That’s what I wish the keyboard would do after I’ve had a brilliant storyline run through my head. If only it would do the work for me. I don’t have time during the day to actually get “real” writing done because I’ll only just start and one of my children needs/wants something and then I lose track of where I was going. I need to be able to get into it, which is why I mostly write at night.

However, I haven’t been writing much due to a friend visiting (her mother passed away and she was coming for some downtime, caring and rest after looking after her for the last few weeks) and us trying to buy a house. That was my secret. We bought a townhouse. Apparently I already wrote about trying to buy it so if my MIL already read this she never told me on the weekend when we surprised her by taking her to see it. LOL. However, it’s ours. I’m so excited. It’s as large as a house 2100 sq ft, is on a cul-de-sac and backs on to greenspace. What a relief it will be to get away from these horrible neighbours of ours. Hopefully there will be no repeat of these kind of people at our new place. After talking with several people who live in the area it seems we’re safe.

You may wonder how buying a house forestalls writing. Let me tell you, my friend, how much paperwork is involved in buying a house when you are self-employed. You practically need every piece of paper, but your birth certificate! And then they only take some of the income, not all and blah, blah, blah. When they asked for my first-born I put my foot down. Anyway, back and forth it went for almost ten days while we sent more stuff and waited for paperwork from the strata board that arrived five minutes before close on the day before subjects were to be removed. That left us overnight again, because of course no one at the bank is going to stay late to look at it. If I could have said “make it so” to my mortgage broker that would have been good. Finally, it was all approved and I promptly burst in to tears.

Yeah, um, I don’t handle that kind of stress well. Hence the reason no writing was done and lots of lemon drops were consumed. I thrive on good stress, deadlines, etc. I used to do really well in business because there are always deadlines and I loved it. But anything to do with major personal finances, real estate, life changes stuff, really sends me for a loop.

So, this story is still in my head and needs to be written… “make it so” computer!

Barbara Vey from Publisher’s Weekly is having her one year anniversary tomorrow (March 14th) at Beyond Her Book. Please go visit her. She’s trying to hit record numbers of visitors tomorrow, so go by and post a comment. She’s the sweetest person ever and she knows a lot of stuff about good books and all sorts of things. I’ll be giving away a copy of my ebook Love’s Blessings, which recently was voted as best inspirational romance ebook 2007 by eCataromance.

It also happens to be my last baby’s 2nd birthday tomorrow so there’s another reason to celebrate!

And I so want to post it, but I can’t. Not yet. I’d like to say it’s about another book, but it isn’t. Still, I can’t say what it is until the weekend, because you never know who reads my blog and I don’t want to spoil the surprise for someone we are seeing then.

So, having said that I feel better, because I’ve wanted to blog, but couldn’t because I mostly want to talk about this thing that I can’t and I’ve been dealing with that for about 10 days now. Therefore, no blogging. Because really I’m not great at surprises since I get too excited and want to tell the surprisee (is that even a word? LOL).

Writing is going slowly, but that’s because I’ve been dealing with this surprise. However, the story has continued to percolate. It’s taking a slightly different tone that I expected, but I think it could be a good thing. Obviously, I won’t know until it’s done, but I’m very excited about it. I have a good feeling about this book. Of course that’s this minute. Talk to me again when I’m staring at a blank paper and wondering what the heck I was thinking!

Well 70 Days of Sweat started today. I have joined, but will “offically” start tomorrow as I actually started in February to get a jump start since I’ve had a visitor staying with me this last week.

I really hope to do a good amount of writing with Sven this time. Remember Sven? He’s a hard taskmaster, but I am a great procrastinator so I really need him to push me. I need to get this Single Title finished. Help me Sven… will it help if I suck up?

In other news we are trying to buy a house (actually a townhouse, but a good sized one). Just one more stress to add to my life, but hopefully it will be a good one. Anyone out there who’d like to say some prayers and/or positive thoughts that we get this place, it’d sure be appreciated. It’s quiet, it’s on a cul-de-sac, in a good neighbourhood and four minutes drive to the kids school (although not a good walk because you have to go around this humungous private acerage, so it’s better to drive). It would be so nice not to live next to these abusive neighbours anymore. If only for the sake of my children who should haven’t to hear such language and witness such things. Not that you can pick your neighbours, but luckily for us our children’s pastor lives just over the fence from this place and we know they are pretty cool.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Yes, today is a day that’s filled with romance, but it’s also a day that’s filled with lonely hearts. I used to be one of those and it’s hard. Very hard. However, today I get to say that I have fallen totally in love with my husband, all over again.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve always loved him, but I seem to love him more now. It feels different somehow. More… something. I can’t explain it. Today, when I read his beautiful card to me, I cried. He’s not great with words usually, this plumber man of mine, but sometimes when he writes stuff he gets right to the core. This year it struck home. I am very lucky.

Not all of our Valentine’s have been like this. And it’s not about roses or chocolates (of which I received the latter), but about what’s in his heart all year round. Often my husband forgets to get birthday cards and Valentine’s and ends up using the kids construction paper to make me a card about five minutes before I enter a room. Most of the time I don’t mind. Some years he has been away and there’s been nothing. We’ve been together for 12 years, married for 10. That’s a lot of Valentine’s.

This year he made an effort to find the perfect card, the perfect gift and to buy the kids stuff so I wouldn’t have to.

This morning, after I texted his cell to say “Be My Valentine”, his reply was “For 365 days of every year”. Very simple, but better than anything else he could have said.

I think it might have been the huge 40th surprise birthday I just held for him, or maybe we’ve just finally realised that there’s more to our lives than just the daily grind with the kids and chores, etc. I don’t know. I just know this year, we seem to have it right.