For those of you who are following such things, the book to which I have contributed an article, Best of The eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions: Top Articles from the eMagazine’s First Five Years, is officially scheduled for release on April 11. It’s already listed on Amazon. Check it out!

Meanwhile, a preview of the table of contents on the publisher’s website shows that my words have earned a spot as chapter 6. I recognize a couple of the other contributing authors as very big names in the field of e-learning. There’s no way I belong in the same league—I’m barely fit to breathe the same air, let alone exist between the covers of the same book—but I’ll enjoy my 15 minutes of fame.

And a pretty good 15 minutes it will be. As one of the “authors,” I will be participating in an author signing at the eLearning Guild’s annual conference in mid-April. And I’ve been invited to serve as a panelist in a panel discussion on the current state of e-learning, immediately after the book signing.

Life is feeling just a little too good to be true today.

Disclaimer: This post is in no way a sales plug, because I earn a big fat zero from any sales of the book. My only compensation is two free copies of the finished product. And the glory of seeing my name eternally in print.

A few weeks ago, my sister told me that she doesn’t read my blog anymore because new entries are so few and far between. She’s right, so I thought I would take this opportunity to list all the things going on in my life that are preventing me from being a more proactive blogger at present.

Without further ado, I present Mo’s life, 2008 style.

• Sunday mornings: As of this week, teaching Sunday School for 3rd-5th graders. But only every other month, since I’ll be alternating with another teacher.
• Sunday nights: Weekly Bible study with my sister-in-law. A top priority.
• Monday nights: A script writing class at a local community college, in preparation for an upcoming project I will be working on with a friend.
• Tuesday nights: Kent’s weekly city council meetings, and my turn to hold down the fort at home with the kids.
• Wednesday nights: Church. A new series titled “Raising Respectful Kids in a Disrespectful World” starts next week. I’m eagerly looking forward to it.
• Thursday nights: Literacy tutoring.

In the rest of my free time (i.e., late nights and weekends), I somehow have to squeeze in the following:

• A freelance editing/desktop publishing project that I’m currently working on.
• Preparing for the weekly Bible study.
• Preparing for the Sunday School class lessons.
• Preparing assignments for my literacy student.
• Alumni interviews for my alma mater university.
• Homework for the script writing class.
• Research for the related project with a friend.

Other extracurricular activities that haven’t started yet, but will soon, include:

• Creating a reunion booklet for my high school class’s 20 year reunion.
• Assisting with the development a new Sunday School curriculum, since curriculum development happens to be my specialty. Of course my focus is job training for adults, not Sunday School for kids, but many of the underlying instructional principles are the same.
• A return to weekly soccer practice and games for Noah.
• Preparation for a conference presentation I’ll be giving in March. Which is technically work related, except I’m not finding much time to get to it at work.
• And the best one of all, the feather in my cap—I’ve been invited to participate in an author signing at a conference in April. It will be the official launch for the e-learning best practices book that my article is included in. Yay for me (and the other contributing authors, of course)!

So I’m a little on the busy side for much blogging these days, but it’s all good. These are all commitments I’ve taken on voluntarily and want to do.

Someday, I’ll probably look back on this entry and be impressed with myself in the extreme at how many balls I managed to keep in the air at one time. Either that, or my family will read back on it and understand why I self destructed. Only time will tell…

2007 was a very good year. What do I have to be so thankful for, you may ask? Why, it was all chronicled right here in this very blog.

First, there was the big executive promotion in January.

February saw most of the miraculous series of events that led to the improbable sale of our “in need of TLC” house and subsequent purchase of our dream home.

April was the month in which I decided to champion adult literacy as my cause. The tutoring is still going strong and, according to my student, making a difference.

In June I discovered that my dad had been named our local homeless clinic’s volunteer physician of the year, making me one very proud daughter.

July brought the news that a writing dream was about to come true. The best practices book to which I have contributed an article is still scheduled for publication this spring. Those who know me well claim to have never heard me so excited. Or so full of emotion.

A modified version of September’s rant about the state of admissions at my alma mater will soon be making the rounds at said university, as a letter to the editor in our quarterly alumni magazine. Maybe it won’t change the world, but the editor feels my pain and is giving me a forum in which to make my voice heard.

In October we rolled out the red carpet for the most glamorous birthday party ever, creating what I hope will always be a vivid childhood memory for Maia.

November and December passed by in a mostly undocumented blur, but the highlights include time spent with family and the best of friends.

