Whew! Now that THAT'S over with...

I'm ready to start a new year!

I didn't make a lot of New Year's resolutions-- mostly the whole "gonna lose weight" thing, blah blah blah... I WOULD like to read everybody's blogs more-- I miss that.  You're my friends and I feel I've been neglecting you.  Unfortunately, I make that resolution when there's kids in the house--people, I've got to tell you, the older they get, the more they talk, the less likely I am to, I don't know, have two brain cells fire in sequence without an interruption!

I have to admit.  This weekend, I just gave up.  I gave up on getting work done (which, paradoxically, is when I got a LOT of it done--go figure!)  I gave up on knitting, I just... I dunno.  I sat on the chair and fell asleep a lot.  Got some knitting done, and, well, I guess the kids are calling it "chillaxing", and it seems sort of new fangled and, *yawn*  full of sleeping, but I gotta say, it was oddly refreshing too!

Although, I have to admit... "napping" on the chair with kids on my lap has changed tone in the last couple of years.  For one thing, the kids have become a lot more active.  Nothing is LESS restful than sitting on a chair while two grade schoolers initiate a cold war of bickering, and then follow it up with hand-infantry and full-metal squirming, complete with lethal ass-bones and the occasional boob-popping jab with the elbow.  Be that as it may, it did not stop me from waking up yesterday with Squish on my lap, telling Richard Dreyfuss why he was living his life wrong to end up in that shark cage in the ocean.

"You need to get out of that cage because you should NOT be there.  That is a BAD place to be, and that shark will get you.  You need to get on the boat, because sharks don't go there."  *snicker*  The rest of the movie really WAS  a surprise to her, and I'm ashamed to say, I was so out of it, I let her see it.  by then, Zoomboy was on the other side of me, and she took the bossing to a whole new level.

"You need to look away, because this is icky.  I can watch, because I don't get nightmares, but you get scared.  Look away now--good.  Eww.  The shark bit him and he's bleeding now."

And, of course, by this time, I was fully awake and laughing my ass off.

Another thing that has made this vacation not quite so restful is that Chicken has her driver's permit, Goddess save us all.  We spent an hour yesterday doing three point turns, which was good (although if I hadn't had my knitting, I would have been carsick) and she was...

Okay.  I"m sure my nearest and dearest will tell you I was a worse driver when I was her age--but that is only because my nearest and dearest were of the "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR, A SIGN FROM GOD!!!?" school of teaching driving, and I am more from the "A panicked driver is a driver who will dart into an oncoming lane because it suddenly seems like the right thing to do!" school of driving.  So, while I endeavor not to panic, Chicken endeavors not to ACT panicked, while in the meantime, her voice has risen an octave, her game-face is locked on, and she's telling me how totally calm she is.

*headdesk*

Yeah.  I seem to remember telling her father he was going to teach her.  He seemed to have a good philosophy, too,--it involved him eating a cookie while she drove.  I liked that.  I think he should do more of that-- just sayin'!  (Besides-- he's the one who will be less impacted by the cookie eating.  Again, sayin'...)

But generally?  I'm feeling a little more refreshed than I was two weeks ago, and a little more positive--and a little more certain that once the kids are back in school, I will DEFINITELY be on the write path.  No, that's not a misspelling... writing with them in the house has become a near impossibility.  I foresee a lot of me with my laptop at McDonalds over the summer.  Yay team!

And in the meantime?  Thank you everybody-- thank you so very very much.  Everyone who left comments, both here and at goodreads.com -- you were supportive and wonderful and really really awesome.  I'm starting the New Year VERY clean, VERY shiny, and with VERY much promise.  Thank you.  You all helped that happen.

Amy