THAT FACE. You guys! I tried so hard to get a sweet shot of her in the bathtub, but I’m realizing that while my girls are strong and smart and kind and hilarious, they may not technically ever be sweet.

But the POINT IS that Adrienne is – miraculously and suddenly – no longer afraid of the bath. I kind of want to throw one of those ridiculous parties the parents in the diaper commercials do for toddlers who finally flush. But since I was short on confetti and disco lights and party music in the bathroom, I grabbed the camera and snapped a couple dozen shots of this cheesy grin instead!

Another milestone this month is a new word. Annalyn taught Adrienne to say, “Boom!” As in, drop the mic boom. It is as hilarious as you expect.

As I told someone earlier in the week, I had such big plans for March. And yet, here we are at the end of the month already! We were busy, although I’m not sure with what. Well, spring break happened. Or, spring no-break, as this video calls it.

Really, I was a bit nervous about nine long days of all kids, all the time. But we survived! I made the right amount of plans, so we had stuff to do but weren’t crazy busy. And we’re on Parenting Strategy #482 with Annalyn – and it seems to be working. Her behavior, which had morphed from barely tolerable sassy to unacceptable disrespect, has improved greatly. Which made spring break-or-not a whole lot better than anticipated.

Other big events in March included my mom’s tea party, trading cars, and Dr. Seuss week at Annalyn’s school. About five months before finding out I was pregnant with Adrienne, we traded our small SUV for a small car. Because we had accepted that we would be a family of three, that a second pregnancy was not in the cards for us, that a small car would be plenty sufficient. Since last January, the four of us traveling anywhere together has been uncomfortable or humorous – depending on if you were the clowns in the car or simply someone watching us climb out. We’d been talking about trading cars for a few months and after research and budget negotiation, we traded our small car for a different, new-to-us SUV. It’s roomy and kinda, sorta purple (burgundy, but I’m going with “kinda, sorta purple”), and I love it.

What do I love even more than that? Annalyn’s costume for the big finale to Dr. Seuss week. Even though we do not own – nor was I about to go find and buy – a Cat in the Hat hat, Annalyn insisted on dressing up as the Cat on Friday. Of course, I spent all week in Dr. Seuss denial, hoping she’d forget her elaborate costume plans. She did not. So the morning of the big day, I ended up running around the house like a MacGyver mom – and ended up with a super cute costume for her. I mean, I’m not putting it on Pinterest or anything, but when you consider we pulled it together in less than 30 minutes, in a less-than-crafty house? Well, check it out:

I know, I know, it’s mostly her face. After costume construction, we didn’t have time for a real photo shoot. She had a black shirt, leggings and skirt already. We added cat ears from her first Halloween and I cut up a pair of too-small black tights for a tail that I tucked into her pants. Then I grabbed one of her too-small white undershirts and cut an oval. I was in a hurry, so it ended up with very jagged edges. I told her it was on purpose, so it looked like hair. At that point it was too late for fabric glue and, as it turns out, I don’t own a single safety pin. So I threaded a needle real fast (heh. as fast as anyone who rarely sews can thread a needle.) and whip-stitched that puppy on her shirt.

Add some eyeliner whiskers and voila! Kinda, sorta Cat in the Hat!

That’s what I’ve been up to in real life this month. How about you?

What I’m Reading:

Ohhhh, right. I’m remembering now where my time went. Granted, I’m trying to recap two months of reading here, but still. It’s possible those uncrossed-off items on my to-do list have lots and lots of books to blame. I like to pretend that I have diverse tastes. Which I do. I do! Since the beginning of the year, I’ve read entire series (or as much of a series as has been published) about medieval knights, a fairy princess, teenage aliens, prep school detectives, and Southern sorcerers. They weren’t ALL young adult books, and they weren’t all Christian fiction. They weren’t ALL paranormal or science fiction or fantasy. See! I’m mixing things up!

Here’s a quick rundown of those series:

• The Lynburn Legacy trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan – A young adult Gothic romance with an interesting premise. The main character is in love with a boy . . . who is the voice in her head. Unsurprisingly, it’s not schizophrenia; it’s magic! The kind that goes back for generations and takes a small town hostage until a small band of rebels fight back. Sure, sure, that part’s not original, but I liked this series a lot.
• Prep School Confidential by Kara Taylor – A private school, a new girl, a mysterious mystery and a love triangle. Nothing new here – and it wasn’t nearly as good as The Gallagher Girls series – but it was fun and fluffy and exactly what I needed as I worked toward my own book deadline.
• Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout – I’m still waiting to read the fifth (and final) book in this series…about teenage aliens. I know, okay? I KNOW. But I actually liked the characters for the most part and the story WAS interesting. But also, when I needed a break from the intense, real emotions of book-writing, adolescent aliens did the trick. Don’t judge me.
• Age of Faith series by Tamara Leigh – This series (of five books) was recommended to me. And I have really liked other books by this author. But I had a hard time getting past the covers. You guys? They’re super cheesy. And I don’t always love historical fiction, and straight romance isn’t really my thing these days. But as it turns out, these stories about a family of medieval knights and their lady loves, well, they were lovely. Emotional, yes, but with great dialogue and compelling enough plot twists to keep me turning the pages until I reached the end of the series.
• The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa – I only read the first two books in this series, and I think I’m finished with it. It was a little boring to me, for some reason. Nerdy girl turns out to be a real-life fairy princess and has to save the fairy world. I normally like that sort of thing, but not this time.
• Trust Me I’m Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer – This book’s description compared it to Ally Carter’s Heist Society series. It did involve con artists, some of the teenage variety. And I did like it. But, apparently, nothing compares to Carter’s books in my mind. Still, I’m looking forward to the next book in this series.
• Jackaby by William Ritter – I saw this book – a paranormal sort of Sherlock Holmes – on a lot of people’s Must Read lists, so I read it. I liked the main character (not Jackaby), but the book itself was slow and kind of boring to me. I’m pretty sure I won’t be reading any more in this series.

