Every year I do one of these Spring-Break-double-takes where I wonder WHY on earth the schools insist on torturing work-at-home parents this way. I'm convinced it's a conspiracy plot to send us all to the insane asylum at a young age. Thanks to some bright idea in my local district, my kids have been off since Thursday. The schools combined conferences with Spring Break (lucky me), hence, my lack of blogging Thurs. or Fri. (I also got hit with the flu over the weekend, but that's another long, yucky story I'll spare you from.) Today is actually the "official" first day of Spring Break, and already I'm eager to send my kids back to school. At the current moment I'm wondering how long it takes three gremlins to clean their rooms. They've been up there for over an hour and a half and I hear very little cleaning going on. I do hear lots of arguing, jumping and screaming (again, lucky me.)

It's funny...when I was teaching I lived for Spring Break. Now that I'm on the other side? Eh...not so much.

We have nothing big planned for the week. Later today (if they ever get those rooms cleaned) I'm taking them to a friend's house to play. At the end of the the week their grandparents are coming to visit so that will be a good distraction for them. (And their dad's taking time off from work so he can share in my misery...er...joy.) But as I was sick over the weekend, I HAVE to get some writing in, and you know they just LOVE that.

So are you on Spring Break? If so...any big plans? If not...do you even GET a Spring Break anymore? I'm suddenly having flash-forwards to summer and wondering how the heck I'm going to get anything done. (Thank goodness summer's at least warm and I can kick them out of the house to play in the yard.)

This is a conversation I overheard my oldest two Gremlins having the other day while watching Star Wars II - Attack of the Clones.

A -(9-yr old girl): "Ack! They're kissing again!" Throws blanket over her head and hides, while mumbling incoherently to herself in total embarrassment.

B - (newly-turned 6 yr old boy): "What's the problem, A?"

A: "I don't like the kissing! Why do they have to have all that kissing?"

B: Rolling eyes while watching movie. "Anakin and Padme have to kiss to fall in love. And they have to fall in love so he can turn into Darth Vader. If they don't kiss and fall in love, he's got no reason to turn bad! Then there'd be no more movies! Think about it!"

*Sigh*...

*Big grin*

Does that just not warm your romance writer heart???? The six-year old boy gets it!

***

In other news...wild WILD weather here. Seriously. Last Saturday it was 75 degrees. DH got a sunburn on his neck and arms working in the yard. I got tan shoulders sitting in a tee and capris at the baseball game. Today? Snow. As in, not just a mix of snowy rain but S-N-O-W. My deck, yard, trees, cars...everything was white this morning. It melted pretty fast but still...snow? In April? In late April????? Wonky.

And I'm going to be in big trouble.

I woke up this morning in the best way possible. I was lying on my side, cuddled up into my pillow, when I felt soft, gentle fingers gliding over my cheek. I opened my eyes slowly and looked through the hazy first light of morning into warm, chocolate irises focused right on me. Those soft, little fingers continued to caress my cheek and I smiled when I heard the sweetest words on the planet. "I wuv you, mom."

Of course, then the DH shattered the whole serene moment when he rolled over on his side of the bed, hooked an arm over the 2-yr old Gremlin who had climbed in between us in the middle of the night and said, "Hey, boy. That's my woman. Watch it."

*sigh*

This little guy is going to be trouble. I can see it now. Of all my Gremlins he is the most charming, the most sweet, the one who will undoubtedly turn into a class-A lover. He can anger me with one action - like when he throws his Power Rangers into the toilet and has a flush-fest - and he can disarm me with one of those crooked little smiles of his. He knows he's the most adorable thing on the planet and he knows just how to work it to get what he wants. And when he runs in front of me, holds up his arms and says, "I hold you," I melt every time. He's going to make some woman extremely happy one day. I just feel sorry for all the hearts he's going to break along the way.

*sigh*

Can you tell I'm editing the sappy emotional black moment of my book? Argh. I think I'm going to cry.

School starts back up tomorrow. Woohooo! (Can you tell I'm excited???) Actually, school for the 3rd grader starts tomorrow, my Kindergartner won't start until next Monday (what's up with that????? I swear schools in OR start later than everyone else in the frickin' universe.) But what has me really excited is the fact Gremlin #2 got afternoon K, which means....since Gremlin #3 takes an afternoon nap, I'll have 2.5 WHOLE hours of peace in my house where I can write and edit without constant interruptions. Man, I won't know what to do with myself!

Speaking of writing, those of you who are taking the 100-day challenge are starting up today. Paty, Lisa, Alice, Lexi...I'm going to be hounding each of you. Whatever you set for your daily goal...you can do it. (Joan's already been cooking on her daily word counts, so I don't have to hound her as much...esp. since this was her idea to begin with.) Trust me when I say, it's easier than it sounds. In fact, now that I'm making writing a habit again, I can't believe how the words are flowing. Last night I wrote 2756 words, stayed up until midnight and didn't even notice the time. I'm keeping a running spreadsheet total because, yes, I am a bit neurotic in some areas, and since I've now been at this a week, I can report that in 7 days I have written 17,379 NEW words in 81 pages. Now, I know for those of you who consistently write 10 pgs a day, that's no biggie, but it is for me. I can't remember the last time I was so productive (and that doesn't take into account what I edited and rewrote during the day either, that's just all new stuff). It feels AWESOME!!! Alice told me the other day that it was an interesting concept - she was writing and just decided to check her total. When she saw she was at 600 words, she figured heck, she could force herself to get to 1000...and she did. I bet she went over. Every time I've been stuck and forced myself to write a little more, I've gone over with less effort than I expected.

So girls...today is the start of the 100 day challenge. Go forth and write! (And report back on how you did. I'll be checking your blogs.)

When Does School Start Again????

Not soon enough in my book.

The Gremlins are driving me nuts. Anyone else with kidlets finding this to be more true towards the end of the summer? I don't know what the deal is, but I think we've all hit our limit. Too much family "together" time. What little computer time the Gremlins let me have these days has been limited to writing, so I apologize for being scarce.

I can't wait for school to start again.