… live in any time period for a month, while retaining the knowledge you have now, what time period would it be?

… take one gadget and a reliable power source for the gadget on that time travel trip (aside from your time travel machine, of course) which would you take?

… meet one person (dead or alive) who would it be?

… ask that person one thing, what would it be?

… invent something with the guarantee it would work, what would you invent?

Thanks for playing!

In other news: Summer, summer, summer tiiiiiiime!

In Cochabamba, the city of Eternal Spring, Fall comes and goes unnoticed when the world celebrates the resurrection of Christ. So we have a pretend Autumn when the months start to end in brrrrr. Our luck this year brought early rains which usually don’t start until our Summer comes in November. Our September Spring chilled off a bit and put me in the mood to celebrate Northern Autumn.

While in the States I visited my favorite bean shop in the whole wide world. Spice Merchant in Wichita, Kansas has never failed me. I found a new decaf flavor: Pumpkin Spice. Whence first I laid my eyes on it I knew I had to have a party.

This week my coffee loving friends gathered around the fresh brew and the Autumny yumminess they graciously brought to share. I opted for an evening party so the house felt more cozy with candles and low light. Knowing the theme a few of the gals even dressed in warm Autumn colors. What a night! The kids buzzed around indoors and out. The conversation rivaled the treats with a tantalizing nature. My heart swelled with the goodness all around.

Even though in all that fun I forgot to snap a few pics I do have a nice fallish one to share. My daughter Gabrielle and I just happened to be both wearing orange to a different party not long ago. A clown there gave her an orange heart shaped balloon. A perfect photo op if I do say so myself.

Happy Autumn my friends!

Win the market guide, a proposal tutorial, and a 5 page critique from Mary!

Click that link if you are interested in having a chance or two (or seven!) to win some very fine things on your journey to publication. I don’t know why she wants to give away all this neat-o stuff. She must just be a very nice person, or something.

That is all. Carry on.

(click for full sized silliness)

In Spanish eleven is spelled ‘once’ [ohn' say]. It has been enjoyable talking with people and reading their messages regarding the new year. They give a wrap up of 2010. They tell me their hopes for 2011. The varied feelings of past and present give me cause to marvel at humanity on a micro and a macro scale.

Thought I’d jump on the bullet point band wagon and add my hopes for this ‘dos mil once’.

• Take my kids to the States for a visit
• Make solid advances for Kaitlynn’s U.S. citizenship
• Dream about the house we will build for The House of Dreams

I also hope that you, my dear readers, would realize all your hopes for this new year.

Yesterday I sang the praises of Jelly Belly candy on a post entitled Buttered Popcorn and Toasted Marshmallow. The mysterious two left-over flavors of the 25 assorted flavors pack were:

Chocolate Pudding and Licorice

Amazing that a seven member family could deem these two flavors unanimously inedible. Agreeing on this makes me smile. Summer brought with it the wonderful phenomenon of all five of my children playing happily together for extended lengths of time. I just want to bottle up the unity reigning here at home.

Thank you Agent Z!

The picture speaks for itself. What’s your guess at which two flavors the Washington family still hasn’t eaten?

My top three favorite Jelly Belly flavors:

1. Buttered Popcorn

2. Toasted Marshmallow

3. Watermellon

My mouth is watering just thinking of it!

What makes the top of your favorite Jelly Belly flavors list?

I should be getting ready to go to bible study right now. I am not.

I should be getting my kids dressed for the day right now. I am not.

I should be squeezing in a few moments of writing on my novel right now. I am not.

I should be catching up on emails right now. I am not.

I should be straightening up my house for my afternoon visitors right now. I am not.

I should be giving my help instructions for the day. I am not.

I should be arranging my schedule to be able to make it to the conference we are hosting right now. I am not.

What am I doing instead?

I am blogging and talking on the phone with a friend and facebooking and tweeting and skimming my feed reader all at the very same time!

Just thought you would like to know.

What should you be doing that you are not so that you can graciously stare at ‘the@’ on the screen of your choice right now?

Thanks for being a part of my life! ‘The @’ readers rock!

Maybe you are one of those hyper-patient parents that field every question from your sweet angels with an understanding and thorough answer accompanied by colored illustrations, object lessons and a three act dramatization to ensure that every bit of doubt is completely obliterated in your child’s mind not only per their original inquiry but also about the absolute, undying interest you have in welcoming the curious mind of your offspring.

Me? Not so much.

I aim for monosyllabic responses. I try the reverse psychology thingy and thoughtlessly throw the question right back at them.  There are even times when I (hushed whisper behind the hand) ignore their incessant questions [gasp!]. I know. Just hand over the pink slip now. I have officially been served a dishonorable discharge from the ranks of the super-mom infantry. I am no longer fit to battle on the front lines of parenting. How dare I squelch their precious little wonderments!

So I hang my head and shuffle my feet out of that prestigious establishment to the street; kicked to the curb. That’s what I am. But, hey. What’s this? There is a street full of parents just like me. They’re sitting down at The Reality Cafe gabbing over fully caffeinated grandes coffees as black as they come. They are chatting as they linger by the bargain bins at the Get Your Grip Here discount store. And I finally realize, I am not the only one!

