My sister and I are just three years apart in age, but we're decades apart in life. My baby is a college freshman and her's is just learning to walk. We're also each starting a challenge tomorrow--challenges that are on polar opposites.

My sis, I'll call her "Styx," is going to spend the next month not eating out. I'm not sure how strict she's planning to be about it. No coffee at the local coffee shop? Or just no lunch hour rush to the drive thru? Either way, I know she's going to succeed in her goal. Styx already knows how to use a crock pot and I'm positive that it will get a lot of use in the next 30 days.

My family will be at the opposite end, however. Tomorrow, I start NaNoWriMo. Again. In my home, that becomes "Don't bother Mom until she hits her day's word count. Or else. No. Really." (NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is a time for crazy people to write 50,000 words in a month. Yes, 1,667 words every day for 30 days, even with Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.)

For the next 30 days, my hubby will be scrounging the kitchen wondering if his wife will ever cook again. Experience tells me my meals will either be very messy or take out because those are the meals hubby "makes" best. I shudder to think of the dishes that will await my writing breaks. We won't contemplate what the laundry might look like on December 1.

I know Styx will make it. She will be a cookin' fool in the month of November and will probably find some amazingly yummy recipes in the process. Heck, I plan to post a few here as a show of support. I hope I, too, make my goal of 50,000 words. This will be a new series and I'm excited about the idea. I'm really hoping that NaNoWriMo will get me back in the writing groove. That's the goal, anyway!