Racing toward their Future

Not many of us can remember being two. If we could, we'd surely be more open to wonder. We'd remember discovering the world bit by bit. My preacher likes to tell young people that he did this or that before they "discovered America." In other words, before they were born. That's sort of how I felt this weekend taking care of my grandsons. They're on the cusp of three, but still every bit two-year-olds right now. And the world holds many marvels for them. Butterflies, macaroni, slides and swimming pools, to name a few. They don't bother trying to hide how they feel. If they're mad, they let you know it. If some brother sneaks up and snatches one of their favorite toys, then they don't keep it a secret. If they fall down, the bump or bruise is grave - for at least five seconds.

I think all that fresh, raw emotion is what makes grandparents enjoy their grandchildren so much. We're getting older. We're ready and able to slow down the clock a little. To sit on a creek bank and watch the frogs, to throw rocks in a pond just for the fun of making a splash, to make up silly stories about chipmunks, or to bounce a little child in the air a dozen times when he giggles and says "Again."  

A neighbor once told me that if she'd known grandkids were going to be so much fun, she'd have had them first. Of course that wouldn't work. We weren't ready to be grandparents then. That's a job you have to grow into, little by little as the gray begins slipping into your hair and the wrinkles come and sit down on your face and settle in to stay instead of just passing by after a smile or two. You understand things better - like the importance of playing hide-and-seek and how it doesn't matter if part of your body is showing in the hiding place as long as your eyes aren't. You know pushing a swing to send that little one up "high as the moon" is one of the most important things a person can do. You know what's ahead. Maybe not exactly, but well enough to know that these early years are to be treasured and enjoyed and that for grandparents they are a bonus not to be wasted or lost in the busyness of life. They - those grandbabies - are life. 

Hope you are enjoying life this week no matter where in the circle of life you are - beginning with your families or sitting back watching some sweet grandbabies. That's what I did this weekend. Well, I can't say I sat back and watched anything. I was running full tilt after them but it was good to see their eagerness for the journey ahead. That's what I want to catch from them - for myself and for my characters. Eagerness for the journey ahead. 

Celebrating Twins and a Hometown Book Launch

Whew! Whoever said twins were no more work than one couldn't have been talking about toddlers. We had the boys here at the house for a few days last week and believe me, I got my exercise without worrying about setting aside time for a walk. There wasn't any setting aside time for anything except chasing boys. Especially when we went outside to see the dogs. They liked heading off to do independent adventure seeking then with one boy going one way and the other boy going the opposite direction. As they hightailed it for the field or the garden or the far reaches of Africa perhaps, they'd sometimes look back at me and grin while they kept trucking until grandma grabbed one of them up and then ran to cut short the other's journey and make them come back to the yard.

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But aren't they cute? And you will notice that I'm still smiling. Hair is only half combed and if you could see the floor in the picture, you'd wonder how we could walk for the toys scattered everywhere. What is it about kids that dumping toys you've just picked up is the most fun of anything they can do? For sure there were lots of hugs and kisses to go around.

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But Sunday morning I packed them up and took them back to Mom and Dad. Then I had to rush home to get to my hometown book launch for The Seeker at the local library. I've been doing this every time I have a new release for the last five or six books now and it's always one of the most enjoyable events I do. Friends from church and neighbors and people from town who've known me since I was a kid growing up here come out and we talk books. They listen to me talk mostly, but then it's great to hear what they have to say. We laughed a lot yesterday. They thought it was funny when I told them how I'd left things at the house with the trashcan in the shower stall and the toilet paper up on the windowsill and cereal scattered to the four corners of the kitchen. They were a good bunch and I always feel so honored that people will take time out of their busy schedules to come listen to me tell them about my books. They were a good looking group, but I forgot to give somebody my camera to take pictures while I was talking so you'll just have to take my word for it. There were also several people there from our Central Kentucky writers group and I really appreciate their support.

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I had thought about making brownies and lemonade, but I was being too optimistic on how much time I'd have to cook, etc. while the twins were here. Way too optimistic. Darrell had to go to town to get food. :-) But I did take Dove chocolates that have those inspirational messages on the inside of the wrappers. I read one that seemed to fit the day. "The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate."

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It was fun celebrating a new book with my hometown friends. Hope you have good things to celebrate this week.

