Mayhaps you’re a wanna-be scrapbooker like me? Join me in this simple and hopefully daily way to record your life. Share your haiku and photographs on your blog and post the link in the comments. I’ll swing by to read of your blessings! If you tweet about this haiku project, please use #Blessings365 in your tweet. I’ll share one of my haiku each week (really!), and it may or may not have been written recently. You can share as many as you want as often as you want to participate in this project. I’m keeping it loose with the rules so we all have room to play. 

If you would like to read more about my blessings, visit the Characters of My Life area of my About Page.

2-2-2012

Mr. Groundhog? What

was your prediction? Oh, wait.

Never mind. Thanks though!

__________

Thoughtful Reading on Writing

Can you turn down a book deal without regrets? Yes, it is possible. Amy tells all! Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, and Part Six

Moments for Mamas

Enjoy giving yourself a break. How often do you go to the store with your precious babies and hear, “They grow up fast. Enjoy every moment!” On comes the guilt trip. You were just counting down the minutes until bedtime!

And For the Kids

Okay, maybe this is for the kids at heart. I have to share this site with classic Nintendo games that I used to play before they started the 3-D stuff that makes me dizzy. Go check it out, and share some memories.

__________

Has spring sprung in your neck of the woods? Or are you predicting a surprise blizzard?

Fair Warning: Long Post Ahead.

Enjoy!

photo credit: Big 3 News

I know. I know. I went and disappeared from the blogosphere again. I’m doing okay. I hope you haven’t worried about me. (Thank you if you have. Prayers are always appreciated, and you are welcome to shoot me an email. Anytime.)

I just don’t seem to have time to blog.

Okay, get off the floor. Stop laughing. Yes, wipe that smirk off your face too.

Truly, who in the world has time for anything? We’re all busy.

I am busy, but I am also resolute.

(Stop laughing.)

Okay, I may be a little late for the resolution train. Everyone has already broken their resolutions by now, and they’ll try again next year.

I don’t actually do New Year’s Resolutions. I do brand new goals whenever the mood strikes me. Usually it happens in September with the arrival of my birthday, but I’ve been reading everyone else’s resolutions for the last few weeks, and everyone has such grand and inspiring ideas. Jon Acuff wants to hand write proverbs. Crystal Paine wants to complete the Couch to 10K Program. Elizabeth Ross just wants to become a paid writer. (That’s it? Simple! Right?) They all have more goals than I’m mentioning. As I’ve read everyone else’s resolutions, I’ve heard my internal dialogue. “Yes, I want to do that. That too. Oooh, that sounds great! My great grandchildren would treasure that, I’m sure!”

Whoa! Dreaming is a good thing, but dreams need feet and wings. They also require an actionable plan.

