We're Back

I have not posted anything for quite some time. I know that is the surest way to lose an audience. I apologize. I have been so concentrated on the book I am writing about Kalisha's first 30 years (in February, 2014, she will be 30) I have pushed everything else aside, unfortunately.
It has been a wonderful and eye-opening experience; this whole publishing thing.
I do have a publisher and the book I thought would be around 20 chapters has grown into a tome of 36 chapters. Don't worry, they are fairly short chapters and full of humor, anecdotes, and hopefully, experiences that parents can relate to. While I don't give advice, I do warn of some things I didn't know until too late and I urge parents/guardians to be aware.
It should be ready by the end of January or beginning of February, 2014. I started talking about writing it 10 years ago, and now 3 months seems like an interminable wait.
In the meantime, we have been continuing to live each day the best way we know how. Kalisha has a new volunteer job at a parochial school, working with the children in a kindergarten class. She is enjoying it. It is only 2 hours on Tuesday. She started at 3 hours, but felt she could not do that, so it was scaled back to 2 hours.
I would have insisted on keeping her at 3, but when the options were weighed, it seemed best to agree to her terms and be happy to go rather than insist on 3 hours and have to threaten consequences every Tuesday when she didn't want to go.
Is that 'giving in?' Maybe. Sometimes, there is a fine line between capitulating to her whims and self-preservation (mine).
I want her to enjoy this experience. Her previous volunteer jobs have not all been successes. Perhaps if she becomes accustomed to the 2 hours every week, she will be ready to increase it to 3. At least that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. LOL
Kalisha has also decided she is not attending church any longer. Oy. I reason with her and tell her I would love it if she did it for me (a little guilt is never a bad thing, in my opinion), but although she tells me on Saturday evening she will go the next morning, she changes her mind in the morning. I don't sweat it;  I just get ready and go by myself.
I had thought of giving consequences in she didn't go, but somehow being punished for not going to God's house didn't seem quite right.
I have no doubts whatsoever about her spirituality or salvation; it is just nice to have her there with me. It is not an early service, she has many, many friends who ask about her and tell her on FB they are missing her, but so far, to no avail. She will decide to go at some point. I think she has reached her teenage years and decided to rebel a little. Okay, I have been here with her 4 siblings. I will go with the flow.
I will post much more often in the future. I never lack for material to write as long as Kalisha is in my life.