April is/was for Stefania!

Hi everyone!  Guess what? I’m alive.  Yes, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.  Now I do sort of feel like April pushed me down, rifled my pockets, took my lunch money, and then kicked me around for a while–or maybe I feel like April stuffed me in the washing machine and set it on the spin cycle.  Or maybe I feel like April tied me to a carousel horse and then turned the ride up to maximum speed while playing the Addams Family theme on a set of bagpipes.

…I should probably stop, because I can keep coming up with dumb similes forever. Let me sum up: April was really busy and really fun and really busy and now it is almost over.

And by the way I was doing a craft thing.  Now, I was really excited about my craft for April, because I was excited about my person for April, because she’s one of my favorite people out of all the people that I’ve ever known, and I had a really great idea. I am making her a really cool thing.  But it is…time consuming. And hard. And…not finished.  But that’s not the deal. The Deal is that I make a thing and send it by the end of the month, and that is what I plan to do.

Only it won’t be The Really Cool Thing.  It will be Another Cool Thing.  I just need to figure out what it is. And in the meantime, because it’s better late than never, I’d like you to meet Nia!

What is your name? Stefania, but I usually just go by “Nia.”

Do you have a blog or website? Sure do! http://momvelist.blogspot.com/ I’ve been taking a break from it to write on my novel but I should have a new post soon!

What is your quest? To glorify God in all that I do. Mostly through making and raising adorable babies and working hard to love and honor my husband, Ben, the best man I know. Did I just make myself sound like a kooky, baby-factory, house-slave? That’s not really want I meant to do…you’d probably have to read my blog to get an accurate idea of what I do.

What is your favorite color? At the moment? Really feeling green. I have a lot of favorites though. Also really liking some oranges right now, which is new to me. I’ve always hated orange! I still think construction cones are obnoxious (but I suppose they’re that way on purpose).

What is your life like at the moment? What do you do in a day? I usually get up and blearily stumble around while my husband does the majority of getting the kids fed and ready for the day, then after I feel I’ve put in a credible amount of effort for the morning I take a nap, then I feed the kiddos lunch, put them down for their naps, make myself lunch (it’s usually at least 1:30pm by this point), THEN I get to my favorite part of the day. I usually write, or blog, or follow some creative pursuit in the comfort of my bedroom for several hours before the kids get back up. Then I play with the kids, wait for hubby to show up, do dinner, put kids to bed, then I reeeeaaaaad. I read for way too long. So long that I’m certain the next day I’ll be tired and have to blearily stumble through the morning. (Sometimes I watch tv episodes in marathon instead of reading, but the result is the same)

What is your creative outlet? My novel and my blog. When one of them becomes too much of a chore I get to feel rebellious by working on the other. It’s kind of win/win for me.

What have you been reading and/or watching lately? What is your current favorite thing to read or watch? I’ve been reading Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instrument series because I really liked her book Clockwork Angel (and the two series intertwine) — it’s been okay. I just finished reading Howl’s Moving Castle for the first time. I really enjoyed it! I have several favorite shows I watch on a regular basis, several of them in the Thursday NBC comeday line-up, but the show that’s currently sucking up my time is Lie To Me. Really catching!

What inspires you at the moment? YA Fiction inspires me the most. Sometimes because I see something so brilliant that I want to do something equally brilliant…other times because I read stuff so terrible I’m determined to single-handedly fix the entire genre.

I have known Nia for many moons, and we have had many shenanigans together.  It has been awesome.

L>R: Nia, Charis (a grey eyed girl), and Angel

Look, we are so tiny and geeky! This was one of my first forays into costuming.