Purple Prose [Search results for space] 

Ok, people... are you finished with Quest #3 yet?

If not, you still have time. Come on... you KNOW you want to clean your kitchen?????? It's not like it's summer and there are tons of other things you could be doing...

With the help of my ladies (ie my 5 and 4 year old), this took about 2 hours over 2 days.

As usual, be gentle... my house ain't perfect lol. It's old... and needs work... but it's mine (well, mostly it's the banks... but in 22 years it will be mine... HUZZAH!)

Anywho... lets get going...

(BTW, I show these pictures every week not to brag about doing it, but to actually prove that I have lol. How sad would it be if I sent you on these quests and didn't do them myself? I'd be one of those do what I say not what I do people... )

AND, I resized all of these pictures and when I posted this blog, the pictures were the right size... but for some reason, they have gotten bigger again... arg... anyway... I tried)

THIS is the island of my kitchen. The baby was always getting things off of that bottom shelf. It was an eye sore... so that's where this week's quest comes in...

THIS...

is my hutch that I bought from my wonderful, awesome and terrific sister (who now reads this blog... :) )

Now, the sad part of my hutch is that I had actually cleaned it off about 2 months ago and now it looked like this again... I didn't exactly get the "You have to keep it up" Memo...

Ok, so I started with the island. I took everything out...

And found some really REALLY cool things I didn't know I had. I blogged about some of them (like my baby pictures with Mama and Daddy), but I also found my oldest daughter's baby shower scroll.

*I found my student teaching folder (WOW... that brought back some memories... not all of them good).

*I found the calendar that I wrote all of my doctor appointments on when I was pregnant with daughter number 1.

*I found a glass candy dish that I don't remember having...

*I found LOTS of pictures... LOTS of pictures! It was so fun going back through the pictures of when my oldest 2 were just tiny babies.

Like I said, it was American Pickers... kitchen style. I was good and put everything that had been shoved in there in its proper home... and yes, the candy dish is very much being used ;)

In the end... I got this:

I still have to put new paper down because the old has gotten so worn over the years, but still.. vast improvement. The next day, the baby crawled over to it... stopped. Looked. Wrinkled her nose at me (lettng me know she DIDN'T approve), and crawled away. I'd call that a success :)

By the way (yes, I typed that out lol), that stool is my daughters. They are too short to reach the counter and want to help Mama cook. I'm ALL for that!

Besides the baby being in everything, another reason I wanted to do it was that we had food piling out onto the cabinets and I needed more cabinet space to put things.. what better way to get NEW cabinet space than to use EXISTING cabinet space in different ways (see, I didn't invent the wheel here... but I'm finally figuring out how to make the darn thing turn ;) )

I now have a can cabinet, a cereal/box cabinet, and a cabinet for cleaning/ziploc bags. It's all more organized now which is just awesome :)

Here is a picture of the hutch when I got everything out of it...

Yeap, it had been a catch all for EVERYTHING. Bibles, ink pens, crayons, phone boxes, pictures, etc... all shoved in this tiny little thing. (I turn your attention to my reflection in the glass... yes I was REALLY wearing that lol... in fact, I'm wearing it now. Don't judge ;) )

A few hours later we had this...

(A side shot because I had realized that all shots I'd taken prior featured my pink shirt and hubs fishing pjs featured prominently... ) I think it looks 10xs better :)

Here is a full view of my dining room/kitchen from the living room (ignore the diapers in the pictures.. I told you I had kids lol).

So, that's it! That's the end of Quest #3 for me! I feel like I slayed the Kitchen Klutter Dragon and ready for the next. I'll post it tomorrow. Its starting to get confusing for the Quest page if I keep combining them (sorry).

OH... and I wanted to add this...
This is what my kitchen looked like this morning.

Lol, I did a 5 minute clean up right after I took this picture and it was back to the way it was... 5 minute pick ups are awesome!!!!

So, how did everyone do? I hope you slayed your own kitchen klutter monster and had as good of a time doing it as I did. :) Leave a comment and let me know how you are doing. There are 9 quests total this summer, and we can do it (see the Rosie the Rivitor background I have now.. she's encouraging us on!!)

Check back tomorrow for Quest Number 4!

Much Love,

Kelly

Here are my results of this week's quest... yes, I actually did it :) I enlisted the help of my girls... actually turned off the tv (I KNOW! It was strange without PBS kids for 2 hours)... and we cleaned. And had a GREAT TIME. I'm going to miss this when they get older and cleaning isn't as fun for them. Oh well... no sadness today... Ok.

Here is how our morning went...

THIS...

Is what their closet looked like. This is what he has honestly looked like for years. I haven't hung clothes in there... well, in about 4 years when the clothes rod fell and I just never put it back up (lazy much!). Their clothes are all in another room (dresses anyway). And this closet just ended up being a catch all for... well... everything. You can see there are 3 backpacks (2 are mine from about 9 years ago and 1 from my oldest daughter, our christmas tree (yes, our Christmas tree is a 4 foot, white, pre-lit tree... Don't judge), a carseat, some big toys, a train set (my grandfathers), just a jumbled mess of messiness.

Not a room fitting 2 little ladies.

And a waste of space. Nothing was being played with. Just being a big, messy, unusable eyesore.

Finally, with the girls help we got...

This..
.
.

And

This..

ACTUAL dresses hanging from their ACTUAL closet.

I could do a happy dance...

And kick myself for not doing it sooner (sorry girls).

I know the walls aren't all that. I'll get to them someday. Maybe cleaning them up will be one of NEXT years Quests (because I KNOW you all are looking forward to next year ;))

Here is the final product (or at least, how I'm leaving it today..)

I think there is a big difference. I can't store the train or the tree anywhere else because I just don't have the space. I have another closet that I 'may' try to put them in later, but for right now, they are fitting ok in there. I know it's not 'perfect', but at least it's usuable.

However, today's confession is that... my kid have a lot of stuff. I didn't get a good before picture of their room previously, but lets say that we haven't been tidying it as we should this summer. It wasn't 'messy', just full of stuff. It's the catch all for all of my kids toys.

Here is an example of how much stuff they have in there...

(Um... no. Those toys aren't normally on their beds lol. I had the ladies put them on their beds so the baby could be in the room and not eat any of them. Those blocks there were what she played with.)

They have a LOT Of stuff.

I gave them 3 choices on all of it... keep, toss, yard sale.

And here are our results...

Much better :)

HOWEVER, I'd be a big liar if I didn't show you the reverse of this shot.

That's all of their stuff that we didn't want to give away or sell. I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. I mean... Hmmmmmmm... Any ideas from you awesomely organized Mamas?

So, there you have it :) The end of week 6 for me. YOU still have until Saturday to get your closet finished. Remember, you can pick which ever closet you want. This closet has been my nemesis all summer lol.

OH, and I just remembered that I said "Cleaning Was FUN!" And I meant it. My ladies had the best time playing with the toys that hadn't seen the light of day in years.

Especially...

We found this in the 'non used' closet. Now, to you and me this might look like some little baby toy. Not to my oldest 2 ladies. THEY decided it was a rocket ship. So all 4 of us (the baby included) spent a good hunk of time flying in outer space. We zipped. We zagged. We ducked (the 11 month old thought we were all silly doing that... ). We whirled. And my oldest daughter went all Dora on us because we had to listen and match the correct instrument to the correct sound... so the mole aliens wouldn't get us. (THANKFULLY, we knew what a drum, a trumpet, and a guitar sounded like! Shew!)

They have already made plans for our return trip tomorrow. I can't wait.

So, there you have it, ladies. Cleaning IS fun... especially when you find a really cool rocketship in your closet.

Much Love,

Kelly

(Linked with: The High-Heeled Housewife--Homemaking Link-Up

Yesterday, I discussed the use of flashbacks to help convey emotion in a scene. Today, I’m going to discuss verb tense in a flashback.

Many novice writers use the past perfect tense (if the novel is in past tense) or past tense (novel is in present tense) though the whole flashback. Here’s an example from my novel, Lost in a Heartbeat, which shows how not to write the flashback and then how to. I’ve highlighted the past perfect verb so it’s easy to see the difference. (Hint: you don't have to read far to get my point. Save yourself the time. You can just eyeball the difference.)

At his touch, common sense bailed on me. His lips were warm and inviting. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much I wanted to kiss him, that undeniable pull. I returned his kiss, tasting his sweet, minty breath, not wanting the moment to end. But the memory of another came back to haunt me.

I had been in the car of the guy from last summer. He’d promised to drive me home since I had been feeling really weird. I had closed my eyes so the world would stop spinning, and had told him where I lived. The words had sounded strange, slurred and weary. I hadn’t been even sure he had heard me over the rock music booming through the enclosed space.

