Writing

Well, today is the last day of September and my previous blog was posted in the beginning of January, so as you can tell, I'm really on top of things...

Yeah...

I really enjoy writing. Specifically, I enjoy writing stories. Even more specifically, I like to make up those stories. Giving regular updates on what my family is up to (at least in blog form) is pretty boring for me. With Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it also feels redundant. Social media allows me to post those silly conversations, proud moments and daily craziness right away; then I feel like there's no need to expand on those things here. So I don't.

But I am writing, I promise you that. I get a little giddy just thinking about the story I have to tell, too. It is not a children's book. It is not a short story. It is not a book to encourage moms of young children. (I'm actually quite bored and tired by the mommy blogs anymore unless it's a blog of someone I know personally.)

I'm writing a novel. Or maybe a series, I'm not quite sure yet. I don't know if I can get the whole story out in one book. Or if it will be just one book and then do a spin-off book with a certain character or storyline from the book. I've been inspired!

Inspiration is a wonderful feeling. I've basically been wanting to write a great story since my freshman year in college. I must have started at least ten times, but then I'd determine that those stories were either lame or have been done before. Then sometime this past January/February, an idea just came to me.

Now, I'm not going to reveal what the story is, but it is definitely in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre. And if you don't like that genre, you will probably hate it. And even if you do like that genre, you still might think it's a lame story. But I'm excited about it and my mom will at least tell me it's great. I concluded some time ago that I have an overactive imagination and it can actually be productive by making up characters, environment, imaginary physics and such for others to read and enjoy. I hope to publish some day, but I probably won't seriously start looking into that for some time yet. It is a goal, though.

So, that's the update on me. I'm writing. For real. And I guess I can post some kid pictures since you're used to seeing kid pictures on here.

Simon turned 6 in April and had a Skylanders party

Charzie turned 3 in May and had a Mickey Mouse party

Jonas turned 5 in August and had a shark party (at the end of Shark Week)

 Chase turned 33 in September and had an R2D2 cake because I found a sweet R2D2 cake pan at a thrift store. He's not a kid, but he does have a sweet cake.

There's no picture of me with my birthday cake because no one made one for me and I won't make one for myself. I do cakes and birthday parties for my family, but I don't do it trying to be better than other moms or make other moms feel bad for not doing it. I just enjoy coming up with cake & game ideas, executing those ideas and eating cake. Mmmmmmmmm caaaaaaaaaake. (Another reason I'm done with the mommy blogging world is when the birthday party issue comes up the blogs are often either showing elaborate/expensive birthday parties with styled pictures I find mostly ridiculous or the blogs bash those parties saying those moms are ruining it for all the other moms. I feel I fall more in the middle but could be seen as making other moms feel bad. I'm terrible at keeping up with cleaning & laundry, but at least my kids have fun birthdays!)

So if you want to see an inordinate amount of pictures of my kids, follow me on Instagram @weesher. If you want to read dumb stuff I say, follow me on Twitter @weesherweesh. If I know you in real life, we can be Facebook friends (but only if I know you in real life) if you search for me. I may occasionally post something or other amusing on here or maybe give a book update, but this blog will probably be neglected.

I will leave you with things I've been into lately...

Books: George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. I am currently finishing the fifth book, A Dance with Dragons. I think I'll get into the Halloween spirit by reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein once I've finished.

TV: Doctor Who (I don't get BBC America, so I have to wait until the current season comes to Netflix or Amazon Instant Video), Classic Doctor Who (I started from the beginning of what they have on Netflix/Amazon and am currently on the episodes with the fourth Doctor, the one with the long scarf), Game of Thrones (HBO), True Blood (HBO- started this one over the summer when the GOT season ended and now only have a few episodes left of the series!), The Walking Dead (AMC- don't get AMC so we bought the series on Amazon, but we don't get to watch it until the day after it airs), Drunk History (Comedy Central), Impractical Jokers (TrueTV- we don't get this channel but watch it online sometimes).

Movies: I go to maybe two movies a year. The last movie I saw in the theater was The Lego Movie with my kids. I am pretty set on seeing the next Hunger Games movie in the theater when it comes out, and I'm totally cool with seeing it alone. I'm sure we'll watch lots of horror movies on Netflix/Amazon this October, too, after the kids go to bed. 

