Some just call them habits while others do it to control their out of control lives.  My daughter does it for entertainment, and has done so her entire life.  She loves to have things in just the right place (or her perception of what the right place should be.)

I had to laugh when I saw her bins of cd's lined up in a row like little soilders.  That shopping bag you see there has been in the exact spot since she got it Christmas morning.  That is where she found it and so that is where it must stay. Lord help her in the days that it must be moved so that the vaccumn could slide underneath. 

My daughter loves games.  Even better are games that contain money. Not because she wants to practice her  math skills, but because money can be sorted and strategically placed. Look at how much fun she is having putting them into rows.  Her day just doesn't get any better than this.


While every special needs child holds their own unique charm, it still amazes me to watch her in play.  Actually what drives me nuts is the fact that I can't break the code.  Why do some items go into a certain pile while others go in a completly different one?  So far she hasn't spilled the beans, but I'm hoping one day she will share her secret.

I can't say that I'm a stranger to idiosyncrasies.  Everyone has some level of OCD in them, but children with disabilities seem to display these at a greater level. Do their beautiful minds see things that are not obvious to the laymen eye?  Perhaps their level of thinking is so deep that the typical person cannot even comprehend it. I'm not sure the true reason, but I do know that it brings her pure enjoyment and that's goo
 

Taking a whole story and switching the genre around while still maintaining the heart of the story?  Sounds nearly impossible.  My fellow writer's at our critique group have challenged me to reconfigure my manuscript and I am just crazy enough to rise to the challenge.  Oh, and did I mention that I have two weeks to do it?  YIKES !!

After stocking up on energy drinks, charging my laptop, and meditated for an hour to clear my mind (okay, I'm exhageratting just a tad.  Who has an hour to sit and relax?) I am now ready to tear my writing apart one more time. This will not be an easy fix that the wonderful "find and replace" button on the computer will do for me within minutes. Each chapter will need to be scanned for specific details that I can alter in a way that will flow with the story.

My friend Lisa and I have put our overloaded brains together and have come up with a few ideas on ways to pull this off. I dabbled with it a little last night and so far I am on a roll. Whether or not things flow by the time I get to the middle of the book this weekend will be another story entirely. This is like taking a western story and turning it into a sci-fi novel. So lasso up the cattle...I've got a spaceship to catch.

Unlike yesterday's roller coaster ride of a calmness and chaos, today is a day which I maintain total control over. I have no schedules to adhear to but my own, and the only agenda I had planned was for a little R & R meshed in between the typical chores that are set aside for the weekends.

My alarm was set to wake me, but turned to three hours later than my usual workday routine. I didn't mind disturbing my sleep today, we had lots to do. I nudged my daughter out of bed and then handed her her swim suit.  Yes, swim suit. Even in 30 degree weather there is still time for indoor swimming to be had. There is nothing better to get you through the winter slump than to act like it is really summer!

Since my daughter was going without me I find myself with some rare alone time.  Where do I start on my to do list? My writing of course, topped off at first place. I still have 1,367 words to create today before the contest deadline on Monday. My hope is that will the stillness of the house my creativity will shine. I have been fine tuning my piece all week and the progress is coming along nicely so I am holding out high hopes that I can complete my mission.

Once my daughter returns, so will the reality that my poor house has suffered all week long while I was at work. The first order of business will be the laundry because if I don't we will be sporting our birthday suits tomorrow and nobody wants to see that! The second focus will be dishes, sweeping, grocery shopping, and oh yeah...will the left over Chrismtas decorations ever make it from my kitchen table out to the garage?  I hope so.

Once the dreaded chores are finished I have a little surprise for the family. We're going out for milkshakes!! Today Friendly's resturant is offering free Fribbles to their customers, so being the thrifty person that I am I thought we should take advantage of this promotion. After that will be family board game night and if there is still enough time in the day we might be able to squeeze in a little shopping.

Busy...yes we are always busy. But there is a difference between busy of things you need to do and busy with things you want to do. The household chores will go by alot faster knowing that quality family time will follow. Next week's schedule looks crazier than ever so we need to make the most of the next two days and concentrate on the bonding that too often finds itself on the back burner of life.

As we prepare for our March 1st Battle of the Books competition, our team was faced with our biggest delima.  No, it wasn't who was going to be the spokesperson, or even who was going to be the official recorder.  Our biggest decision was the one that allowed us to use our creative side and show the world just how edgy we are...the team name!  My 4th grade girls wanted something cool, yet cleaver and they came up with just that.  THE ROCKIN' READERS. 