The car had eventually stopped and the engine had been turned off. But instead of familiar houses, darkness and trees had surrounded us. Beyond that I had been unable to see anything that would tell me where we were. I had wanted to ask him, but I had felt too out of it to string the words together.

The guy had leaned forward and kissed me. It had started out sweet. His lips brushing against mine. But as seconds had passed, it became insistent and punishing. I had wanted to push him away, to tell him to stop, but I had been unable to. My arms had lacked the strength to do anything but hang lifelessly at my sides.
He had continued to kiss me, his hand trailing up my inner thigh, past the hem of my skirt, and pausing for a breath at the junction where underwear had met thigh.

With tears streaming down my face, I pushed myself free, shoving him as hard as I could, and scrambled away.

“Shit! Calleigh, I’m sorry.”

A hand grabbed my left arm. I screamed and yanked my arm away then slugged my attacker in the face with the heel of my right hand like I’d seen on TV.

My wrist shrieked in pain.

Groaning loudly, the guy staggered back a step, his hand automatically going to his eye. It was then that I realized it was Aaron, not the guy from that night.

Whew! That was exhausting adding all those extra hads. Now, if you're writing that epic 200,000 + word novel, then go ahead and use as many hads as you want. Every extra word counts, right? And if you managed to read all of that, I commend you. I couldn't do it.

Okay for the rest of us, here's the correct way:

At his touch, common sense bailed on me. His lips were warm and inviting. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much I wanted to kiss him, that undeniable pull. I returned his kiss, tasting his sweet, minty breath, not wanting the moment to end. But the memory of another came back to haunt me.

I was in the car of the guy from last summer. He’d promised to drive me home since I was feeling really weird. I closed my eyes so the world would stop spinning, and told him where I lived. The words sounded strange, slurred and weary. I wasn’t even sure he heard me over the rock music booming through the enclosed space.

The car eventually stopped and the engine was turned off. But instead of familiar houses, darkness and trees surrounded us. Beyond that I couldn’t see anything that would tell me where we were. I wanted to ask him, but I felt too out of it to string the words together.

The guy leaned forward and kissed me. It started out sweet. His lips brushing against mine. But as seconds passed, it became insistent and punishing. I wanted to push him away, to tell him to stop, but I couldn’t. My arms lacked the strength to do anything but hang lifelessly at my sides.

He continued to kiss me, his hand trailing up my inner thigh, past the hem of my skirt, and pausing for a breath at the junction where underwear met thigh.

With tears streaming down my face, I pushed myself free, shoving him as hard as I could, and scrambled away. . . .

See the difference? The second example allows you to be in the moment. It flows better. The first one is awkward. All you need to do is add one perfect past tense verb (had) at the beginning and at end of the flashback to show the transition in and out. If your novel is in present tense, then use past tense once when you’re starting and once when you’re about to jump back to the present.

You might have noticed I didn’t signal when the flashback ended. The sentence “With tears streaming down my face . . . .” is in the present moment, but Calleigh doesn’t realize it at that point. She and the reader realize her mistake after she reacts and hits Aaron. I didn’t transition with the change in verb tense because it’s obvious the flashback is over.

So there you go. A mini lesson on writing flashbacks. Do them correctly, and it’ll make a huge difference in your writing. The best thing to do is study how your favorite authors write them. You’ll learn a lot by doing that.

Today's post in the series, "How I find time to write" is from an awesome writerly lady :) Her name is Christi Corbett. Here's how Christi finds time to write

~*~*~*~
When I was young I pictured the location where authors/writers did their work. It was always some variation of the following…