So, here I am making some real goals, and figuring out how to make it work. Wanna hear my goals for the year? Keep reading!

~~~

Goal One: Use 750words.com 20+ days a month. 750words is a wonderful and private thought-dump site so I can start the day without a million things rattling around in my head. If you’ve ever done morning pages or you would like a place to write without worrying about who’s looking in, check it out. It’s a lot of fun. I always laugh when my stats tell me I’m writing like an extrovert that day.

Reality Check: I would love to make the goal of writing on 750words.com every single day, and I have had a fifteen day streak since starting to use 750words.com in November, but I don’t want to “fail” this goal because a Sunday morning happened. (Note: you can use 750words at any time of day. I just find for myself that morning is best.)

Goal Two: Post 6+ Times Monthly Starting in February. This is a big one, mainly because I haven’t even been posting faithfully once a week, but marching on! I will post four #Blessing365, one update on Reece’s Rainbow, and one book review/discussion each month. Plus I’ll leave things open for other posts as the mood strikes.

Reality Check: I need to write up about one and a half posts a week to keep up with this. I’m already nervous. The book review/discussion will be my greatest hiccup. The last time I reviewed a book via blog posts, it took, oh, five or more posts to say everything I wanted to say. (Sorry, those posts are deleted, or I would point you to them. It was a good discussion.)

Goal Three: Comment regularly on several blogs. Some of my list are just blogging friends who I care about. A few others are writing related blogs that I might one day guest post for. This task is actually pretty easy at the moment. I just swing through, read, and comment while nursing Ladybug.

Reality Check: I want to commit to commenting on every post from my list of blogs and responding to several of the commenters, but that will set me up to get behind before I even get started. Bloggers still post when I go visit my parents for the day or have a family day out and about with my man and my babies.

Goal Four: Keep up with email this year. I will also work on this during nursing sessions.

Reality Check: I want to resolve to not go to bed until my inbox is empty each night, but HA! I’m not committing to that. I am, however, learning to just delete those emails that are not personal, that I would like to read, but that end up just a big part of my future to-do list while personal emails get buried in all the subscriptions.

Goal Five: Finish Ponder Thy Paths. Oh, boy, this is another big one. My Dear Email Subscribers, I extend my sincerest apologies. I didn’t hold up my end of the deal when you gave me your email. I was supposed to release a new part of Ponder Thy Paths every three months, but that has not happened. I hope you will forgive me. Somehow when I committed to working on this for fifteen minutes a day every day for the rest of my life, I didn’t think life would ever keep me from it. (Ha!) At any rate, I am working on the solution. I am working on a version of Ponder Thy Paths that can just be done. Basically, I’m switching the dates from “Monday, January 16, 2012; Martin Luther King Jr. Day” to just “January 16.” I hate leaving out the holiday references, but this way the same file can be used year after year.

Reality Check: I am working on the January through March quarter which means I am already behind, but I hope to have it done within the next week. Then I think I can complete one quarter per month. Hopefully. Then I’ll be done (DONE!) by the end of April.

Goal Six: Finish Bennett’s Week and self-publish as a full-color eBook. Maybe even a glossy paperback. This is a children’s book that will hopefully benefit all the children of Reece’s Rainbow. Modeled after the book Cookie’s Week by Cindy Ward and Tomie dePaola, I wrote up a short story of an adopted child’s first week “home.” My goal is that the sales of this book will build up adoption funds for the children of Reece’s Rainbow.

Reality Check: Children’s books require illustrators, and I am not an illustrator. I have limited drawing ability, and I am painfully slow. So, I either need to find a volunteer illustrator, work out a deal for the illustrator to take a piece of the profits, or get to work on doing it myself anyway. I’ll probably end up doing it myself anyway because I truly want all of the profits to go to Reese’s Rainbow. Also, I can’t start on this project until Ponder Thy Paths is finished.

Goal Seven: Complete Outline of Witness in the Dark using Hollywood Formula from Writing Excuses and the book How To Write And Sell A Christian Novel by Gilbert Morris. This is another big one for me. I’ve been wrestling with this book for over a decade, and I’m over it! But! I still want to write it. It has been a decade of learning, and my hope is that the finished product will be better for it.

Reality Check: This is a long project! I’ve tried outlining many times before, and I get distracted by getting hooped into actual writing. Then my story gets lost somewhere along the way. So I am resolving to completely complete the outline first. Also, I can’t start on this project until Ponder Thy Paths and Bennett’s Week are completely complete.

Nice goals. What’s the plan? So glad you asked!

Before restarting this blog, I vowed not to let it take over my life again and instead set some guidelines. I took on the attitude that I would blog “when I had time.”

Stop laughing!

Okay, I know I must make time for the important things. So, although I’m not committing to a rigid schedule, I have created my Writing Hour. In an ideal world this will occur sometime between lunch and dinner while my children play, but thus far I’ve done it after my little ones were in bed each night. During my writing hour I respond to any blog comments, give fifteen minutes to my current project (Goals 5-7, one at a time), give fifteen minutes to blog improvement (Pardon the dust, and wear your hard hat!), and work on blog posts for the remaining time. My goal is five Writing Hours a week. My average since I started this a couple weeks ago? Three or four. But! That is three to four hours more than I was writing before each week, and each completed Writing Hour makes me feel awesome!

