And so we need to wrap this up. And I need to tell you who won. And I need to finish my work for the day, pick a blogger of the week, get ready for OIVAC and a multitude of other things, but you all are important and I know that you’ve been waiting patiently for the rest of the answers…

Humor me, okay?

So let’s go…

Tara R has a few… (overachiever)

What are your summer plans?

Well, that’s a good question. Because right now, there are TONS of things all slated but with no definitive start and end dates.

I do know that I will be sleeping in. I know that the kids will be spending a week at church camp and then three weeks with my parents. I know that football starts on August 1st, so they will be home by then.

I also know that I will be in Atlanta on business from June 23rd - 25th and at Teen Camp some time.

We’ve also have a 4 day weekend planned to go to Philly in June or August and a trip to Mississippi in June or August.

But like I said, no definitive dates. Perhaps I should work on that.

What is your favorite childhood memory?

Hmm… I’m not sure that I could pick just one. I do know that I loved visiting my Grandma and Grandpa Moore and playing with the silly putty. We would take the putty and comic strips and press down, press down, press down (if you aren’t in my family, you wouldn’t get that) and make the imprint of the comic on the silly putty. And then there was the tub of popcorn that Pap kept in his garage that he made in the electric skillet… it was right next to the chocolate chip cookies that my grandma made. You could only tell the difference in the tubs because Pap took one of those OLD OLD OLD label makers with the plastic labels in it and marked popcorn on the top.

Then there were the HOURS that we spent on his work bench taking things apart, building things, playing with his tools. In fact, even though I don’t use much of the things that belonged to him that now reside in my shed, I love going up there and just remembering it when it was there.

Sadly, all I have left of him and the garage are my memories and some tools that I have no idea how to use. My future husband will LOVE my shed.

If you could be anywhere in the world right now where would you be and with whom?

Anywhere but Roanoke, VA. It would have to be warm, because it’s freaking cold here and it’s May. So let’s just say on a cruise through the Carribean. Everyone says Florida or Cancun, so I’ll be different. Now, as for who I would be with? My friends… any of them that would want to come to have fun with me. It would not be my children and it would not be some man… unless that man was a member of NKOTB, then I would make an exception.

I love my children, but after the projects this weekend and the cold and the rain… I want to be away from all of the above.

Hey! I’m just being honest.

Melanie wants to know:

You have this blog, your new web business, the coaching… am I missing something? My question is how do you find the time?! How do you balance it all?

As I alluded yesterday, I don’t balance it all. At least not well. I have gotten really good at robbing peter to pay paul with my time, but every once in awhile it all creeps up on me and I meltdown, lay out my prioroties AGAIN and start over. This would normally be about the time when I ask God why He choses to do this to me and in a very LOUD booming voice, He tells me that I do it to myself.

With that said, we do have some boundaries. I do not work between the hours of 5pm and 9pm. Ever. Ok, well not ever, but rarely. Those are times that are reserved for my children. And they will remind me of that if the phone rings or if I sit down to work. And Friday nights? Game/Movie night when they are with me. I made the mistake of always working/ignoring them in the past and I will NOT make it again.

But the reality of it is… I’m a single woman and my children are older. Meaning they aren’t underfoot all the time. They have lives of their own and when it’s nice outside, they aren’t in here, they are out side playing. They visit with their dad one night every week and every other weekend. They are in bed by 9pm every night.

That leaves me with time on my hands. And because I can’t stand to have NOTHING to do (and by nothing I mean, things that I want to do) I fill my time. My problem is when I know we have nothing going on, I over extend myself. But I’m getting better.

Learning to say no would help out alot.

Megan @ FriedOkra asks:

Who are the main influences to your writing style and what writers do you admire most?

It’s funny to look back at my first posts and my posts now. My writing style has changed and I believe for the better. Before I was just writing for me and now I tailor it to my audience. Before no one was reading and now all of a sudden they are.

But the two bloggers that I love when it comes to writing styles are That Chick at Jason. For the Love of God and Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Now, what made me decide that I could write… at all? Janet Evanovich. After reading all about the adventures of Stephanie Plum, I realized that Janet makes these things up and I pretty much live them in my daily life. And since I know that many read her books, I thought people might like to hear about my escapades too.

Last one…

Shane asks:

What is the ONE thing (other than knowing God) that you feel is most important to teach your children?

This one is easy. Never give up. I can think of many mistakes that I’ve made in my life but through each of them I’ve never given up. I’ve found a way to make lemonade out of the lemons that I bought, or stepped in, or acquired. I’ve thought about giving up, but I never have.

I think that we proved a valuable lesson this weekend with that stupid potato clock. No, we didn’t make it work, but neither of us ever gave up. And when he turned his project in this morning, he was proud of it… (even if FOUR other kids did the same thing and it worked for them). We fought the good fight and I firmly believe that if you keep going, if you don’t give up, in the end, the rewards are well worth it.

Ok… phew… we’re done with the questions that have been asked, however, I don’t want this to end here… because I love it. So I’ve installed a new little widget on my side bar so that we can do this whenever.  (and it was as a result of this little game that the owner contacted me to tell me about askablgr.com. So check it out…

Now…

About that winner…

There were 16 people to ask a question… and I’m going to ask my twitter friends to draw for me…

and since Yvonne was the only person slacking off today and reading my tweets first person to respond, the lucky winner is…..

Tara R.

Tara, I’ll be emailing you….

Bet you want to know what she won, right?

Nothing special or creative… just the left over potatoes from the science fair project…

Totally kidding!

She’ll win $10 to the online store of her choice… so when I email you Tara, tell me where you want to spend it….

Now I must get back to work….

Until next time…

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