The recently showered and fully dressed writer pads down a long hallway and opens a door to their own private writing space. Clutching a mug of tea/coffee, the writer sits down at a comfortable chair located behind a highly polished, very organized mahogany desk. There is a wall of books on one wall and a window with a completely astounding view of a lake, a mountain, or a field of wildflowers. Selecting a full pen from a drawer, the writer/author thinks for a long moment and at the precise moment inspiration hits, leans over a clean piece of paper and the words begin to flow. Then I became a writer. Here is the reality. On a typical day, when I’ve begged and pleaded for time to write, I can count on a minimum of five interruptions per hour. Last time I reserved a block of time to write I kept track of said interruptions for my own amusement (and for this blog) 6:30am Hubby wants to know where the flea powder–dog is scratching 6:41am Hubby comes in room for some clothes 7:01am Hubby brings me breakfast (OK-this one is great! Love him!) 7:09am Powdered, yet still scratching, dog is let into the room 7:25am Kids come in to see if I have any bacon left and can they have it 7:36am Boy twin comes in for a hug 7:42am Hubby needs toilet paper….where are extra rolls kept? 8:08 am Girl twin needs me to fix her hair 8:25am Knock at window reveals family showing ripened tomatoes 8:26am Boy twin can’t find toy army men…do I know where they are? 8:50 am Girl twin wants to weigh herself 9:01am Hubby needs jersey to watch upcoming football game 9:17 am Hubby wants to know if he can pull bread from freezer And so on…. So, that is a typical block of “writing time” for me. Now, lets move on to the instruments for said writing. My computer is ten years old, shuts off at will (usually when I haven’t saved in a while or I’m in the middle of a fantastic run of words), and is located in a peeling wood veneer cabinet that is shoved in the corner of my bedroom. My kids find everything in the cabinet fascinating and things disappear at will. (4-year-old twins find calculators, screen cleaners, coasters, my drafts, and notecards to be much fun to play with). Sometimes I don’t use the computer. When inspiration strikes I use anything that is at hand. Some examples… Sticky notes (they paste so nicely to the computer monitor don’t they?) Backs of envelopes Any kind of paper with a blank space on it anywhere. You get the drift. As for writing utensils… Our pens never have ink in them (my fault since I leave them clicked open all the time) so I’ve had to improvise at times. Crayons Lipstick Dry erase markers And my personal favorite–using the tip of an empty pen to gouge the words into the paper. Trust me, if you’ve got a great flow of words coming to you this will work! It is during these times that I try to remember it all comes down to this… How you write doesn’t matter, as long as you’re writing!

~~~~
You can find Christi, here: http://christicorbett.wordpress.com/

Christi Corbett is a Historical Romance author with Astraea Press. (Her debut novel, Along the Way Home, will be available summer of 2013)
Addicted to coffee, hanging with my characters late at night, and the Oxford Co mma.

So, I have a confession...

It's a pretty big confession...

One that will tear the fabric of the space/time continuum (who knew that had 2 U's in it???)

Ok...

Ready????

I have...

A...

Second...

Blog!

Ok...

So, basically I had this thought, this 'want' to do a blog for daily, scriptural encouragement for while. Well, actually, I wanted to do it HERE on THIS one, but decided it would get too crowded. So I made a second blog. Its this blogs sister. It won't take away from this one. We will still have cleaning/quests/product reviews/and yeah, even some Bible stuff on here because I can't NOT do it!

However, I wanted a blog for daily encourgement (both for you and for me... I'm selfish that way ;)) that would stand on it's own.

You can find it at http://365daysofbiblicalencouragement.blogspot.com/

YES I know that title is WAY long... I tried to shorten it, but nothing worked.

This is where I need your help, Friends.

I have no followers (obviously), and it would really mean a lot to me for you to follow that one too. It will get all lonely if it doesn't have any followers lol. Two Kelly's for the price of one (and who said the economy was bad???)

Check it out! I hope you follow and get your daily encouragement from the Bible. :) It would mean a lot to me.

Much love,

Kelly

Today, I'm so excited to present a post by Pamela at Songs on the Way. I love Pamela's blog and reading how God is working in her life. A few weeks ago, I asked for guest posters for November to keep OTMA up and running while I was working on Nanowrimo... Pamela was so kind and gracious to say she'd guest post for me :)
You will be blessed by what God (through Pamela) has to say...
************** God’s so cool. Kelly was kind enough to ask me to do a guest post for her, for sometime in November. Considering November is almost over, you might think what took me so long? Well, I’ve been asking myself the same question. Part of it was normal procrastination, but I sat down to write many times and for whatever reason, struggled.

Just a few days ago I told myself that for sure, no doubt, I’d write. And I sat, and I wrote… and I just didn’t feel right about it. It wasn’t that God wasn’t with me, it was just I could tell I wouldn’t be able to write anything to completion with Him.

Now I know why. Now I know God wanted me to write not on unity, the topic I’d thought I’d write on, or passions, which was another possibility, or struggling through spiritual dark places, the third one I’d considered.

God wanted me to talk to you about waiting on Him.

We all wait. All of us are in a period of waiting at some times or another. Some of us wait more than others. Of those who wait more, some wait by choice and others by necessity.

When I say ‘wait by choice’, what I mean is not saying ‘Eh, I’d rather wait.’ Well, not usually. Waiting is mainly not pleasant, so it’s few and far between we take that attitude. By waiting by choice I mean that we say, as Christ’s followers: I choose to wait on you, God. Admittedly, sometimes that’s our only choice. But we can still take a deliberate attitude about it. It’s a form of surrendering to Him, which we should all strive to do in all circumstances.

Waiting is hard, hard work. Anyone who doesn’t realize that is probably not able to handle it. Look at the world around us; it’s non-stop hustle and bustle. It’s in waiting on God that the biggest part of our transformation takes place. I think about the blacksmith. He holds the iron in the fire and waits for it to heat up before he whacks it with his hammer. The iron is waiting in fire for longer than the action takes place. From the outside, that waiting may seem like inaction. But its molecules are having the heat of the fire transferred to it, so that when the hammer strikes come BAM, the metal yields and is shaped. Waiting enables transformation, but often while we seem to hold the same shape. So even though while we’re held, still, in the poignant agony of waiting, we might seem lazy or our plight easy, we know its pain, but more than that if we trust in the blacksmith’s skill, we know the necessity.

Hammering cool iron won’t yield anything useful, just dent a little. When we refuse to wait on the Lord, but ask Him to use us, we entirely limit our usefulness to Him. Maybe he can use as a doorstop or a paperweight, but we’re unlikely to be satisfied or even that useful in that capacity. I see so many Christians who try so hard to do for God, they forget to be before Him.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying God doesn’t use the busy. But there’s the busy who are busy because they can’t wait and be still, and those who are busy because they already waited, they were still, and they are now carrying out action with the confidence that comes from the work of the Lord.
Remember that the blacksmith turns lumps of iron into useful tools. God wants to shape us, skillfully, into tools He can use for His divine purposes. Also, remember every tool has a different purpose. Often we look around at other Christians and mimic them instead of asking God about how He’d like use us, or listen to His directions. If you’re a hammer trying to be a scalpel, you’re probably doing more harm than good!

Admittedly, while I think this is a pretty good metaphor, the one God uses in the Bible is Him as a potter, not a blacksmith. Did you know that you have to let a pot dry before you can fire it in a kiln? If you try to fire it while it’s too wet, bad things could happen (like it could explode). Obviously, a drying pot would be seen as useless or even taking up useful space, but you have to let them dry.
And then, let’s say you’ve been fired. And you’re like ‘Yes! I waited to dry, I endured the fire. Now it’s time for me to go. I see all the other pots being used now… but here I sit on the workspace. Why am I waiting?”

If you’re using a pot as a pencil holder, for instance, you don’t need to glaze it unless you just want it glazed. But if you plan on using it to put food in, you have to glaze it. Which means, after the first firing, you glaze it again, and into the kiln it goes for a second time. But some pots, after waiting the first time, rush off to be useful, not realizing they’re limiting the work they can accomplish.
What if a teapot rushes off before He attaches the spout? Or a pitcher without a handle?

I thoroughly believe God’s got an intricate plan for each of our lives. He knows the inner workings of your heart and being, as He crafted them. He knows the shape and depth of our wounds and scars, and how to bring beauty and glory from them. He understands our deep desires and passions and what to do with them, if we’d surrender them to Him.

Trust God. Trust Him not only to work on you, but to how to communicate with you. A huge ‘aha!’ moment in my faith journey was when I realized that if God wants to communicate with me, He will, so long as I’m inclining my ear in His direction and waiting on His reply. Before that my whine was “I believe God can talk to me… I just don’t trust myself to hear Him!” and I spent a lot of time fearing I was missing His direction.

But then it hit me: He made me. If a whisper would be too small for me to hear, and I’m actually seeking Him, then He’ll yell at me. He loves when we seek Him, and knows our failings and weaknesses, and will make up for them. Then I realized that as long as I make myself available to listen, He will let me know what He wants… and guess what?

He does! And if I pay attention, even when He’s silent, there’s usually a poignant reason for it. A lot of times I only realize what’s going on in hindsight, and I know from many examples (such as Job) that sometimes God never reveals His purpose, but He still usually is clear in His guidance. He promised to be a light onto our feet, and we can trust Him in His promises.