~~~

So there you have it. My big goals and plan for the year. I don’t know that I will complete all seven, but you gotta aim somewhere! Plus if I complete them all before the year is done, I’ll just make some more. After all, we can build our resolutions anytime we want, like in September.

What are your resolutions and goals for 2012? What is your plan?

____________________

There are a few affiliate links in this post. Read my disclosure policy on the Support my Brainstorms page.

Mayhaps you’re a wanna-be scrapbooker like me? Join me in this simple and hopefully daily way to record your life. Share your haiku and photographs on your blog and post the link in the comments. I’ll swing by to read of your blessings! If you tweet about this haiku project, please use #Blessings365 in your tweet. I’ll share one of my haiku each week whenever I manage it, and it may or may not have been written the previous week recently. You can share as many as you want as often as you want to participate in this project. I’m keeping it loose with the rules so we all have room to play. 

If you would like to read more about my blessings, visit the Characters of My Life area of my About Page.

10-28-2011

gift from lifetime friend

flood of memories I pass

down to my children

__________

Hi! How have you been? I’ve been doing well. I know my blogging has been sporadic at best, but my writing has not been! According to 750words.com, I’ve written over 12,000 words so far in November. Much of it has been rambling thoughts and nonsense, but it’s writing, that stuff that keeps me sane. I really think I might be starting to figure out that question I’ve been wrestling with: “How exactly do I homeschool, write, and keep a reasonably clean home on a daily basis?”

How do you keep up with different parts of your life without living on a seesaw?

__________

Thoughtful Reading on Writing

Three Dozen Ways to Get Unstuck - Some of these sound fun enough to build a date night around. Hey, Honey! Are you reading my blog?

Moments for Mamas

Big Responsibility in a Tiny Package - This writing mama really has her priorities in order. Warning! Kissable baby feet on the other side of that link!

Embracing the Blessing - Great thoughts here on “higher” education and motherhood. I received plenty of criticism (most of it imagined) after finishing college and then immediately becoming a SAHM. I love what Kathleen quotes from a former professor about becoming fully human.

And For the Kids

My Name is Stegosaurus - Learn this song and sing it five hundred times while an adult in your life drives you places.*

*Not that I ever did anything like that! My brother, cousins, and I had around fourteen songs that we alternated through during a car (station wagon, giant van, whatever) ride. It was a playlist!

Mayhaps you’re a wanna-be scrapbooker like me? Join me in this simple and hopefully daily way to record your life. Share your haiku and photographs on your blog and post the link in the comments. I’ll swing by to read of your blessings! If you tweet about this haiku project, please use #Blessings365 in your tweet. I’ll share one of my haiku each week, and it may or may not have been written the previous week. You can share as many as you want as often as you want to participate in this project. I’m keeping it loose with the rules so we all have room to play.

If you would like to read more about my blessings, visit the Characters of My Life area of my About Page.

October 15, 2011

apple tree blossoms

in October . . . I can hope

for new beginnings

I always start new projects in September near my birthday. What inspires you to try something new?

__________

Thoughtful Reading on Writing

101 of the Best Fiction Writing Tips

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four

Moments for Mamas

Finding Time for Projects

• Life in a Shoe
• Raising Olives
• Smockity Frocks
• The Common Room

Then I bailed.

I made excuses. I examined and re-examined my time budget. I blamed the newest blessing.

What happened to my mojo?

Then last Thursday I found myself quietly crying because I didn’t want to fix my family lunch, and I didn’t want to have my daughter do it either because she wouldn’t do it right. (She’s six, and I’m a perfectionist. Most of the time I swallow that and let her learn.)

Besides, I really didn’t want what we had available anyway. Peanut butter and banana sandwiches are usually a treat, but for my quiet baby fit nothing was good enough.

My sweet husband held me then hurried to the store to buy me a Dr. Pepper before rushing off to work.

