Easter!

It seems to me that holidays come faster and faster every year. They just seem to sneak up on me each time. After Christmas, Valentines and St. Patrick just jumped up at me before I’d begun to feel prepared, I swore I’d be ready for Easter.

And you know what? I think maybe I am.

Every Easter I have a big brunch at my house. Most of you know I love to bake and cook. So I put out a spread! This is from 2010. Let me tell you, it 's grown since then! I spend most of the day before doing all the prep work so I don’t have to get up early the day of the brunch. Being lazy is easy when you plan. ; )

The kids open their Easter baskets before the brunch then set up the tables. People trickle in and out, stay and leave. We eat, the kids have an Easter egg hunt, we eat, so more, drink mimosas, eat, play baseball and have a lot of fun. It’s actually turning into one of the most laid back, relaxing holidays of the year.  I’m not saying it’s the Mimosas, but I’m not saying it’s not either.

To top it all off, my flowers usually look pretty darn good too.The "big" kids always team up with the littler kids to find Easter Eggs...it's only fair (and gives us a good excuse to participate.)

I’m not sure it will ever top Christmas for my favorite holiday, but it’s getting close.  

We invite friends, family. It’s pretty much come as you are.  We’re celebrating on Saturday this year so if you’re in the neighborhood, stop on by!

Do you have a favorite holiday?

Fantasy, Facts, Fun: Five Sayings.

These made me laugh, I hope they do you too!



1. I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: - 'No good in a bed, but fine against a wall.'   - Eleanor Roosevelt

 2. Last week, I stated this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I have since been visited by her sister, and now wish to withdraw that statement.. - Mark Twain

3. Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.   - Victor Borge

4. Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. - Mark Twain

5. I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it.. - W. C. Fields

Fantasy, Facts, Fun: Table Time

As most of you know, I have seven children. Because I'm outnumbered, I often have to police more than play, but we get our play in there too.

Eating together is very important to me. It's a time to chat (No TV or cellphones) and be together as a family. Occasionally, my children are wildly funny--whether they mean to be or not.

One of the things we love to do at the table during dinner is tell jokes. So recently my 7 year-olds and I decided to come up with some jokes to tell daddy at dinner time.

I decided they were so awesome, I'd share them with you.

These are inspired by 7 year olds and fine-tuned by me.


What did the master chef say to the wood?
.
.
.
You're chopped!

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What did the brick say to the other brick?
.
.
.
Lego me!

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What did the fries say to the hamburger?
.
.
.
Pleasure to meat you!
(This was originally, what did the farmer say to the cow, but it seemed kinda brutal to me)

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What did the lollipop say to the lollipop?
.
.
.
Stick by me.

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What did the wall clock say to the digital clock?
.
.
.
Will you give me a hand?
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Yes, I know. They're geniuses. Feel free to share. : )

Have you heard any good jokes lately? (They don't have to be kid friendly. None of my kids actually read my blog. : ) )

The Winner of my Valentines Give Away!

Sarah graciously consented to post this picture. She won the Valentines give away with her comment on the Carina Press blog. And as fate would have it, she was actually wearing something that matched the day she received the pendant. Yup, some things were meant to be...

Thank you to everyone who participated! I love hearing from all of you! : ) 

Facts, Fantasy, Fun

In a perfect world, my house would always be clean. I suppose either I’d have a live-in maid or have trained my kids much better than I apparently did to not only leave a room cleaner than when they entered it but do so with smiles on their little faces.

I’d have at least two hours to prep and cook dinner every day. It’s crazy how little time I have to cook. And I love to cook. Baking? Well, I’d have one day a week to just bake. Cakes, cookies, pies, pastries, you name it. The more elaborate the better. Hmmm with all that I’d better have at least 30 minutes a day to exercise.

I’d be able to spend quality time with each of my kids, individually and together. I’d have  time to play with them, laugh with them.

I’d have four solid hours to write every day. Oh, that may not sound like much, but when you consider I get about a quarter of that each day now, it sounds like an extravagant amount of time.

Promo would come easy. I hate talking about myself. And although I really think you’d love my book, it is such a part of me, it feels like talking about myself. Come to think of it. I think you’d really like me too if you got to know me so there you go.

I’d have a fresh bouquet of flowers for my kitchen table every week—preferably from my large cut flower garden. Yup, gardening is a close second to baking. It would only take me two hours a week or so to maintain a garden... It seems crazy that I just can’t seem to carve that out.

I would always be dressed and have my hair and makeup done every day before 9 am. ROFL... yup. It’s a good thing I can work in my pjs most days.

I’d have time to sit and listen to my husband every day. I’ve discovered that listening to him is more important than talking to him.

Well, my life is not perfect, but then if I switch things around and look at everything from another angle, I can see my life is full to overflowing of wonder, love and joy...even if the laundry sits on the couch and the dishes are still in the sink, and the flowers stay on the rose bush among the weeds, and even if I can’t get it all done in one day.

It is a perfect world, because it's mine.

And the winner is

This is how I did it. I looked at every comment on every blog that I visited, including mine, since Feb 4th. I listed each person except the owner of the blog. For instance, if I was at Ruth. A. Casie's blog, I did not list Ruth's comments as entries.

Then I tallied up the comments. And I have to say thank you. Some of you commented 10 or more times. That of course gave you 10 entries.

I went to Random.org random list generator. Entered everyone's name and the blog in which they commented. Some people had ten, five or one entry.

As you can imagine, this was time consuming and I don't think I'll ever do it this way again. : ) But that's not important. You want to know who won!

Drum roll please.

And the winner of the Ilydearta pendant is.....

Ella Quinn from Ruth A. Casie's blog! 

Congratulations, Ella! 

Enslaved by R.C. Murphy

One of my favorite perks of being a writer is discovering new talent or hearing about such talent from other talented friends.

Today, from Just Ink Publishing, let me introduce you to Enslaved by R.C. Murphy. To be honest I haven't finished this book yet, but it's on my Kindle and I'm looking forward to it!

The gods are flawed . . . and they make awful parents.

Deryck knows first-hand the cruelty of the gods. Three thousand years after his birth, he is still trapped, forced to service humans as an Incubus—unable to choose whom he sleeps with, and living a life completely devoid of love. There is no out for him. No hope. Or so he thought.

Shayla McIntire spent five years getting her life back on track after the accident claiming her husband’s life. She is content to a nice, boring, subdued life free of the abuse she suffered before. Her friends are worried. They want her to find the man of her dreams and move on.

Little do they know, the Powers That Be have decided the man of Shayla’s dreams. There’s just one hitch, he’s enslaved to the gods and it will take power she doesn’t know she has to free him. Deryck isn’t the only one hoping Shayla will free him, though.

R.C. Murphy spends her nights writing urban fantasy novels and a slew of short stories for her blog, The Path of a Struggling Writer. By day she is a not so mild-mannered housewife, wrangling vampires, demons, and various other nasty creatures. R.C. has joined forces with fellow writers, artists, and actors to form the Zombie Survival Crew where she reviews movies, TV shows, as well as penning articles on important survival skills.

You can learn more about RC and her crew at any or all of these places:

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Zombie Survival Crew | Just Ink Press

A Day in the Life

 In Journey of Awakening, Sara wears a wire-wrapped blue stone called Ilydearta, or Waymaker. Today is the last day to comment on any of my blogs for a chance to win this fabulous pendant. It comes with a 16" silver chain (not pictured).

At noon on the west coast, I will tally up all the names and run them through a random number generator. The winner will be revealed tomorrow. March 5th!

I'd like to thank you all for sharing this release month with me. Your support and comments me more than I can say. : )