Z is for Zaftig

Definition of ZAFTIG

of a woman

: having a full rounded figure : pleasingly plump

Origin of ZAFTIG

Yiddish zaftik-juicy

Whenever I get depressed that I am not a stick figure or tall willowy blonde, I tend to look up awesome adjectives that make me feel better about my curves. I stumbled across Zaftig not too long ago.

After I lost the 75 pounds, I was a little upset that I was still basically the same shape, just shrunk. Where was the delicate ballerina body I longed for? Why can I wear a size 6 and still have a mommy tummy?

Because I'm juicy and zaftig, that's why. 

And that's it. No more alphabet. YAY!  Ok, so it was a lot of work, but pretty fun too. I survived, but I think I will go back to once a week for this blog and keep up every day on my Finished Being Fat blog. Visit me there, or at Mormon Mommy Writers on Saturdays.

Thanks for reading, see ya next week.

Y is for You

The question I get asked the most by aspiring writers is this, There are a million books about (mourning, weight loss, parenting, etc). I'm just a nobody. What can I bring that's any different?


My answer is always the same... you.

So What if you're not a celebrity? You have something that nobody else has: your story, your voice, and your life experience. Don't let anybody tell you any different.

Yes, there have been lots of books about losing a loved one. But there have been no books about losing your loved one.
That doesn't just apply to non-fiction. How many times have we read boy meets girl, or girl meets vampire? What sells books is your unique narrative voice. What do you have to say and how can you say it differently from everyone else?

As a writing exercise, my teacher had us all go outside and look at the road. Then he had us go inside and write a paragraph about the road. As you can imagine, the six of us, though we all looked at the same road, had remarkably different things to say about it. One of my favorites said it looked like a meeting place for lost souls.

Point is, you bring something to the table that is awesome and unique and deserves to be written. So don't try to make your book like any other that's been written before. Don't model it after a best seller.
Model it after you.
Tell your story.

X is for Xanthippe

I will admit I was stumped by this one. I went in search of a new favorite words starting with X. I found it.

Xanthippe is an ill tempered woman. Taming of the shrew anyone? Yesterday, that described me to a T. Everything around me was uber irritating. The house, the kids, the big kid I'm married to. Nothing pleased me. I was a xanthippe.

So next time somebody calls you a something that starts with B and ends in itch, just tell them you're a xanthippe. It'll shut them up and they'll have to go look it up in the dictionary. And they'll probably look in Z.

W is for Writing... duh

I love writing. It's cheaper than therapy and if you do it right, you can actually make money. Still working on the last part.

Biggest thing I've learned about writing? If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right. When I reread through chapters I've written recently, I can totally tell when I was having a fun and when I was forcing the scene to come out. If I had to guess, the reader probably can too.

When you write, you share a piece of yourself on the page. So thank you to all of the authors that I love that change my life. Thank you for sharing with me. From now on I will read your work and wonder exactly what piece of you I'm getting. The part where you're hashing out your high school issues, or the little moments of parenthood that make you want to take your kid back to the OBGYN.

My favorite thing you share, your first love, re-envisioned, so that it happens the way it was supposed to.

V is for Validation

Facebook should be renamed Vaildation-Book. But it's not as catchy.

We, as a society, are putting ourselves, our kids, our thoughts up for the world to see. Then people validate that we are not crazy by "liking" us, or commenting. I find this incredibly interesting as a general statement on human nature. Every one needs to feel that they are not alone. That they are liked, loved and worth the oxygen they use each day.

I definitely have this mentality from time to time. Sometimes I need to take a step back and think to myself, Am I so busy seeking validation, that I am not validating others.

If you are going to use Facebook as a social media network and marketing tool, it has to be a multiway conversation. You can't just post funny things and ignore your "friends" posts. Take time to participate in their conversations and their days. You make more meaningful relationships that way and get deeper validation than just a "like"

U is for Unicorn

This is a new fascination for my little one. If you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, it's a unicorn. Specifically she wants to be Celestia from My Little Ponies.

