6 months already...

Can you believe this was me 6 months ago? Oh my! What a belly!

That's what a 22 inch baby looks like squished into a human tummy, I suppose!

I can't believe my baby girl is 6 months old today! (She spent a lot of her time in the nursery being tested, monitored, treated, etc. for some complications.) Thankfully, she was able to come home with us on time. I am just so obsessively in love with her. I can't get enough of my sweet baby! We ALL adore her. My boys and my husband are completely wrapped around her (very long, future piano playing) fingers.

How could we not adore her? Look at that beautiful face, and all that hair! She is such a sweetheart.

How come time flies by so quickly?
I can't believe the last 6 months have sped by so fast. It's gone faster than it did with either of my boys. They are all growing up too fast. I can't believe I have a 1st grader, and SonB is turning 3 in 2 weeks. Why is it that the things we want to hurry up and happen (*cough* a book deal *cough, cough*) take so long, and the things we want to slow down and cherish (my children growing up) flashes by in a blink of an eye?
She is such a light and joy in our family. This grin makes our day!

Sweet Baby Girl, I love you so much! 6 months... wow.

p.s. Time to do some professional portraits... Erin I'm looking at you! ;)

Wishing You and Yours...

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Flashback post #1 : 'Tis the Season...

From December 2010

Tis the Season...
To be way behind on everything. Including posting today. Whoops. Sorry about that!
(Ironic that this post is so relevant to me right now still! Our house got hit with the flu the last two days--well, just my boys, but trust me, it was a veritable body fluid fun fest. Blech. Anyway, the point is, I'm behind on everything again!)

I found this quote today, and it seemed an appropriate one for me. Maybe you will find it inspiring as well.

"There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will." - Epictetus

I have said it before, I tend to be a worrier. I used to worry that I worried too much. The older I am, and the more things I "get" to worry about (two children [3 now!], mortgages, bills, health, etc., etc.), I've slowly begun to learn not to worry so much. It was either that, or go insane. I can't control everything. In fact, there are very few things I can actually control at all. That are "within the power of my will." I have to focus on doing my best with the things I can control and have trust and faith that everything else will work out the way it is supposed to.

Even in writing, we have a lot we can control, but there is so much that we can't. Elana Johnson did a fabulous post about "luck" in the process of getting published and it really hit home for me, and probably a lot of you. We all have to keep working hard, honing our craft (no matter what stage we're at--querying agents, on submission with editors, or published author working on subsequent books), and moving forward. But there are always things we can't control that could cause us worry. Will this agent/editor love my writing enough to offer to represent me/buy it? Will my book sell well? Will I get another deal? Will I be able to write another book as good as my first one? There are always worries. But I'm trying to learn to let them go.

I've yet to read a study telling us how good worrying is for our mental or physical health. So I am consciously trying to worry less--to do what I can do, and let go of the rest. How about you? What are you worried about? And can you do anything about it or not?

Friday Five

1. Any of you watching "Once Upon a Time?" What do you think so far?
I actually really like it. BUT. After this last episode, I have to admit, I'm beginning to feel like I need SOMETHING good to happen soon or else... well, I don't know. I just need to feel like there is some sort of hope. Because right now? Not so much. What do you think Rumpelstiltskin is up to?

2. That got me thinking about writing... how much can you put your characters through before it's too much? How long can you keep a reader interested without offering hope? Just a thought.

3. I want to get my six-year-old some books for Christmas. Any suggestions of good chapter books that would interest him? Nothing too mature obviously, but not a picture book either. He's in this in between stage, so that I'm not quite sure what to get for him.

4. I'm in a strange place with my writing right now. I have a couple different ideas that I've started and then haven't been able to decide if I should continue with them or not. I really need to finish something again. It's been too long (almost a year) since I wrote an entire book from scratch. Edited, revised, started, plotted, sure. But start to finish complete a new book? Nope. Granted, I had a baby this year, and I have been busy working on books for my agent. But still, I feel this strange sense of dissatisfaction with myself right now that I know stems from not creating anything new for a while. Hopefully I can get down to it soon.

5. Thank you all for your very kind comments on my last post. I guess I'll just keep on keeping on.

Happy Friday--and Merry Christmas next week! For the next two weeks, I'm going to be posting some of my older (but [in my opinion] still great) posts. I'll be back with new posts in the New Year. (Unless inspiration strikes before then, of course.) Hope you all have a great finish to 2011!

Direction

I, like many other bloggers, am beginning to wonder what direction to take my blog. More of the same? Or something different?

Has that ever happened to you in life or in writing? You're going along, thinking everything is the same... until it's not. Tiny little changes along the way end up taking your story (or life) in a totally different direction than you were planning. What do you do? Stop and try and get back to the plan? Or do you go with the change, see where it leads?

As for my blog, I'm wondering what YOU would like more (or less) of? There are so many amazing blogs out there full of any advice I could ever give you, and blogs that are far more hysterical than I could hope to be, so I'm not quite sure where I fall. I suppose I'll just keep going along with whatever post inspires me for that day. But if you have thoughts or suggestions of what YOU like to read the most, what brings YOU back--let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to make this the best blog I possibly can.

Do you feel like the blogging world is changing? Or does it still feel the same to you?

Happy Wednesday!

Climb every mountain...

Yes, I do love The Sound of Music. Have I succeeded in getting my boys to watch it with me yet? No. But that isn't the point of this post.

What is the point?

Have you ever gone on a really hard, long hike? And you keep thinking, "this was supposed to be a fun little jaunt up the mountain, and I feel like I've been hiking forEVER!" And soon, the treeline has disappeared, and you're dragging your sorry butt across rock and shale with a frigid wind beating against you, and you start to feel like you're a pioneer trudging to unchattered lands and you might have to lay down and die right then and there?

NO? Really, was it just me?

Okay, I might have been twelve or thirteen, and we were hiking Table Rock (the second highest peak next to the Grand Teton in that range), and I might have had a flair for the dramatic. BUT. The point is that when I finally did make it to the very top (shockingly, still alive!), WOW. It was amazing. All my exhaustion and complaints disappeared, and I was left with a sense of accomplishment and peace and excitement to see the world from this new, incredible vantage point. And then my sisters and cousins and I ran all the way back down the mountain, our adrenaline pumping and our faces plastered with perma-grins.

The point is that if we keep climbing, we will eventually reach the summit and find out what the view is like from up there. Even if it means going above the treeline and pushing on through wind, cold, and exhaustion.

What mountains are you climbing right now?

A Writer's Plea

In case you didn't click on the link in my last post, here is "A writer's plea" by K. Marie Criddle, for your Friday reading pleasure:
Awesome, right?