NaNoWriMo

November is NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month.

The idea of NaNoWriMo, which has become international, BTW, is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in just one month. Start to finish. Now, if you think that's an incredibly short time to write a novel, you're right - and that's the fun of it. It's just crazy to try and write a novel in a month, and yet thousands and thousands of people do it every year during NaNoWriMo.

I've been a NaNo participant before (and never done too well, because I'm terrible at switching off my nagging interior editor, but so far I'm doing quite well this year. At only 5 days in, I've already written over 10,000 words, so I'm getting more confident that I'll actually be able to make it this year.

I'm not the only one in my family that has been hit by the NaNo-virus. Both Lizzy and Fran are afflicted too. Since Fran is still very young and has very little writing experience, she joined NaNo's Young Writer's Program, and set herself the task of writing at least 7000 words this month. I'm not too sure that she'll actually make it, as I haven't seen her writing much over the last two days, but we'll see.

Lizzy is 16, and although she would still be allowed to join the Young Writer's Program and determine her own goal, she decided to just join NaNo again and write a full length novel. She participated before, and didn't make it then, but like me she's ahead of schedule right now, and she's got a great plot to work with. Also, she's got lots more writing experience than two years ago, when she first joined NaNo.

The only one in the house who isn't "Doing NaNo" is my husband. Poor him, he'll have a hard time coping with the antics of his Writer Family.

Twitter

Just a tiny little blog post to let the world know that I just joined twitter.

If you consider yourself one of my friends and you're on twitter, please let me know so we can stay in touch with other.

First Judo Competition

Today, Fran played her very first Judo Competition. That took quite some preparation, of course, and there was one little problem. Fran takes after her Mum: she's a lightweight. And by that we mean A Real Lightweight. In fact, she weighs so little, she couldn't compete against judoka's her own age, since even the smallest and slimmest her age were much taller and weighed much more than she. So she got to compete against judoka's that were all younger than her - and even there she was in the lowest weight division (under 25 kg/55 pounds).

So there she was waiting for her turn, with one of her coaches sitting right next to her providing her with a last bit of good advice before the match started.

A first Judo competition is quite an experience, as you don't really know what to expect. And if you're afraid to hurt your opponent, you lose your match, which can be rather distressing. And it gets even more distressing if you lose your next match as well.

But thank goodness for Big Sisters, who take you in their arms to comfort and encourage you. Big Sisters are obviously very important to Young Judoka's, and there's nothing wrong with saying that out loud.

Big Sister has always been a star at making Fran laugh again when she is down, and she did it again this time. She also gave her some good advice.

And so it was, that after all matches had been played, Fran stood on the podium, smiling.

She got back home tonight carrying a beautiful trophy. She still won fourth prize.

And Dad went to buy us chips for supper.

Sweet Sixteen

Today is Lizzy's birthday. She's sixteen now.

Her birthday present was a complete makeover of her room. Since you don't do a complete makeover in just one or two days - at least we don't - we've been at it for months already.

All our efforts were well worth it. Lizzy's room has become the dream room she wanted. It will be quiet downstairs, though, now that she has her computer up in her own room.

Autumn Break

This week the schools in our region are closed. Autumn break. We never have vacation. After all, learning is our way of life, and you don't take days off from life, do you?

Alas, the sportsclub and school of arts are closed this week

Poor Fran won't be going to judo training, and this makes her rather grumpy. Thankfully, she'll be playing her first real judo competition next Sunday, and she's really looking forward to that.

Also because of the autumn break, there won't be any drawing lessons for Lizzy, and no drama class. She's not too happy about that, but fortunately her best friend is staying with her for a couple of days now, and that more than makes up for it.

photo by Lana Hogenstijn

Sukkot 5770

Sukkot started last Friday. Since I've only just come home from hospital, we haven't got a Sukkah. Well, to be honest, we never really had one, but most years we managed to have something very remotely resembling one. Not this year.

However, since Lizzy's had to take over from me during my hospital stay, she gained quite some experience at all sorts of household chores, including cooking. She helped me prepare a most delicious Sukkot Supper.

Filled peppers and courgettes, bulgur, Fausia's potatoes, cucumber and tomato salad, rucola salad, garlic dressing, Lizzy's avocado dip. Bete'Avon!

I posted some more pictures of Lizzy's Sukkot Cooking lab on our Home Ed Picture Blog.

Chag Sameach!

Graduation

Less than one year ago, Lizzy took her first Natural Eyesight Improvement course with Thomas Quackenbush at the Natural Vision Center in Malden.

Her eyesight improved greatly over the past months; she went from -4.5 and -4.75 to -3 for both eyes in less than a year's time. We were very impressed with those results.

In fact we were so impressed and so enthusiastic, that Lizzy decided to become a Natural Eyesight Teacher herself.

Last month, Lizzy attended Thomas's Teacher Training Program, and today she graduated. She brought home a beautiful certificate, signed by no one less than Thomas Quackenbush himself.

At age 15, Lizzy is the youngest Bates teacher Thomas ever trained, and probably the youngest worldwide, at the moment. Need I still tell you how very proud I am of my daughter?