It. Is. Time. To. PARTY.

Happy Friday!!! This is not just any Friday, but the last Friday or any day my kids have school for the year!

even Hank is excited

Man, it feels good! This year has been one helluva ride, and I'm so relieved it's over. I have serious plans to sit back, relax, write and read a sh*t-ton of books over the next three months (check out my 2013 summer reading challenge on the left sidebar). As part of the fabulous VikLit's Celebrate the Small Things blog hop, I'm going to quickly list the things that had me do jumping jacks (in addition to the kids being done with school thing):

1. The re-write of What I've Done is still going amazingly well, and my editor just helped me add a new scene that brought a giant, gale-force wind of fresh air to the story.

2. I found an amazing designer to give my blog a facelift, and our vision of the new look is going to blow you away. Just. Wait.

3. Someone close to me is dealing with some health issues, and I'm just going to say that I'm so grateful to have her in my life, as well as all my family, friends, and fans! Three middle-aged people in our small community tragically/suddenly died in the past week and it has, once again, opened my eyes to the importance of life and just how precious it is.

4. I chaperoned my 13-year-old's class trip to the Minnesota Zoo on Wednesday. It has been many years since I didn't have a toddler in tow while visiting there, and I have a new appreciation of how much fun it can actually be. I thought for sure the 7th grade girls would become bored, but I literally had to drag them away from petting the sharks and stingrays.

I'm sure there were other things to celebrate, but my ADD is kicking into high gear and I need to close this post up as I started it a couple of hours ago. So I hope this Friday gives you lots of reasons to celebrate, and I hope you're gearing up for an epic summer!

Summer Reading Challenge

I just realized this morning how slack I've been online. No video blogs, no Friday "Celebrate the Small Things" posts, nothing.

But I have a good excuse. Despite the fact that we still have snow on the ground and it's nearly May, my children are crazy busy. We've been running non-stop with volleyball, track, dance, confirmation, tae kwon do and that little thing called life.

I know that really doesn't excuse my daytime hours, but those have been filled with a major overhaul on my first novel What I've Done as well as trying to tackle my second zombie book.

And although I obviously love reading just as much as I love writing, I've had very little time for that lately. To remedy this, I've decided to challenge myself to read one book each week this summer (not PER DAY as previously stated *oops*). I'm not talking digital books (because if you watch my vlogs you know how well that goes), but honest to goodness books that I can hold in my hands and turn each page. 

So I've started hoarding books for this challenge (see list on left side of this webpage). Most of them are of the paranormal persuasion, but I'll probably throw a few old fashioned romance stories in the mix to spice things up. Plus there are a couple of John Green's I have yet to read. If you have any recommendations for something that is sure to knock my socks off, leave them in the comment below.

 So while I'm working from our lake home this summer, I plan to at least try to give you a video reviewing a book every week. We'll see how this goes.

I challenge you to set up your own reading goal for this summer. Even once a month would be an awesome goal for anyone who loves to read but can never seem to find enough time. Now if this freaking snow would just melt and it would warm up enough to wear a pair of capris for the first time in 2013, maybe I could actually believe that summer is really on its way...