I dried my tears, shot off an email to my mastermind group that I would not be attending our weekly call (Hi Anne, Steph, and Tom!), and made sandwiches while the kids played. I focused on keeping my voice calm and letting my thoughts and prayers roam.

I really wanted this blog to forever be a happy place. I want my whole life to be that way. I so often feel under attack because I put being a mother over being a (fill in the blank). So I allow myself to complain almost never to almost no one, and the frustration builds. I love my children. I love being a mother.

But sometimes it ain’t easy.

What happens when I want to write only sunshine, but I don’t feel sunshine? I write nothing.

And the frustration builds.

Back on this post as I explored my “mission” I asked a rhetorical question, and a caring reader zoomed in on it. His concern wasn’t unfounded.

You ask, “Am I being selfish when I demand a little writing time?” As the father of five born quickly and who are now adults, and as the husband of the woman who bore them, I watched her struggle with post-partum depression at a time when that malaise had no name. It is important for you to take care of yourself, not simply physically but spiritually, emotionally and psychologically as well. If writing can help you in that regard, make time for it somehow. Far better to write than to struggle with a fog that can enter your mind from nowhere and linger much longer than you might now imagine. Sorry to sound dour. But I hope you will write as much as possible and live life to its fullest. -Donal Mahoney

God surrounds me by caring people even in the virtual world.

I have battled with serious depression at least since my first child was born. Looking back, I can see that quiet monster keeping me company long before then. I remember sometime back in my early teens sitting in school and wishing with all my strength that I had never existed because no one would miss me if I had never been.

Perhaps a mixture of the hormones, learning how to be married, the stress and crazy fears of new motherhood, and other life-related things made what had always been there much worse. We all have our weaknesses. Depression is mine.

But why put this out there? Why talk about a common difficulty of motherhood on a blog that is supposed to celebrate motherhood?

Because the me of six years ago might exist out there today in another young woman.

Darling, do not chance upon my blog and think, “Here’s another woman that has it all together when I’m falling apart.” There is a reason that postpartum depression poster greets you from nearly every doctor’s office and hospital bathroom. You are not alone. You are not a bad mom. You are not a failure. Honey, please, do not fight this battle by denying that the battle exists. Talk to your man. Talk to your doctor. Talk to your pastor. Your mom, your sister, your friend. Someone! If you need medication or counseling, get it! Do not hide in those dark shadows surrounding you. You don’t have to live there.

A Few of My Weapons – Unlimited Uses Available

• Prayer – Keep a dialogue going with God all day long. If you feel like crawling into a ditch, say so. It’s okay. He already knows. Ask others to pray for you as well.
• Scripture – Psalm 27:1 became my first battle cry. The Bible is full of many others. Find a few, and carve them into your armor.
• Rest – Whenever I start thinking about my long to-do list and feeling that I just can’t do it, I take my thoughts captive and tell myself, “It seems insurmountable because I’m tired. I’ll get the kids to bed and go to bed myself. Tomorrow is a new day.”
• Water – Sometimes I feel awful because I am thirsty. Dr. Pepper should be a treat. My body needs plain water. I aim to drink a gallon a day. I can tell when I haven’t had enough.
• Good Food – My body needs certain vitamins and nutrients to work at its best. What is your body begging you for?
• Goals – The newborn cycle goes something like cry, eat, sleep, cry, poop, repeat, repeat, repeat. It’s not the time to start huge projects, but make simple goals like “shower almost daily” or “snuggle with baby.” Write them down and check them off. If you find “extra” time, laugh about our shared new-mom challenges. As baby grows, allow your goals growing room too.
• Complain - Don’t dwell on the negatives forever, but it’s okay to vent a little to the right people. Sometimes admitting your frustrations out loud takes away their power.
• Create – Writing is my thing. Even if I’m only writing a thought dump, it lightens my mood. If you’re reading this blog, writing might be your thing too. Or it might be underwater basket weaving. Whatever. Do something that makes you feel accomplished.
• More – Again and again I must say, if you need medication or counseling, GET IT!