Double the Exercise!!

--No picture this Sunday since I'm in WV trying to keep up with my four little grandkids up here. Believe me, I'm finding out why the good Lord fixed things to that young people are the mamas and daddies. It's becoming more than obvious that I might have too many miles on my speedometer to keep up with four kids six and under. But right now things are good. The twins, seventeen month old boys, are taking a nap and the other grandmama came and got the four year old and six year old girls to take them to a movie. I need to send her roses.
--The boys are cute as can be and pretty good babies except that they know their grandma is a sucker for a pitiful look and reaching up hands and will pick them up at a whimper. Then the other one wants his time in too. My hip is sore from packing them around, but think of the muscles I'm building. It's just like being at one of those exclusive spas where you diet and work out. The diet because who has time to eat when you're busy keeping four little mouths fed. Although I do have to admit I'm doing the mommy thing and eating stuff leftover that I normally wouldn't think of eating. You know, leftover box mac & cheese. Cold. You mommies have been there. You understand.
--As for the spa bit, it helps that my son's house is three story. That adds a lot of good stair climbing - with weights. The twins are both little chunks. Plus there's a side advantage of honing my mediation skills since one twin pretty much likes to take everything away from the other twin. Refereeing anyway.
--Then there's the crisis management class. That includes the older kids. The oldest is a little drama queen who spent a half hour crying last night (drama queen style) because all the books she had to read were too, too easy. That included her grandma's books, the ones I wrote some years back for middle readers and young teens. She was just so misunderstood and needed something thick to read. She finally went and pulled out one of her older sister's Harry Potter books. The older sis isn't here. She's on the trip with her parents. The little drama queen who needed those hard books to read proudly told me this morning that she's on page three. I figure her parents will be back in plenty of time to convince her the book is too old for her if they don't want her to read it yet. Her big sister was a big Harry Potter fan and the six year old wants to think she's as old as her when she's eight years younger.
--I can't forget the culinary experience and challenge. You know trying to fix a peanut butter sandwich just like mama does. Or figuring out anything the four year old will eat that doesn't have as the main ingredient sugar. The twins eat hearty and just about anything you put in front of them - or that they find on the floor. Of course the peanut butter is on the top shelf since we're still not sure if that's what made John have his allergic reaction. They haven't gotten to the allergist yet.
-- So at my age I'm still learning about challenges. And doing my best to meet them. Oops! The boys are crying. Thanks for reading. You'll find out if I graduated from the spa courses with honors on Wednesday. I'll settle for a passing grade. That would mean everybody got fed and in bed at an almost reasonable time and nobody got hurt.
--Thanks for reading.

Life Begins and Life Ends

Hi, everybody. Hope you are having as beautiful a Sunday as we are here. The weather is extra nice for the middle of August although the grass is beginning to turn brown in spots because of lack of rain. Are we ever satisfied with the weather? In the winter, it's too cold. In the summer it's too hot. In the spring, it's too rainy. In the fall, it's not rainy enough. Still I love the seasons of the year even though there are times I'd like to hold onto the pretty days of spring a bit longer or delay the beginning of winter a few weeks.

I came home on Thursday night from babysitting the older girls while the twins were being born. The babies are so cute and seemed very content. I never really heard either one of them cry. It didn't even bother them coming home to three very excited big sisters and a small poodle dog, not to mention grandma and grandpa wanting to get a look at them and hold them for a few minutes. Not the poodle. He just wanted to be in the mix. They took it all in stride without a whimper. I'm going to try to post a picture of them on my website in the next week or so. I'll let you know when. Mother's doing fine and father's doing the best he can to cover all the bases until she's back to full throttle. Thank goodness their school where they attend won't start for a couple of weeks to give everybody a little time to adjust to having two new family members.

I came from a happening of great joy to one of sadness as my last maternal aunt passed away suddenly last week. She had a stroke on Tuesday and died on Wednesday morning. My mom had three sisters. The oldest and youngest sister had already passed on and now Margaret who was three years younger than Mom. I loved hearing them talk about growing up in the thirties during the Depression. They said they never felt poor. They didn't have any money, but they always had food on the table and loving parents. They had a big garden and their father had beehives. They enjoyed playing ball and hide and seek with all the other kids in the neighborhood so never lacked entertainment. And they loved to laugh. When all four of them got together, there was always laughter. What a great way to be remembered! As laughing because life is good.

