Lenkaland

The first day of spring and I found this orchid.  The plant was a gift last spring that I never expected to see bloom again.  Still, I watered and cared for it just the same, because maybe . . .

And here on the first spring morning, a lovely surprise.  Welcome, spring!

Life sped up this past week.  Anika had school projects to paint.  So Ian must paint, too.  She is becoming an expert on the spotted hyena.

The sunshine inspired us to be outside.  Mom had brought seashells from her trip to Santa Cruz.  Ian was inspired to build his own pixie-homes.

It won’t be much longer that he can wear the monkey pants

Anika and I made her zebra-skirt for her big first grade show.  Tomorrow, now.

They played with a dragon-castle.  They manned the turrets with bunny-knights and Jedis.  Doesn’t get more fun that a dragon castle with bunnies and Jedis.

Time races on . . . and in the evening, we slow down.  For a moment.  Not long.  Long enough for a cuddle, a whispered love you, a memory.

Good memories.  I can forget Anika’s fever and cough and ear infection.  Then Ian’s cough and fever and ear infection.  Oh, and his molars have cut through his gums.  Poor baby.  Not much sleeping around here   Speaking of sleep . . . goodnight.

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A lovely weekend with the sun shining bright.  We got outside even though the wind was bitter cold.  On Saturday we went on  adventures.  First in the backyard. Bubbles!

Ian found the pool equipment .  Don’t worry, there aren’t any dangerous pipes or switches.  Child-safe pool pump

We decided that we must have a bigger adventure. We walked down to the high school track where Anika did some horse-racing.

On the walk home (see the CMT report for how that walk worked (or didn’t work) for me, we found treasures!
We found an oak tree with acorns all over the ground! Fairy hats! We collected pocketfuls for future pixies. Anika and Ian loved finding acorns with hats that they could take off and put back on over and over.

Then we found another treasure- acorns taking root in the ground!
We don’t get to see that very often. We collected one to share with Anika’s first grade and then plant at home.
The next day, we played on the thick green grass in the front yard.
Anika had the brilliant inspiration- Fairy Houses! She pulled out the fairy house kit that Uncle Paul made for her at Christmas. Paul put together a perfect selection of natural wood blocks, moss, and bark. I got her a fairy door that the fairies now use to live in the rock accents along our house. She built a dance floor with daffodil-petal decorations.
Meanwhile, Ian built his own pixie houses which promptly met with earthquakes as he shook the blocks to make them crash. This sent him into fits of giggling.
He watched Anika’s building with thoughtful contemplation.
The set set with warm-butter light over us and the daffodils. We stayed outside until the chill shadows and the reminder of winter returned. We went inside with plans for future fairy houses. Future spring adventures.

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Lovely sunshine today.   I expected to see this on such a sunshine-drenched morning.

This image . . . not so much

A dusting of snow over the backyard.  Very pretty in the bright sunlight.

I spent the morning in Anika’s class helping out.  Mom watched Ian, then treated me to breakfast.  Fun indeed!

We started Anika’s school project.  She is becoming an expert on a mammal.  Her mammal? The spotted hyena.  It’s a fun sculpture.  Pictures soon.

Last night I was treated to a night at the ball.  It’s not often the sparkly princess dresses are dusted off anymore.  It was quite a treat, even as she spun around to Boom Boom Pow. The modern princess makes her own rules

Rock on!

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Anika sure looks like spring these days!  She is all flowers and pink and sunshine!  Her new favorite toy is her Zhu-Zhu hamster and she just had show it off.  Doesn’t get much sweeter than this!

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Look what bloomed in our front garden!  A little early, I would say, but the drenching sunshine today said otherwise.  We went to the park on the way home from school.  Ian scampered up the stairs to slide on his belly (feet-first) down the super-tall twisty slide.  He loved the swings, too.  Anika ran with him, holding him on her lap down the slide.  She’s an amazing sister.

Yesterday we played in the yard.  Threw the ball for Bear.  Ian climbed on the bike.  The trees have bare branches but spring is gentle in the sunshine.

Between outside fun, we watch the Olympics.  Ian fetched Giovanni today to play ball.  “Ball,” he said clearly.  “Ball.”  New fun games.

Oh, an I discovered Light Room, a photo-editing program.  Wow.  I’ll have my review soon.  For now, let the pictures do the talking

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Signs of spring everywhere, blossoms and daffodils and snow.  Snow?  Yep, snow here this morning that is not only falling, but sticking.  So much for the pretty freeway daffodils.  Every year they bloom in a flush of sunny days to be crushed by a snowfall.  Maybe this storm will be mild.  The freeway drive is something to see, even with crushed daffodils.

Ian turned seven months this week.  He’s banging toys and rocking on hands and knees.  Scooting backwards into corners.  He is not flip-flop rolling across the room like Anika did as a baby.  He’s very focused on moving in a straight line.  He holds conversations of the “oh, ah, aagh,” variety.  He adores peek-a-boo.  And he’s starting to eat sweet potatoes.  He gets bigger and sweeter every day.

Anika is all about Thumbelina, the movie and a book order book (remember the fun of book orders?) and a doll that she chose for her positive report card reward.  Anika serves up tea parties for all of us. Our living room is disappearing as a flower garden grows behind the couches with fairy tents and plastic flower homes and Barbie and Tinkerbell toys.

Writing wise, I’m brainstorming a new story.  It’s going to be short (cause I’m liking the short story goals these days) and dark.

I did send out a couple of queries for Dirt last night which quickly tired me out.  I don’t send out queries without some research and then I need to go into my file and make sure I’m not repeating myself to an agency I pitched six months ago.  I’m still pretty low in my overall query count- maybe ten queries sent out.  I try to make them appropiate.  I don’t want to waste anyone’s time.  I get sucked into the whole quest of it all, the summit-fever.  Then I remember my new trail, the trail where I get to make my own deadlines and explore new ideas.  I like that trail, too.

I am among the luckiest of the lucky.  I will be fine wherever I stand.  Having the space to write at all is a gift.  And I won’t take it for granted.  Off to storyland.

Word count for super-rockstar-new-story: 

0 / 2500 words. 0% done!

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