Just writing this post has helped me feel immensely better. I hope it helps someone out there as well.

photo credit: AdrianAesthetic

At the end of my last post, I finally shared my mission. Let’s unpack that a bit more.

Seven reasons why:

1) Because God commands that we use and grow our talents (Matthew 25:14-31).

2) Because using and growing our talents does not require neglecting our most important ministry.

3) Because, in fact, we should blend our most important ministry with the use and building up of our God-given talents.

4) Because a spouse and kids are not dream-killers.

Roots AND Wings

5) Because all mamas need encouragement.

***

~~~~~

The Mom Pledge was created by Elizabeth Flora Ross from The Writer Revived. The Mom Pledge is a commitment for moms and by moms to build one another up and never tear one another down.

~~~~~

***

6) Because the mama most in need of encouragement in my life is me.

photo credit: fudj

7) Because while I encourage myself, I hope to also encourage you!

photo credit: denise carbonell

My thoughts as I worked through Mary DeMuth’s exercises about finding my passion led me to the importance of mothers. With that in mind, what is the world’s greatest need? And how can that crash into my joy?

photo credit: sskennel

The answer goes beyond the need for mothers and into what mothers need.

So, I’m a mother. I love and enjoy my children. I strive to train them up in the way they should go, and I don’t think I’m doing a terrible job of it.

But! There are those days . . .

I get tired and cranky. I lose my temper and raise my voice. I sometimes crush little spirits. Then I find myself having to back up and try again.

My heart and head are filled with mixed messages.

Am I being selfish when I demand a little writing time? Should I devote my entire being to the raising and educating of my little ones and being a helpmeet to my husband? Is writing and being a wife and mother mutually exclusive?

I’m not going to bring up that word “balance” because it’s not about balance. We don’t live on a seesaw! It’s about being a whole person for all the seasons of my life.

Right now, for instance, it’s a simple fact that my nursing infant requires a large portion of my time to survive and thrive. Also, my two year old needs minute to minute reminders that he has not been replaced and forgotten. My four year old is requesting several extra hugs and kisses before bedtime even when the previously mentioned infant is crying in the next room. And my six year old craves verbal praise for all her efforts to help me. (She is becoming an expert sandwich-maker. “Look, Mama! I did better at cutting them into triangles!”)

Not last on the list is my wonderful, attentive, hard-working, and self-sacrificing husband who honestly wants me to pursue my interests. He just hopes to be high up on the list of interests!

I am a writing mama. My family is not an inconvenience blocking the way to my writing dreams.

But . . . Sometimes I need a little encouragement. I bet other writing mamas do too.

So, finally, we have reached the purpose of this blog!

To celebrate living and loving the life of a writing mama.

I’ll unpack this mission more in my next blog post. I hope you have enjoyed this series on the Rebirth of Communicate Creativity. I have many great plans which I will complete one post at a time.

Will you join the party? How can you celebrate today? How can you encourage a mama who might feel a little trapped in her current life season?

Want some encouragement right now? Read The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.

I have read that civilization is defined by its stories.

photo credit: madprime

We find ourselves telling the same ones again and again with different characters and settings.

Mary DeMuth’s second exercise on finding your passion is listing your three favorite movies and finding the common thread or theme. She helped many people through this assignment in the comments so if you’re stuck read through a few.

When I asked myself for three favorite movies I couldn’t even think of what movie I had most recently seen. I thought and prayed about it and enjoyed one of those glorious epiphanies.

Movies are stories.

Choosing three favorite stories isn’t easy either, but here are mine.

• The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis
• The Good Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37
• Christ Caring for His Mother from the Cross from John 19:25-27

What do you perceive as the common thread?

Although Mary helped many people discover their common threads, I think it’s important to discover yourself the commonality among your own favorites. Your common theme may be as individual as your own mental rabbit trails.

The common thread I see among my stories is the importance of motherhood.

Jesus was suffering and dying yet he ensured his mother would be cared for.

The values Digory’s mother invested in him prevented him from stealing her life-saving cure, but Aslan still provided a way for Digory to save his mother’s life.

