Remember that “Yes Challenge” I took a couple of weeks ago, where I was supposed to say “Yes” 70 times a day for 7 days? Well, I did it, and I learned four things …
I’m honored to be the guest blogger today on author Cynthia Leitich Smith’s fabulous blog “Cynsations.” Cynthia is a New York Times and Publishers Weekly best-selling author of YA Gothic fantasies, including Tantalize and Eternal, as well as several picture books for children. Here’s a teaser from my guest post about setting in YA novels, “Setting, Wherefore Art Thou?“: “We need setting in our stories. We need the richness that makes up setting, the sensual engagement that can only come from hearing the crunch of frosty grass under the protagonist’s bare feet, or feeling the sudden whispery kiss of a spider’s web dangling from the eaves. We’d just have a girl walking across a lawn and a creepy old house. Where’s the joy in that?” For my full take on setting, check out “Cynsations.” To learn more about the amazing Cynthia, go to CynthiaLeitichSmith.com.
Their Daddy will be so proud. My boys are in the back yard right now, making “chemical sets”, as they call it. Water, mud, a little soap for bubbly affect… It’s quite a concoction. It makes me smile, as I remember how my sisters and I would do that with the contents of my mom’s spice cabinet so many years ago. A little cream of tartar, some curry powder, paprika, cayenne pepper… then we’d get the neighbor girl to taste it. She always did. You’d think after the first time she’d have learned her lesson. But no, whenever we cooked up our concoction, we always asked her to taste it, and she always did….
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Hold on a sec….
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Okay, I’m back. I just informed my boys that there would be NO TASTING THE CHEMICAL SET CONCOCTIONS. Yep, gotta think proactively when you’re a parent. I’ve certainly learned my lesson.
Their Daddy will be so proud of me.
Ok, I’m game. Or rather: YES, I’m game. On Saturday my spin coach issued a challenge to the class: To say “yes” 70 times a day for 7 days. As I recently blogged, she likes that word, “yes.” And of course I like that word, too, because who doesn’t like it?, so I got to thinking about her challenge. Seems like lately I’ve been saying “no” to my sons a lot, and I’ve been sensing a negative vibe around the house on far too many days. True, we’ve been trading colds and that makes people crabby, but still. In addition, I’ve been editing a positive-thinking book, a fun one for tweens by a truly upbeat guy, and that project has me noticing that the vibe I, Mom, emit in this house affects everyone else’s mood. I can actually see that when I’m in a bad mood, everyone else is, too. So that old saying is true: When Momma ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.
So, I’ve decided to apply the lessons of that upbeat writer and take my gloriously yes-happy spin coach’s challenge: I am going to say “yes” 70 times a day for 7 days. My goal? To find out if the flip side of that saying is true: “When Momma’s happy, everyone’s happy.”
I am now two hours into Day 1 of the Yes Challenge. Read More…
I may not be able to remember what day it is, but I can spot a fellow author at a hundred paces.
Last week, sometime around Wednesday, I lost track of which day it was. On Thursday, I was convinced it was Wednesday and so did not take my sons to their Thursday afternoon jui-jitsu class. On Friday, I took the boys to the store for their post-jui-jitsu snacks and then prepared to drive them to class. . . only to be stopped at the last moment by my husband during a chance phone call: “I gotta go,” I said, “we don’t want to be late for jui-jitsu.” “But it’s Friday, Deb.” “Since when?” “Since all day.” “Oh.” Then on Saturday, Read More…
My son has Youtube to thank for this spankin’ new ‘do. I studied up on clipper techniques yesterday morning and then asked for a volunteer from my aspiring hair models. My firstborn triplet bravely stepped forward. What do you think? I think it’s pretty darned good! He really wanted spikey hair, and while I still canNOT go full faux hawk, his styling technique with my spritz gel (and his very liberal use of it) gives this cut more of a faux hawk look than the spiky we aimed for. But that’s really just splitting hairs, isn’t it? The point is that this child gets to have a spiky ‘do that falls within the limits of his parents’ 5-year-old hairdo parameters. I think it’s a win-win, don’t you?
Okay, Jessica, do I pass the no-longer-a-COMPLETELY-uptight-stick-in-the-mud-parent test?
Things are about to get ca-RAZY! Or perhaps deadly. Definitely funny. Why? Because I have just signed up for surf lessons, that’s why. Wa-HOO! That’s right, after almost four decades of living minutes from the beach, I’ve finally decided that I want to ride the waves that’ve been knocking me off my feet for so long. You hear that, waves? I’m gunning for you! This time, I ain’t going DOWN.
