Hi, awesome people!

I just sent the first edition of my Very Caffeinated Awesome Newsletter (stop laughing, it’s an AWESOME title) this morning, to a group of 22 totally with-it people.

If you’re not on the list yet (and you’re probably not! ONLY 22 OF YOU ARE ON IT, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!), you can sign up for it right over there (pointing to sidebar), and you even get a neat little ebook with it.

Then let me know you subscribed and I’ll make sure you get today’s copy of the newsletter. :)

And I forgot to put this part in the newsletter, oops

My best friend Sarah is doing a survey of married and non-married people (a very friendly survey!), and it’s research for a book she’s writing.

Oooh! Research!

If you want to join in, here are the direct links to the survey:

For married people: Marriage Survey
For non-married people: Relationship Survey

Thanks bunches, I love you guys. :)

Jill at Lookilulu is FAST LIKE THE WIND, and has already put up the podcast we recorded last night!

You can either go here to download it: Podcasts at Lookilulu, or listen to it right here.

Lookilulu Podcast: Rachael Acklin

I am posting just a short tidbit to say HELLO! to all my new subscribers, I LOVE YOU! to everyone in general, to let you know that I blogged about being a second-generation homeschooler over at This Mommy Gig (go here: Advantages of Being a Second Generation Homeschooler), and to remind everyone that the Logo Giveaway Contest is still running! Through June 3rd! Whee!

So, to recap:

• You are all awesome and I love you!
• I wrote a post on homeschooling.
• Logo contest is still underway!

The end. :)

…right?

I know I’ve been gone a lot, but that doesn’t mean I’m not HERE.  In fact, I’ve been busy designing and freaking out about the frick-ton of snow that got dumped on us today.  Whee!

And actually, if you are lonely for me, you can always check my new design blog.  It’s part of my slowly-realized plan to redesign my business site, and just a little while ago I spotlighted one of my favorite clients, Shelly from That Girl Blogs.

Go ahead – click over there and look at the pretty screenshots!  :)

P.S. Yes, I am still pregnant. Complainingly so.

One of my clients that I completely adore has just launched a new Christmas CD.  It’s full of his original piano arrangements of a lot of the Christmas music that most of us already love.  And the awesome part?  He’s FIFTEEN.

I am telling you this so you’ll thank me later – Alex is going places.  I’ve already asked him to save me tickets for his big debut on stage.  He composes his own music as well as doing covers of others’ music; he plays weddings (LADIES, YOU CAN HIRE HIM!), he plays for groups of seniors (the elders, not the teenagers), who all have adorable crushes on him; he plays for church groups.

Enjoy this video of him playing one of his Christmas arrangements.  Trust me, he’s kind of addictive!

Here’s his website (which I designed): The Music Is Key, and here is the direct link to the CD page, where you can purchase one for yourself, and a few for stocking stuffers: Christmas Keyz.

Yes. So. I have been doing Nano every year for three years now – even though last year was HORRIBLY hard and I ended up being so exhausted during that month that I barely remember anything except, of course, not winning. *sob*

This year, I am going for it again, and not only that – I am MLing (that’s Municipal Liaison-ing for those of you possibly out of the Nano loop) ALL BY MYSELF. EEK! My lovely friend and previous co-ML, Cylithria, no longer lives in the Flint Red Hot Writers region, so I must soldier on alone. *sniff* *cry*

Actually I am okay, really I am. It will be stressful and exhausting, but also rewarding, deliriously awesome, and totally crazy in a way that I love. This year I have much less work-related stress, which will make a HUGE difference. Two years ago I won Nano, with a full-time job and an itty toddler at home (among other things – one of them being an increasingly stressful and doomed relationship, but we won’t go there right now). And even if I don’t win this year, I’m just so psyched to do it again!

This time of year always will remind me of writing and writing and writing, and not letting myself delete any of the horribleness I just allowed myself to type. This year will always remind me of stretching my wings further than I thought they could go, and of jumping off the Cliffs of Insanity and discovering that, if I forgot I was falling, I could remember how to fly.

How many of you are joining me this year? WHO’S WITH ME?!