Kelly knows part of what prompted this waiting post. I just got a job… after nineteen and a half months of unemployment! But that’s not even the only answer to waiting that’s happened this week. I’ve been waiting for a ride to church for three months, and I finally got one this week.

But most of my waiting has been less obvious, and is more subtle. And I know perfectly well that everyone of you out there has known periods of waiting. Trust God to tell you if a situation needs to await His timing, or if it’s time for action. Actually, this last couple of months has been a time of major action for me, because once He confirmed some direction to me, I’ve been taking a lot of action towards what He’s obviously planned for me. Because while this post is about waiting, action is also a part of walking in His way!

*****************

Please visit Pamela's wonderful blog, Songs on the Way.

Much Love, Kelly

Okay, this is a tad bit embarrassing. I'm not sure why, but it is. For a long time, I wrote fan fiction. I LOVED fan fiction (okay, I still do). What did I write fan fiction over? Well... Twilight (I know!), The Mentalist (seriously!), and The O.C.

And where did I put these gems?

At www.fanfiction.net.

(I can't believe I'm telling you all this... )

I met a great friend there, though, Kathi-Ann who still writes awesome fan fic! I'm not embarrassed of fan fic... just some of the stories *I* wrote ;) Head-hopping... OH the head-hopping.

BUT, I believe that those stories got me where I needed to be to write novels. Were they perfect? (oh... suuuuuuuure they were ;) ), but did I learn from them? ABSOLUTELY!

I learned:

• Negative reviews are par for the course
• Did I mention head-hopping?
• They didn't call me the 'Queen of Cliffhangers' for nothing..
• Trust your Beta
• USE a Beta
• Rough drafts are your friends, as long as you don't publish them
• Not to be afraid to let others read my stories... because it's very scary the first few (hundred) times you do it.

Enjoy (BTW, this was originally published in 2009... and I edited it a bit for this blog... I had to do it ;) )

Flight Plan Kimball Cho leaned back in his cushioned seat and closed his eyes tightly. He was trying to hide the fact that he was terrified of flying, but it wasn't seeming to work. Normally before trips, he would take a pill to help him calm his nerves. Unfortunately, that morning he had grabbed the wrong bag, and as an effect was without his little helpful aides.
It was annoying. He was Kimball Cho. Serious. Calm. Not afraid of anything Kimball Cho... so he had gotten on the plane, his insides screaming for him to run like a little school girl, and had found his seat.
Now all he had to do was keep it together on the short flight between Sacramento and an airport in Northern California. There had been a murder (wasn't there always) and the CBI team had been assigned to it. They could have driven, but Minelli said they had to arrive within the day. So there he sat, eyes clinched, hands gripping the seat, praying that the flight would be over soon. Hoping that no one would...
"Cho, looks like we're seat buddies."
Oh for the love of... "Jane. I'm a little busy here."
"Yes, I can see. It's hard work being terrified." Cho heard Jane sit down in the seat next to him and settled himself in.
"I'm not terrified."
"No. No, of course not. But you can see how I would make such a grievous error. Your eyes are shut tightly, or they were before I pointed it out. Your hands are clammy. There is a bead of sweat trickling down your forehead--"
As Jane prattled on, Cho hoped that if he ignored him, he would leave him alone. He knew that would never happen, but still.. it was worth a shot. "I can help you, you know?" Jane's voice said, still invading his preferred darkness.
"No thanks."
"I can."
"No."
"You're be ing unreasonable, Cho."
"I am not. I'm being very reasonable. If I were unreasonable, I would elbow you in the stomach right now." Cho deadpanned, making Jane wonder if he was kidding. "I'm not kidding." he said as if reading the 'mindreaders' mind.
"Ok, fine. Don't accept my help. Have a fear of flying for the rest of your life." Cho felt Jane's elbow so he knew he'd crossed his arms and he heard him whistling a happy little song softly. He opened one eye to him, just to see what he was doing. Jane was sitting arms crossed, like he had suspected, eyes scanning the plane with a joyful expression on his face. "What can you possibly like about flying?"
Jane looked at him, amused. "All these people. Stuck together. They can't get out. They can't leave. They can't hide. If you are on the same flight long enough, you can figure them out. Learn their entire life story."
Cho raised a brow. "You're lying."
Jane shrugged nonchalantly. "You'll never know. You just sit back and shut your eyes like a scared kitten again. It's ok. Go ahead."
"I am not a scared kitten."
"Could have fooled me."
Cho huffed agitated and leaned his head back against the seat. He had been afraid of flying as long as he could remember. Even when he was in the army, it took lots of medication to get him onto the plane. His comrades nicknamed him Mr. T in reference to the mohawked man's character, B.A. Barakus, on the A-Team and his fear of flying.
"You don't want to be Mr. T forever do you?" Jane asked, causing a reaction from Cho. "How do you do that?" All he got in response was a chuckle. "Come on, let me help you."
He knew what that meant. What 'help' it would be. Hypnosis. He cringed at the word. He also cringed at the thought of being on the plane without any medication. Cho sighed and nodded defeated. It would be a long flight if he had to deal with Jane pestering him, and actually, he did want his help... or thought he did. He did until he saw Jane's childlike glee at the prospect of 'helping' him. Then his stomach just knotted in dread. "Fine." he rolled his eyes. "But don't make me do anything stupid."
"Like what?"
"Like you did Rigsby and have me kiss Grace."
Jane's brow raised. "Do you want to kiss Grace?"
"What? No."
"Then it won't be a problem." Jane shifted in his seat so that he was facing Cho. "Just close your eyes and relax." he said in his most soothing voice. "The others are at the front of the plane. We are back here. They won't see you. They won't know what we are doing. So just sit back, relax, take deep breaths."
Cho tried to comply. It was harder than he imagined, though, to relax in the fuselage of a crowded plane shooting through the sky.
"Now, imagine you are at a fair. It is nearing sunset. You can see the sky changing from a light blue into a mix of reds and oranges. There is a slight breeze blowing around you. There are people, but you aren't crowded. No one is in your personal space. You are walking up through the entrance. You see the Ferris wheel. To the left is the Cleopatra boat swinging up and down. Up and down. Underneath is a line of people that snakes all the way through the midway. In the midway are games. Shooting games. Throwing games. Dart games. People selling cotton candy. Walk through the midway now."
Cho imagined the place Jane described and walked through the midway. To his left he saw a woman breathing fire and to his right a man throwing baseballs at little milk jugs.
"Good." Jane's voice was hypnotic. "At the end of the midway is a tent. The tent is tall and red. There is a man outside like a ringmaster beckoning you to come in. You go inside. The tent is empty except for a few gray folding chairs and a large movie screen in front of you. Once you sit down, the screen starts to play. There is a spinning picture like an old flight control monitor. In the middle is a countdown starting with five. Then four... three... two... one. The screen changes and you see yourself. You are on roller skates and going down a long road---"
"I can't picture that, man." Cho's eyes flickered open and he sat up. "I would never be on roller skates."
"Well, would you ever be in the midway of a small town carnival either?"
Cho thought a minute. "No."
"Well---"
"Fine." he leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes.
"No need." Jane said. "You're already hypnotized."
Cho's eyes opened and he looked at Jane confused. "Am not."
"Are too."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am--" Jane held his hand up to stop him. "Do you feel fear? Right now, do you feel fear?"
"Right now I feel frustration." he admitted, agitated that he'd let Jane mess with him.
"Frustration, but not fear." his companion pointed out.
Cho opened his mouth to speak then shut it. Jane was right. He didn't feel fear any more. He must really be hypnotised. "Hm. How long will this last?"
"As long as you want it too. I've embedded a suggestion that every time you see a plane, it will automatically kick in. You won't need medicine any more and you won't be afraid."
"Hm.. Thanks man."
"Anytime." It was Jane's turn to lean back and close his eyes. He couldn't help himself as a wide grin crossed his lips. Sometimes people didn't need to be hypnotized.. they just needed to think they were.

ey were.

I've not posted anything here in a week. I'm sorry about that! I give you good news, then I disappear.

Well, I've been busy. Pre-edits took me a lot longer than I thought they would. I wanted to have them done yesterday (they were due today), and got them sent at 11:58 pm (HUZZAH!)

What took so long?

Well, other than having three kids who expect to be, ya know, fed and cared for every few hours (how dare they ;)), I had to fight my inner editor.

First... I took most of the adverbs out.

Then... I put some back in.

After that... I tried to make sure the sentences in each paragraph didn't start with the same letter.

Finally... I left a few because I thought it flowed better.

Before I hit send to sent it to my publisher, I had to laugh at myself... these are the PRE-edits... imagine how uptight I'll be with my line/content edits (oh my!)

Here is a question for you writers out there: How does your significant other deal with the hours you put into writing?

My husband, bless him (I'm southern, we can say anything we want after we've 'blessed' you... ), tries. He wants to be supportive and give me my space....but, he misses me (let's just all awwwwww about that now lol). I've been working till about 12:30 or 1 every night then getting up between 6-8 with the girls. When the girls go to bed at 8, I hit the laptop (and force him to be quiet... but to be fair we DO have another TV in the bedroom, but he chooses to watch it in the living room.)

So, he tries... but I know he'll be happy when he gets some attention again.

How do you balance deadlines and family? My kids are better about it than he is lol. He misses his little wifey. (Ok, yeah, and clean underwear ;) )

Much Love,

Kelly

The final installment of 'How I Find Time to Write' is written by the wonderful Zanna Mackenzie! I'm so excited to have her tell you the tricks she uses to write her novels. She also has some excerpts from her new book How Do You Spell Love?

~*~*~*~

