In another life I am a brilliant novelist. Every day I wake up at 5:00 to a fresh pot of coffee, and I sit at a beautiful white desk which is by a window that looks out on Lake Minnetonka, and while the sun comes up (and until it reaches its noon height) I pound out a flowing and elegant prose chock full of truths about human folly, the indomitable human spirit, society, love, the Arts, all cleverly interwoven into a story with a legitimate Hero who goes on a legitimate Quest and becomes a legitimate Christ-figure.
Or at least I pen something about a vampire, or a werewolf, or a zombie, which can make me a billion dollars. At this point I think all the undead creatures have been covered, which is unfortunate.
But the closest I get to “brilliant or mediocre novelist” is my recording of the lives of my children on this blog.
One problem (of many, admittedly) is that I write too infrequently. The rule “If you want to be a writer, you have to write every day” is fairly widely accepted, I think. At least, I’m willing to bet it’s more widely accepted than the one about not consuming raw cookie dough, so it must have some merit. I break the writing rule (and the cookie dough rule), so my blog posts are infrequent and I have to do a catch-up post with a lot of pictures. Every time I do this, I state to myself that this is the LAST TIME, and I renew my promise to write every day. I always believe myself. (So there’s a little “indomitable human spirit” for you. Or maybe “relentless power of human denial”).
1) We took a road trip to Kansas City to celebrate my Grandma Tholen’s 85th birthday. The entire extended fam was there (minus two cousins), which is actually extremely impressive, since we represent Minnesota, Kansas, Maine, Virginia, Oregon, and Hawaii.
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| The Tholen side |
3) Cecilia really enjoys doing whatever her big sister is doing. Right down to time-outs.
4) The Busytown Mysteries obsession continues. Here is Ellen’s interpretation of Lowly Worm. I’m not sure what else to say about it, but you can come up with your own caption.
5) Auntie Laura came from Florida for Thanksgiving, and we went to the Macy’s display for a visit with Santa. Ellen’s request: “Busytown Dudes.” Dudes is our name for little figurines. Last year Cecilia was fascinated by Santa’s beard. This year, not so much.
6) Uncle Pat came (also from Florida, but not with Auntie Laura) for Thanksgiving, and he took us to the Mill City Museum. If you haven’t gone, you should. It is really cool.
7) Ellen’s “sticky cannonball” at swimming lessons. I. Love. This. Picture.
