A Writer Mom In Uncharted Waters

Life Lessons from The Year of Too Much

2012-01-17T12:10:00.000-05:00

I'm so glad that 2011 is over, even if it still haunts me. It was The Year of Too Much and it brought some interesting enlightenment along with it.

Lesson #1: Too much of something is never good. Excesses are the worst form of self-abuse, whether from food, drink, or people. I consumed too much chocolate and sugar during the stresses of 2011. I spent too much time with my in-laws. I spent too much time in motion and not enough in introspection. My focus for 2012 is moderation in all things.

Lesson #2: I cannot do it all. I'll even extend that to: We cannot do it all. Doing "all" of anything is a ridiculous concept anyway. Learning to ask for help and learning to say no without guilt is essential to a healthy mental state.

Lesson #3: When you move too fast, you miss the small things, and it's the small things that are the important things. I spent too much time rushing or being pushed here and there to notice what matters to me. All of us could stand to slow down and smell the roses.

Lesson #4: Moving too fast causes you to weed out what is not important. Yes, there is an upside. When you are too busy, you realize that you did things out of boredom. None of those things meant anything and when you stopped doing them. Social media was the biggest thing I left behind last year. I hate to say it people, but Social Media is the biggest time killer out there and it does nothing to improve you.

Lesson #5: Stay connected. Not using social media, email or text messages, but using old fashioned forms of personal contact. An old fashioned, post office delivered birthday card with a hand written note will bring a bigger smile than some multimedia enhanced email message which will last 15 seconds before being deleted. Make an effort, make a phone call, throw a party, meet a friend for lunch. In person, they'll forget that you neglected them all year. In person, you mean something; in an electronic text message, you're just another bit in the stream.

Lesson #6: Remember your passions. It's easy to forget what you love when you're drowning in to-do's and demands from every corner. This goes with Lesson #1. Think about what you're doing and why you're doing it. Then go after the things that kindle the fire of your passions.

I am confident that 2012 will be a better year, a quieter and more balanced year. Only once you've been shaken up vigorously can you find your equilibrium.

Chicken Soup for Dreary Spring Days

2011-04-26T10:39:00.000-04:00

There is nothing like a good pot of homemade chicken soup to change your mood on a rainy spring day. It is so easy to make soup that I no longer purchase prepared soup, except for Pacific brand boxed tomato soup (because I'd rather not peel and puree tomatoes; it's a long story).

Give this chicken soup recipe a try and see how easy it is. This recipe is very forgiving and has plenty of room for variation. It doubles well if you need soup for a crowd. You can make your own chicken stock if you like, but I use prepared low-sodium chicken broth, either Pacific or Kirkland brand, but I hear Swanson's also got good reviews. Feel free to experiment with different spices, vegetables, and noodles.

Mom's Dreary Day Chicken Soup (serves 4)

1 box of Chicken Broth (about 4 cups)
2 chicken breasts
1 leek (or 3 green onions), white and pale green parts, sliced thin
3 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch
3 celery stalks, sliced 1/4 inch
1 large handful of egg noodles
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

In large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat, add whole chicken breasts and cook until no longer pink inside. Remove chicken and add all the vegetables to the pot. Saute vegetables until leek and celery are soft, about 5 minutes. Add chicken broth and thyme and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Shred chicken into bite size pieces and add to pot. When boiling, add noodles and cook for another 8-10 minutes, until noodles are done. Taste the broth and add salt and pepper to your taste.

Ladle into bowls and serve hot with wedges of baguette or small rolls. Inhale deeply that comforting aroma and enjoy.

The Yearbook Chairwoman

2011-04-25T11:20:00.002-04:00

Although it may seem I fell off the face of the earth, being uncharacteristically silent for most of the past three months, I am still here. The year started with a rush of new toys, like my iPhone, and plenty of distractions that kept me from my usual routines. By the time I purchased way too many apps and readjusted to new habits, I was ready to finish the serious work on the yearbook for my daughter's school.

I'm happy to report that last week I single-handedly finished the school yearbook for 2010-11. I was recruited for this job as a result of some unfortunate circumstances and rode the waves of insanity and panic right up to the last day before submission.

I used the EZBook software from Walter's Publishing to complete the yearbook, as recommended by our local school photographer. I did not follow any prescribed templates, but instead decided to design my own pages. EZBook was not as easy as it sounded. Perhaps I would have had better luck had I went with the pre-designed templates. But I never liked following the herd. My years of experience in the computing field paid off and shortened the learning curve. Still, the software was on the clunky side and could have been smoother and more efficient.