Do you remember a time in your life when you wanted to be something like a unicorn, and it totally made sense to you. The world had yet to beat you down and shove you into a little labeled box. Infinite possibilities. Unfortunately, reality seems to seep in younger and younger.

So when my daughter dreams of being a unicorn, I don't tell her they don't really exist. I ask her what color hair she's going to have and what they eat for lunch. I want her to enjoy that magic for as long as she can grasp it with both hands.

T is for Tired and Time Out

This a-z challenge has been fun, but I'm tired. Blogging everyday on not one, but two sites has tuckered me out. So I'm giving myself a well deserved Timeout.

S is for Success

So What is Success? What does it look like? When do you know you have it?

These are all questions that I've struggled with (ok still struggling).
Whatever I did, someone was better. Half of my friends went to Ivy League schools and the other half skipped school and became actors, writers, etc. And who was I? A stay at home mom. Big freakin whoop.
I didn't have a big important 9-5 corporate job. Hilary Rosen would accuse me of "... never having worked a day" in my life.

Well this past year I've learned how to look at success a little differently. I even have a whole chapter about it in my book, Finished being Fat: An accidental adventure in losing weight and learning to finish. (coming out in January 2013, :) thank you for asking ) As darn near every woman can tell you, motherhood is the hardest and lowest salaried job on the planet. First you have to grow a human being, which is pretty impressive considering I can't even get my veggies to grow.  You are responsible to teach your kids right from wrong, clean up sick, feed them healthy stuff, feed them crap when they won't eat the healthy stuff, get them to school in semi clean clothes, make sure when they're teenagers that they keep going to school, and the list goes on and on. Motherhood is definitely not 9-5, it's 9-life.

I've decided that if my kids are still alive at the end of the day, I'm a success. It doesn't matter if they're the cutest dressed kids on the block, or the lead in the school play.  As long as they are growing and improving as little people, then I must be doing something right.

Now for the hard part, applying what I've learned to writing. At first, my only goal was to finish a book. Once I did that the next logical step was to get it published. Okay, did that. Now I'm told that if I want my book to be a "success" it's up to me to market the heck out of it. So I'm working my butt off, doing all the things my publisher has asked me to do: work on building an author's platform, blog, gather facebook friends, tweet stuff, get endorsements.

I've started having nightmares. I'm over analyzing everything I do. Do enough people "like" me? Do I have enough followers? How many people are reading my blogs? Once again, whatever I'm doing, it feels like it's not enough. I feel like a failure compared to everyone else.

Stop. Reboot. Go back to my original question. What is success? Is it being on the New York Times Best-sellers list? Is it have 5000 Facebook friends and hundreds of likes per post? Is it getting on a daytime talk show? If I did all these things then could I finally call myself a "success"?

Those things are all nice and fabulous, but I think success is something a little deeper. Just like in motherhood, I think success is changing one life for the better. Even if it's your own. If your story, whether it's fiction or non-fiction, has touched someone... congratulations- you are a successful writer. So What if you self publish, or have a small indie publisher. Doesn't matter.You have made a difference. Something you created has made the world a little brighter.

If that isn't success, I don't know what is.

R is for Recipe

Here's my favorite recipe for healthy whole wheat pitas.

Recipe for: Whole Wheat Pita Bread

To prepare: Bake in oven on pizza stone at 450° F.

Ingredients

Directions

3 cups whole wheat flour 1½ Tbs sugar 1½ tsp salt 2 pkg (1½ Tbs) active dry yeast 2 Tbs olive oil 1¼ cups warm water

Mix all ingredients and knead for about 10 min. Let dough raise in an oiled bowl until doubled, 1-1½ hours. Preheat oven and pizza stone to 450° F. Punch down dough and divide into 8 equal pieces (divide again into 4 for mini-pitas) and roll into balls. Roll out balls on lightly floured surface into thin, 8” rounds (2” for mini-pitas). Place rounds on pizza stone and bake until they puff up, then about 30 seconds more (about 3½ minutes total). Note: instead of a pizza stone, you can use a baking sheet. Just make sure to preheat it in the oven.

