Spring is here and boy am I busy!  I am trying to tie up loose ends for my oldest son's college applications.  I am starting a new contract position, which keeps me writing and I am trying to have the outside of my house painted.  These are just a few of the things that I have going on.  

To me, spring is second only to the Christmas season when it comes to busyness.  Kids are finishing up school and have probably mentally "checked out" already.  Class parties and student tryouts are also being held.  Graduation is just around the corner and people are coming in town to be with us for that.  I'm not complaining either.  We are all excited by all of these events.  It just seems like I'm running all the time.

My book sales are going pretty slowly, but at least they are going!  I have friends and family who are asking me to sign their copies, which helps encourage me.  But it would be great if a few people I didn't know bought my book.  So if you're in the market for a good read.... You know!

Hope Spring is as bountiful for you as it is for me.  Here's hoping we can put our chores aside and actually enjoy the beautiful season in nature. Minus the pollen, of course (ACHOO!)!

It's sad.  My husband's father, Tony, is in the hospital, slowly deteriorating from Alzheimer's.  My husband is devastated, as one would expect and my mother-in-law, Linda, is lost.  You see, Tony was always bigger than life.  If he was in the room, he was in charge.  He had a sharp wit and an even sharper tongue.  

Tony was very intelligent, graduating in the late 50's from Clemson University with a degree in Agronomy.  He came from the small North Carolina town of Tabor City, but  managed to see the world as an employee of Eli Lilly.  When it came time for retirement, he and Linda settled into an old barn, near Loris, SC, which, over the years, they renovated to become a cozy retreat.  They split their time between the barn and a condo they owned in North Myrtle Beach.  But he was most comfortable at the barn, among his garden and two ponds stocked with fish and the constant flow of kittens from the stray cats that roamed the area. 
He stayed up on world events, despite the rural setting, by watching CNN-news.  He would challenge me on politics and world events, often swaying my opinions.

Now he's in the hospital, with hospice helping him to rest peacefully, loved ones by his side.  We want the strong, visionary, creative, driven Tony back.  But that's not likely.  Will you please pray for our family right now?  

The long, cold days of winter are getting to me.  It seems I am in a holding pattern for almost everything.  I mean my 17-year old son Jake is waiting to hear from the Navy to see if he gets his ROTC scholarship for a complete ride to college.  If he doesn't get it, he won't be able to go to The Citadel, his first choice for college.  If he does get it, then all these secondary plans at schools here in Georgia will have been a waste, mainly of money.

I'm also waiting to see how my book does.  It was two years in the writing, two years in the shopping around for a publisher and then six months to get it edited and ready for print.  So after all that time, I would really like it if someone actually read the book!  So I'm waiting to see.

Well folks, it is finally the day that I have been working toward so hard!  My book is "live" and ready for purchase today on Amazon!  It is so surreal to be a "published author!  You can tell I'm excited because of all the exclamation points I keep using!  I can't help it!  I'm just in that kind of mood!

Seriously though, I can't believe that today is finally here.  I started writing my book about 4 years ago.  It took me two years to get it all written and then another two years to find a publisher.  The last six months of the process have been a dream!  I am so thankful to my publisher, Booktrope, out of Seattle.  They paired me with a cracker jack Book Manager/Marketer.  Heather Huffman has been so easy to work with and she is so patient with my lack of social media experience, plus she is so knowledgeable!  Actually, Heather and I paired ourselves together, because that is Booktrope's model.  I just can't say enough good things about the whole process since I have been with them.

So, if you are looking for women's fiction with a dual story line, about two women who transcend across the ages, and deal with children with Down Syndrome very differently, depending on their time in history, give The Mind of a Child a look.  You can purchase it on Amazon!

Down Syndrome is one of the topics of my new book, The Mind of a Child.  It’s the story of two women from two different eras who are both dealing with children with Down Syndrome.

I was led to write this book because I had an uncle with Down Syndrome.  But I never knew it.  All the time when I was growing up, my beloved grandparents would come for a week-long visit.  I would be so excited when they would arrive and we all had such a good time.  But some time during the visits, the mood would change.  A heavy sadness would fall onto my grandparents and my father.  They would explain that they had to go see my dad’s brother.  When I would ask to go along, they would always say, “No, you can’t go.  He’s not normal.”  When I would ask what was wrong with him, I would simply be told that, “He has the mind of a child.” 

I was a young adult before I put the pieces together and realized he had Down Syndrome.  I finally met my uncle, who had been institutionalized for 60-years or so, and actually took him out for a drive, along with my grandmother.   We then stayed for the annual update from all the professionals who worked with him, just like my character, Willa, did in the book.   

I saw my uncle a second time as he was prepared for surgery to insert a feeding tube.  He was aspirating when he ate and had had pneumonia from it.  So as an elderly man, he lost the last, primary enjoyment of his life….tasting and eating food.

I’m so happy that children with Down Syndrome have such a different life experience now!  I don’t blame my grandparents or my dad for institutionalizing my uncle.  That was just a common practice during the 1940’s for families with children with special needs.  My book helps demonstrate modern day practices and shows how far we have come, as a society.

I'm back from my weekend scrap booking and I'm here to report it was so fun!  You see we are the keepers of memories for our family and friends.  We crop pictures down to size to make them more visually interesting, we embellish each page so that it is pretty and engaging and most importantly, we journal about all the things that each picture says.