Although you can edit photos from within the application, this was difficult to perfect to my liking so I managed and edited all the candid photos using Photoshop and then imported them. I suppose being an enthusiastic Photoshop user biased me against any other editor. Then there were a handful of known bugs that were not catastrophic, but bugged me nonetheless, such as the ruled editing guides that couldn't be removed from the page once you put them there (thankfully, they were only in the editing view), and the candid photo use counter that didn't decrease the count when the photo was removed from the page. This last bug added several hours of extra work when I realized I had to figure out exactly which photos I removed from a dozen pages so I could put them elsewhere.

I did make one call to tech support, and they were prompt and helpful when answering my questions. The software slowed to a crawl for no apparent reason and made it unusable. Tech support directed me toward an inconsistency between the Java software I had recently updated on my laptop and the one that EZBook used. A simple replacement in the EZBook application files solved the problem and I was merrily on my way.

My only big complaint about EZBook was the resource intensity of it all. As my yearbook project grew larger, it became difficult to have both Photoshop and EZBook open at the same time. And this was on a high-performance gaming laptop. If you don't have the computing power, don't bother to take on this project at home.

My best advice to anyone who volunteers for a yearbook project:

You better like editing digital photos for many many many hours. Plan those hours into your schedule well in advance of the due date.
Be organized - label photos by classroom and/or by subjects such as Art or Music. Separate them into their own folders, and keep them someplace easily accessible. Don't forget to make a backup.
Be prepared to reject tons of photos from well-meaning parents and teachers who never learned how to take a good photo.
Be willing to barge into classrooms and school events with your own camera to get those photos you need.
Give yourself three weeks for unforeseen circumstances (ours was a last minute trip to South Africa).

Will I do it again? Probably not, but since volunteering is what I like to do, I'll be leading some other big project next year.

Decorator Wars, The Final Round

2011-03-26T12:39:00.044-04:00

The schedules that sent us in opposing directions, along with a pervasive laziness, kept us from painting our living room for months. I was becoming accustomed to the odd large squares of sample paint that intrigued all our house guests.

Our final choices were Olympic Flat Paint colors: Spice Delight B14-1 for the ceiling (same as in the adjoining kitchen), Crocodile Tears C12-3 for three walls, and Willow Tree C12-4 for the fireplace wall.

I am very satisfied with the results. The room is no longer deep orange and is instead a soothing soft green that looks amazing. Recent house guests thought I hired a decorator to finish the room and I smugly smiled and said it was all my doing. Maybe I should consider pursuing that line of work?

Although my husband still claims the colors are too dark - I believe no color will ever satisfy him.

I have had to reconsider my accent colors, since they were previously all green. Now I'm adding some reds and yellows that simply pop.

Fortune Cookie Valentine Craft

2011-02-14T17:47:00.002-05:00

I dislike those silly character-driven kids valentine cards available this time of year so I insist that we make our own valentines. No matter how you look at the situation, a homemade card means more than some mass-produced cartoon advertisement any day.

Two years ago, we cut large hearts out of scrapbook papers, hand wrote messages, and attached a Dove chocolate on each. Last year we ordered specially designed valentines from a friend of mine over at Busy Bee Greetings. She did an awesome job and they were a big hit. I highly recommend her for custom cards.

This year I found a valentine fortune cookie craft on the Family Corner web site. Instead of making the pins as directed, my daughter and I devised a variation using felt circles and stuffed a roll of Smarties inside each one. The procedure to make the "cookies" was the same, our only issue was that the Smarties were too heavy for the felt cookies (I'm sure they would have worked perfectly inside the foam cookies). If you like the felt idea, I would suggest using a fabric stiffener on the felt in advance or stringing the cookies on some red yarn attached to a small candy treat.

Even still, these were successful and especially beloved by the art teacher!

Gingerbread of Doom

2010-12-30T09:21:00.000-05:00

After six years of gingerbread house construction experience, you would think we'd get it right. This year we did assemble the house, and it is still standing, but only due to the wonder of the cement-like qualities of royal icing.

Every piece had some fatal flaw that required creative can stacking to support the walls while the icing dried. As you can see here, the roof looks on the verge of collapse, except that it's being supported inside by a tall jar of enchilada sauce!

What made this house different from our previous creations was that we decorated each piece after they had cooled and while they were flat. It was my thought that this would let us be more creative and would prevent the decoration drool that happens when they slide down the walls before the icing dries. I still think this is a good idea, but once they are decorated, they need to return to the cooling rack so they can dry out. Our problem, I believe, was that we left them on a flat surface where the cookie absorbed the moisture from the icing. This made the cookies unstable.

My daughter calls it the Gingerbread of Doom.