With the excitment of ordering our team T-shirts underway, I managed to settle the giggly group down enough to concentrate on studying the title and author of each book on their grade level reading list. Their homework for this week is to have each memorized before our next meeting.  Then it is on to the study questions!!

Alot of hard work, two months worth of reading and a group of ten year old girls ...yikes !! I just may have to plan a surprise party for the group after the battle to get myself through to the finish line. Win or loose, the kids need to celebrate their love of reading and should be rewarded for all of their hard work.

Think you can keep up with the kids?  Challenge yourself and a friend to finish each of the books below by the end of February.  Test one another to see how many details you can give to each book, citing the title & author. Leave me a comment below to keep me posted on your progress and I will let you know how you rate compared to the students.  Get rockin' those books people !!!

3rd & 4rd grade reading list:

Arctic Lights, Arctic Nights- Debbie Miller

 Dial-a-ghost- Eva Ibbotson

 Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity- Mac Barnett

 Chameleon wore Chartreuse- Bruce  Hale

 Dying to Meet You- Katie Klise

Ellie McDoodle: Have pen, will travel- Ruth Barshaw

 Flight of the Phoenix- R.L. La Fevers

 King's Equal- KatherinePaterson

 Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane- Kate DiCamillo

 Piper Reed: Navy Brat- Kimberly Holt

 Puppy Power- JodyCox

 Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls- Elise Primavera

 Skinnybones- Barbara Park

 Year of Miss Agnes- Kirkpatrick Hill

Every teacher looks forwards to the winter season.  Not so much for the chance to ski or even because they enjoy looking at the trees as they glisten in a thin sheet of white.  No, most teacher's look forward to the chance of getting an unexpected day off from work in the form of a snow day!!

The thrill of getting up when your alarm clock goes off and finding out that you get to slide back under the covers is heavenly. You suddenly have a whole day in front of you with no plans in sight.  So how are you going to fill your time?

The choice was easy for me, I was heading out for my second job.  The greatest part of this one is that I get to do it in my pj's.  I settled right in leather chair, turned on my computer, and focused on my writing.  Currently I am in the middle of two projects: Converting my anthology into kindle form and finalizing another piece of work so that I can enter it into a contest.  I started with the easier job and placed the phone call to my publisher and viola, my files are being worked on as we speak.  Get ready Kindle, here we come!!

The second project required a lot more concentration and effort.  In two weeks I will hitting the send button and submitting my work into a national contest.  While the chances of me making the first round of cuts are about as slim as me becoming the next American Idol, that is not stopping me from working towards my dreams.  I have until Sunday night to make all of my edits before it is shipped of to the proof reader on Monday morning.

So I have old man winter to thank for my extra day to polish off my To Do list.  The extra hours that I put in today were critical for me to reach my deadline.  As much as I hate the cold snow and wish that it could be summer year around, I LOVE SNOW DAYS !!!!

Who says change isn't good?  During this past week, inspirations have guided me to tweak not only one, but three ways that I could improve on for my readers in 2012.

First, I have decided to not only expand the way that readers are able to access the book, but to branch out and start preparing for the book's sequel. Over Christmas vacation I had all but tore my hair out trying to properly format the book so that it could be accessed on kindle.  Eventually I gave up and walked away because the thought of looking at the files one more time honestly made me want to vomit.  I went back to work and put the thought of the looming files out of my mind and concentrated on other things.  Well life has a funny way of catching up with you, and sends gentle reminders of what path you need to be taking.

After I opened my recognition letter from Senator Patty Ritchie for the work done on the book, I knew it was time to look into what I could do to finish my goal of putting it into an e-reader.  I contacted kindle and asked if they offered conversion services that I could use.  Unfortunatly they said that they did not, but offered me a list of companies that do offer that very sevices.  Wouldn't you know that my publisher was one of the companies on the list?

So of course I contacted them right away to see what I needed to do start the process.  Easily enough I only need to allow them to convert my current files and I would be all set, but the problem was that I had a 'bonus' story ready to go into the kindle book.  If I converted my book as it, that story wouldn't make it into the e-reader.  But the more I thought about it the more I realized that this wasn't a problem, it was a sign of something greater.  I needed to adjust the files in my paperback book to include this 'bonus' story and at the same time add to the back matter the announcement of the book's sequel.  Yes...a second book is on the way and it needs your stories!

