You put your right brain in, you take your right brain out, you put your right brain in, and you shake it all about

I feel like I have scrambled eggs for brains these days. There is SO MUCH GOING ON. And one of the things that gets neglected is my blog. So, sorry the posts are so few and far between. Maybe when things slow down (which would be....when?) I'll be better about posting more regularly.

Updates in a nutshell:
- Finished chapter 8 today. Started rereading a phenomenal writing book that I'd forgotten all about and ended up completely revamping my main character and rewriting all her scenes. I'll be talking more about that book, and offering a copy for free, in my next newsletter in December. If you don't yet receive my newsletter, please sign up in the box on the right.

- I have a fan page now on Facebook. There are some discussions there that I'd love to see more comments on. Swing by and check it out!

- I was the literature/poetry judge for a local school's "Reflections" contest last week. Talka bout full-circle: I remember entering the Reflections contest when *I* was in elementary school. This year's theme was "Wow." That's it, just "Wow." Talk about open to interpretation. There were 30 entries altogether, the majority from a 6th grade class whose teacher made it mandatory. I was actually quite impressed by some of the poetry. But sitting on the living room floor trying to keep a very mobile Penny Jane from harm and a very active Abby occupied while I "graded" papers made me SO GLAD I'm not teaching anymore. I had flashbacks to my teaching days and they scared me.

-Funny Abby story: My sister-in-law Amber played "I Spy" with her when she was here last week, and Abby asked me to play it with her the other day. When it was my turn to guess she said "I spy with my eye something brown with pink." So I'm looking all over the place thinking, "Wow, she really has a good eye, she's found something in this room that has brown and pink?!" And as I'm looking, trying to find something to guess, she holds up a toy and says, "Is it this?" I say no, then she picks up something else and says, "Is it this?" And I asked, "Abby, do you know what has brown with pink on it in this room?" She says, "No." "Well, what object were you trying to make me guess?" *blank stare like I'm speaking Turkish* "Um, Abby, you need to pick an object in the room and tell me one of the colors on it." (Keep in mind she had guessed three time before it was my turn, so it's not like she'd never played.) Abby says, "Okay!" then looks around for a moment and says, "I spy with my eye a picture on the wall with Greena and Par on it." Of which there is only one. Needless to say I figured out that round pretty quickly.

Oh yeah, one more funny Abby, mostly to remind me in twenty years: We were packing up one of her toys with lots of little pieces, and when we were done I handed her the case and said, "Go put this in the drawer." She said, "No, I don't want to." I reminded her that part of playing with our toys is putting them away when we're done, and if we don't clean them up properly then we can't play with them anymore. To which she huffs, stands up, grabs the case, and says, "Mama, you're frustrating" before stomping off to the drawers. I didn't even bother trying to hide my laughter.