Sports: HAHAHHAHHAHAHHA (this is a joke because I don't watch sports, except my kids doing gymnastics class, and that is quite amusing- the boys do cartwheels like Oompa Loompas.)

Food: Entenmann's snack size (chocolate) frosted donuts, Eggo pumpkin spice waffles, Count Chocula, burgers with BBQ sauce, crab cakes, crescent roll sandwiches, cake, Breyer's lactose free ice cream

Kids' Activities: sending them outside to play, sending them to the basement to play, telling them to color rocks they find outside, gluing stuff they find outside to paper, Legos, reading books with them

Music: The Flaming Lips, Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Beck, Lucius. I mostly like 90's alt rock with a bit of newer music. Alice FM is my favorite radio station.

I don't really know how to end this. Hopefully next time it won't be quite so long between posts. And hopefully next time I'll have made real progress on my book!

Happy President's Day!

In honor of President's Day, I've uploaded a coloring page just for you! It's adapted from a drawing I did years ago of Abraham Lincoln.


Yes, I'm a weirdo. Also, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is my new favorite book. For real. I got it as a Christmas gift from my parents, sort of as a joke I assume, and it turns out to be great. Now color my picture, read that book and have a fun President's Day!

Fists, Small Children and a Weird Creature

Some of Simon's new favorites:

1. His own fist
Si has been known to make fists and stick his arms straight out. Lately he's been watching his fist (the left in particular) with great concentration and will start opening his mouth as if he was trying to eat it. Then the fist slowly comes towards his mouth often ending up at his cheek or under his bib. The times his fist winds up in his mouth are super cute, but of course he promptly stops whenever we get the video camera out.

2. Small children
There's a little girl at church named Taylor who I babysat and Si loves her. He lets her poke and prod him as well as restrain his arms or legs without fussing as long as she's talking to him. He was being pretty fussy yesterday morning at church but when this 3-year-old came up and started talking to him, his whole demeanor immediately changed. Last night he also enjoyed the company of one 2-year-old Bekah.

**Edit**
3. Put Me in the Zoo
Simon loves this book. He got super excited as I read it to him today and laughed pretty hard. We have the smaller, shorter version, not the full one, though.

This Week's Project

This week's big project is getting Si on a feeding/sleeping schedule. It's day 2 and he does not like naps. I borrowed and read the book Baby Wise on the recommendation of a couple friends and am attempting their "parent directed feeding" flexible schedule. We'll see how it goes.

Once Si is sleeping through the night, I think my next big project might be learning to bake this dish:

Be Thankful or ELSE!

Is it just me or does it look like Jesus is about to snap this guy's neck?

We get a catalogs in the church office for ordering junk, er, items to enhance the ministries of the church. Occasionally these catalogs will have helpful items, but usually it's junk the church or kids' parents will throw away after vacation Bible school.

This book came from the Church Edition of SmileMakers. I'm only guessing the lesson to be learned in this book is that if you're not appreciative of what Jesus did for you, He will snap your neck.

I'm sure this book has a better, truer lesson for kids, or you could always just stick to the original.

Do's and Don'ts with Babies

My husband found some wonderful illustrations on properly caring for babies. I think these will really help us out a lot.

For example:
And:
We can't forget:

Anyone planning on babysitting or caring for our child in any way should check out the rest of these illustrations to best prepare for any baby situation.

If, like us, you are or will soon be a new parent, you may want to go ahead and purchase the book to leave with babysitters.

Fiction

So, a couple weeks ago I finished reading the Harry Potter series. Those books are incredible. The story is so well written and easy to get into. J.K. Rowling is so creative and was able to invent a whole other world, and I'm so amazed with that.

I love reading fiction, but whenever I finish a great story, I start feeling a bit depressed. Books like the Harry Potter series and Lord of the Rings are so jam-packed with action, excitement, friendship and fighting evil that my life seems pretty lame compared to it. I want to go on an adventure and fight against evil or something! Or maybe write my own story....

And actually, I have sorta started writing my own story. The idea came to me last night. There's no magic or wizards like in LOTR or Harry Potter, but I do think it could be an interesting tale. I kind of got the idea of how to go about writing from Chase. He was wondering if all writers go into as much depth and background of their characters as Rowling does, so I want to develop characters and their personalities and back-stories before writing the plot.

So there ya have it, I'm writing a book!