Finding the time to escape into whatever book you’re currently writing can be a tricky business for an author. I’m fortunate in being self-employed, though contracted to work a set amount of hours per week I have plenty of flexibility re when I do work those hours. My day job is also writing related – another plus – as I’m the editor of some business publications for a chamber of commerce. I work from home too, which I love and which saves me having to spend time doing lengthy commutes each day – another positive!
I’ve recently had two novels published by different publishers within the space of a month and have quickly discovered that all of the required promotional activity and social media ‘presence’ is very time consuming, far more than I had anticipated.
All of which means finding the time to edit my next book (I’ve recently completed the first draft of it) and working on the scenes/plot/characters of the book I have outlined for after that is becoming more and more of a challenge.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted to have my work published and relish learning all about the promotional aspects of being an author, but as my writing time has now been squeezed considerably I’m having to be more creative about finding time to write and my solution is – write in bed!!
My husband is one of those people who is always awake at about 5am and gets up to do the ‘early morning shift’ in our household - so I have a notebook by the bed and let my mind start working on scenes and dialogue as soon as I wake up and then I start writing them all up ready to be typed onto the computer in the appropriate slot in the working manuscript document whenever I get chance.
I’ve found that I prefer writing in this way rather than sitting in front of the computer and writing straight onto it whilst in ‘the creative zone’.
As the ‘boss’ at my day job doesn’t work on Fridays I try as much as I can to make Fridays my writing day – providing I don’t have design or proof reading deadlines for the business publications – and aim to keep promotion and social media to a minimum then as well so that I can get typing up all those scene notes.
I currently have about 50 pages of notes to type up though – so this plan doesn’t always work!

Many thanks for hosting me on your blog today Kelly!
My latest novel, published by Crooked Cat, is called How Do You Spell Love? Here’s the details:

Make A Wish…
Kat can’t help wishing there was more to life than this. What happened to her dream job? What happened with Nathan?
Summer is wondering where her life is going too… battling the developers of a controversial housing estate and working out why boyfriend Rob is increasingly distant.
When the developers win the battle and move into town everyone’s life is turned upside down.
Kat meets building site project manager Alex. She enjoys his company far too much, even though he’s on the town’s most hated list.
Summer meets Tom who has plenty of relationship troubles of his own, so things could get really complicated.
Soon everyone is keeping secrets, lives change and hearts are broken. Is everything falling apart, or does life just work in mysterious ways…

There’s a sneak peak of the book below and it can be purchased in paperback and ebook formats now on:
*Crooked Cat Publishing
http://www.crookedcatbooks.com/
*Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Do-You-Spell-Love/dp/1908910771/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361800360&sr=8-2
*Amazon USA
http://www.amazon.com/How-Do-You-Spell-Love/dp/1908910771/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361800417&sr=1-3&keywords=zanna+mackenzie

Extract from How Do You Spell Love?
Kat pushed the last of the cottage cheese and shrimp sandwiches into the cool box and slammed the van door shut. As if her life wasn’t enough of a disaster zone as it was – no money, lousy job, losing Nathan, having to move back home to live with her parents – now this had to go and happen. Plus, of course, it didn’t help that today she was feeling shattered after spending half the night chanting some ridiculous protection spell in the middle of the allotments with Summer.
Cringing as a van full of builders stopped at the nearby traffic lights, Kat braced herself for the inevitable. After the standard-issue wolf whistles had drifted across from their van, next came the leered, “Wouldn’t argue with that, love!” as one of them nodded towards her sparkling clean van, parked neatly at the curb. The words “A Bit of Crumpet on the Road” emblazoned down the side in deep purple, glittery lettering. Not for the first time Kat cursed her boss Janice for calling her bakery-cum-deli that name.
Kat sighed, well it certainly drew comments from the public and from their customers, not always welcome ones, but as Janice was always keen to point out, any kind of publicity and attention was, in her eyes, good publicity and attention.
Pulling her navy and white striped apron more tightly around her T-shirt and shorts, Kat ignored the builders and climbed into her van to begin that morning’s deliveries. As she indicated to pull out into the busy street in Luisborough, she mulled over the bad news – that she was to add the controversial Netherton Meadows housing development to her daily sandwich round.
Netherton Meadows. Yippee. If Summer found out, she’d surely be ostracised for fraternising with the environmental enemy. This was a development that pretty much everyone in Luisborough had fought against for getting on towards a year. It had been the focus of STW campaigns. It went against everything that Kat believed in environmental-wise. Everyone hated the Netherton Meadows developers. Except, it seemed, Janice, who was perfectly happy to, in her words, ‘supply yummy builders with yummy sandwiches.’
Lost in thought, Kat just managed to spot the approaching traffic lights had turned to red and hastily slammed a foot on the brake. The van lurched to a halt and several boxes of crisps and one of the cool boxes in the back tipped over. Damn. It was shaping up to be one of those days.
Ten minutes later she pulled into the car park of Printing Phenomenon, hauled some baskets and a box from the van and headed for the reception area. It was getting towards late July and was another one of those blazing hot days that made every little thing feel as though it required a huge amount of effort. The kind of day the people of the UK are so unaccustomed to, where all you want to do is get a large, cool drink and collapse into a deckchair for a long snooze.
Two hours later Kat had visited all her usual drops, was extremely hot and bothered, and could put off going to Netherton Meadows no longer.
Driving through the assorted vans, machinery and portacabins Kat parked next to a building marked as being the Site Office and hit the button on the dashboard. Tinkling chimes filled the air as Kat climbed from the driver’s seat and made to open the back doors of the vehicle. It was embarrassing enough that the van had the company name in large lettering along its side but, just to make sure that it received maximum exposure – and achieved maximum embarrassment – Janice had had some irritating chimes fitted to the vehicle too. Kat was under strict instructions to sound the chimes when she called at all of the sites where people came out to the van; such as they were about to at Netherton Meadows.
A man came down the steps of the office with a grin on his face and walked towards her. “Hi, you must be Kat.” He wedged a clipboard under his left arm and offered a hand to shake. “I’m Alex. Project manager for the site.”
“Hi,” mumbled Kat, spotting a group of hard-hat-clad builders advancing towards her with hungry expressions on their faces.
“Right, lads,” Alex turned towards the men. “This is Kat and she’s very kindly agreed to venture onto this site to bring you all your lunch. Don’t give her any hassle, OK?”
The men laughed and then nodded. “Sure, Alex. You’re the boss.”
Fifteen minutes later it seemed that all of the team at the development had made their sandwich, crisp and drink selections and sloped off to devour them in the sunshine. Only one of the builders, a portly man who must have been twenty years Kat’s senior, had pushed the boundaries a little, despite Alex’s earlier warning. As he’d selected a smoked salmon and cream cheese roll – a choice that had surprised Kat somewhat, having pegged him as a ham and cheese kind of guy – he’d asked Kat if she’d fancy joining him for a drink sometime. She’d politely declined his offer, saying that she had a boyfriend. No need to tell him that, technically, she and Nathan were no longer an item. No need to tell him why either.
Just as Kat slammed the van doors shut, Alex re-appeared from his office.
“Thanks, Kat. I hope none of them caused any trouble?” he asked, taking off his yellow hard hat and running a hand through cropped dark brown hair in an agitated fashion.
“No, they were all fine.” Kat forced a smile, struggling to tuck an escaped tendril of curly blond hair back into her ponytail. God, it was hot today. “Thanks for being so gentlemanly about their behaviour.”
He grinned back at her. “No problem. I know what they can be like and as soon as I saw you getting out of the van I thought I’d better intervene. I’ve had enough problems getting a company to even contemplate coming to this site without them scaring you off on the first day.”
“Problems? Why do you think that is?” asked Kat, sensing an opportunity to make sure this man was fully aware just how much the people of Luisborough were still against the development.
“Because they hate us around here,” he said, shrugging matter-of-factly.
“And that doesn’t bother you?” Kat was now leaning against the van, noting that Alex seemed, somehow, a bit different to the rest of the team on the site. He had a jaded air about him despite the fact that he was clearly much younger than most of the others. Kat couldn’t help noticing that he was also extremely good looking.
“Yes, it bothers me but what can you do?” He sighed. “A job’s a job in this day and age. We all have to make a living, don’t we?”
Softening a little towards him, Kat nodded and rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it.”
He moved to stand next to her, propping himself against the van. Kat hadn’t realised until that moment just how tall he was. “Take you, for instance. I can’t imagine it was your lifelong ambition to drive around in a van with that name on the side of it. You must get no end of grief.”
“I do but I need to earn some money to get my life back on track, so here I am.”
“Is this your first job?” he asked, setting his hat and clipboard on the roof of the van and looking at her intently.
“Pretty much. I recently finished a degree in environmental science and geography at university.” She added, trying to sound optimistic, “I’m waiting for my dream job to come along. In the meantime I work at the deli for a pittance and spend the rest of my time volunteering in a charity shop in town.”
“Dream job, eh?” He turned towards her, brown eyes looking at her in a genuinely interested way. “What would your dream job be, then?”