I won’t be alone in challenging Mother Ocean. I’ve talked two of my triplet mom friends into joining me. It’s a radical way to get a few minutes away from five-year-olds, indeed, but we are radical ladies. We have survived Year One with Triplets and then the Terrible Twos with Triplets and now nothing scares us Read More…
I’m getting this in just under the wire. Alas, that’s ‘under the wire’ for ME. When anyone else reads this blog post, it’ll probably be tomorrow instead of an hour shy of tomorrow, and thus TOO LATE for you to do what I just did. That is, enter the ‘Nathan’s Famous You Be the Judge Sweepstakes‘ for a chance to be a judge at this year’s Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Championship. Read More…
The Society of Children’s Books Writers & Illustrators has just posted an on-line interview with me. I’m very excited, because I just love SCBWI. It’s the go-to organization for all the wonderful folks who create the words and images in children’s books. The interview focuses on my literary journey from playroom to publishing house to author’s chair, and it explores the challenge of balancing the roles of Author/Editor/Mom. The full interview appears in SCBWI’s “Industry PROfiles.” Fun!
First my five-year-olds insisted on wearing flip-flops just like the other boys in their jui-jitsu class. Now they want to wear their hair like their classmates, too. This has created a bit of a hair affair at Casa de Halverson. You see, the boys want faux hawks. Extreme faux hawks. And Mom and Dad say, “Not while we’re in control of the clippers.”
Two of the six-year-olds in the boys’ jui-jitsu class have extreme faux hawks, taller than the ones on these heads here: Read More…
I managed to get through this whole day without crying–even when one of my sweet babies showed me how loose his front tooth is (”You’re losing a tooth already? How is that POSSIBLE?!?”), and even when my other sweet babies WROTE THEIR OWN NAMES on my card, and even when I realized the card they’d pick out all by themselves said “Happy Birthday” on it. Then my friend had to go and send me a link to this song. *Guh*
Mother’s Day number five, just like the other four: with three beautiful–albeit it bigger–boys and their wonderful daddy. I’m one lucky girl.
Happy Mother’s Day.
9/11 is an ominous date, but this year I’ll be doing my part to cast a little sunshine on those numbers: I’ll be presenting “How Do You Know Your Manuscript Is Ready for Submission?” at the season-opening meeting of the San Diego chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators’ (SCBWI). Check it out on September 11, 2010, from 2-4pm, in the Hahn Nursing Hall on the University of San Diego campus. For details about the meeting and the chapter, visit their website.
When my triplet sons were born, my husband and I stopped watching T.V. With infant triplets, where was the time for it? When the boys were six months old, we canceled the cable. Why spend hundreds of dollars a year for something we didn’t use? And since our T.V. has no antennae and so doesn’t receive non-cable T.V., that was it. No T.V.
Our boys are now five years old. Read More…
My spin class instructor is a tough nut. Today, as I and twenty-four other torture lovers huffed and puffed and groaned our way ‘uphill’ on our stationary bikes, she shouted at us, “You can DO this! WIPE those negative thoughts from your mind! The only word in your head right now should be YES! YES, I can. YES, I will. YES! YES!! YES!!!” Imagine this coming through a surround-sound speaker system, because the woman had a microphone on. And music blasting, too. It’s a really loud class. And it got louder: “You can DO this!” she shouted from her bike, which was two feet in front of mine and facing me. “No more talking about it, there’s only DOing. Don’t tell me you want to lose ten pounds, shut up and DO IT! Don’t tell me you want to get healthy, shut up and DO IT! Don’t tell me you want to stop smoking, shut up and DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!!!!”
Now SHUT UP AND DO IT! is stuck in my head. Read More…
Does anyone else think five-years-old is too young to elope? I do. My firstborn son does not, and neither does his new “wife,” a five-year-old girl who happens to be a triplet herself. Now, I do appreciate that he chose for a mate someone who can relate to his own life experience. That’s a very mature move. But it’s not so mature to keep the relationship secret from both sets of parents until after vows are exchanged. That’s not right, and I’m not afraid to say so.
We parents only found out about the marriage when my son casually mentioned it to me as I strapped him into his car seat after a quick visit to The Amazing Trips’ house. He told me he’d married one of the Amazing girls when I and her parents were in another room Read More…