Q is for Quilt

My mom is the quilter, I'm not. I attempt to quilt, but learn very quickly that I can not sew straight. At least that's what the puncture holes in my thumb tell me.

But I'm ready to try again.  I have a goal. I'm going to make a fat quilt.

 If you have been reading this blog as well as my Finished Being Fat blog, you would know that I recently lost 75 pounds. I have an entire wardrobe of ZZL clothes that I will never need again. And to prove it to myself, I need to get rid of them.

I debated for a long time what to do. Some of my ordinary clothes I gave away. Some of the more hideous ones I burned. Passing that blue floral muumuu on to another victim would be inexcusable.  Some of the rest have special memories attached. The dress I wore for my tenth anniversay. My Winnie the Pooh overalls always made me happy- even though they looked horrible.

So I have been cutting my favorite fat clothes into 6x6 squares so I can piece them and sew them together. It won't be pretty. It won't be fancy. But it should make me smile and keep my newly skinny butt warm on cold winter nights.

P is for Potty Party

It's time to be proactive. I'm go to do the same thing I did for my first kiddo. She was ready, but we just couldn't make a clean break from the pull ups. So we did a potty party. Potty training in one day. 

I've about had it with my 2 and a half year old. She uses the potty about half the time. The other half, she changes her own diaper - and then hides the evidence.

In the case of the dreaded poopy diapers, all I can say is eewwww. For whatever reason potty training my second child has been much more difficult than training my first. But I'm busier now. Perhaps if I just spent more time. Well you know what they say about ifs and buts. But my problem is specifically about the butt.

The idea is to make it fun, almost like a birthday party. We invited a few friends over, there was a special cake, little presents, and lots of fun potty games. The whole day was spent playing with the potty and saying goodbye to the diaper. She was a big girl that could wear underwears.

This made a connection in my first daughter's brain. Of course we had a few accidents afterwards, but just like a birthday party to celebrate getting older, she had celebrated growing up and getting rid of the diapers.

So I think in the next month I am really going to push the little one to lose the diapers. Let the party planning begin.

What worked for you and little poopers?

O is for Octopus

This is what I wish I was. For obvious reasons, the 8 hands.

It would be so nice to get laundry folded, while typing my WIP, playing with my kids, and burning dinner. 

Just a side note on my favoritism of the octopus. When I was a kid, my mom would send me to school with a brown bag lunch. But they weren't ordinary brown bags, my mother would decorate them with fanciful creatures. My favorite was a bag she made in 3rd grade. It had an octopus drawn on it, arms stretched wide. It said, "I love you THIS much". Kids would try to trade their cookies for my bags, but I would never part with them. My mom was an artist, and each bag was proof that she loved me THIS much.

N is for No

This would currently be my 2 1/2 year old daughter's favorite word. And if that wasn't enough, my husband, tired of the no, taught her other fabulous ways to say it. Nien, Niecht, nu-uh, no way jose, nope. All Ns.

Now while the little one has this down pat, I seem to have trouble saying it. When someone asks me to do something I immediately say sure. It isn't until I get home and have a panic attack when I input it into my schedule,  that I realize I may be a tish overstretched.

Why is it that sometimes we are incapable of saying no? Is it because we want to help and genuinely feel the desire to serve? Or (at least for me) the more likely culprit of not wanting to disappoint someone.

Oddly enough, when someone else offers to do something for me, I don't hesitate to say no thanks. I suppose I don't want to be someone's burden.

Just rambling out loud on the keyboard.

M is for Mistakes in Motherhood

Not a day goes by without a moment where I think, yup I have scarred my kids for life.

