Write down the stages that need to be accomplished in the order you need them and go ahead and get started. You will learn as you go and it wouldn't hurt to imitate another book along the same lines. It will be like eating an elephant: it seems insurmountable at first but you just take it one bite at a time. I did write a childrens book and for me, the hardest part was not writing, illustration or printing which I did myself, but was the marketing. You should say in both the front and the back HOW TO REORDER. Give this information as many ways as possible, phone number, postal mail and email. Next you must promote the book so print a few extras for promotional use. Tell if you wish, the committees involved in publishing the book and what the profits will be used for. Decide on a price and check on what the cost of postage and envelopes would be if it has to be mailed. The printer may keep records in case there is a reprint but I would keep a copy of the original myself on a disk stored in a secure place in case there are any revisions and there usually are. Identify your potential market and sales venues.

I'm so glad that I stumbled upon this thread!!! (usually hang out in the Kitchens & Building side :-). Anyhow....I am in the process of putting together a recipe scrapbook for my mother as a housewarming/happy retirement present. I am starting with my own recipes and contributions from family, but want to leave room for her to be able to add to it as she has recipes falling out of every cookbook she owns!! ...as well as a couple of recipe file boxes, shoeboxes, etc. etc. etc. So here's my idea....I would LOVE some input/opinion on it! I am going to do 8 1/2 x 11" pages, as a larger 12 x 12 would not fit on the shelf with the rest of her cookbooks (too deep/tall). No lack of layout ideas here (ha!)! Going to insert all of the pages into clear page protectors to shield them from cooking splatter. Think that I would like to use a D ring binder to put them in so that the recipes could be removed or added to, and also so that they would lay flat (thus the "D" ring) for counter use. I'm having problems finding such a binder that doesn't look like something that belongs in a bank, though! Any ideas on a scrapbook/binder solution?? Anything that I've missed?? Thanks for all of your great ideas!

I admit I've only just scanned these posts, and I'm going to go back and read them more closely later to get all the smaller details, but I'll share my impressions based on what I've read so far: SD is in a horrible situation, as we know, with her BM's unreliable nature. Of course, Ima & her DH are in a bad bind, too, as is any parent is who has to step in and pick up another parent's slack. This tends to happen ---in varying degrees of severity--- in one way or another with almost all children of divorce. In that both parents essentially resent doing anything that smacks of what the other parent should be doing, according to them. Even in the best of situations, even when everyone involved is very nice and congenial and caring towards the child, there is bound to be some of this back-and-forth resentment and one or more of the parental figures feeling "put out" by the other. And too often the child is put in the middle of the conflict, and sometimes the resentment starts to get directed at the child, and the parents can easily underestimate how difficult that position is for the child to be in, because many children don't show their upset and sense of basic insecurity. Largely because they haven't yet reached a point in their lives where they can even comprehend it. They are thrust into a no-win situation that just isn't fair. That being said, though, it's very important for SD to begin the lifelong lesson that the number one person she can rely on in this world is herself. It's sad that she has to learn this at such a younger age than many people, but the circumstances are what they are. In the long-run, if handled well, she'll probably be better off for it later. The key distinction that I think is crucial to make in this situation is the difference between making sure SD learns to be more independent and self-reliant not because there is something wrong with HER, but because too often there is something wrong with OTHERS who will not keep their word. This doesn't have to mean either the extreme of breaking the 100% full-on truth about her deadbeat mom nor the extreme of taking the "tough love" (aka "tough s--t") approach of saying "you're 100% on your own, kid, can't help ya". There is a way to impart the helpfulness of the lesson of self-reliance without the risk of it being brutal. It should be explained to her that it's important to start to try being more self-reliant because what other people do/don't do is largely unknown and out of your control. They may or may not do what they promise, so you've got to have a backup plan because YOU are in control of what you yourself do. Explained this way, it doesn't badmouth anyone. And it also doesn't mean that ---at her young age, especially--- the situation should be such where she is truly without a lifeline if she absolutely needs it or if the circumstance at hand is larger than her capacity to deal with it. Everyone, including many fully-grown adults, needs some help every once in a while. Any steps that any adult in her life would make to help her become more self-reliant should be very clearly understood by her to be truly helpful guidance and not a punishment for having a crappy unreliable BM nor for having tried to trust this BM. As long as that is very clear, the goal should be that every year SD is alive she will learn more and more to rely on herself before anyone else. And that's another key distinction: she doesn't have to grow up and be a totally self-reliant person *overnight*. There's no need for any sudden, 'shock-and-awe' type way of teaching these lessons. Every stage of this learning process, and the well-intended reasons for it, should be totally transparent to her so that she actually feels grateful for being shown in a positive way how to cope and feel personally empowered. This way she won't develop the sense of jilted and deprived bitterness that can develop when circumstances & people thrust a person very suddenly and mercilessly into the realization that life can be brutally unfair and ---what's more--- that everyone else is too busy with their own problems to give a damn. Unfortunately, that is too many kids' introduction to the lesson of self-reliance, and it doesn't have to be that traumatic. So in a nutshell, the motto that seems very fitting for SD's main lesson from all this is: "Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

I was going to suggest too, things to do on the trip on the plane to keep them busy. Small items and things when used up can get rid of so they aren't over burden with too much. Yes, check the library for an up to date book of Germany and they can check out what there is to see. Journals are excellent to have, light ones though and make sure you have pens extra in case of losing one pen. Or run out of ink. Make sure you have a good camera for all of you to use and take pictures of. Maybe a scrapbook for them to make up about their trip when they come home? The library may even have language tapes to listen, can check on that too. Check out travel sites for good ideas to bring and see with you all. Rick Steves? has travelled with his kids and wife all over and so he should have good ideas. I know the one thing he suggested on tv was with kids is that they carry their back bag and only what they can carry is all they can have in it so that way you aren't loaded down with huge suitcases which you do not want in those countries. You want to bring and be very light, so rehearse way ahead and everyone pack all they want to bring on their trips, see if they can carry their backpacks with it all in? What can be illiminated? What is really necessary. Or bring stuff that can be dumped over there and left behind. There is nothing worse then too much stuff and being a hinder and ruining a great trip. Also make sure everyone has good comfortable walking shoes to walk lots. Check weather if you need to bring umbrellas or not or what? Less is better remember so check it all out ahead of time.