans.

EVERYTHING STINKS! It isn't just that I notice these smells when no one else does; but I notice them so strongly that sometimes I have to hold my breath.

Last week, at Walt Disney World, going into the Pirates of the Caribbean, the fog maker at the beginning took my breath away and it was like my lungs were going to close up and never let air in again.

When my daughter got in the van after painting her finger nails, the chemical smell gave me an immediate headache. I almost made her walk home.

The smells are SO STRONG - even things that smell good, STINK!

I've noticed this in different intensities and during different times during all of my pregnancies. Apparently, this is all caused by hormones, estrogen in particular. Like all the other symptoms of pregnancy, this too shall pass when baby comes. Just one more reason to look forward to labor and birth.