Tag: Life changes

October Blog Challenge

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About a week ago or so, I ran across an interesting blog challenge.  Officially, it’s called the October Memoir and Backstory Blog Challenge.  That’s a bit of a mouthful, so I shortened it up a bit for my post title.  Anyway, you can find out more about it here on Jane Ann McLachlan’s blog and sign up for it, should you so desire, here.  I thought it sounded like fun, so I signed right up.

On the off chance that you haven’t clicked through to find out what it’s all about, here’s the gist of it: Write 25 posts in 31 days.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Ah, but there’s a theme: Each post should be a memory or reflection for each of the first 25 years of life.  From the original post:

It can be a personal memoir from your life, a reflection on turning a certain age, a recollection of someone else at that age, a poem or a photo, on the ages 1 to 25.

For example…

Lost in a moment

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So I’m a little late with my Photo Friday post today.  But hey – it’s still Friday, and look, I’ve even got a photo!

Photograph by Minson Photography

This is one of my favorite wedding pictures and in honor of my third wedding anniversary Wednesday, I thought I’d share it.  It’s not quite candid, not quite posed.  We took pictures both before and after the ceremony because we didn’t want to see each other beforehand and also because that way we wouldn’t keep our guests waiting at the reception hall quite as long.  This shot was captured between posed photos, when Seymour and I clearly weren’t paying attention to anyone or anything but each other.

I’ve got the song “Lost in This Moment” by Big and Rich stuck in my head right now and I think it fits this photo perfectly.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, a great big hunk of man is calling my name.  ¡Hasta luego, mis amigos! 🙂

(c) 2012.  All rights reserved.

Anniversaries

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This is a week of anniversaries for me.  Anniversaries and craziness.  Shall we start at the beginning?  Yesterday was my wedding anniversary – three years and two kids and many memories.  Yesterday was supposed to be grand.  There was going to be lunch with Seymour and an afternoon spent making a gift while babies napped and then supper out while the kids were at church.  But then my car broke down in the midst of a busy intersection.  As I struggled to turn around and get back to the repair shop, I prayed I’d be able to make it home in time to finish my projects as planned, but it was not to be.  So instead there was time spent reconnecting with an old friend while my car was being fixed.  Eventually, there was supper out while the kids were at church.  It was an unexpected day, but not altogether bad. The evening spent curled up on the couch with Seymour was, in fact, particularly nice.

Oh, darling!

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They say you should murder your darlings, but this one from my latest project may prove difficult to kill, should it eventually become necessary:

If there was anything Muffy Montrose and Cookie Bradley loved more than talking, though, it was shopping.  They went every other weekend, always with each other, usually with their daughters in tow, but never with their husbands, who were too busy working or golfing to notice the desperation their wives wore like the latest fragrance.

If he were being honest with himself, Michael felt sorry for these women.  They were trapped in marriages that provided them every comfort but the one they truly wanted. Even their daughters had little respect for them.  Maria was always going on about how her mother was such a doormat and how she should stand up for herself and how she would never let a man treat her the way her father has treated her mother.  But then, he wasn’t being honest with many people lately, least of all himself.

(c) 2012.  All rights reserved.

It’s another Photo Friday!

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Here we are, at the end of another week, and I must say I’m glad of it.  I’m not looking forward to spending the weekend painting, but that’s another story.  Anyway, on to the photo of the day!

Photo by Kay Kauffman

Today’s photo features Tomcat, my oldest son.  Clearly this is not a recent photo, as my darling baby boy will be nine on Wednesday.  Nine!  How the heck did that happen?  Oh, right.  I blinked.  I remember now.  He was just over two and a half when I snapped this picture, slightly older than Cricket is now.  He looks so little!  And now he’s so big!  I can’t believe I have a third grader on my hands!

Quick! Get me a brick! Get me some rope! Get me a drink!

Daddy

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Night after night he sat there, hunched over his desk with a paperback in hand.  He angled his desk lamp over the page so that the incandescent bulb glowed mere inches away from his head.  I can’t count the number of hours I saw him sit like that, devouring page after chapter after book.  He read all kinds of books: westerns and poetry and biographies and anything else he could get his hands on.

But Louis L’Amour was his favorite.  If he didn’t read every book that man wrote, he sure came close.  He would read the books and when he was done, round them up and donate them to the library.  Other times, depending on the author, he would give them to me.  Our home was always stuffed to the gills with books and I am proud to say that such is still the case – I have far more books than places to put them (which only means that I need more shelf space).

Daddy instilled in me a love of books that I hope to instill in my own children,  that I am trying to instill in my own children.  I love to see Cricket’s face light up when he sees a new book; I love to discuss the Goosebumps series with Tomcat and tell him which ones I enjoyed when I was younger and hear which ones he likes.  I love watching Seymour install beautiful custom bookshelves in every nook and cranny our old house has to offer and believe me, there are plenty.

But of the many wonderful memories related to books that spill forth from my childhood, the one that will stick with me the longest is the one of my father in his squeaky desk chair, his jacket sleeves shoved up his forearms and his hair mussed up because he hadn’t combed it yet that day, hunched over his desk devouring another book with a beer and a cigarette nearby.

(c) 2012.  All rights reserved.

Related articles

Feminism and abortion

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I like to read WordPress’s Freshly Pressed articles.  I don’t always read them, but every now and then, one will catch my eye.  The one that caught my eye today was called Frankie v. Debra, Roe v. Wade: Can you still be a feminist if you’re anti-abortion?

I read the article, but not all 200 comments.  The article began by comparing two of Patricia Heaton‘s sitcom roles and then discussed some of the actress’s personal opinions, including her membership in a group called Feminists for Life, a group that apparently is very pro-life.

I really wanted to comment on the article…

Circumstantial influence

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Due to circumstances beyond my control, my usual Photo Friday post didn’t make it yesterday. As a result of other circumstances somewhat more within my sphere of influence, I’ve now had time to put it together. Stay tuned – it should be up this afternoon!

(c) 2012. All rights reserved.

The little writer who could

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It’s been a week of ups and downs here in my neck of the woods.  Thumper is now walking…when he feels like it, which frankly, isn’t that often.  Stubborn little guy.  He and Cricket are working on molars, so I’ve got two cranky little guys running around my house.  Seymour’s grandma passed away yesterday after years of health problems, so we’re dealing with everything attendant with that as well.  We’ll be seeing a lot of the family over the next few days, as the visitation is Friday, the funeral Saturday, and the family reunion/40th anniversary party for Seymour’s parents/Thumper’s birthday party is on Sunday.  Going back to work on Monday will feel like a vacation at this rate.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Wiedmeier via WANA Commons

Revisions continue.  I’ve added over 10,000 words and more than 30 pages in the last 27 days, and I still have about 90 pages left to go before I’m finished revising.

Flute-tastic Friday

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Tonight is my ten-year high school class reunion.  Sort of.  See, my class isn’t terribly organized.  We started planning our five-year reunion two weeks ahead of time.  The reunion wound up involving a gathering of anyone who could come meeting at the country club for drinks.  Okay, whatever, we’ll be more organized for the ten-year reunion, right?

Yeah, not so much.