Kat smiled. “That’s easy. I’d love to work on a project like a nature reserve. Helping to preserve the environment, look after the wildlife. The charity shop where I volunteer is the Save the World one. My boss there, Summer, is a good friend and a great campaigner against developments like this.”
Aware that she was telling him things that she hadn’t really spoken to anyone about since Nathan, she quickly turned away. He was a complete stranger. A stranger who stood for everything she was against. He was the enemy, supervising the building of a development that she, and many others, had fought to try to prevent.
Reaching onto the van roof to hand the hat and clipboard back to Alex, she said, “I’d better be going.”
“Sure. Thanks for coming out here.” He started to walk away but then paused, turned back towards her and added, “See you tomorrow, then?”
Kat nodded. As she drove off, she felt more flustered than when she’d arrived. Unfortunately she had a growing suspicion that it had nothing to do with the hot weather or having to bring food to the development against her will. Rather, she suspected, it had much more to do with meeting Alex the site manager. Not a good sign at all.

Author Bio and links
Author bio
Zanna Mackenzie lives in the East Midlands in the UK with her husband, 4 dogs, a vegetable patch that’s home to far too many weeds and an ever expanding library of books waiting to be read.
Being a freelance writer and editor of business publications is her ‘day job’ but, at every opportunity, she can be found scribbling down notes on scenes for whatever novel she’s working on. She loves it when the characters in her novels take on minds of their own and start deviating from the original plot!
Formerly a travel agent and therapist (she has qualifications in clinical aromatherapy, crystal healing, naturopathic nutrition and herbalism) she loves walking the dogs and gardening – that’s when she’s not writing or reading!
Zanna has written two novels, The Love Programme and How Do You Spell Love?

Find out more about Zanna at:
www.zannamackenzie.blogspot.co.uk
www.zannamackenzie.co.uk
Twitter: @ZannaMacKenzie
Facebook: www.facebook.com/zanna. mackenzie
Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10703273-zanna-mackenzie

If you’re looking to spice up your writing, check out today’s QueryTracker.net blog post on rhetorical devices. They’re my new best friend. You’ll be surprised at how many you already know.

And now for my guest blogger, Marie Rose Dufour. Drum roll please . . . .

<<<3

Contract! Yes! Whoo-hoo! Open the champagne, baby, because someone liked your work enough to offer you a contract. Week, months, and sometimes years of work is now going to be validated in print. My husband and I celebrated on the waterfront, toasting to my hard work for this book over.

Not! What I didn’t realize at the time was that writing the actual book was the easy part. The hard part came afterwards and it’s called promo, promo, promo. In this economy, more and more publishing houses are relying on the author to promote their own books.

So here are some tips on promoting your book:

• Create a budget (I know this sounds unreal but real advertising costs money. If you are a first time author, it’s all about getting your name out there.)

• Create a “promo folder” on your computer with a jpeg of your book cover, blurb, excerpt, head shot, and purchase links. (Having everything in one folder is a timesaving in case someone last minute asks you to blog, or interview you. You just pull up the file.)

• Make sure you are “social networking” (Facebook, My Space, Twitter). You want to use these for some free advertising.

• Design promotional items (A big thing in the romance circles right now is trading cards. I hear they are big at conferences. Think of these as your business cards.) (Yes. I love using these as bookmarks.)

• Arrange to do guest blogs! (Just what I’m doing now. And I’d like to thank Stina from the bottom of my heart for hosting me today.)

I hope someone finds these tips helpful. It was wonderful guest blogging here today. Please leave a comment and e-mail address and I will pick a person to win a copy of Fated Mates. Enjoy!

Book Blurb: We know that we are no longer alone in the universe. Descendants of Earthly ancestors have returned to find the other halves of themselves, their destined mates.

Dragon, a scarred Serralian warrior drawn to the planet of his ancestors, never believed the Goddess had a mate for him but no matter what he believes, he’s unable to resist the pull of the planet deep within in soul.

Liz, a curvy teacher who escaped an abusive marriage three years earlier is afraid to take another chance on love. Tired of being a
bystander in her own love life, she participates in an ancient ritual to identify Serralian mates. Taking that chance changes her life forever. Can these two people overcome their pasts to become each other’s true Fated Mates?

Author blurb: Marie Rose Dufour is a first time (and hopefully not the last time) author. She writes erotica for Secret Cravings Publishing. Her first book, Fated Mates was released last month. She lives in Rhode Island, USA with two very curious cats and a husband who swears he’s the inspiration for all of her heroes. Her book is available through her publisher and Amazon.

Ok, I'm going to post my binder with one rule: Please don't laugh at it. It's not professional... it's not even pretty. But it seems to be working (I'm not wanting to throw it in the trash as much as I was lol).

I tried to get a picture of the front cover, but photobucket hates me right now... so instead imagine the most awesome, awe-inspiring, greatest thing ever... now think of the opposite. THAT is my cover...

**On to the front page:

If you want to know what it says, click here: http://ohthatmomagain.blogspot.com/2011/04/home-making-binder-day-1.html

I love that it's my first sheet because it keeps me remembering what is IMPORTANT. A clean house and paid bills are a bonus, but happy kids and a great outlook are key.

**Ok, next we have the daily sheets (and again, sorry for the quality of the pictures):

I know that is hard to see, but that's my daily sheets that I have customized from http://www.moneysavingmom.com/. LOVE THEM!

**My Daily To Do List is next...

Bad picture but here is what it says:
*Load of clothes before work
*Load of clothes after work
*Clean table and high chair
*Sweep
*Fold Clothes
*Wash Dishes
*Five Minute pick up
*Read Bible

And I have added a few things to my chore chart since I've started, so this page needs re-vamping.

*Saturday To-Do List

This is my big Saturday to do list and I usually add things to it as needed. Saturday is my big cleaning day. I try to add one big project to it (like clean a closet or drawer... but it depends on how well my kids cooperate).

*Meals, Menus, and Recipes

Pretty self explainatory, ain't it? lol

*Calendars

This is my favorite section. I didn't take a picture of it, but I color code my calendars. The girls' events are in pink. Unpaid bills are in yellow (when I pay them I roll over them in blue to make green... I know! Awesome! ;) ). This has been one of the most helpful tools in this entire notebook. I love it. Behind it, each bill has it's own sheet protector so they are all there and I know when they are due... it also cuts WAY back on the cluttered counter space that used to be devoted to bill paying.

*School Stuff

This is the section where I put my oldest daughters school notes/menus/ etc in so I can remember it. It's a work in progress.

On the back of my binder, I have our weekly menu so its easily accessible and ready to go. That picture wouldn't load (sigh).

**Things I WANT to do to "T.N":
1. Make it pretty... of course! This is honestly kind of embarrassing to post these pictures, but I don't care. I want to show you a before and hopefully (some day) an after.

2. I want a tab for birthdays. I'm horrible at remembering birthdays... heck, I'm horrible at remembering ANYTHING!

3. I want to organize it a bit better. Its working now, but I want to organize my organizer lol (how sad is that lol)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the trip through my notebook. Hope it wasn't too boring and that you got some ideas from it... and HOPEFULLY, in a few weeks I can post my new and improved version. Notebook 2.0

Much Love,

Kelly

The Bookshelf Muse is celebrating over 2000 Followers and almost 1/2 million hits and they wants to know...CAN YOU CRACK THE CODE?

Let me break it down for you:

• 12 generous writers.
• A formidable steel vault packed with prizes.
• A time locked sensor.
• And you...with a code.

Here's a HINT to help you win it: a ringing bell will empty this space.

It's no surprise that I love writing, especially stories on faith. I've been putting them in the 'oh that mom again' blog, but I feel that they need their own space. That blog has just kinda become a 'catch-all', and it's not fair to it.

I am working on a new blog called 'Faith-Filled Fiction'. I'm looking to lauch it on July 1st. I'm looking for all kinda of fiction on faith. I'd love for the stories to be no more than 1000 words and deal with, well, faith. I won't be able to pay for your stories, but I'm hoping it will grow into a resource for Christian writers. I have big plans for it (don't I always... )

If you are interested or would like more details, please email me at ohthatmomagain (at) yahoo. com.

Thanks so much. If you aren't a writer, your prayers in this new site would be VERY much appreciated.

Imperfectly yours,

~Kelly

Take a black & white photo and add some color to it and you have a picture that says, “Hey, look at me!” But how do you do that?

There are two methods: The messy one that’s expensive. And the easy one that isn’t. Tough choice, huh?

The old fashioned method is done with special paints designed for black & white photos. They produce beautiful results, but they are expensive, have to be used in a well-ventilated space, take practice to master (adding further to the cost), and are time consuming. And if you make a mistake? Ugh! Also, your picture needs to be developed on a special type of paper, which isn’t used by all photofinishers.

The other method requires the use of a software package such as Photoshop Elements 7 (Wow, I’m still using the third edition!). You can either scan your photos (if you use film) or download them from your digital camera.

To achieve the above results, just follow these simple directions adapted from Scott Kelby’s brilliant book, The Photoshop Element 3 Book for Digital Photographers.

1. Open the color photo you wish to work on. Sorry, this method doesn’t work on a photo that’s already black & white.


2. Press Ctrl-j. You’ve just copied the Background layer.


3. Press b (brush tool) and chose a soft-edge brush from the BRUSH PICKER in the OPTIONS BAR. Select the size of brush according to the area you wish to cover.


4. In the OPTIONS BAR, change the MODE to ‘color’.