Some of us have moved into the digital age and scrap book on a computer.  But most of us fiercely cling to the "old" way of doing things.  We like the feel of the colored paper we use to embellish.  We like the "snap" of the corner rounders, we enjoy cutting page headlines on the Cricut machine.  Can you guess which way I scrap? :-)

We come home full of good meals and stories.  Our sides ache from laughter. But reality comes crashing in on us the minute we return..... There's laundry to do and meals to prepare.  Our little cocooned weekend in the mountains is merely a memory now.  But ohhh how enjoyable that weekend was and it has restored to us just enough sanity to make it till we get away again... probably this upcoming summer!

Hey, I know I'm lucky to have a group of women who love to go away in the deep winter month of February and hole up and just scrapbook, but you can do it too!

For instance, I am going away this weekend (Feb. 3-8th) and will be joining a group of about 10 women who all rent a cabin in the North Georgia Mountains.  We will each take a turn making comfort food for the group and will spend our time scrapbooking (a great hobby for winter, by the way!) and talking and laughing hysterically together.  We stay in our jammies for most of the time and don't have much contact with the outside world.  It's a great release of stress and is so much fun!

If you don't scrapbook, you could always start and get with some other ladies who do.  But if you don't want to go in that direction, think about doing a book club get-away or a winter diet and exercise group get-away.  It doesn't matter what you focus on, the point is to get away from the ordinary, which can seem sort of boring in the middle of  winter.  I just hope we can get to the cabin tomorrow BEFORE it begins snowing.  Hey, maybe we will get snowed it! :-)

It's cold, rainy, snowy... you pick the weather.  We've had a little bit of it all over the past few weeks.  So, what to do?  It's nothing new, but I am enjoying curling up with a good book.  

I've told myself I am going to start reading more of the classics.  So right now I'm halfway through Flannery O'Conner's The Violent Bear It Away.  It's about a 14-year old boy who has lived with, and become brainwashed by, his great uncle.  When the uncle dies, the boy goes in search of his mother's brother... another uncle.  When he arrives at this uncle's home, he is received with open arms.  The boy is very hostile to the new uncle though, due to the brainwashing.  That's as far as I've gotten.  Lots of religious imagery so far.  While it does have some stretches where it is a bit dull.... lots of description, little action... it is an interesting book, not mainstream literature at all.  So, that's been good.  

I've also just started Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman.  It promises to be the inspiring, but tear-inducing story of Christian music superstar Steven Curtis Chapman's family tragedy when his young daughter was run over and killed by their teenage son.  Boy, what a load to have to carry!  I'm so glad God walks with us through times like that, and that's just what the forward promises will be the point of  Mary Beth's story.

So find a good book, (mine, The Mind of a Child, will be out in two weeks!) then find a sunbeam.  I look for my sunbeam in the afternoons on our living room sofa. Then stretch out in the warm light and just enjoy reading!  

In case I haven't seen you lately, there's something really important happening in my life!  I am about to become a published author!  It's such a "heady" feeling to think that my book will be on the shelves of libraries,  available from all the big, online retailers and in the hands of real live readers!

It's a story I felt compelled to tell, or rather it's two stories I felt compelled to tell.  The first centers around a woman in 1940 who gives birth to a son who seems to have something wrong with him.  But she doesn't know what and her husband is conspiring to keep the truth from her.  You might find yourself sniffling
at this part of the book.

The second story line is about a woman in 2007 who goes into an elementary school for a job interview and comes out as an assistant teacher in a special needs class...with no experience in that area at all!  You'll find yourself chuckling as this woman adjusts to the demands of her new position.

The two women are connected by blood and by the special needs children in their lives.  They are loosely based on me and my grandmother.

So stand back and prepare to read about these two dynamic women and find out what holds them together and helps them to rally to their separate callings in life!

Here's the cover, just to whet your whistle.  The book is due to launch on February 10th.

So the big day is over and now I'm reflecting on the whole scene.  Here's what I have to say:

*So thankful for my family!  All are well and standing on the cusp of new adventures.  Steve started a new job December 1st for which we are all thankful.  My new book is due to launch in January.   Jake got very good scores back on both the SAT and ACT, which he took at the beginning of the month.  This will help with his application for the NROTC scholarship and his acceptance to The Citadel. Spencer's collarbone is healing up very nicely, which means he may be able to wrestle again before the season is over.  And Marishay is growing up so much!  She has embraced the Middle School social scene.  Now, if she would just do that with the Middle School academic scene......

*One thing I have failed to teach my children is to give their Momma a gift!  I know this sounds selfish, but I think it is very important to exchange gifts and not just get gifts.  I have always emphasized this with everyone else, aunts, uncles, grandparents, even each other.  But this year I realized, as the last gift was opened, that I had something to do with almost every present under the tree, but there were none that were for me that weren't bought and wrapped by me.  They all claim being broke.  My youngest even fretted for several days that her daddy wasn't available to take her out to get me something.  But in the end, there was nothing under the tree that I didn't know about.  I want a surprise!  It doesn't have to be expensive.  It can even be handmade.  Just show me that you thought about me, planned carefully and struggled mightily to keep it a secret.  That's the fun of Christmas!  Oh well, that's something to work on for next year!

*Spending time with a family member who is currently living in his car pulls at my heart.  He came for Christmas dinner and stayed till about seven.  Then it was time to go, he said.  He has been invited to stay in our basement many times, but refuses.  It is a complicated situation and it is sad and frustrating, because we want so much more for him than this.  But ultimately, it is up to him.

*Finally, Christmas really is about Jesus and his willingness to come to earth to save us... me... from my sins.  When all else is stripped away, that's what this holiday is really about.  God bless you all, as you reflect on that for just a moment.