Confession

So, um, I have a confession.

It's painful to admit this.

As many things as I have admitted on this blog, as often as I have told the unvarnished truth about my ridiculous escapades, as willing as I've been to expose my faults for your entertainment...well, THIS is worse.

This will out me as a REAL Dork of Epic Proportions. I'm even hiding it on a Saturday because my readership is lowest then. (I'm a dork AND a coward.)

Okay, are you ready?

(I feel very silly.)

(This is so embarrassing.)

My daughters, Ana (10.5) and Jane (8) are in particularly good phases right now and I cannot get enough of them.

Seriously, I'm just crazy about them. I miss them when they go to SCHOOL. I don't know what is wrong with me but I keep wanting them to get little stomach aches so they can stay home with me. It's just... it's not natural. Yesterday they were on the computer (they like to both go to Club Penguin on separate computers and then find each other and play) and I was kind of disappointed that they didn't want to play with ME.

I know, I know. SO not the Cool Mom Thing. Shouldn't I be complaining about how they never eat anything I cook and/or the mess they leave in their rooms? I KNOW!

It's just that they're so funny and creative and independent now. Ana, it turns out, has a really wonderful sense of humor and she cracks JOKES. She's doing really well in school and she's very disciplined about her schoolwork and she's made friends with this really nice, creative, smart girl. They are a delight to have around.

Jane hit a new level when she turned eight. I didn't see it coming but she left the last vestiges of her babyhood behind. She did not, however, leave behind her impish grin, nor her obsession with writing. She has a children's book manuscript finished and is working on the illustrations. She would like me to go get her a publisher, post haste. (I really wish I knew how to do that but my own work seems to be languishing here on my hard drive while I work up my nerve... JANE has no such shyness about HER work. When I explained to her that I had SELF-published MY book, she said that didn't sound like a good idea to her. "I really would like for this to be in every bookstore across the country, Mom." Oh. Well, okay, then.)

So, okay, I've outed myself. I can't help it: I'm enchanted by my own children.

Clearly, there is something very wrong with me.

(PS: I know that simply by giving voice to how wonderful I think they are, they will turn around and act like little demons to bring the forces of nature back in balance. I'm prepared for that. Theoretically.) (I'm hiding my car keys, just in case.)

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On the NaNoWriMo front, the winner of my contest is Ann in NJ who said, "She looked at her empty hands, the grey walls of the room, the white sheets. There was nothing here, nothing of color or character or beauty." which really got me thinking and writing. Ann, I can't remember if you have my book already or not. E-mail me and let me know if it's a book or yarn you'd like. And thank you.

The rest of the responses were dark, grim, bloody and laugh-out-loud funny. I thank you all so much. I don't know what I'd do without you, but my life wouldn't be near as fun. Special mention to Sherry Sea from Austin who said, "She put the hands back in the drawer and delighted in the air now flowing over her green tendrils. No more masks! Today, the humans would find out what she really thought of their puny civilization." which totally cracked me up.