Words sound a whole lot different coming out of my mouth than my five year old's. Sometimes I can't tell how harsh something sounds until it's parroted back at me.

The other night my oldest daughter was playing with her little sister. Apparently a two and half year old does not grasp the finer nuances of whack-a-mole and my preshcooler took issue with that.
 "If you can't play right, you don't get to play," she shouted and threw the game across the room.
I took issue with her behavior. My reply was angry and scolding,  "If you can't play nicely, you won't have any friends and no one will want to play with you." Then, since it was close to bedtime, I sent her off to her room to chill out and go to sleep early.

Alas she did not go quietly in the night. For the next half hour I could hear her screaming from her bed. "I don't want to go to sleep. I hate you. I'm going to go find a new family."  A little while later I heard the phrase that broke my heart. "I don't want to be alone. I need friends."

Somewhere along the line I had screwed up. I had made a colossal mistake in motherhood and made my daughter feel unloved. It had not been my intent to hurt, just a frustrated attempt at correction. So What was I gonna do about it now?

I felt it would be an even worse mistake to let my child go off to sleep thinking that no one loved her. So I sat down with her, gave her loves and took the 2 minutes to explain why her behavior was unacceptable. Basically what I should have done in the first place. Afterwards I got my kiss goodnight and she was out like a light.

Not so much for me. I sobbed to my husband that I was the worst mother in the whole world. That we should start saving now because my kids would end up having huge therapy bills. He reminded me that kids were pretty darn resilient and my daughter would get over it. And the next time I got angry, I should just love 'em to death.

Sure enough, the next day my daughter gave me oodles of love and hugs. Telling me she loved me, that I was the best mommy ever. What I learned was that everybody makes mistakes. In particular, I will continue to make mistakes. It's what we do afterwards that defines us as a parent.

I for one am going to apologize to my mother for the time I packed up my stuffed animals and ran away to my best friends house. I don't remember what she did that made me so angry, but I remember the tears in her eyes when she couldn't find me. Sure when I was discovered I got grounded, but I also got nearly hugged to death.

L is for Lullaby

My favorite part of the day when my girls were little, was bedtime. Not only because the little beasts were going to sleep, but because of our lullaby ritual.

I would swaddle my baby and sit in the rocking chair and sing a song or two until there little eyes were nice and droopy. Sometimes I would sing Twinkle Twinkle, or Rock a Bye Baby. But I had a favorite lullaby for each girl that is a little... different. I figured, hey they don't know what the heck I'm saying. As long as it's low and soothing I could sing the phonebook.

So for my oldest, my favorite tune was Death Cab for Cutie's I''ll follow you into the dark. 


For my little one is was the Smith's Sing me to sleep.

To this day I get misty eyed when I hear those songs on the radio. They remind me of a time that was precious, crazy, and worth every minute.

What did you sing to your little ones?

K is for Kokomo

This was my mother's favorite song when I was a kid. My friends all thought I was a little weird when I picked the Beach boy song to lip sync to in 6th grade instead of U2 or Depeche Mode. Yep, branded a dork for life.

Eventually, my mom homeschooled me for the rest of 6th grade. We watched South Pacific, Carousel, and Camelot. I developed a love for the Beach boys as well as musicals. Though my tweeny counterparts may have disagreed, this made me a well rounded individual.

So thanks mom, for making me a dork. I love you. And I still sing Kokomo in the Shower.

Aruba, Jamaica, oohh I wanna take ya...

J is for Jarom

Jarom is my husband and my favorite person in the world...most of the time. We just celebrated our 12th anniversary.

My book is autobiographical, so my husband is a big part of it. In reading it, he was a little confused of my portrayal of him. He thought I made him out to be Superman. But isn't that what your spouse should do? See the piece of greatness that is hidden from yourself.

So this is my love letter to my husband. He champions my strengths, supports me through my weakness, and is the mirror in which only the best of myself is reflected.