5. Press d (foreground color) and begin painting the parts of the photo you want to convert to black & white.


6. If you make a mistake, you can erase it (press e) by painting over it with the eraser. This will bring back the original color.

Have fun!

So, yesterday I blogged about my clutter room which is starting to drive me nuts. I want it clean, however, the shear size of the project scares me a bit (I mean where to start, what to do, etc). SO, as I was feeding the baby lunch yesterday (I had already finished my Sat. chores by then.) I thought, "I'm not doing anything else today. I'm tired. I just want to sit."

And then, my eyes turned behind me to my kitchen...

Oh my kitchen.

I should say that I live in an old farmhouse that was orginally built 100 years ago and was renovated to its current glory in 1981. Yeah, I said 'current' glory. We moved here almost 8 years ago... had 3 kids... and have had no money to update or really decorate it... so basically, it just looks like an old farmhouse... no I won't say old. It looks like a very lived-in, charming farmhouse. I love my house. It's not new or fancy or "pretty" but we really love it anyway...

ANYWAY, I said all of that to say this... I'm going to show pictures of my house. Be kind as you look at them...

(Don't know why I always have to add disclaimers lol).

So, back to my kitchen... I was feeding the baby and had this thought, "Why don't I organize/clean out the dishes cabinet?" Ok, that task should have taken all of 10 minutes. It's not like I have a lot of dishes/cups/ etc, but everytime I was putting things away, I either 1) couldn't find the space or 2) things would nearly fall out (fun. fun).

Here is a before picture of my cabinet...

I had already taken the plates out when I decided to blog about this so forgive me of that... see that mess??? Ug. So I took everything out, cleaned, washed down, and filled the dishwasher...

Yes, I totally have a WWE popcorn holder... total geek here.

And then...

Of course, dishes led to the baby's cabinet which led to the medicine cabinet which lead to the cleaning cabinet which led to the refrigerator...

Get the idea...

And this is when my husband got up and said, "What happened?" lol lol.

Yeah.

Anyway, after about 2 hours of cleaning (breaks of course because I have 3 small kids who need their Mommy)... I finally have...

And...

AND (my husband got on the bandwagon and threw away all of the boxes and broken mirror that I blogged about yesterday... )

So now the kids can go back into that room... YAY!!

I'm so excited for my kitchen (can you tell). I haven't had an actually clean and organized kitchen in 8 years (when we moved in here). Its not perfect, but it's mine and I love it :)

BTW, I have friend who own http://www.finchfound.com/ are having a GREAT giveaway!!! I know I have like 2 readers, but I wanted to help them out. They are having a terrific giveaway. Check it out!! http://finchfound.com/home/2011/4/30/boon-plum-for-you-a-giveaway.html

Much love,

Kelly

Today's sweet Saturday Sample--
“Rachel, are you going to hate me forever?” Sid asked as he draped his arm around her shoulder. His dark red coat matched his hat so perfectly that Rachel wondered how long he had searched for a coat the exact same shade as his favorite headpiece.
“I don’t hate you,” she said, shrugging him off.
“Sure you do. You both do. Carly told me you did.”
“She did what?”
“Yeah, in the van. She said both of you royally disliked me, and I wanted to hear it from you.”
The soft sound of the running water echoed through the trees. It sounded peaceful, tranquil. If only Sid would be quiet long enough for her to enjoy it.

Rachel held on to the flimsy, wooden handrail as she started across the swinging, single person bridge across Deep Creek, which ran perpendicular to the trail. Deep Creek wasn’t very big; maybe fourteen feet across, and appeared more of a trickle than a creek. She didn’t even see a waterfall. It kinda bummed her out.
“Deep Creek,” Sid read the sign at the beginning of the bridge and followed behind her. “Original. Misleading, but original.”
Rachel couldn’t argue with that. A few boulders were scattered across the creek basin. To Rachel, it looked like if something bad did happen and the water actually covered those rocks, then the creek would live up to its name.
“I don’t know what Carly told you, but I don’t hate you.
Carly is her own person and can think or feel what she wants,” Rachel said once she reached the other side of the bridge. ”But I don’t hate you. I don’t like what you did, but I don’t hate you.”
“Look, I know I messed up. I more than messed up. I screwed up and hurt someone I care about. I know that. If I could take it back, I would. Can you just please talk to Carly when we get to the picnic area? Make her see that I’m not a bad guy.”
Rachel didn’t know what to say to that. She had always heard once a cheater always a cheater, but she also knew it was her Christian duty to forgive. “Come on. Help a guy out,” he added in a pitiful voice. “I told her I was sorry. What more does she want?”
“You’ll just have to figure that out yourself,” Rachel said, unsure of how to help him.
“Just talk to her. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease…”
“Okay!” she said just to shut him up.
“Thank you!” His face lit up like a Christmas tree, and he kissed her on the cheek before running up the trail toward Asher, who was leaning on a tree. “You’re the best!” he yelled back at her.
Rachel stopped walking. What had she agreed to, and what was Sid thinking kissing her like that? It wasn’t like he was letting his intentions be known, as her grandma liked to say. But still, being kissed — even in a chaste way — wasn’t something that happened to her every day.
She watched as Sid slapped Asher on the shoulder before running by him, and without thinking, her fingers went to the little spot on her cheek where his kiss had landed.
“If you get that riled up from a little peck on the cheek, I’d hate to see what would happen if you got a kiss on your lips,” Asher yelled, folding his arms with that same smirk he’d had at the snack machine. Rachel’s cheeks burned like fire, knowing what she must look like, staring all swoony-- ‐‑ eyed at Sid. When did she start swooning?
“On second thought,” Asher said, narrowing his eyes, “maybe it would be a fun thing to see.”
“That would imply that I’d let you.” Rachel made her legs move again.
“Very true.” Asher laughed, falling in step beside her.
“What are you doing on this trip anyway?” Rachel asked, harsher than she meant. Her mouth was in defensive mode.
He shrugged, not seeming to take any offense. “Didn’t have any other place to be.”
Awkward silence filled the space between them as they walked. Rachel just wanted him to run ahead with Sid and leave her alone.
“You should cut him some slack, you know?”
“Who? Sid?”
“Who else? Yeah, Sid. He messed up, sure. He cheated. We all mess up. Even perfect little Christians like you.” He had a lot to learn about her. “I’m by no means perfect,” she said, her voice hard.
“And neither is Sid.”
“I’ve never cheated on a boyfriend.”
“Have you ever had a boyfriend?”
Ouch, that stung. “That’s none of your business.” Sure, she had never had a boyfriend, but she knew without a doubt she wouldn’t cheat on one.
“I’m sorry,” he said, almost like he meant it.
“Whatev—”
“And Sid’s sorry too,” he said without skipping a beat. “Making out with Easy Emily wasn’t the smartest move. One, because her lips should be retired for excessive use, and two because it hurt someone he cares about a lot.”
Rachel knew he was right. She’d even used the same argument with Carly. For some reason, she just wanted to stay mad at Sid, more so after he thought it wise to buy her help with a little peck on the cheek. The kiss had irked her. And her reaction to it irked her even more.
Asher spoke when she didn’t. “You Bible types are all about forgiveness,” he shook his head, “until it'ʹs you who has to do the forgiving.”
“What do you know of the Bible, Asher?” she spat. “Do you even own one?”
Without warning, Asher stepped in front of her. She could either stop or run over him; she chose to stop. Her eyes came up to his chest, and she tilted her head up to see his face. That close, she could see how blue his eyes were and the little moon-- ‐‑ shaped scar on his chin. He didn’t look amused anymore, and the twinkle was gone from his eyes. “You think you know it all, don’t you? It’s all black and white with you. No gray areas. All or nothing. Well, guess what?”
He moved his hands to her shoulders and pushed her windblown curls back. “The world doesn’t work like that.” Asher lingered a moment, staring into her eyes. He stared so long, Rachel wondered if he was going to kiss her too, but that was stupid, because he obviously didn’t like her. Without a word, he turned and walked away.
Watching him go, her mind raced and felt completely empty at the same time.
She had no idea what in the world was happening on this trip.
~*~*~ Want to read more?
BUY LINKS: AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-The-Deep-ebook/dp/B009NWGMMQ/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_t_1
BARNES AND NOBLE: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/crossing-the-deep-kelly-martin/1113215706?ean=2940015565096

Praise the Lord!

Ok, not that I didn't enjoy the quests. I really did. It was nice to have a goal and achieve it every week. It was also awesome to have a goal, achieve it, AND be accountable for it. Just another reason why blogging = awesome!!

Today, I completed the final quest... cleaning out the car.

And trust me.. my car needed it lol.

I didn't take any pictures, but it does look 100x better. The hubs had cleaned it out before our vacation in May, and I had... well... not been doing my part to keep it clean. Ok, it was kinda embarrassing because people in real life knew about this blog... knew I had cleaning tips... etc... and then when they saw my car it was like... YESH!

I was embarrassed.

But it was so much easier with 3 kids to just leave the stuff in the car and forget about it when I got into the house... only to be reminded of it like a sledge hammer to the head once I got back in the car to go somewhere else.

Out of sight... out of mind.

Ug.

Anyway, I can now proudly haul people around town again *HUZZAH!* and right before I have to go back to work

Completing the last quest means that my summer is nearing its end.

Yeap, in my district, teachers go back next Wednesday... so my summer is about over. Its sad in a way, but I've had a great one! (even with the Biopsy and the wisdom teeth surgery). It has been one of my absolute favorite summers! I've loved getting to be a 'SAHM' for these past 9 weeks. I've loved watching all of my kids grow (and they have grown a lot this summer! The baby has started walking. My middle daughter has learned to put her clothes on herself. Any oldest has asked Jesus to live in her heart.) It has been an awesome summer and I'm so thankful that I have gotten to spend it with my family... and you (yes you, blog readers!)