And the Good Samaritan? Who else could have taught him tender caring toward a human being who under different circumstances might have seen the Samaritan as beneath him?

Mothers are important!

To beat a cliche, none of us would be here without our mothers.

What are your three favorite stories or movies? What is the common thread that you see?

Please don’t put me in a box.

I rebel against definitions. Excuse me while I attempt to find peace within this straight jacket called Avoiding Tangents.

[See, right here? This space? I deleted a tangent here.]

Okay, so I have lots of thoughts on lots of subjects. A blog is a great place to spill the thought overflow, but I realize few wish to follow all my rabbit trails, and of those few, perhaps none could keep up. And that’s okay. I probably couldn’t keep up with someone else’s rabbit trails.

Focus, I need focus.

Focus on what?

I wondered about the answer to this for many moons. Then I read this great post by Mary DeMuth on Michael Hyatt’s blog. Mary asks the question, “What is your passion?”

What is my passion? My first response is, “Writing,” but as Mary points out, writing is a vehicle. What do I hope to accomplish with my writing?

Er . . . a million dollars would be nice.

Well, as many before me have discovered, the pursuit of cash simply isn’t a great motivator. Besides, it makes me crazy.

So, what is my passion, and why am I avoiding this question?

Mary offers several possible reasons, and I think, for me, I’ve just gotten too busy to really think about it.

Too busy to think? But I love to think!

No wonder my world feels like a tornado.

Mary offers three exercises to discover your passion, and because I don’t like to be defined, I worked backwords.

Doesn’t that sound noble yet rebellious? Actually, I just worked in the order of easiest to hardest.

Unfortunately, when I asked on Twitter and Facebook what others thought my passion might be, I didn’t get much response.

So I moved on to the other two, but those are for future posts.

Just for giggles, whether you’ve known me for 28 years or just long enough to read this post, what do you think my passion might be?

For more passionate reading, visit Hustle Life’s Passion Issue or thoughts on igniting passion from Zen Habits.

What are you passionate about?

Hamster wheels are for hamsters.

photo credit: Lite Speed Photography

How quickly one goes from education and determination to the definition of insanity!

Before I thought about it, I was blogging just to keep up with my own self-imposed schedule. I complained to my dear husband about the stress of it all, and he said, “Then quit. I don’t want you doing it if you don’t enjoy it.”

I ignored him for a while longer.

Then I missed a post or two. Then a few more. Finally, I wrote a farewell post saying I was taking an unlimited break to redefine my blogging purpose.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

~Lewis Carroll

I set up camp off-trail, did more research, and took some time to ponder my paths. I gave myself permission to waste a little time and quit trying to be so productive. Finally, I figured out I really do enjoy blogging, but I need some loose ground rules to keep myself from blogging obsessively just to fill virtual space.

My Guidelines

Because “Guidelines” Can Be Ignored

• The focus cannot be making money. Eventually, I still hope to make some money with this blog. I have some plans in place to do so. You will see a few affiliate links, but my primary focus must be a helpfulness to my readers.
• I will not blog if it requires neglecting my family. I will cook dinner, do some housework, play with and educate my children, flirt with my husband, and overall focus on my most important ministry before maintaining the blog. Blog or not, my home is far from perfect, but the conditions of my home and family will not travel in a hand-basket to anyplace without adequate air conditioning.
• I will not blog when I am brain-dead. After ten o’clock at night or before my morning shower and breakfast, I will not be pounding out posts. Some people can do it, and perhaps at a different season in my life, I can join those people. However, right now I’m a homeschooling mama of littles, and I cannot be kind and consistent in my training of them if burning the midnight oil turns me into Grouchy McGrouch.
• I will not set a rigid schedule. I want to post two to three times a week. I have a plan for weekly and monthly posts, but if life gets too busy the blogging world will hear from me less often. If needed, I will drop blogging all together.

All of my guidelines come down to keeping my priorities in the right order.

Now on to the million dollar question. What will my blog focus on? Stay tuned!