I challenge you to write a love letter to your favorite someone: Mother, husband, father, child

I is for Invent

in·vent

 

[in-vent]

verb (used with object)

1.

to originate or create as a product of one's own ingenuity,experimentation, or contrivance: to invent the telegraph.

2.

to produce or create with the imagination: to invent a story.

3.

to make up or fabricate (something fictitious or false): to invent excuses.

If you are a writer, you should add inventor to your list of titles. Dictionary.com says so. Look at definition number 2. That is also the definition of what an author does. We are inventors of story, of worlds, of characters. 

With the right words we can change the world.

H is for Heffalump

Aside from Eeyore, my favorite cartoon character is Lumpy- the heffalump from Winnie the pooh. The heffalump was originally created by A.A Milne in his classic stories. A.A. Milne was a freaking genius. His stories and characters have so many levels and depth to them. Sometimes I wonder if it was all masterfully intended or if its more like a rorschach painting- everybody sees what they want to see.

What amazed me about the heffalump, was the creation of something new and magical from something ordinary. A big gray old elephant transforms into a checked honey stealing companion to a woozle. The imagination is a wonderful thing. And who has more imagination than a child. That's why it's refreshing to shirk off the chains of adulthood, if only for a while, and indulge in stories from our childhood.

Whose your favorite character from Winnie the Pooh and why

G is for Writing Guru Caleb Warnock

Welcome back everyone. If you haven’t already, make sure to read Part 1, G is for Gardening with Caleb Warnock. I’m still here with Caleb Warnock. I’ve been attending his writing classes locally for six months, since mid-October 2011, and I can honestly say that if I hadn’t, I would not have been picked up for publication. My writing would still be falling under the category of long lost word files. Caleb doesn’t believe in sugar coating, except on his chocolate. But his tell-it-like-it-is attitude is something that, for me at least, promotes growth once the dead weight is burned away.

Betsy: So Caleb, if you wouldn’t mind, give our online audience a quick breakdown of your writing credentials. As in why the heck should we listen to you, aside for the whole best-selling author bit?

Caleb: Well you can check out my blog at CalebWarnock.blogspot.com for my full curriculum vitae and see a full list of credentials. But here’s a few highlights. I’ve won over 20 awards for my writing, including the David O McKay Essay Contest. I’ve been nationally published for the past 13 years, including publication in The Writer magazine. As you’ve mentioned, I currently have a bestselling book and 7 more book contracts -- two of those co-authoring with you, Betsy. I’ve taught at UVU, and U of U, and I’ve owned my own writing school at WritingInDepth.com for the past 13 years as well.

Betsy: Haha. Ok ok, we’ll trust you. What the biggest difference you see in newbie authors writings as opposed to experienced authors?

Caleb: Hmm, I was having a conversation just the other day about this actually. I see a huge difference in the writers that write for fun and the writers that write to put food on the table. I belong to the latter group. I tell people I’m a retired farmer. I grew up digging ditches on a farm and retired at 19. Writing is what I love to do, and I’ve learned that when you’re forced to produce or starve, the writing improves dramatically. It has to be good to sell. There is a difference between being a writer and simply wanting to be a writer because you get excited to hang out with authors and talk about writing.

Betsy: What’s the biggest hurdle for an unpublished writer to overcome?

Caleb: Fear of failure. Giving in to all the voices, both in your head and not. Giving in to the discouragement because you didn’t get picked up by an agent on your first try. People don’t often realize that it takes blood, sweat, and tears. Most authors don’t just plunk down a story and wham, you’re a bestseller. It’s like being a concert pianist. There may be a virtuoso once in a blue moon, but most musicians have to practice and hone their craft for years and years before they even consider playing to sold out crowds. Being a bestselling author is the equivalent to selling out Carnegie Hall. You have to work for it.

