Splish splash!

Whatever is going on with my seven year old is turning my hair gray really fast! She was always so loving and easygoing and such a good listener.......
Now? I don't know who this kid is!
She tells me sometimes, after her little fits when she's crying and cuddling me, she says "I don't want to grow up, Mommy. Growing up makes you bad."
Hmmmph.
With an older sister and two older brothers whatever gave her that impression?!
I keep telling her its the choices you make. Not that her older siblings are'bad', they just like to disagree, argue, and do what they want.
Back to the point of my blog: what she said to me when I wanted her to have a bath or shower - "You are the meanest Mommy in the universe."
Should I be offended?
Nah. She's seven. I know she still loves me.
But it got my brain working and I totally thought of a cute picture book. I can totally see the pictures in my head!
Here's the rough draft. I know it still needs some work, a lot of tweaking, but seriously, where we get our ideas for stories..........

SPLISH SPLASH I WAS TAKING A BATH

Baths are for babies, oh so small.                              

Look at this tub, it’s not for me at all.                     

Time to bath and lather in suds.

Don’t splash and make waves or cause any floods.

A little dirt never hurt.                                                   

I know, I’m the dirt expert.                                         

It’s time to jump in the tub.

 Do the scrub-a-dub-dub.

I am a princess so regal                                                  

And baths are illegal.                                                      

By order of the Queen:

All princesses must be clean.

I’ll fly in the air high above the stars.                       

All the way to far off Mars!                          

Even aliens get washed

They zap the grime and bugs get squashed.

Mirror mirror on the wall.                                 

Who is the fairest of them all? 

Not the one to appear                                       or   You are looking so shabby.

She is much too dirty I fear.                         Please don’t be crabby.

You are the meanest mommy in the universe.   

To make me get washed – what could be worse? 

It’s time – I mean now to get out of your shell.

You reek to high heavens and I can’t stand your smell.

I’m not a mermaid or fish.                                                            

Maybe I can make the water vanish.

                                    

Fish and dolphins and whales,

And even mermaids wash their tails.

If I get lost in the bubbles that bubble and bubble            

For three years I’ll be lost and in so much trouble.            

Wash your worries away

Only clean shining girls can stay.

In the bath I must soak?                                                                               

Well like a frog I will croak!                                                           

If the soap is not wet

You are not finished yet.

I can swim like a fish. Like a porpoise I swim.      

I jump and I dive and I splash on a whim.              

 Don’t forget to wash your ears and your bellybutton

Or between your toes, just for fun!

If you want to know how much I love you

Count the waves in the sea so blue.

SPLISH SPLASH I WAS TAKING A BATH

See lots of work left but oh the pictures in my head!

What did you think?

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all!
I got roughly two hours sleep, plus another 45 minutes if you add all the five minutes intervals my youngest daughter let me close my eyes before asking, "Can we get up yet?"
Yeah. Not much.
But it is a nice relaxing day, the turkey dinner leftovers are in the fridge, my dogs have eaten some and have tons left for their supper, dishwasher is running,........
Now its relaxing! And I have the urge to write.
So.................
what will I work on?
My Survival Zone? I think not. Not with all the kids home. I get too involved.
So then.............
My fairy series? Yeah, maybe. I could do that. It would be fun.
I could also finish the third book in the Blurs series. Yeah. I think I will.
Or I have another idea for a couple of kids books.
No. Doesn't feel right yet.
So the Blurs series it is.
If I could only come up with a name.
Metamorphis?
Mutation?
Transfiguration?
Conversion?
Rebirth?
Any ideas what the book will be about?
Well I'd better get to work before the kids need me.
Happy Easter!

