Hi all, how have you been this last week?
I haven’t forgotten my fellow word presser’s just been spending quality time with family. My oldest son has just returned to his home after coming down for a surprise visit for his dad’s birthday.
It wasn’t such a surprise though as our Niki accidentally let the secret out when explaining to her dad who all the pumpkins on our side were for josh being one of the lucky pumpkin holder.
while waiting for Josh’s train to arrive I banned my Nik from entering the kitchen you can’t easily set up a surprise when someone is in the other room. Not an easy thing at all, still the kids helped I already wrapped the presents and hid them in a bag in the corner.
We all decided to give dad a break from the usual jokes and just got candles that said 21 as in dad sometimes acts like a big kid.
Our Josh arrived late Wednesday night, he just seems to get bigger each time we see him, although Jake is beginning to catch up with him in hight.
It was about 11 pm when we got back to ours thier was no way the kids were going to sleep till they saw thier big brother
Jake and Niki were super excited too, getting them to go to thier rooms was very difficult.
Thursday Last day of school as well as dad’s birthday we made it up in time so kids could have breakfast and see dad open the presents from them.
Birthday morning his favorite thing the cup with a horn on from Josh , at least it is more tolerable then him dropping a baking tray he is always looking for ways to make us jump. Hayley and Dad joined us for birthday celebrations with messages and phone calls coming through out the day. It was such a beautiful relaxing day. He even had some surprise calls from his old radio and DJ buddies which was nice.
Friday School holiday’s begun
Except no one told my internal clock it can sleep in, 6.30 I woke up why cant it work that way on school run days I always sleep longer then I should. Friday is always a busy day for me nightshift day, the week i just have Hayley over night normally she would be staying at our house all night but as Josh is home there was not enough space, so we stayed here for the evening then went back to hers for the night. Friday is also food shopping day and bills day.
Friday was also different as Josh took Jake to town for brother time, Niki had her placement day before braking up for the holiday’s .
I also had a meet up with my beautiful author friend Sue, first time having a meet up that isn’t at an event, she gave me some great tips as well as having a girly chat too, you know most of my chats over the years have been with family mainly my mum or my mother in law so it was nice too speak too someone else, with a mutual interest in children’s books and self publishing just what I needed, plus she is super cool down to earth and easy to talk too, normally I would of been super nervous.
Saturday was another family do this time the christening of my cousins beautiful son Jermaine
Events take some planning to be able to attend, lots too think of for families with kids on spectrum the church was the easy bit because it was not a long event the kids coped well, little Jermaine was so smiley and calm through out the christening
My kids looked so smart, my hubby didn’t come this time wasn’t feeling up too it.
Jake and his cousin Holly were pleased too see each other
The party was set up so beautifully tables set with baby blue balloons and the center table all set with cake and and decorations a lot of time and effort went into that, a little book to record messages handed out as a forever reminder that people shared this special memory with the family
There was a disco, and food, Jake cant always cope with loud music so in my car which I parked as close to exit as possible was a blanket and pillow so we could pop out when it got too much, pop the classical music on and charge any devices that some how tend to run out of battery at the beginning of events, food the kids like or something they can take thier mind of music and focus thier senses, Niki’s is her phone and talking to Tom it helps her anxiety.
Jakes distraction this time was long division and colour coordinating skittles. They both lasted till half an hour before the end once Niki’s phone was getting low on charge that was when it was time to go. Josh had a great time up on the dance floor so did Hayley. Dad stood quite at the end of table with his beer and camera, that’s my dad though his a people observer .
It was Great to catch up with Family, and share this special day with them. It was also nice to finally give my cousins thier copies, thier opinion matters because one of the things raised in the book in the dedication section at the end of the story is Huntington’s which thier dad has so it has a special mention of him and his brother’s and sisters in there too.
Sunday was a chilled day for everyone, Josh went for a walk with both Niki and Jake before settling on sofa together. Then we had the last supper before he returned home ready for work on Monday.
Monday was a chilled day too Hair cut day for Jake his dad took him too barbers this time just for a scissor cut this time as he wanted to keep some of the length but get rid of the curls that had begun to sprout at the ends again. Hair cuts for Jake have become a positive experience lately and he eagerly lets us know when he wants it to be done again.
So that has been pretty much the busy few days now moving on to a new topic.
Book news and author networking
This week in the moments I have had spare i joined some author,illustrator, reader, book groups and started widening my contact base in this big industry. sharing some of the things that may help them reading about thier work and sharing some of the books that I thought were great especially for children. I should of done this ages ago , I have had more people ask about my book these last couple of days then I did before. I made it released for global sales adjusted pricing to take in changes in printing and other costs so that i make my money out of it too. Put aside the thoughts of the old digital foot print and re centered and focused on putting the new ISBN footprint out thier. The book trailer will be uploaded and shared just as soon as Halloween is over.
Coming up with differnt ideas for sharing book
Here he is Emo and his copies with new ISBN, it is also showing up more online with these numbers and the booksELF publishing information.
I guess that’s it for now though sorry so long today lots too share.