Category Archives: My Life

Appointment To Write

“Most of what is best in writing isn’t done deliberately.”― Madeleine L’Engle

One Liner Wednesday is hosted by Linda G Hill.

The first Wednesday of the month is time for a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. This month’s (optional) question is:

What steps have you taken to put a schedule in place for your writing and publishing?

I am glad this is optional because my answer would be pretty brief. I have been taking a break or mini sabbatical from regular writing, a period of rest or leave. Resolved to not have a schedule at this time. In a bit of flux about where my writing is going. I have made an effort to write Flash Fiction for the Write…Edit…Publish WEP Blogfest. Just finished one for the December Challenge, Redwood. And it did take effort to sit down and write that piece. I had an idea I wanted to explore in the beginning and once I got it started it took on a life of its own in that new ideas did come to me as I wrote it. I am proud of my story. It takes courage to write creatively in that I am putting a part of me out there, making that effort. I do think that Flash Fiction is an interesting form of writing. Another scheduled writing I have been pretty consistent with is Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Seems like I do have a bit of a schedule in place after all. To write my blog at least once a week and participate in WEP.

“In the final exam in the Chaucer course we were asked why he used certain verbal devices, certain adjectives, why he had certain characters behave in certain ways. And I wrote, ‘I don’t think Chaucer had any idea why he did any of these things. That isn’t the way people write.’

I believe this as strongly now as I did then. Most of what is best in writing isn’t done deliberately.”
― Madeleine L’Engle, A Circle of Quiet

Insecure Writer’s Support Group, #IWSG, is co-hosted this month by: Tyrean Martinson, The Cynical Sailor, Megan Morgan, Rachna Chhabria, and Jennifer Lane. Featured image ‘A girl writes with a quill at a portable writing-desk’ from Instruction and Amusement for the Young, 1830 via wikimedia.org

Yuletide

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Yule starts with the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. For many of us it is time to gather for holiday celebrations. We just celebrated Hanukkah last week with part of the family. The best gatherings are with family and close friends. We might enjoy some eggnog or mulled wine and special meals like roast turkey. My daughter wants to make something different, paella. I look forward to being together with my daughter and my son and his family. Have a cold this week and grateful for online shopping. My little grandson is sick and had to go into the hospital yesterday. He is doing better and should be home soon. It has been a tough year for many people with all the hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and wild fires. I hope everyone can be with their families and friends and have Happy Holidays!

Wassail pronounced like waffle but with /s/ sound can mean drinking to your health, like a special holiday punch, or caroling ( singing Christmas songs). Here’s to all of our good health and Happy New Year!

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt words for today are you’ll, Yule, Yul. Featured image of ‘Snowing Snow Lantern Red Little Girl Winter’ via Max Pixel.

Wild Fires

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” When you’re evacuating from a wild fire it’s hard to decide what to take with you.”

My ability to write provides a path for expression about my life experiences. I am often moved to write when my feelings about a thing run high. Maybe a part of being a writer is the need to chronicle your life.

I thought we had been lucky and avoided the fire season in our section of Southern California. But as it often happens, the fires have their own secret plans. We were evacuated from our home a little over 10 years ago in the middle of the night so this time we decided not to wait until the evacuation order to get packed. Experiencing an evacuation does that to you. You know it can come suddenly, with little warning, and you must go. There had been no evacuation orders yet but we were busy gathering a few mementos and family photos, our wedding album, videos of our kids growing up and my son’s bar mitzvah, a small photo album of my son’s wedding, a few precious notes from my daughter, our kid’s baby shoes…It’s hard to decide and remember what to take with you. My son and daughter in law had to pack up all the equipment in their car for my little baby grandson, just in case. It’s not just the fires but the threat of power outages. Some medical equipment he needs requires electricity. We talked about them coming to our house or her parents depending on who loses power. If all of us lose power they may have to go into West LA to other family. We can see the smoke in the air and hope the Santa Ana winds die out soon.

This post is for One Liner Wednesday hosted by Linda G Hill and the monthly post for the Insecure Writers Support Group, #IWSG , Co-Hosts: Julie Flanders, Shannon Lawrence, Fundy Blue, and Heather Gardner!

Mothers And Daughters

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“See, people come into your life for a reason. They might not know it themselves, why. You might not know it. But there’s a reason. There has to be”
― Joyce Carol Oates

My mother in law was married on November 24, 1948. She did not know that her first daughter in law was being born a little over a week later. We did not meet each other for another 26 years. My future husband had talked me into driving down to Los Angeles with him after we had a big fight. She did not like me at first. He was her first-born and she was definitely not ready to relinquish him. I was the wrong religion. I would marry her son 3 years later. My mother in law had 4 sons and was used to a house full of males. It was a nice change to have me at the dinner table because I was appreciative of her cooking. She was my mother in law for forty years. She taught me how to make chicken soup. She helped me shop for my wedding gown and plan my wedding. I was her first daughter in law and I gave birth to her first grandchild, my son Scott. She first learned about being a mother in law with me. It was not always an easy relationship. Especially after my son was born and 4 years later my daughter, Kate. She had very strong opinions about many things including child rearing. I had my own ideas. As the years passed she became less critical and I became less sensitive. I suspected it might have been her experience with the next two daughter in-laws had taught her to be more diplomatic. Through it all, the holiday dinners, kid’s birthday parties, graduations, and major illnesses, my in-laws were always there. Both of my parents were gone and my children had only one set of grandparents, one grandmother. In her later years she developed dementia and gradually became less talkative. I think she still recognized me. She had often said she thought of me as the daughter she never had. My mother in law, Mary Lynn, passed away in the first hour of Thanksgiving day with most of her family around her. For a large part of my life she was the mother I never had.

