Spring! Joyness!

A new summer, and a new season of motivation?  Well, we'll see...  How many new beginnings do I have each year?  I'd say at least four.  And that's not counting all the other ones.

Thought I might manage a really good fresh start last night, what with Kev being in Amsterdam on a Stag Do, and the kids being out at my auntie's for a sleepover.  But no, I got sucked into the telly and didn't manage to get out again until midnight (which I think might have been 1am, on account of the clocks changing).  But in my defence, I think I did need a bit of recharging, and I have woken up this morning feeling refreshed and lovely.  I do feel like writing.  I feel that there's something brilliant lurking at the back of my brain.  I just need to find something to tempt it out - I wonder if it would fancy a nice bit of cheese...

So, glorious weather, just right for getting out to the park and such like.  Tiring out the boys is the thing to do, get them to bed early, and then settle down for a write.  The shame of it is that I write much more and much better stuff in the mornings and on sunny afternoons, but I don't get many of those for writing.  I'm supposed to get Matthew's nursery mornings of course, but lately other things have been claiming those.  I must try to claim them back.

I have a Noo Tattoo :)  It's a biggie!  I love it.  It matches perfectly with everything else - a little bit of colour, and a little bit of detail, but still fitting in nicely.  I'm very pleased with it.  Not to everyone's taste of course, but we don't all want to be the same now, do we?  You have your tattoos, and I'll have mine.  I'm telling my own story on my skin - this tattoo represents my late teens, a time when I was blissfully happy and blissfully ignorant and all that mattered were guitars, Jack Daniels, a-pound-a-pint, and my first boyfriend, Andy.  Life was very simple, and a lot of fun.  I could have regrets about some of my choices, but what a waste of time and energy that would be.  So I look back on those few years with tremendous fondness and a big beaming smile, because it was brilliant.  I got to see Guns 'n' Roses before they split up!  For goodness sake!  Do you know how many fans didn't get to see them?  Loads, I reckon...

So I got out my G'n'R CDs yesterday, that I haven't listened to for a very long time.  Couldn't find one of them - think I might have lent it out to someone, so will have to buy that again.  I played some songs to the boys, songs from Appetite for Destruction, and they were very impressed.  In fact they, Thomas and James, both said that Guns 'n' Roses are definitely their new favourite band.  They want to listen to my CDs loud in the car all the time!  And now my work is done - I can give my children no greater gift than Rock 'n' Roll.  Henceforth, the words Slash and Axl will be as familiar to my boys as 3DS and Mario are to other children.  I am proud.

Better go and collect my wonderful boys now then.  But look!  I have blogged :)  And would like to continue to do so.  I wonder if I can manage to keep up a blogging challenge, and post at least every other day from now until the end of the year?  I need some kind of writing challenge to get me going again.  I was thinking of a Hub-a-Day, and am still thinking of that.  Things that get me writing are good, because they usually encourage me to write more of my novel - and I find that the novel somehow magically starts to get written when I'm writing other things to.

Wow!  This blogging has been like a long-awaited meal today.  I feel nourished by it.  How strange.  But it is actually as lovely as eating chocolate after not having eaten chocolate for a long time.  Perhaps I could give up chocolate and sustain myself with writing.

Well, those boys are missing me - they phoned me, with little tears in their voices last night.  Well, Thomas did - James and Matthew were fine, so I told them to look after Thomas and give him hugs and be nice to him.  How funny that, even though I shout at them lots, my kids still love me!

See you anon (what does that mean?)

Lx.

Contented

:)

Hello.

Having a nice year, so far?

I am.

Just plodding along, doing the things I love.  Reading, writing, being with my kids.  All good.  Particularly the kids part.  I keep finding that I'm putting them to bed very late, just because I'm enjoying talking to them, and doing homeworky things with them.  Last night I brought them upstairs to get ready for bed at 7pm, but they didn't actually settle down until 9pm because we decided to write in our diaries together, and I spent a good 40 minutes printing photos on my Pogo for us all.  Each boy wanted the same photos as his brothers, so I printed out four copies of each one.  There's nothing much better than sitting on my bed, with three little boys chattering away, asking me how to spell things, and telling me all about absolutely everything.  That is one of my favourite things to do in the world.  *deep sigh of contentment, interrupted by deep rumbling of hungry tummy*

It's lunch time, and I'm about to go and find something to eat, but thought I'd just kill some time before I go to collect young Matthew from playschool.  Perfect opportunity to blog a little.  I'm pleased with myself this morning.  I have been working on a short story.  I typed it up first, to remind myself of all its details, and then I carried on drafting it on the computer - something I never do, I always write by hand and type up when something's finished.  But I decided that it's about time I started typing as I think, because I'm taking too long to get things done.  This story got nicely embiggened by working in this way.    I'm going to finish it!  I know, crazy eh?  Me actually finishing something?  And then, I'm going to enter it into a competition.  It won't win, but that's okay.  The more stories I finish and submit, the more likely I am to win something.  If they're any good, my stories, that is.  If they're not then I could submit a hundred stories a week, and I'd never get anywhere.  And it doesn't really matter anyway.  I'll still keep writing.

Here are Thomas, James and Matthew.  It was World Book Day yesterday, and T and J's costumes were splendid.  I didn't get very good photographs, because the light in our house is atrocious and my phone camera is not very good.  But you can get a rough idea of how good they looked.  Matthew wanted to join in, and was Harry with his Bucketful of Dinosaurs.  Thomas was Peter Pevensie, and James was Edmund Pevensie (whom you will know if you are a fan of Narnia).

Happy days.