Readers, I have often maintained that I have a charmed life. It seems true, does it not? Yet I know others who deserve good fortune so much more. God surely has His reasons for bestowing unearned blessings on some while burdening others with equally unearned trials. And I just as surely don’t understand them. I’m not meant to, but that’s never stopped this rambling, accidental thinker from pondering life’s seeming inequities—admittedly with all the insight of mud.

Yes, my kids scored a Nintendo Wii from Santa this Christmas. Santa acquired the Wii a few months ago, in anticipation of a Christmas shortage, and it stayed in hiding until it was time to load up the sleigh (er, um, the minivan, to transport gifts in hiding back to our house in time for Santa’s big delivery).

Sometimes, Santa gets it right.

The kids particularly love bowling on Wii Sports. All I’ve heard for days are cries of “strike!” and “spare!” every time they hit one. Kent likes tennis and golf, while I switch it over to Super Mario Galaxy after the kids are in bed. So far I’ve managed to collect 7 stars (out of 120) in my quest to rescue Princess Peach. At this rate, I expect I’ll be enjoying Mario for a very long time. Whenever I can wrest control of the Wii from the kids, that is.

A note I found on our bed, just now, carefully positioned to make sure we would spot it immediately. These are the sweet, sweet moments that make life worth living.

_______________________

Dear Mommy and Daddy,

Thank you for everything you do.

LOVE,

Maia and Noah

_______________________

On second thought, maybe it’s just because they’re trying to secure a spot on Santa’s “nice” list. But in the spirit of the season, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. I have the bestest kids ever!

Recently, my mom mentioned that she might need some help from the family, when everyone is down over Thanksgiving, to move some furniture out of the way and straighten a certain upstairs rug that has become a scrunched up tripping hazard.

After the experience two years ago with the rug in question, a classic testament to what can go very, very wrong when families get together at Thanksgiving, I’m thinking I should be very, very afraid. What say you, blog friends? Should I run screaming in the opposite direction? Should I pre-program 911 into the speed dial of my cell phone, for easy access in the event of bodily harm?

Maia has been begging for an MP3 player lately. But there is no way I’m plunking down hard-earned money on small electronic gadgets for her to lose, when she has a hard time even keeping track of her hairbrush.

But, I love my daughter, and I hate to see her be disappointed. So this weekend I allowed her to buy an MP3 player with HER OWN MONEY, pooled from birthday gifts last month, provided she could find one within her budget.

She found a 1 GB model for $40, and still had $2 to spare after tax. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happier kid leaving Target. She gushed that her dream came true, and she would always remember this day. All over a bubble gum pink piece of technology with no display to tell her what song she’s listening to, and which also happens to be smaller than a pack of actual bubble gum.

Not to mention the fact that part of the birthday money was in the form of an American Express gift card. Which required a signature. And the Target associate let Maia do the signing on the credit card machine since it was her gift card. She felt super grown up making such an important purchase and using the funny electronic pen to sign her name. You would have thought she had just won the lottery.

And I was so excited to see her so excited that it didn’t even feel like work when I stayed up half of Saturday night, copying all her CDs (about 15—spoiled kid!) to the MP3 player while she was in bed. And then renaming the files, at her request, so they would play in the same order as on the CDs, instead of in alphabetical order.

I don’t think Maia’s feet have touched the ground or the earbuds have left her ears in the last couple of days. Except that technically, one of the earbuds has left her ear quite a lot, since she is generously sharing the listening experience with her little brother. While out and about on errands yesterday, Noah did not stray any further from Maia than permitted by the length of his lone borrowed ear bud.

And Noah’s only musical request? Church songs. I’ve got angels. I truly, truly do.

On a sunny weekend in mid-September 2001, we spent an afternoon at Walt Disney World, as we often do, being locals with annual passes. Specifically, we were at Epcot, where my brother-in-law sings as a member of the a cappella “Voices of Liberty” group at the American Adventure.

What made this performance of Americana more special than normal was that it was the first weekend post 9/11, and patriotic feelings were running particularly high. But the moment that brought me goosebumps came when the group sang God Bless America. Just as the first words from this melody sprang forth, Maia stood and began waving an American flag she had earlier been given outside. You would have thought she understand exactly what had happened in our nation just days earlier. But at not quite three years old, there’s no way she could have known what impact the solitary girl standing with her flag would have on the people around her. But she waved her little heart out and I think upstaged the singers that day.

After that, we decided to teach her the words to the song so that next time, she could sing along. A few days ago I stumbled across an old audio clip from my archives of a barely three-year-old Maia belting out God Bless America. I share it here for your patriotic enjoyment.

