So it's Friday and the week has gone by so fast and I feel like my goal for more family time has gone out the window.

And I have this cold or allergies that isn't helping!

But tonight we are headed to the drive in to see Inside Out and Fantastic Four, and the whole family is coming along. We don't take the whole bunch to the theater very often. There is just too many of us. But tonight is a special treat and who can pass up a Disney cartoon? Not me. I have seen a few cartoons with just the husband and it is wonderful. A date we can laugh and sit munching on popcorn without a kidlet needing to use the bathroom or bouncing in their seats or kicking back of the chair in front of them. Or yelling out that Mr. Incredible is wearing his underpants! (Which he totally is.)

No, tonight these movies are for the whole bunch, with the yelling to shut the car door, and to quit opening the car door, and all the blankets and mosquitoes, and sitting under the stars.

Except I will be in the safety of the vehicular unit. My sense of adventure left with the shortness of chairs.

Note to self to bring the bug spray.

School starts in 11 days so let's make the most of this last week together before it is a fight to get everyone to read and solve math problems, and find 2 socks that may not match, but at least the kid is wearing them. One more week of them eating me out of house and home before I send them back into the public school system.

I've been working hard editing my book and getting it ready for the real world. And I am reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, which so far is an intriguing tell of angels and hell. I'll let you know how it turns out.

So run off and enjoy life and stay away from all those regrets.

Forever and a day...

It has been forever and a day since I have written! What have I been up to...

Life. Life has taken over and there is no end in sight to the busy-ness of working part time and being a full time mom. I love being a mom, and nothing should come between me and my children, so I don't mind that most days I go to bed exhausted and fall asleep after reading just a few pages, as long as I can say that I did something my kids are going to remember today.

Except I just came up with that, and I LOVE it, so for now on it's all about making memories and taking moments each day to make a difference. Am I going to miss some days? Sure I am. But I don't want my kids to remember me as the mom that kept saying "not now" or "in a little while", because those words mean I most likely never got to it.

This past week we went on a family vacation to Mesa Verde, and for the most part, put down all electronics and enjoyed the time in nature hiking, talking, and just being together as a family. And then we had to come home, and I miss last week. Everyone is back to work, and playing with friends, and reconnected to the internet, and the together time is over. And I think I've only said a few words to some of my children that included "go to bed" and "change your clothes", so now I am the warden.

I don't want to be the warden.

So make time for family. Eat dinner together. Cook together. Read a book together. It doesn't have to be big. The little things count just as much if not more. Make something count so you can go to bed knowing that you made your kids, or someone in your life, smile. Don't go to bed baffled by what you didn't get done. Remember what you did.

Another thing I have been working on is writing. That's right, folks, I have written a book that I am slowly becoming more and more proud of as I edit away. And maybe it sucks, or only a handful of people will read it, but it is all mine and my imagination. I can't wait until I can hit publish and the criticism can start rolling in. Ha ha just kidding. But seriously it is a scary endeavor and I'm going to have to push off the lid of my closed box, climb out, and do something outside of it that I never dreamed I would do.

So here's to family, and dreams, and being yourself! Make the little things count.