So how's Boo doing?

Pretty good.  She's got a cough, but she made it through the winter with nary a sniffle and what she did catch, she handled well.

The other rugrats are doing well.

R & N are advancing in high school and they're already at the stage where they prepare for AP classes and start checking out colleges.

JD will be released from the residential treatment center this summer.  That's a positive.

Aiden is handling homeschooling well, though the flu bug knocked us both out of commission this week.

Dear Husband just turned 36 and I will soon be 41.  It's onward and upward to age 50.  I look forward to it.  I'm already talking a friend around into going to Disneyland to celebrate that notable event.

April approaches and so do a gazillion birthdays.  My twins turn 16, my oldest boy becomes a teenager and my youngest boy turns seven.  I can't believe my BABIES are growing up so fast!

And then there is Jelly Mom...

I've had some requests for the Jelly Mom column, but there won't be a restart--at least not that I know of.  I'm pretty much burned out.

I am going to try to put together the third and last collection of columns.  I have fantasies that this will happen in time for Mother's Day this year, but you know how it is.  Life happens.  :)

Plus I keep busy with children's book reviews.  And I'm behind on these as it is!  I will be doing a major push this weekend to get all caught up.  The winter break and a website overhaul got in the way and slowed things down, but I have a lot of great books to review and if any of you have kids that gobble up books, check out the site for a great read.

Writing and revising

Been tackling a novel I have been working on for 14 years. It's a lot to revise (400 pages) and then there were several moves, and babies that were born along with special needs kiddos and diagnoses that kept me busy over the years.

I think I will finish this year.  (Doing the happy banana dance!)

This one is not humor, it's a serious romance. Here's the text from the back of the book: 

Alcoholism, sexual addiction, child abuse and the suicide of a parent are the inherited demons plaguing and isolating Joe Taylor even after four years of sobriety and celibacy, trying to drive him back to the wild parties of his youth.

Poverty, abandonment and neglect are Wendy Masten’s inheritance. And one night, in a desperate attempt to reunite with her long-lost sister, Wendy and Joe meet unexpectedly and begin a quest toward freedom and long-lasting love.

Grow with them as faith unfolds and unleashes its healing power, transforming Joe and Wendy into the people God intended them to be with the inheritance He planned as they become a couple and prepare to enter the sacrament of marriage.

Rated R: For mature topics, language and some brief sexual depictions.

I have one major revision to get through, then I need to work through the book at least two more times, making sure it all works well together and the transitions are smooth, and then the final proof.

It's called Inheritance.

I'll keep you posted.

Eating fresh again

It's almost spring and my thoughts turn to the garden and the abundance that can be grown in it - not my garden, though.  My garden is full of rocks.

The verdant garden I am thinking of is pure fantasy.  SOMEday my own garden will flourish just the same.

Meanwhile, with the start of lent, I started eating vegan again.  Feeling pretty good after ten days or so.  I'm following The McDougall Plan and love it because I can eat as much as I want and never go hungry.  The weight is beginning to drop.  I lost five pounds according to the doctor's scale yesterday - woo-hoo!