Any new books purchased through my estore (www.createspace.com/3703816) and at Amazon.com will contain the new material.  In there I have added an announcement that I will be accepting new stories for the second book.  Soon I will be adding more details on my website as to when the cut off will be for submissions and the anticipated date of release.  But the most exciting news is that I am extending this invitation to anyone who lives in the United States.  While my first book was focused on families in Central New York, many of you have friends and family who live in other states that would love to take part in this.  So please pass the word on, I would love to hear stories from as many places as possible!

Stay tuned for updates on the latest developments! 

I love unexpected surprises.  Walking to my mailbox this morning my only expectation was to unleash another handful of bills and junk mail.  So when I saw a large envelope cradling the mounds of ordinary small white ones my mind started racing to figure out what it may be.

Eagerily sliddding my fingers underneath the tab, I reaveled a nice note of achievement from my local seantor.  Her office had seen a newspaper article about my book Sometimes The Wind Blows Sideways: Our Lives with a Special Needs Chid and she wanted to congratulate me on my work.  The hard laminate note will forever be preserved as an honor within my presentation binder of all my work.

The note was simple, but enough to keep me geared up to continue my writing.  A sequel to the first book is a definate possibility, as many of the readers are now moved to share their own stories.  Thank you Senator Ritchie for noticing the work of people within our community, and for encouraging me to keep following my dreams

With the new year comes a new challenge for not only myself but for many of the kids that I work with.  We will be competing in the 2012 battle of the books!

I have taken on the task to become coach for a dedicated group of students who have challenged themselves to know every tiny detail of the books that are on the required reading list. Once they are familiar with the stories, we begin studying the assigned questions.  The kids started their reading list prior to Christmas break, and will continue for nearly 3 months studying the title, author, and plot of each story until known by heart, and answers about them can be given within seconds.  With 15 books on the read list, plus 2 alternates, this a huge undertaking.

From February 29th - March 1st (depending on the grade level) the
kids will battle with others in their persepctive school buildings.  The winners from this battle will then move on to the district battle.  From there, those who take home first place will compete in the county battle.  It is no small feat for the kids who will walk away with that coveted blue ribbon. 

As my first year of coaching, this experience is both exciting and overwhelming.  I will meet with my kids on a regular basis and prep them for the upcoming contest.  We will create a team name, get matching t-shirts, and will focus on the fun of reading while enjoying a competition.  So bring on the books....we're ready to

For more information on Battle of the Books and to view the reading list, you can visit www.akla.org.

It sounds crazy, doesn't it?  Starting off the new year without making any unrealistic promises that are well meaning yet have no chance of ever materializing.  But I propose just that.  I will not begin this year setting myself up for failure, instead I propose to simply follow through on the projects that seem worthy enough.


Last week my goal was to have my book ready for kindle by the time I return to work on Tuesday morning (or Wednesday if we're lucky enough to get a snow day  LOL).  I tried....I really did.  Hours were spent each day formatting and converting files, only to end up with my friend holding me back from throwing my computer out of my window.  A dajavu moment that I had while trying to format my paperback book.  While I did end up outwitting my computer back in November, sadly I have not won the battle yet this time.  It doesn't mean that I have given up.  No, quit is not in my vocabulary.  It just means that folks who got a kindle for Christmas may have to wait a little bit longer to download my book.  Since the physical version is still available in bookstores and online, I am okay with that.  I would much rather be behind schedule than produce something that wasn't right.

So I started off my new year not exactly where I had anticipated, but in firm belief that everything happens exactly when it is suppose to happen.  Maybe there is some unknown reason why I shouldn't be producing an e-book right now.  My friend Lisa thinks it's because I should be concentrating on revising my book proposal and query letter for my other book.  I have a hunch that she's not too far off with that one.  The fresh ideas are brewing in my head and I would like to get them out of the brain clutter and onto paper before I forget what they are.

The year ahead is still vast, and with 364 unexplored days in front of me I have ample opportunity to create wonderful things in my life.  Hopefully I will take some time and squeeze a vacation in there somewhere because working full time and writing as a second job sure does drain the life out of you.  I will however pledge to take each day as it comes, and enter through any doors that are opened for me.  I am hopeful for a productive year, full of good health (Lord knows we have hit our limit last year with unexpected setbacks) and happy memories.  Welcome 2012, may you be the best year yet!