Betsy: What advice would you give to someone who has five partial manuscripts in their drawer and dreams of becoming an author, but is afraid of rejection. (This was me).

Caleb: Go to a writing class with a teacher who will tell you the truth, and not just tell you what you want to hear. If your story is collapsing, help is out there. I had a teacher at BYU, and when she died, her obituary said she had three manuscripts in her drawers. And she had never been published. If that happened to me, I would be so mad I would come from the grave. Don’t let anyone write that in your obituary. Go find some help.

Betsy: In a previous post, I mentioned that a friend has nicknamed me the Voice Doctor. Well, I would have to nickname you the Plot Doctor. Everyone comes to you because their stories have collapsed in the middle. Why does that happen, what’s the diagnosis?

Caleb: Because no one has ever taught them how to structure a story, fiction or nonfiction. People think writing is creative, organic...art. To not plan out your story would be akin to picking up a brush, putting it in some paint, then putting it directly on the canvas-- with no idea of what you’re going to paint. That’s the fastest way to ruin a canvas and a story. Artists sketch and plan. Writers plan and plot. You have to know where your story is going before you put pen to paper. I teach people the bones of plotting and structuring stories.

Betsy: You have taught a weekly writing class for writers of all skill levels for the past four years. But not everybody lives in a place so easily accessible to a mentor such as yourself. How can someone in the sticks find their own Guru. (hint hint...shameless plug).

Caleb: Well, I have online writing workshops for $50 a month. If people are interested they can email me at calebwarnock@yahoo.com. I’ve been teaching those online workshops for 13 years, and those classes got bigger after Becca Fitzpatrick, author of the national bestseller Hush, Hush was a student and thanked me in the acknowledgements of her fantastic book. The class has also helped published authors like yourself, Nebula award winner Eric James Stone, and many more. Just this year, I put all of my writing workshop lessons on Kindle and Nook. There are eleven booklets in all, part of my What Every Writer Should Know series. Each is $9.99, which far cheaper than you can get them through me, mostly because that’s as much as Amazon would let me charge. I think is a tremendous value, but I’m biased. The lessons cover just about everything. Marketing, Query Letters, PlotShop, Narrative Voice, and more. I think the first two lessons anyone should pick up are PlotShop and Creating Narrative Voice. These can save your stories.
   

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Thank you to all my readers from both Mormon Mommy Writers and this blog for stopping by. And thank you to Caleb Warnock for taking a few minutes out of his insanely busy schedule to sit down and chat with me. Below I will list the places once again where you can find Caleb and his books. Also please feel free to leave comments. Even if they’re about chickens.

The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers

The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast: Breads, Pancakes, Waffles, Cinnamon Rolls and Muffins

What Every Writer Should Know Series

calebwarnock.blogspot.com

F is for Fractured Fairy Tale

This is one of my new favorite sub genres of fiction, the fractured fairy tale. So much so, that an idea high-jacked my Work in Progress and demanded I take notice. So I put down my adult fiction piece and started writing a fractured fairy tale.

A Fractured Fairy tale takes a well known story and turns it on it head. Changing characters, setting plots, whatever. But keeping it recognizable in some form. The one I am working on? It's a twist on the Classic Baum Oz stories. Started as a Middle grade, but has definitely taken a YA turn. A little darker than than standard copyrighted ruby slippers.

But it's something I am passionate about. The original work was so brilliant, that it lends itself to lots of fun to twist. I'm writing like the wind and having a blast. The little girl inside of me loves being in her own fairy tale, even if it has a lady that can take off her head.

So what's your favorite fairy tale? Fractured or otherwise.

E is for Exercise

Ok, so exercise is not one of my favorite things per se. But I sure love the benefits. Exercise has not only whittled away 75 pounds of chunk, but it's helped balance my brain chemistry making the antidepressants I've been on for the last 15 years unnecessary. My other blog, Finished Being Fat, is devoted to tips and tricks I've learned and am still learning.