So... what's next? Well, we are going to take a little break. Rest from the cleaning quests. And I'm going to enjoy the last few days of my vacation (and of course... blog lol).

I'm going to leave the 'Summer Quests' tab up for a few more weeks... just so everyone can get caught up (because I know you will ;)). Then starting probably the last week of August, I'm taking those down so I can use that space for the next series we are doing. Non-cleaning related :)

There will be an 'official' annoucement about it coming next week. So be looking for that.

Again, I want to thank everyone for doing these (and just reading if that's what you've been doing). Especially my friend, Kathi-Ann, from http://studentmamacook.wordpress.com/ who has not only been doing these with me, but she has been blogging about it :) I wish I had something for you, girl!

Be looking for the next series annoucement next week, and have a great Saturday!!

Much love and Happy Cleaning :)

Kelly

P.S. I wanted to share that today I started something new when I did my 'Saturday Cleaning'. Before I cleaned, I picked a verse that I wanted to memorize. I'm going to start trying to memorize verses and getting them close to my heart. So, I wrote that verse down on an index card (pink to be exact) and worked on it during my cleaning time...

Lets see if it worked:

*Complete from memory*:
Romans 6:13~ Do not let any part of your body be used in evil for serving sin. Instead completely give yourself to God for you were dead, but now you have a new life. So use your whole body as an instrument for what is good for the Glory of God.

Ok... how did I do?

Here is the actual verse (from the New Living Translation btw).
Romans 6:13~ Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourself completely to God for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument of what is right for the Glory of God.

***Ok..I need a little more work... Better go find something else to clean lol

Have a great day :)

©Stina Lindenblatt

Reporter sticks microphone in manuscript’s face: Manuscript, now that Stina has finished your second draft, what are you going to do?

Manuscript: I’m going to Disneyworld.

Okay, maybe my YA horror ms isn’t going to Disneyworld for the next two or so weeks, but I will be taking a break from it for awhile. I never used to do this. I would become so involved with the story I was working on, I couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from it for more than a day. Nope, I don’t sound like a love sick teen at all.

Times have changed. With my last novel, I discovered giving it some breathing space helped me strengthen it when I returned to it. The longer the vacation I took from it, the more mistakes or issues I noticed. I was able to look at it more objectively.

So, what am I going to do for the next two or so weeks?

• Analyze a YA contemporary book I love.

• Beta read.

• Plan my next project (New Adult novel).

• Study up on using Facebook. I still have no idea how to use this tool to the make the most of its features. Thank goodness someone created the Facebook for Dummies series. When it comes to Facebook, I’m definitely a dummy.

• Read. Read. Read.

• Take up yoga. (Um, let’s not get too crazy here). *deletes this goal*

Every Saturday, a group of writers get together to offer you some low calorie sweets :) My snippet today is from CROSSING THE DEEP.

“Rachel, are you going to hate me forever?” Sid asked as he draped his arm around her shoulder. His dark red coat matched his hat so perfectly that Rachel wondered how long he had searched for a coat the exact same shade as his favorite headpiece.
“I don’t hate you,” she said, shrugging him off.
“Sure you do. You both do. Carly told me you did.”
“She did what?”
“Yeah, in the van. She said both of you royally disliked me, and I wanted to hear it from you.”
The soft sound of the running water echoed through the trees. It sounded peaceful, tranquil. If only Sid would be quiet long enough for her to enjoy it.
Rachel held on to the flimsy, wooden handrail as she started across the swinging, single person bridge across Deep Creek, which ran perpendicular to the trail. Deep Creek wasn’t very big; maybe fourteen feet across, and appeared more of a trickle than a creek. She didn’t even see a waterfall. It kinda bummed her out.
“Deep Creek,” Sid read the sign at the beginning of the bridge and followed behind her. “Original. Misleading, but original.”
Rachel couldn’t argue with that. A few boulders were scattered across the creek basin. To Rachel, it looked like if something bad did happen and the water actually covered those rocks, then the creek would live up to its name.
“I don’t know what Carly told you, but I don’t hate you.
Carly is her own person and can think or feel what she wants,” Rachel said once she reached the other side of the bridge. ”But I don’t hate you. I don’t like what you did, but I don’t hate you.”
“Look, I know I messed up. I more than messed up. I screwed up and hurt someone I care about. I know that. If I could take it back, I would. Can you just please talk to Carly when we get to the picnic area? Make her see that I’m not a bad guy.”
Rachel didn’t know what to say to that. She had always heard once a cheater always a cheater, but she also knew it was her Christian duty to forgive. “Come on. Help a guy out,” he added in a pitiful voice. “I told her I was sorry. What more does she want?”
“You’ll just have to figure that out yourself,” Rachel said, unsure of how to help him.
“Just talk to her. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease…”
“Okay!” she said just to shut him up.
“Thank you!” His face lit up like a Christmas tree, and he kissed her on the cheek before running up the trail toward Asher, who was leaning on a tree. “You’re the best!” he yelled back at her.
Rachel stopped walking. What had she agreed to, and what was Sid thinking kissing her like that? It wasn’t like he was letting his intentions be known, as her grandma liked to say. But still, being kissed — even in a chaste way — wasn’t something that happened to her every day.
She watched as Sid slapped Asher on the shoulder before running by him, and without thinking, her fingers went to the little spot on her cheek where his kiss had landed.
“If you get that riled up from a little peck on the cheek, I’d hate to see what would happen if you got a kiss on your lips,” Asher yelled, folding his arms with that same smirk he’d had at the snack machine. Rachel’s cheeks burned like fire, knowing what she must look like, staring all swoony-- ‐‑ eyed at Sid. When did she start swooning?
“On second thought,” Asher said, narrowing his eyes, “maybe it would be a fun thing to see.”
“That would imply that I’d let you.” Rachel made her legs move again.
“Very true.” Asher laughed, falling in step beside her.
“What are you doing on this trip anyway?” Rachel asked, harsher than she meant. Her mouth was in defensive mode.
He shrugged, not seeming to take any offense. “Didn’t have any other place to be.”
Awkward silence filled the space between them as they walked. Rachel just wanted him to run ahead with Sid and leave her alone.
“You should cut him some slack, you know?”
“Who? Sid?”
“Who else? Yeah, Sid. He messed up, sure. He cheated. We all mess up. Even perfect little Christians like you.” He had a lot to learn about her. “I’m by no means perfect,” she said, her voice hard.
“And neither is Sid.”
“I’ve never cheated on a boyfriend.”
“Have you ever had a boyfriend?”
Ouch, that stung. “That’s none of your business.” Sure, she had never had a boyfriend, but she knew without a doubt she wouldn’t cheat on one.
“I’m sorry,” he said, almost like he meant it.
“Whatev—”
“And Sid’s sorry too,” he said without skipping a beat. “Making out with Easy Emily wasn’t the smartest move. One, because her lips should be retired for excessive use, and two because it hurt someone he cares about a lot.”
Rachel knew he was right. She’d even used the same argument with Carly. For some reason, she just wanted to stay mad at Sid, more so after he thought it wise to buy her help with a little peck on the cheek. The kiss had irked her. And her reaction to it irked her even more.
Asher spoke when she didn’t. “You Bible types are all about forgiveness,” he shook his head, “until it'ʹs you who has to do the forgiving.”
“What do you know of the Bible, Asher?” she spat. “Do you even own one?”
Without warning, Asher stepped in front of her. She could either stop or run over him; she chose to stop. Her eyes came up to his chest, and she tilted her head up to see his face. That close, she could see how blue his eyes were and the little moon-- ‐‑ shaped scar on his chin. He didn’t look amused anymore, and the twinkle was gone from his eyes. “You think you know it all, don’t you? It’s all black and white with you. No gray areas. All or nothing. Well, guess what?”
He moved his hands to her shoulders and pushed her windblown curls back. “The world doesn’t work like that.” Asher lingered a moment, staring into her eyes. He stared so long, Rachel wondered if he was going to kiss her too, but that was stupid, because he obviously didn’t like her. Without a word, he turned and walked away. Watching him go, her mind raced and felt completely empty at the same time.
She had no idea what in the world was happening on this trip.

Are you ready?

Ok, I have a deep, dark confession. I'm pretty embarrassed by it truth be told. With all of my 'cleaning' talk and 'organizing' ideas... well, I have like I said, a confession. I have been really good with the rest of the house. Its actually pretty clean (except for the laundry room... another room I'm at a loss with).

Ok, ready? Wanna see it? (Cover your eyes and peek through your fingers... )

(Disclaimer... my kids are NOT allowed in this room for obvious reasons. Its usually locked and is a BIG waste of space :( The only thing in here is a computer I use when I'm riding the bike.)

There is it. It kills me to even look at it. This is my spare bedroom... yeah, see that bed hidden under there? There are old computer boxes and an old broken mirror (that my dear husband said he'd take care of... ). There are boxes and boxes and junk and papers... and I have NO IDEA what to do with it. I don't have a big house and want to use all of it that I can. I guess this is a pleading post... any ideas on how I can even get started on this mess. It literally drives me crazy in this room if I go in there.

I wish I had a week (or maybe just a weekend) of just me to focus on cleaning, but I don't see that happening). So, I'm going to devise a plan of action (any tips or recommendations would be really appreciated. I'm going to attack... and then I'm going to post some 'after' photos. I'm giving myself 2 weeks to do this... so if I haven't posted pics by then, message me and get me on the ball...

I want to say again that the rest of my house doesn't look like this. This is just the room where everything got threw into and now it needs some TLC.

Much love... and much overwhelmed...

Kelly