Fun day with kids

We managed another family trip! Yay for us! Trust me, you'd be proud too.
The difference in ages makes it hard to do. Two older boys, two younger girls.......right.
We had been promising to take the girls to Crystal Palace for a little while, and kept putting it off. What are the boys going to do? They aren't going to want to do the same thing as the girls, right? Crystal Palace is great if you like the exhibition, or fairs, you know the spinny rides, cotton candy, ....I like the cotton candy, but do not put me on any ride!
Because my husband doesn't think four children is enough we usually find one more to fill our little seven seater van. This time was our older daughter's friend that came along. She's eleven, almost twelve. And so sweet. Quiet. Good to the youngest girl which makes life easier.  It really made it more fun for Cassie, my oldest daughter, to have someone else besides Hailey to go on some of the rides. They had a wonderful time while I kept my head down and tried not to let my head spin and my stomach - blech. And that's watching, not even going on one ride.
And what did the three boys do? My two sons and hubby? They went to a car show a few minutes away! Perfect!
Right?
Does anything ever end up perfect?
Hah!
When we finished at the park, the girls wanted to cross the parking lot to shop. We had thought the boys would be finished first, so we had originally planned to meet at the park.
Wrong.
I texted my hubby to tell him we were going to the mall, meet us there.
No reply.
Not unusual.
After about half an hour or an hour, I decided to check my phone.
I had a reply.
"The person you texted left his phone at Wendy's."
Hmmm.
Should I be jealous?
Nah. He's addicted to the hamburgers.Any restaurant actually.
Loves food. Grease anyway. Is he overweight? Not at all. He is too hard a worker to gain weight.
What does that say about my cooking that none of my kids or my husband could drive by KFC or Wendy's without stopping?
I won't argue.
So about an hour and a half of looking for his phone, except over an hour was spent driving because he was lost - directions? what? - and he found his phone, then spent another half hour trying to find us.
By this time I'm starving, my feet are KILLING me, the girls are cranky and hungry, and it's late enough to remind me that I'm the morning person in this relationship.
So I ate - guess where? Wendy's.
And we drove home, quietly, okay not really quietly, my oldest son bought a nice loud motocross DVD to watch in the van, so between that volume, and how loud the girls had to be in order to be heard, I can't say it was quiet.
But we're safe, and home. And happy.
And there was our family trip!
Loved it!
Already making plans to do it again.........
Oh, it still counts even though we did separate things right? The girls and the boys? It counts right?

Spring?! Spring! WHERE?

Holy cow another day off for the kids! Five in a row because of the storms and snow and icy roads..........
And no I will not complain about keeping them home. There were a few days where I believed they should have cancelled school and drove them in to school at lunch time. Big buses, side roads, not happening. Too scary for me!
Needless to say I have not been accomplishing much this past week other than trying to keep the dishes clean. And I'm not too good at that either!
All over the house, the computer desk, it's gross! I'm not complaining about the kids being home am I? Not really. Yes but that's the normal days of having kids. I will accept some responsibility because I was too nice when they were small and cute. Now - they're bigger and cute, but old enough to know better!
Work-wise, I'm kind of all over the place again. I've got my Zapped manuscript with a wonderful, critical group of grade six students - can't wait to hear their reaction! My White Manuscript is with my slooooooooow editor (NICHOLAS!) so I might be patient or I might not. I've been working on Survival Zone, writing more and editing what I have on the computer so far.......you know I can't wait to write this series! I'm so excited! And I've started another series for early chapter readers (I think), or for 7-9 year olds or no, 6-8, I think. There will be five books in the series, and it's about -guess. These are for my youngest daughter and she's seven.
Did you guess? Fairies? RIGHT! What else could be more girlie? She helped me pick the names and even criticized a few that I did need to fix. My twelve year old daughter also helped with names. I also have the illustrator in mind too. Can't wait! I'm almost finished the first rough draft.
Other than that, still waiting for B is for Bubblegum files to upload and proof!
Here's the cover for Zapped, and B is for Bubblegum.
What do you think?

This is the rough draft but I absolutely - I mean, I I believe the B cover will be breathtaking!

This cover is new and improved for the Blurs Series!!

And ta - da!  Zapped.

Except the border shows up white so you can't really see how nice the cover looks....but I know!

And that's all the time for today! Enjoy the snow, heat, rain, cold, whatever day you're having! Enjoy!