This entry is also on my NaNo blog, but I'm posting it here, too.

I did it! I finished my novel — and it’s a day early. I surpassed my 50,000-word goal and hit 50,700 by the time I tied up the loose ends. I wasn’t available to my family as I usually am, and I had to endure some lip, but eventually my husband came around and did his best to keep the kids and other distractions away from me. I entered this week at 39,000 words. For a minute there, it didn’t look too promising. But I kept going. And now I’m finished. The real work begins now, though. I’ll be revising and revising for a long time. But at least it’s there. The story is mapped out. My characters feel real to me.
I downloaded and printed a winner’s certificate that I will hang in my office. Whenever I need some motivation to keep going, I can just look at that and remember that I completed a challenging marathon.
Thanks, family for your support. I’m taking the few days “off from work” which I continued to promise you.

What Are You Thankful For?

I can't believe it's almost here. Thanksgiving is on Thursday. Before you know it, it will be Christmas. The busy season will seem to take forever for the kids, but will be a blur for the grownups.
As Thanksgiving approaches, we reflect on the things that we are thankful for in life. I'm thankful for my family and for chasing my dream to become a children's author. However, the thing I'm most thankful for is that for the most part the kids have been healthy. They've avoided hospital stays (except for one for Jacqueline) since at least September. I'm thankful that some bone pains she was having are nothing major to worry about.

What are some things you're thankful for this season? Feel free to share by posting a comment.

In a terrible world ....

Warning: You may want to shield kids from this post. However, I found it necessary to talk about it.


There is an officer in Philadelphia who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was doing his job and responded to a robbery. Unfortunately, she was shot in the process of protecting the public. As of now he is still alive and fighting for his life. A friend sent me an email for prayer requests for this officer. Here is what I responded:

"The Officer lives on the block of John's parent's house. We were in shock! Jacqueline (age 5)saw all the commotion and incidentally saw the news coverage. She was very upset. I told her we can help by praying for him. She was also confused about officers because they carry guns ( we had to explain why, which was a whole other discussion in itself.)

She was then angry that police put themselves in dangerous situations. She said,"They should all just come here." I'm glad she feels home is a safe place.

I didn't know what to do for her, so I called the police station and asked if it was okay to stop by. They said it was fine, but they didn't have Halloween candy because of the day's events.

We decided to bring one of our hand out bags to the station with us.( We could only afford three bags of candy and they were all opened. So I told the officers that this was for them. I didn't think it would be enough to hand out.)

I don't know how many times the officers had smiled that day, but Jackie got to see at least one.

It's amazing what that did for everyone involved. Jackie felt a little better about Police and their jobs. I felt as if I helped spread some good in a crazy world. And we encouraged a smile in a terrible situation.

I just wanted to share some good. It's not much, but it's something.

We continue to keep The Officer and all the officers in our prayers. "