Adios 2010!

"We'll take a cup of kindness yet/ For auld lang syne."

Does this song congure up the memory of the Bailey family in the final scene of "It's a Wonderful Life" for everyone, or is it just me? I had to include this song for my New Year's Eve post, so here it is.

When I was growing up, I remember hearing adults say how the older you get, the quicker the years go by, and I have to admit that it does seem to be true. This year has flown by, and now we are entering 2011. That seems very strange to me.

Yesterday my second Willow Ryan novel, "Promises", became available for download at Barnes & Noble, and I'm really hoping that this coming year will bring me better luck on the publishing front than 2010 did. It was really a dud of a year in that respect! Anyway, I am renewing my efforts to get a literary agent and become published in print, I will continue writing poetry, in the very near future I will start working on my fourth Willow book, and I am going to seriously try to get some articles published as well. Getting published is not my New Year's resolution, because people either break those on January 2 or never work on them in the first place. Instead, these goals are something that I want to do, aspire to do, NEED to do, so they will get done. I just hope that my goals for 2012 are not the same ones I just wrote about today! Happy New Year everybody!

Let It Snow!

"Oh the weather outside is frightful/ But the fire is so delightful/ And since we've no place to go/ Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!"

I wish I had no place to go today! As I look out my window, there is a light dusting of snow covering the grass, rooftops, and cars, it is 31 degrees, and the snow is still falling. Absolutely beautiful. Today would be the best day to stay home, watch "Christmas in Connecticut" and "It's a Wonderful Life", and curl up under a warm blanket. Especially since I have a bad cold. Unfortunately, I have to go to work. At least the girls are no longer sick, as they have been for the last week or two. Apparently this is a very hard virus to shake, and after getting coughed and sneezed on for days on end, I caught it. Lucky me.

At least I have a nice view to cheer me up a little!

Peace on Earth

"Every child must be made aware/ Every child must be made to care/ Care enough for his fellow man/ To give all the love that he can/ I pray my wish will come true/ For my child and your child too." - "Peace on Earth" by Bing Crosby and David Bowie

When I picked Alana up from school today, she was very upset because her best friend said that she didn't want to be her friend anymore, then snatched some markers out of Alana's hand. How do you explain to a four-year-old that kids are just mean sometimes without trivializing the situation? I tried to comfort her and tell her that hopefully things will be better tomorrow and her friend was probably just in a bad mood, but I felt that no matter what I said, it wouldn't have been good enough because I can't make people be nice to Alana and Riley. I also told her that I was proud of her for doing the right thing by continuing to be nice, even though she wasn't being treated the right way. She really is a good kid.

So, even though I can't teach every child how to care about their classmates and treat people with love and respect, at least I can take pride in knowing that I am doing a good job showing Alana the correct way to treat people. I guess I'm doing something right!