May You Have Visions of Sugarplums

2010-12-24T05:00:00.026-05:00

This holiday eve,

may you be healthy, stay warm,

and have visions of dancing sugarplums.

A selection of our holiday cookies: a King Arthur Flour Gingerbread Lady and Snowflakes of King Arthur Special Roll-Out Sugar Cookies.

Both of these recipes came from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion Cookbook, which I highly recommend. I've made about a third of the cookies in this huge book of recipes and they have all been outstanding. Out of all my cookie cookbooks, this one is my favorite.

These were decorated by my daughter using white Wilton Cookie Icing for the base coat and Cake Mate Writing Icing for the details. When warm, the Wilton Cookie Icing spreads smoothly onto the cookie and the icing writing tubes can be squeezed right on the warm base coat. The icing sets up hard and dry so the cookies are stackable. In addition, it doesn't make these cookies too sweet nor do they have that "fake" icing taste. I'm very picky about my ingredients and flee from artificial anything in my kitchen; however, over my years of decorating holiday cookies, these two products are easy, perform well, and still maintain good taste. They make a satisfying option for young bakers who do not have the patience to fuss with Royal Icing and specialty decorator bags and tips.

I'd love to hear about your cookie decorating experiences!

Lost & Sad Priorities

2010-12-23T05:00:00.048-05:00

An NPR article yesterday carried this photo and caption:

Rafiq Maqbool/AP

"Boys in a Mumbai slum use their cell phones. An Indian service called GupShup is using simple texting functions to form virtual communities. There are vast stretches of India and elsewhere in the developing world with ample basic cellphone service, but that have yet to access social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter."

Here we have worries about these people having access to Facebook and Twitter when there should be a focus on getting them a healthy, sanitary, safe place to live!

Come on people, get a grip.

Will the standard of living improve if Indians have access to Social Media? NO.

Let's focus on jobs and healthcare and community development and not time and money wasting nonsense activities.

Articles and attitudes such as this one distract us

from the real humanitarian issues that need solving.

And I'm not talking about only India. This applies to Americans as well. Financial crisis has hit the country in many ways and yet those struggling with basic needs, such as housing or healthcare, will still insist on having a pricey cellphone contract, on pricey cable TV, and other frivolities.

Priorities folks. Find your priorities. Bring balance to the world, not Facebook.

Cookie Exchange

2010-12-22T05:00:00.046-05:00

I love to bake cookies. I'm addicted to achieving cookie perfection. I love kitchen science, but I'm also just plain addicted to eating cookies. Nothing can compare to a homemade cookie. To me, it says Love in ways nothing else can.

I also can't stand to make just one kind of cookie. I daydream over my cookie recipes and plot how I'll get two or more baked when no one is looking. Why the clandestine cookie baking? Well, my family is very well fed. My husband says he looks too well fed. He discourages my binge baking. But during the winter holidays I get more latitude with the comfort foods.

Every year since 1994, I've had my best friends over to bake cookies and have some girlfriend time together in between the stress of holiday activity. This eventually morphed into a family event when we became parents and included kids and husbands. Fewer and fewer cookies were baked and it became more of a dinner party. So this year I decided to shake it up. My daughter and I hosted a Cookie Exchange Party for her girlfriends and their moms.

We asked each person to bring four dozen cookies. I think that freaked some of them out. Apparently they were not aware of my cookie obsession. Four dozen is only two batches, after all. Seemed easy to me, until I got some panic calls and emails and realized that not all moms share my willingness to stand in the kitchen over cookies all afternoon. I tried to be reassuring and I must have succeeded because they all arrived with their cookie boxes and tins and plates.

For the kids, I made giant snowmen and tree cutout sugar cookies for them to decorate. I provided every imaginable cookie decoration item I could find: gumdrops, redhots, sprinkles, non-pareils, sugar snowflakes, multi-colored frostings, sanding sugars, licorice, candy canes, chocolate chips, and peppermint candies. They had a blast.

I also had sugar cones that were turned upside down to make trees.

So much cookie fun we couldn't stand it. And the moms really liked having a huge selection of cookies to take home for the holidays. So even though there was panic, everyone walked away happy.

This was the first formal cookie party I've held and I walked away with a few ideas for the future.

I liked the mom and daughter idea, it kept the siblings away (not that I don't like them, but it was easier to plan for a specific age group).
The event is best suited for an afternoon and does not require much food or drink. I went overboard on the food and drinks, with a cocktail party in mind instead. Next time I will simplify.
I provided party favors, which were a big hit. In a cellophane bag tied with ribbons, I included a holiday-themed spatula that I engraved with "Thank You! Cookie Exchange 2010" on the handle, two peppermint candy coated hot chocolate spoons, and a recipe card with a favorite cookie recipe.
The cookie decorating project was outstanding and entertained everyone, even if it did get louder as the kids consumed more and more sugar! The sugar cone trees and oversized cookies were perfect.

