Here’s a quick update from my whining session yesterday. First of all, my son’s flag football team WON the championship game!! I couldn’t go, but three grandparents and my husband saw them win — so YEA for me sending emails to everybody. I’m not such a bad mom after all.

As far as our “Wednesday virus” woes, my three-year-old popped up out of bed at 9:40, eager as a beaver, telling me he wasn’t sick anymore and he wanted to eat breakfast. So, it was truly a one-day bug. The baby napped off and on all day, giving me an excuse to hold her, rock her, and do nothing productive except read — and she’s fine this morning as well. Whew!

Now, here’s my reminder to you — if you’re even the tiniest bit interested in writing a novel someday, now’s your chance. Starting October 1, you can sign up for NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month will take place throughout the month of November. Get out that dusty manuscript you wrote in college and you occasionally pine over, and tap it into your computer during November. When you reach 50,000 words, you’re done, and you get to put a really cool 2006 NaNoWriMo button on your blog or website (or refrigerator) to let the world know you’re an aspiring novelist.

I don’t have time to write a novel — but who does? Even professional novelists barely have time to write — they’ve got fan mail to answer, book tours to give, movie producers to meet with, all that stuff that takes time away from the hard work of pounding the keys.

My idea is to get up super early and spend an hour a day — typing 2,000 words of something — and try to do it. I think it would be fun to write something for my kids that I could give them as a Christmas gift. I’ve been reviewing kids’ books lately, and every book I read, I think, “I could write like that, maybe even funnier than that.” So why not? Nobody has to read it but me and my kids. I may even use their actual names and pets throughout the story — but make it one of those funny, hair-raising mysteries or adventures where they figure something out.

If I can do it, you can too. OK? Congratulations to one of you who wrote to tell me she sent off two Chicken Soup stories this week — for the Beach Lover’s Soul and Chocolate Lover’s Soul. Whoo-hooo! One day, I’ll be at the beach eating chocolate reading Chicken Soup books and I’ll see her story — that will be too fun!

I can’t wait to tell you about these horse books I’ve been reading — they would make great Christmas gifts if you have daughters who love horses. But I gotta run get ready for the weekend. I’ll tell you about them next week!