Maia sings God Bless America

How do you top a dance club birthday party, one year later? Why, you roll out the red carpet, of course. Literally.

This movie premiere was a star-studded event of celebrity proportions, complete with velvet ropes to cordon off the entry path and keep the paparazzi and autograph seekers at bay. The leading ladies arrived at the affair chauffeured by their private drivers, all dolled up in their most glamorous gowns. As they strolled their way down the red carpet, they noted the stars bearing the names of each attendee, in their own Hollywood Walk of Fame. At the door, a full size movie poster announced the private screening of Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

After all the movie stars had made their grand entrance, frenzied fans (a.k.a. Mom and Dad) demanded group photo ops on the red carpet. The dazzling ingenues radiated charm and vogued for the camera like pros. Then the girls settled in for the movie in a decked out, high tech, private home theater that is the spitting image of romantically grand but intimate theaters of the past, from the days before multiplexes ruled the motion picture experience. Meanwhile, the concession stand worked overtime to churn out enough popcorn and drinks to satisfy the demands of 13 hungry moviegoers. And proving that celebrities are no different from the rest of us, there was, like at any public function, a line for the ladies room.

Special Note: The academy would like to thank a pair of very brave grandparents for donating the use of their home for the gala festivities, and also for having the foresight to dream their unused “bonus room” into said private theater—complete with reclining theater seats, wall sconce light fixtures, 110-inch movie screen framed by velvet drapes and a fringed valance, and special rope lighting to illuminate the steps in the dark.

Following the movie, it was time for presentation of the “Maia Awards,” as voted on by anonymous movie critics (a.k.a. Maia) ahead of time. Awards were presented in the following categories, accompanied by small Oscar® look-alike statues, with an acceptance speech or two thrown in:

• Best Comedic Actress
• Best Dramatic Actress
• Best Dressed for the Red Carpet
• Best Hollywood Smile
• Best Red Carpet Walk
• Most Glamorous Hairstyle
• Most Likely to Enter a Magical Wardrobe
• Most Likely to Save Narnia
• Most Likely to Star in a Disney Movie
• Most Photographed by Paparazzi
• Most Sparkling Personality

And a few Honorable Mentions for the younger friends and relatives in attendance:

• Best Performance as a Little Brother
• Best Performance as a Little Sister
• Excellence in Adorableness
• Excellence in Cuteness

The entire group then retreated downstairs for the “after party,” consisting of presents, cake, a little dancing, and much noise.

By all counts, the party was a success. And the most important critic of all, a certain nine-year-old birthday girl, raves: “It was the best party in the history of parties!” It’s a good thing she’s old enough to remember it, because although this exhausted Mom had extreme fun planning this one, I do believe we’ve reached the pinnacle of over-the-top birthday party themes and are now very well stocked in all things Webkins, Hannah Montana, and High School Musical. Next year we’ll be downscaling the pomp and opting for a good old-fashioned slumber party instead. Where, I am sure, no one will actually sleep.

I am the oldest of three sisters. Yet somehow, at my wedding 13+ years ago, guests from my husband’s side who had never met my sisters assumed, on seeing the three of us together, that I was the youngest. Considering that my baby sister was only 13 at the time, I didn’t exactly see this as a compliment, but it’s been something of a running joke ever since. (Though granted, she did look quite grown up in her bridesmaid dress, with hair and makeup befitting the occasion.)

Fast forward to 2007. My, how things change! As of yesterday, my baby sister is now a married woman herself. And my attitude about how old I look relative to my sisters has changed considerably. I have been teasing my sister for the past several months that my goal at her wedding is for people to still think I look the youngest. Mostly, my attempts at such levity were rewarded with dirty looks, and I never actually believed anyone would really say such a thing, but still I teased.

Then, on Friday night at the rehearsal dinner, I unexpectedly scored! A friend of my parents whom I had not seen in many years said the magic words when re-introduced to me. “You’re the oldest? You look the youngest.” In front of witnesses, even. Whether he meant it or was just buttering me up is irrelevant. It made my night, and naturally I summoned my sister right over to rub it in. She, of course, wanted to know how much I paid him to say that, but it was completely unsolicited. So it’s official. I still look the youngest. And this time, I’ll take it!

BUT… while I may (arguably) look the youngest, the bride was by far the most beautiful. Hands down. She looked radiant, and her wedding was lovely. The planned beach ceremony got rained out, but the happy couple handled the last minute change of plans well. Besides, everyone knows that rain on your wedding day is good luck. I predict they’ll have a blessed marriage.