We’re good folk. We want to do right by our kids. We don’t want to mess them up… too much. Of course, since they are going to need to drop a pretty penny on therapy sessions anyway, why not make it worth their while, right? So, we read all the right books. We subscribe to all the right blogs. And we help each other out. We ask what has worked and hope for the best.

I find an empty seat and pop myself down next to the first person who makes eye contact with me. They ask me what got me kicked out. I tell them my sob story. After the compulsory pat on the back some suggestions come from one of the dads. We start a downright brainstorming session right there at the table. And I am feeling a bit better. I am feeling like I might actually be able to find some sanity in the midst of all this.

True story! Well, almost.  There was coffee. But there were no discharge papers. It was just me and my husband. The brainstorming session did take place, even though we were interrupted about eight times by, you guessed it, questions from the kids! He did the math. Averaging fifteen questions an hour per kid, we have five, during the awake hours when they are not in blessed dreamland which is roughly fifteen hours a day makes 1,125 statements that begin with Mama and end with a big fat question mark demanding a response of some sort from yours truly.

Want to know what some of the ideas were? Want to know what we came up with deal with the hundreds of questions that come flying at us like Nerf darts every. single. day.?

Ok. I’ll tell ya.

1. Change your name from Mama to an undisclosed code name. Change the code name daily.

2. Make them earn their answers. For every chore done off of a prominently posted list they can ask one question. Or better yet, flat out cash. A dollar a question.

3. Delegate all answering to the oldest child.

4. Rotate the answering of questions between carefully selected intimidating people like: the security guard at the bank on the corner, their school principal, or the dentist.

5. Ration questions., You get three a day. No more.

6. Make them whisper the question to themselves loud enough for themselves to hear it thus requiring themselves to think if themselves might actually be able to find an answer to that question for themselves.

7. All questions must be submitted in written form. Allow 7 to 10 days for a response. Answers NOT guaranteed.

8. Give them all a magic eight ball and tell them that you have full confidence that whatever answer the ball tells you is the one they need to hear at that moment.

9. Set up one of those cool clicky spinny things like they have on the game shows to have them spin for an answer.

10. Just say yes to everything.

11. Just say no to everything.

12. Duct tape.

You do understand that I love my kids. You do understand that most of the time I give them intelligent answers to their questions. And there are times when their questions amuse, challenge, astound and enlighten me. I don’t want them to stop asking questions. Questions are good, they help us learn, yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah. I get all that. It’s just that in those rare moments of solitude and silence a prominent thing that raises to the surface of my thankfulness tank is the fact that I am not required to answer any of my beautiful childrens’ fabulous questions.

And I just felt like you should know that today. Thank you.

6:00 alarm. wake myself up with a combo of coffee and twitter / facebook / email / reader checks.

6:15 make breakfast. usually something like: oatmeal, pancakes, french toast, cream of wheat, or eggs. chat with Gabrielle, my fellow early bird.

6:30 wake the other two school kids. set everyone about their business of prep for school.

7:10 family devos and prayer on the couch.

7:20 scootch the three big ones out the door to school.

7:30 meander about the house finishing getting myself ready for the day and then moving along to the two little ones who get baths and assistance in all the rest: brushing teeth, brushing hair, dressing, shoes, etc.

8:30 house help arrives M, W and F so that I can do missionary stuff like: phone calls, writing, emails, organizing, proofreading, planning, praying, visiting, meetings, etc. On the T days I putter around doing home stuff and blogging and whatnot.

9:45 M, W, F walking with my friends followed by sit-ups at home followed by a shower.

11:00 more missionary stuff or home stuff.

12:00 delegate or make lunch.

1:00 kids home from school and we eat lunch.

2:00 little ones down for nap / rest time. chilling with the husband for siesta. shift change with the house help (I have two part time gals).

3:00 start the kids on their homework, help where needed.

3:45 take Timothy and Gabrielle to chess class (except Thur.)

4:45 go to pick up kids from chess class.

6:00 make dinner. on Fridays DaRonn and I have our date night in which case all below is taken care of by someone else. Yeah!

7:00 we all chill: games, playing, or t.v. / movie.

8:00 three youngest to bed.

9:00 son to bed.

10:00 everyone else in bed. sometimes DaRonn and I watch an episode of something.

In the in between times I do far less reading and writing than I would like to admit, but I try. There are also variations when other work stuff comes up or when I make sanity-plans to hang out with friends. The regular day-to-day is also jumbled up when we have visitors, events or other such pleasant interruptions.

Saturday is far less structured and finds us doing market shopping, a bit of church stuff and a lot of whatever we like. Sunday is: church, lunch, rest, skype with oma and opa, and church.

Obviously, as the situations, demands, and desires change the way I invest my time will change as well.

What does your “Day in the Life of” look like? You can post a link to a blog you have done about it or use the comment section to fill me in. Really, I am interested in YOUR life.