One Liner Wednesday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Featured image is of the ‘Barbara Bush Rose’ via wikimedia.

Pen and Ink

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Do you remember fountain pens with the screw in ink cartridges? We used to have those when I was in grade school. We also had traditional fountain pens with the siphoning mechanism to suck up the ink out of an ink bottle. In older times there were ink wells in the student desks. Of course we had ball point pens too. But fountain pens seemed like more fun to use. Only sometimes they would leak and make ink stains on my middle finger. You could pick out the color of the ink, blue, blue-black, turquoise blue. Writing by hand with pen and paper is a lost art and my penmanship is not a good as it used to be. I do have a nice Montblanc fountain pen with a bottle of blue-black ink. You need to twist the barrel to siphon the ink into the pen. I’d like to start writing letters again.

Fountain pen ink cartridges (assorted) via wikimedia

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is “ink.” Featured image of ‘Fountain Pen’ by WolfBlur on Pixabay.com Fountain pen ink cartridges, ( assorted brands) by Pavel.satrapa on wikimedia.

Thanksgiving Dinner

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“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.”
― Erma Bombeck

In prior years I have prepared an entire traditional American Thanksgiving dinner by myself. In more recent times it is a team effort of my husband, daughter and me. Our son is married and usually does not get involved in our preparations. This year we will be preparing the stuffed turkey and fresh cranberry sauce to take over to my daughter-in-laws parent’s house. My husband is happy as long I am making the turkey and the stuffing. The quote about Thanksgiving dinners rings true to me. I can remember cooking all day having my senses overloaded with all the aromas, then we would sit down and gobble up everything in minutes. I would think to myself All that work and it is over so fast!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

One Liner Wednesday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Featured image of vintage Thanksgiving card via publicdomainpictures.net

Psst There’s A Squirrel In The Pyracantha

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Our Pyracantha tree and Heavenly Bamboo are filling up with berries. I can tell the berries are ripe when the birds and squirrels start eating them. It’s a bountiful crop this year. I spotted a squirrel munching on the Pyracantha berries and caught a photo before he/she scampered off. (Click on photos to enlarge). I can tell when the squirrels are in the tree, even before I see them, because the branches start shaking. They have been known to perform acrobatic stunts, like hanging by their feet upside down while eating. They are able to clean all the berries off the tree in a couple of weeks or less with the help of the birds. Psst, I think I see a branch shaking.

Large clusters of pyracantha berries

Squirrel munching on berries

Heavenly bamboo berries

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The worst for today is an attention getting sound and/or “psst.” Featured imaged ‘Gray Squirrel’ via wikimedia.

Selfie Perspective

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‘Selfie Perspective’ Fooling around in my powder room and noticed the perspective in my closet door mirrors while playing around with selfies.

I don’t like selfies of myself because they usually show my wrinkles and I don’t like selfies in general because I think they are kind of vain but I liked this photo.

Wanting to get some perspective on all the terrible revelations in the media but there are no short cuts. And I don’t think I should cut short my processing of these painful things. One story after another leaves me reeling. Wondering why this is all coming together now. Could it be because it has built up to a critical mass of evil deeds and the universe is saying, No more! Maybe it all needs to collapse of the rot so it can be reformed into something that raises us all up. ‘It’ being Hollywood, business, the news media, the art world, politics, wherever this oppression ( of women and children) has been fostered and has festered. No more.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Prompt words for today are shortcut/cut short.

November

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It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month and encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

The co-hosts today are: Tonja Drecker, Diane Burton, MJ Fifield, and Rebecca Douglass!

Click on the link above for the IWSG to get more information about the group and what is the latest goings on.

Each month on Wednesday you can join in and there is an optional question prompt provided. The question for November:

Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published?

I have not participated in NaNoWriMo which, for those who may not know, is where people participate in a challenge to write an entire novel in a month. Knowing myself, this is something I would not want to do. Good luck to all the members of IWSG who are participating.

That leaves us wondering what are we going to do with the month of November if we are not choosing to spend it writing a novel. Well life goes on and I will be celebrating my first grandson’s 1st birthday. I will get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. This includes making a turkey dinner. I will continue to read some good books and watch some good movies. November begins with Samhain which has been thought of as the beginning of the dark months of winter in Celtic history. Winter is a time to draw in and conserve energy. I am drawn to slowing down. And there is the next WEP December Challenge coming up soon enough.

“A flashback? A new start? A cascading change? A branching off point? An end and a beginning? Celebrate year’s end with us!”

Featured image ‘Autumn’ by KreativeHexnkueche on Pixabay.com

Leftover Pumpkins And Candy

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What can you do with leftover pumpkins. A post popped up in my email by Theo Ellin Balle of OZY Magazine that had several suggestions like pumpkin bowling, pumpkin relish, and pumpkin face masks. And if there is a farm near you, pigs like to eat pumpkins too.

We have a lot of left over candy and I wondered what I can do with it besides my husband and I eating it. So I did some quick research and found:

25 Things to Do With Leftover Halloween Candy

Some suggestions from research were: freeze it, add it to deserts or brownies and cupcake recipes, put it in a piñata, use it for Christmas decorations, science experiments, and a post from Mommy Poppins suggested charitable organizations with links you can donate it to like our troops and Nursing Homes.

I like the idea of giving it away to a Nursing Home for the staff and/or residents.

Video of Pigs Eating Pumpkins as seen on OZY magazine from FarmSanctuary.org Featured image of Halloween Candy by Luke Jones on Flickr.