My favorite read of the past couple of months is, by far, The Collectors’ Society by Heather Lyons. It’s a fairy tale retelling plus time travel plus romance plus mystery. It’s a book about books and characters and how real they can become. It’s incredibly creative, and I loved it!

[Side note, aka warning: The second book in the series is written from both a male and female point of view. I like the male character, but I did not like being inside his head during the love scenes. At all. Ick. Definitely more graphic than I like. But everything else about this series was so great that I skimmed those parts and am overlooking it for now (and hoping the third book is more like the first in that regard).]

Also? I may have (definitely) yelled at the author when I realized the second book ends on a cliffhanger and I have no idea when the next book will be published.

Next month, I’m looking forward to finally reading the second Veronica Mars book, Savor by Shauna Niequist, Landline by Rainbow Rowell, Love the Home You Have by Melissa Michaels, and Women are Scary by Melanie Dale. (Actually, I already started that last one and it’s SO GOOD!)

What I’m Watching:

Oh my WORD. If you all haven’t watched The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix, stop what you’re doing and WATCH IT NOW. Or at least watch the news report above, which is part of the series premiere and then serves as the series theme song. And then? JUST TRY not to walk around singing it All The Day Long.

“Un-break-able! They’re alive, dammit! The FEMALES are strong as hell!”

Sorry for the language. Except…I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING AND SINGING AND LAUGHING.

It’s been a big month (couple of months) for TV, actually. Kimmy Schmidt is awesome, obviously – super funny, as I expected, since it’s from Tina Fey (but wasn’t sure since the premise is a little odd). But I also started watching West Wing and Sherlock on Netflix, as well as Allegiance on NBC. Parks and Recreation ended forever (*sob*), and Hindsight ended for now. Oh, and I saw a couple movies, too.

Sherlock: You guys! Why didn’t you TELL ME? I’m kidding. Everything you said was true. I love it. I’d really like to take a vacation day from Real Life and watch All The Episodes. Alas. No vacation days left, so little by little will have to do. (Plus, I convinced Mark to watch, so now I get to watch the first four episodes again. Bonus!)

West Wing: After finishing the amazing Friday Night Lights, Mark and I did a lot of debating about our next old show to watch together. West Wing was the winner, and we’ve watched a handful of episodes so far. It may take us the next three years to get through the entire series (we only have a couple hours a week), but it will be worth it, I’m sure. So far, it’s GREAT.

Allegiance: “The network version of Americans” – that’s the description that hooked me. I’m too delicate [Fine. Wimpy.] for Americans, so this is perfect for me. Of course, that means this family spy show has already been cancelled. I’m watching the remaining episodes on On Demand and hope-hope-hoping they wrap it up before it ends for good.

Parks & Rec: I love it. The finale was beautiful. That’s all I can say without crying. *sniff*

Hindsight: I’ve told you before how much I love this 90s-nostalgic, time-traveling show on VH1. It ended strong and has already been renewed for another season. Which is a relief because that strong ending was not just an amazing musical montage and meltdown; it was also a cliffhanger.

And then, the movies. We rented “Kill the Messenger,” a based-on-a-true-story, political/journalism movie. We usually love this kind of movie, but it was really boring and we quit watching halfway through. Sad.

Not sad was Jupiter Ascending. Smitty had promised to take me to see it when I turned in my manuscript, since she knows and tolerates my penchant for science fiction. Or Channing Tatum. I mean, science fiction. (She doesn’t really have to tolerate that part, though. She’s kind of a geek like me.) Anyway. We went to see it. Smitty said, “That was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen!” Nah. She forgot that we watched A Winter’s Tale a few months ago. Jupiter Ascending was silly, cheesy, unoriginal and – honestly? – a lot of fun. So there.

What I’m Listening to:

• I ADORE this song by Andy Grammer – and the video, too: Honey, I’m Good
• This song is catchy, and moving: I Bet My Life
• This podcast from my friend Amy J. Bennett is my new favorite: Feathers – Faith in Flight

Whew! It seems I was INTO a lot over the past couple of months! How about you?

What were YOU into in March?

I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer for What I’m Into. It’s one of my favorite places to get book, TV and movie recommendations!