HMH, Thank you. I haven’t heard, but I will let you know. And whatever happens, I feel like I’ve already won. And I want that fruitcake recipe, if you are able to ever give it out, given that it is worth its weight in fruitcake, most likely!

Emily, I am a four day abandoner. We should have meetings, but then we’d have to plan them, which might not happen after the first one. Anyway, I think I have to come up with a sane way of planning things.

LK — Babysteps indeed. I am all in favor of that Mark Twain thing about breaking large tasks into small parts and doing the first one.

Ann and Gail — I have been known to be overly optimistic. And my hopes for my children outgrowing unpleasant stages in, like, three minutes, are among those overly optimistic ideas I have. Let’s just leave it at that, shall we?

Sandi, Thank you. I think it is important to just keep right on going, don’t you? I love writing, and really, that is what matters at the end of the day. That and eating the kind of holiday food you love, rather than the kind you had to sell to adults when you were a child. (I am making those rolls this weekend, by the way, the kind that will make every man in my house weep. I can’t wait.)

Hey Mary — You crack me up. Among the many lawyers I know the words “argumentative” and “monkey” NEVER EVER come up when I think of you.

Fruitcake! Oh how I love fruitcake!

I love fruitcake, and make an old fashioned very edible brandy soaked version that has been passed down in the family for several generations. I have actually had recipients in years past ask me why they didn’t get one again the following year. Gratifying.

Hope your novel is chosen, and good luck with the plan. I make plans but they are very nebulous and not nearly so detailed and beautiful as your friends. she has a plan, I have a rough draft of an outline of what I might be able to do God willing and the creeks don’t rise.

I wish you all the best with you novel. Keep going. You will make it.

I’m starting to investigate further study (oh, for a PhD!) and plans for writing. Baby steps.

Onward!

i say…”oh pray that this is true, and that we don’t have to wait until they are 20.”

it started in my house at age 9. How is W on this track?

and yes…large men soaked in alcohol are DEFINITELY out…

tonight tonight to read or write….

On another matter, I shouldn’t be so hopeful about the boys outgrowing their resistance to authority that quickly. A well remember a friend of mine sending me a postcard while on holiday with her twelve year old that simply said, “He’s practising for being a teenager.” He’s seventeen next week and the practice stood him in good stead! He’s going to be a wonderful young man, but at the moment – authority?!? ‘Nough said.

Also, as to the fruitcake: I have heard rumors before that fruit cake is actually very, very good–but I, too, am a victim, I’m afraid, of those rock-hard things that they used to make us sell in elementary school. Bleccch! Perhaps it’s time to try a fresh one…it does sound wonderful, I have to admit.

Best of luck to you with the novel. And here’s to no hyperventilation!

Hyperventilation is not the plan over here at Bloglily.

Litlove, that is a very, very funny story. Next time I am anywhere near Cambridge, I will bring you a slice or two of fruitcake that is guaranteed to have never seen the floor, much less a bunny or a cat. Ever.

Dear Charlotte, You too need a slice of this fruitcake. I’ll save some. Even if I don’t get to Germany for a year or two, it gets better and better with time!

Lialia — that’s a lovely thought, about small steps. It is indeed the way you get big things done. xo, BL

I haven’t gotten over having to sell fruitcake when I was in elementary school, to support our school band. I don’t think *anybody* ate those things. I’m sure they’re still being used as doorstops, 30 years later. The idea of edible fruitcake is intriguing.