Exercise is also necessary for a writer's soul too. I know I break out in a sweat doing all these blog posts. Or plotting my main character's trials and tensions. Exercise in any form helps us to grow. To reach beyond our current capabilities.

Here's one of my favorite writing exercises. Pick 10 people and write one sentence describing what makes them odd, unique, or interesting. After your done, you should have a sentence that would make someone want to know more about that person.

Example: My friend Amy developed a fear of water after falling in the toilet at age 5.

What's your example?

D is for the Doctor

Today's favorite alphabet letter is about me and the Doctor. Doctor who you might ask. Exactly. Doctor Who. I absolutely love Doctor Who. And David Tenant is hands down my favorite Doctor of all time.  I'm not ashamed to say I wept for days after he regenerated. So what exactly does this have to do with me? Well I'll tell you.

Recently I was editing for a pal of mine. I don't do any line edits, since as you can see from my posts, my grammar and comma use is atrocious. The one thing I have a knack for is content editing. Specifically, helping with a narrative voice. After giving my friend all the feedback I could, she gave me the coolest nickname ever-- the Voice Doctor. My brain made the clear and obvious jump to imagining me alongside the Doctor. Him, fixing the world with his sonic screwdriver. Me, fixing manuscripts with my red sharpie. Yep, I should totally be the next Companion.

What's your favorite D scifi word?

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me.

Long before Elmo, I had another favorite furry little monster... Cookie Monster.

This little blue friend was a cookie obsessed monster. I grew up and by preschool firmly had a concept of the letter C. Because of the cookie monster song. Now that I have kidlets of my own, I've noticed Cooke Monster has changed his tune a bit. Now instead of gorging on cookies he tries to practice self control.  And worse, gasp, eat veggies.

Has Sesame street bowed to political pressure?


Sad but true, yes. Well it's kinda sad.  As a parent I am glad that the TV is emphasizing healthy eating habits in a fight against obesity. On the other side of the cookie, I feel like they have messed with something sacred. He was a bit of my childhood that I don't want messed with. It's like if you took all the cartoon violence out of the road runner cartoons. Had them talk it out.  Wouldn't be the same.

So C is also for Change and Childhood today. What's a C from your childhood?

B is for Birthday

B is my all time favorite letter of the alphabet. Here are a few of my favorite B things.

Obviously, B is for Betsy. But it's also for bear, baby, baboon bums, biscuits, and best of all.... birthdays.

My Birthday is in 2 days, I will be 30...again. My favorite birthday tradition is the Happy Birthday video texts.  Each of my sister's families and my in-laws SMS me a text video of them singing Happy Birthday as a family. The kidlet ones are cute and have the little extras like "Ohh lala" and "Cha cha cha". The in-laws video is extremely off key and it's become a matter of pride to see who's video is the most ear shattering.

Then there's the Birthday dinner. The one night a year where I take off all my food restrictions ad my hubby prepares all my favorites. This year it's Sweet corn spoon bread, sweet potato, caramel mash, and Lion House Rolls. Life doesn't get any better-- until the weigh in the next day ;)

B is also for book. As in I have a deadline to meet and a book to finish writing.

What's your favorite B word?

A is for AHHHHHH!!!

My other blog that I collaborate on is doing the A-Z Challenge, so I thought I would give it a try too, because it sounds fun. (gulp)  So the idea is that you post a topic devoted to the next letter of the alphabet all through April. Except for the first one, there are no posts on Sunday. I am opting for the theme, "These are a few of my favorite things, A-Z"

So here goes, A is for AHHHHHH! Ahhh, is one of my favorite expletives. This whole blogging experiment is a scary idea, and a little intimidating. But if you have read me before, you know I am all about goals and challenges. They make you feel Alive and like you've really Achieved something.

Now if you'll excuse me, A is also for my daughter's pink stuffed Alligator Ally, that is need of immediate tail surgery.

What's your favorite A word?