So much excitement!

Photo: John Nyberg, rgbstock.com

Happy Thursday, friends. ☺

There's been a lot of excitement at our house this week:

♥ My six-year-old son lost his first tooth on Tuesday morning. (You've never seen such a proud boy!)

♥ The kids were able to play in their new inflatable pool for the first time on Monday. (They had outgrown their old one.)

♥ I made it through Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred, Level 1. Whew! (I'm starting Level 2 today! Wish me luck...)

♥ I signed up for another Coursera course, History of Rock, Part 2. It begins in a less than two weeks. I'm also signed up for a fall poetry class that I've heard some great things about: Modern & Contemporary American Poetry.

♥ I've been doing more work on my dad's memoir—so much fun!

♥ The kids and I survived the first week of summer vacation. ☺

Speaking of that last item, I've been trying to find interesting things to do to keep the kids occupied and entertained. Yesterday I discovered this fun video about creating instant ice. A future project? Perhaps!


(Go here to find more tips for making this project work.)

So that's my world this week. What's exciting in your world?

Wishing you all a fantastic Thursday. ☺

Feeling right at home

Today's 100 words:

When I go into a bookstore, I truly am like an excited kid in a candy store. I went to Barnes and Noble a couple of times last week to use the gift cards I'd been given for Christmas, and it took me quite some time to choose which books to buy: I wanted to buy everything! I'm the same way whenever I enter a library, especially some of the larger city libraries around town. When I walk in the door and see the stacks, whatever gloom I'd been feeling is lifted, gone. I feel like I've finally come home.

NaNo, NaNo!

I can't even put into words just how incredibly happy I was to write this 100-words entry this morning:

I think I've finally settled on an idea for this year's NaNoWriMo project. Now I have to see if I can keep my enthusiasm for it going until midnight on October 31. The fact that I woke up this morning still excited about the idea is a good sign, I suppose. Now I have to work on an outline and somehow succeed in striking that delicate balance between planning too much, which could easily lead me to hate the idea, and planning too little, which could paralyze me in November and cause me to be unable to write at all.

I'm not sure yet if I'll attempt the 50,000-word goal or if I'll become a NaNo rebel and set my own goal this year. Honestly, I haven't done any real writing for so long that getting even a few thousand words on this new project would feel like a win to me. Like everyone else who's attempting NaNo, I need to figure out which things in my life I can let go of for the month in order to make my writing a priority. Having young kids makes working difficult, of course, but I know that many other NaNo participants have not only that concern but countless others and still manage to meet their goal. Since I don't think I can convince my husband to take on the laundry, cooking, and cleaning duties for the month, I guess I'll just have to wait and see how much I'll be able to accomplish. Regardless of the word count, I'm looking forward to the challenge.

If you're participating in the insanity this year, what things will you put on the back burner for the month? How do you restructure your life around NaNo?

And finally, I'm counting on you guys. Help me out here, okay? Don't let me lose my NaNo enthusiasm! :)