Friday, June 27, 2014

First Read Through...

My friend won a writing contest, his prize... Having his very own book published!!!! How cool is that!

I was so honored when he asked me to be one of his first read throughs of his novel!

I had a late start getting to work on it, but I've started now and am loving it. It's funny how much longer it takes to read through a book when you are reading it with an editing frame of mind. You have to stop and re-read parts. Search back through the story to make sure facts line up. Make little notes along the way. 


It's called "The Tournament of Hearts: The Librarian Gladiator" and it's a fantasy novel. I love fantasy books! 

You can't tell by the picture but that is a huge stack of papers... So I better get back to work!  :)

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Happy Father's Day!

For Father's Day this year, I put together a year of Daddy-Daughter Dates for my husband and oldest daughter. Little Monkey is now two and a half years old! She is at such a fun age that I figured it was the perfect time for her and daddy to start having one on one outings together.




I found this super cute matchbook notepad at the dollar store. On each page I wrote the month, then what the date for that month was. My husband will pick which day of the month he wants to do the date. 



Each date has an estimated price of how much that date will cost. Some are free and some cost money. I taped the last two pages of the book together to make an envelope to put money into so all the dates are "paid" for ahead of time. I called this the Daddy-Daughter Date Bank.




If one date costs less than what I estimated, the change can go back into the bank in case another date costs more than what I budgeted for.

I also added some Swap Out ideas. If one or two of the dates don't spark my husbands interest, there are some alternative date ideas that he could do in place of the one he doesn't like.

I think this will be a special tradition that my husband and daughters can do as they grow older. Plus, when daddy is out with one of the girls on a date, the other daughter and mommy can have one on one time too! :)


Happy Father's Day to all the Daddy's out there!