Relief, Recipe and wRiting

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart. ~Erma Bombeck

Thanks for being patient with me yesterday... I'd gotten buried in LASR/WC/Aurora work. What's that? Aurora? Yep... we're adding another site to "The Long and the Short of It" brand -- a YA/Middle Grade site! WOOT! It launches 1/1/10 (and, how did it get to be almost 2010??), and we have all kinds of promo stuff going on: free ads, interviews, etc. So, if you or anyone you know writes YA/Middle Grade stuff email me for deets at lasreviews AT gmail DOT com -- k?

In any case, things got a little crazy the last couple of days and I just couldn't do even one more thing.

Hopefully today will be better.

======================

DD and I both were craving something sweet yesterday. We haven't had any dessert-type food in the house for over a week. No cookies, cakes, fudge... so I decided to make No-Bake Oatmeal Fudge until I realized we also had next to no sugar.

What to do?

I had DD make Peanut Butter Candy instead! It's easy and it's actually quite healthy, as sweets go. It's 100% natural with no refined ingredients. And it's yummy. So, I thought I'd share.

Peanut Butter Candy

1 cup Peanut Butter
1 cup Honey
1 1/2 c instant (dry) milk powder

Mix together and roll into balls. Put into fridge to harden. Eat!

=================

I had the best experience with our curriculum provider yesterday. We opted to do the DVD curriculum with Abeka Books this year. It's pricey, and I agonized over the choice... but then DD had a question about how to solve a math story problem. And here's what I've been coming up against in her math this year: I can get the right answer to the problems, but I can't always solve it the way THEY want it solved. This one was no different and I was completely stymied.

THEN I remembered that they offered live teacher support with the purchase, only I couldn't remember how to contact them. So I dug around on the Abeka site, and found an email link that looked right.

I emailed them with the exact question and problem and left my phone number... then told DD to go work on something else while we waited for a response.

Only, she didn't get more than about four steps from the table before the phone rang and it was THEM. A teacher was on the line and talked to DD, walking her through what she needed to do and answering all her questions.

Unbelievably fantastic. I've been so down about customer service lately, it was just incredible to have my faith in people and businesses restored. And the fact is, that one thing is worth all the extra cost of the program.

===================

I've made two writing decisions this week.

One: I'm shelving "Return to Stiller Creek". I still like the story, love the characters and am not completely giving up on them, but I just don't feel comfortable enough with the crime-solving details to rework and submit this. I'm letting it sit in my subconscious and letting my brain work through some other options for the story.

Two: I've started working on "Drive Me Crazy" (the sequel to "Kitchen Matches") again. I've had a dozen potential scenes pop into my head this week and they are funny (at least I think they are, lol) and some of them surprised me. And, on that note, I'm going to sign off and write before anyone wakes up.

Have a great Friday!

=============================