A Look Back: The Blog in Review

New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. ~Hamilton Wright Mabie

I love to do this! The rules: post the first line of the first post for each month from your blog in 2010.

January 1, 2010:

Mary (who writes as MJ Frederick) is having a contest to celebrate her latest release, "Breaking Daylight" from Samhain Publishing.

WOW... was it a year ago? Time flies!! Hey, Mary, what's coming up for 2011?

February 1, 2010:

Just woke up at 6:15 a.m. -- and I had a PILE of stuff that was supposed to have been done early. My alarm didn't go off, and for once the cat didn't pester me.

Wow... that IS late for me, lol... I've been a slug the past couple of weeks though, so 6:15 is about typical. Come Monday, when I have to load up pages at the crack of dawn for LASR/WC, I'll be getting up early again. *yawn*

March 1, 2010:

I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of strong winds outside, and my heart nearly stopped. I imagine it'll take me awhile to believe that my electricity is on to stay (until the next storm!).

Ugh ... the last couple of years have been REALLY bad, power-outage-wise. I'm so glad that we haven't had one (yet) this year AND that we have our generator.

I also discussed the Olympic men's hockey game between USA and Canada. Would you believe I'd already forgotten the Olympics were this year? Sheesh...

April 1, 2010:

Once upon a time there was a hair. She was an average, everyday hair... the kind of hair you would brush off your clothes or vacuum up with a hundred other hairs. She was long and white and when she used to be part of a Papillon dog, she was beautiful.

HAHAHAHA.... a story to embarrass my daughter with :-)

May 1, 2010:

Yesterday flew by. DH went fishing, so DD asked if we could have a "girls" day. And she wanted to watch the first Star Wars ... you know, the FIRST one, the one made in 1977 (which I will never be able to refer to as "A New Hope". It will always be "Star Wars" to me).

Ah yes... showing the Star Wars movies to my DD for the first time! I was her age when "Star Wars" came out in 1977 ... of course I had to wait three years for "Empire" and another three years for "Return" -- I was in high school by then. She's a lucky duck, not having to wait so long to find out if Vader really was Luke's father ...

June 1, 2010:

I'm so incredibly glad I don't suffer from allergies, because the pollen lately has been nuts! A heavy layer of yellow coats everything, indoors and out.

We had the worst year for pollen this year, and I really am grateful I don't have allergies. Even so, it made housekeeping a little crazy with the lovely layer of yellow dust on everything!

July 1, 2010:

For some reason, I'm completely wiped out this morning. I feel like I haven't slept in weeks. So ... my brain isn't working *quite* right. Therefore, I give you:

Random Thoughts

Feel free to click the link to see what random thoughts I shared. By far the saddest was reading about Dakota's BFF, Mindy, being diagnosed with cancer. She's still with us, thankfully!, but we know it's just a matter of time...

August 1, 2010

I need a mental health day.

And with that ... I took the day off of blogging. That's a rather dull entry ... what was on August 2nd?

Well... my mental health day turned into "let's clean the house from top to bottom" day AND "let's work on all the last minute changes to the LASR/WC/Aurora anniversary party" day.

LOL... how typical. That post, though, has a pile of pictures of monarchs we released... I really enjoy Pillar Place.

September 1, 2010:

It's that time again ... the time when kids go back to school, and the time when -- if I take DD to run errands with me, she's asked, "Shouldn't you be in school?"

Ah ... the joy of homeschooling. This will be our last year, though, if all goes well. I'm actually beginning to be a little sad about it. I suspect it's going to be harder on me than on my daughter. *sigh*

Can I change my mind and keep her home?

October 1, 2010:

Yesterday, I watched that blasted radar -- checked it every 15 minutes and discovered that the storm had apparently decided to make a C around southern New Hampshire. They predicted the occasional shower, but mostly it would be clear.

So, we packed up the rain gear, some towels and a couple bottles of water, and we WENT!

Where did we go? To the Deerfield Fair! DD was so happy. Actually, the fair is one of the things that will be affected by her going to school -- we've always gone during the week because there are fewer people there, but we won't be able to next year. Of all the things that bother her about going to school, this is one of the biggest!

November 1, 2010:

Just in time for NaNoWriMo, I'm finally catching the cold that's been going around my house.

Ah ... NaNo. I had high hopes for NaNo this year, but my story really wasn't gelling. I still don't think I have the right heroine for Geoff, so that story is completely on the back burner right now until I have a brainstorm...

December 1, 2010:

I think my clock was missing a few hours yesterday -- because I sure didn't get anything done before it said it was bedtime. I have got to figure out how to better manage my time...

Story of my life. For Christmas, I asked for one of those watches like Hermione used in one of the Harry Potter books, so I could be two places at once, but I didn't get it. Bad Santa.

So ... how was YOUR year?

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You Should Stay Home for New Year's Eve

By the time New Year's Eve comes around, you are usually exhausted. You just need to rest. That doesn't mean you won't celebrate, but you'll definitely be toasting the new year in your own low key way. You'll reflect on the year that's passed and make plans for the year to come. And when the clock turns over at midnight, you'll be cheering along with anyone else. You'll just be in your pj's!

How Should You Spend New Year's Eve?

Actually, I'll probably be asleep...

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