Not that everything was always easy for them. Margaret married before she got out of school and right before WW II started. Her husband had to go to service. She lost her first baby, and then boarded a train at the tender age of nineteen to ride all the way to California to spend a couple of weeks with her husband before he was sent overseas. She had never been away from home, had never been on a train. But that's the way my mom and her sisters were. Ready for any challenge. Sometimes though the hardest challenges await us when we get older. Mom is facing a lot of those challenges now. One of those is being the last sister in her family still living. They didn't have any brothers. But as always, she's hanging in there, taking it one day at a time.

We'll miss Margaret. She was the sister who didn't mince words. Last time we went to lunch a few weeks ago, they had both been to get perms. I had a major hairstyle change a week or so before that. Cut it all off. I haven't had my hair this short since I was in fifth grade. Anyway when they were talking about their hair, I asked Margaret how she liked mine. She looked at me and told it like she saw it. "I think you need to fix it." I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Actually most people say they think my new style is good, but not everyone. My five-year-old granddaughter who I was babysitting last week looked at me and said she didn't like my hair. But then she tried to make me feel better by saying, "Don't worry, grandma. It'll grow back." I didn't have the heart to tell her I wasn't planning to let that happen for a while. Oh well, maybe she'll get used to her grandma's new look.

Now that the babies are here, it's back to work for me, although I may go back to help out a few days here and there. I am anxious to get back to my book. And I have some special events coming up. My book launch at the local library here in Lawrenceburg is only three weeks away. I plan to talk about "Writing about Shakers .. and other odd characters." That's going to be my topic at the Book Festival in West Virginia in October. So this will be a good warmup speech to see how it goes. The Lawrenceburg event will be very casual with lots of discussion with those who come. It should be fun. Then Ginny Smith and I will be doing a signing at Joseph-Beth's in Lexinton on October 16. That's a Thursday evening. We'll be talking as well as signing. If you know Ginny and/or me, you know that's a given. Ginny has a new Love Inspired book out and she'll also have several of her other books there too. Ginny is so prolific that she has books out with three different publishing companies, all at the same time.

Me, I'm just trying to hang in there with one publishing company and meet my deadline on this new book. As I said last week, I lack one scene being to the end. Then I have to go back and read it to see if I've got a story that will work. I'm hoping that the hero and heroine will be people readers (and I) can care about. I'm hoping the story will be tied together well and will be exciting, but I really won't know until I read it. My editor compared writing a book to giving birth. And it is sort of that way. You carry it around in your head and then you push it out word by word until finally the whole book is outside your head on paper. Then you have to look to be sure all the toes and fingers are there. On babies, the toes and fingers are always precious no matter how they look. Not always the same with books. Sometimes there are too many toes or fingers or they may need a little reshaping to make them look right. That's what I'm getting ready to do, the editing and reshaping and making better. At least that's the hope and intent when I rewrite.

I'm going to start a new give-away next month, so be sure to check my website and/or here. I'm considering a full set of my Hollyhill books. I've been hearing from some readers of The Outsider who have never read any of my other books, so thought it might be fun to introduce them to Hollyhill. And for those of you who have read the Hollyhill books, they would make a great gift to someone this Christmas or whenever.

And last, but not least, thanks to the Book Club in Wooster, Ohio for reading my book Orchard of Hope. I enjoyed talked to you by phone. Any of the rest of you in bookclubs, I would be glad to come to your bookclub if you are in the area and if not, I'd love to talk to you by phone if you decide to read one of my books. The Outsider has already been chosed by some clubs.

Have a great week. See you Wednesday.

The Twins are Here

The twins have discovered America!!! They were born on Monday at around 4 p.m. One, named Johnson after his dad, weighed in at 7 lbs 1 oz. The other, Matthew, weighed in at 6 lbs 14 oz. No wonder their mom was tired. Big sisters are excited and proud. They all got to hold the babies today, even the two year old. Very carefully. She loved touching their hair. Dad can't quit smiling and grandmas and grandpas are suitably impressed too. They're not identical twins but they look enough alike that grandma had to remember that Johnson had the most hair to know which baby was which. I don't know how moms & dads with identical twins keep them straight.

Everybody is doing well. Thanks so much for your prayers.