What are your cookie traditions?

A Merry Winter Solstice

2010-12-21T15:03:00.000-05:00

When the earth is tilted the farthest from the sun, it marks the day of the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, and the first day of winter in many places. Today, at 6:38 PM EST, the sun will be at this farthest point.

We have our own solstice celebration each year, a kind of Thanksgiving for the Seasons. We build a fire in our fireplace, light candles, and I make a special dinner by candlelight. The highlight of the dinner is usually an outrageous dessert, something I would never dream of making otherwise.

It is a turning-point of the season, and as my husband the eternal optimist says, "It only gets better from here!"

Find a great photo of the solstice at NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Find out more about the cultural celebrations of the Winter Solstice from Wikipedia, National Geographic, or for a more scientific explanation, check out Eric Weisstein's World of Astronomy.

Happy Birthday Miss Emily!

2010-12-10T05:00:00.118-05:00

Today is Emily Dickinson's birthday. She was born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, and was to become one of the foremost poets in American history.

She was well educated and a lover of books, poetry, dogs, and gardens. Of the many women in history with whom I would love to have tea, she would be on my top ten list.

From poem #1263

There is no Frigate like a Book
to take us Lands away,
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry -

(poem 1263, from poetry.org)

There are several available collections of her poems, in various arrangements, but I prefer Thomas Johnson's The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (Little, Brown & Co, 1960). Many do not agree with Johnson's chronological arrangement of her poems, but I appreciate this arrangement because it allows me to easily place her work as she aged and grew as a poet and also in greater historical context. Then again, my primary passion and education is in history, so it is logical I prefer this style.

Much has been published about Miss Emily and there are many theories about her reclusiveness and her poetic meanings. This last year I read a fantastic biography, which I highly recommend, My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson, by Alfred Habegger (Modern Library, 2002). It is exhaustive (some say exhausting), but it tells the story of Emily and the people around her, using the available original sources, in a well thought-out, academic, and yet easy to read manner. Another good book was The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson, edited by Wendy Martin (Cambridge University Press, 2002). This is a collection of academic essays that include biography, cultural contexts, poetic craft, and publication.

For more information about Emily Dickinson online, check out these sources:

The American Academy of Poets, biography and a selection of poems.
The Emily Dickinson Museum, located in Amherst, MA.
The Dickinson Electronic Archives, nice collection with teaching resources.
Bartleby, 597 of her poems arranged topically.
Modern American Poetry, from the University of Illinois, critical responses and essays.

And as always, there is general information available at Wikipedia.

Even if you are not a poetry reader or even a poetry lover, I promise it will be worth your while to check out Miss Dickinson's poetry.

A Tale of Holiday Trees

2010-12-06T09:44:00.000-05:00

Since the first of December, we've had snow every day. Not big snow, but flurry snow. Right now, big puffy flakes fall and it looks so pretty as I watch them from the warm side of the window. Their tiny crystallized selves dispel the grey gloom of winter.

This weekend my daughter strung lights around "her" tree in our backyard. We planted this tree when she was about three years old. At the time, this tree was exactly her size, a little spindly thing of a pine. The first holiday, she would wrap a string of multi-colored lights around it. As it grew, it needed more and more lights. She also started a trend in our neighborhood by decorating a tree in the backyard. Several of our neighbors also decorate backyard trees and it's like having your own private light show.

As you can see in the photo, both my daughter and the tree (on the right) have grown considerably. The tree is easily twice as tall as she. I'm glad that kids don't grow-up as fast as trees!

The tree on the left of the photo, was once a potted holiday tree. About 10 years ago, I convinced my husband to get a live tree to decorate indoors. We always had a live tree we killed and brought indoors and I decided I didn't like the idea of celebrating around a tree carcass. Against his better judgement, he bought this four-foot live tree, with a root ball almost as as large. In hindsight, he admits it was way too big. Then we had to drive around town looking for a gigantic pot to put it in. He muscled the thing indoors and we managed to keep it alive all winter by moving it first to the basement, then to the garage, and adding pitchers of water to the roots occasionally. When he finally moved it outdoors in the spring, I feared we killed the poor thing. But it is now taller than the surrounding homes, a very happy, lush spruce tree. Each year I hang birdseed ornaments in this tree, in honor of it's original role.

Since then, my husband insisted we get a fake tree for the holiday. I grumbled about plasticizing the world, but resigned myself to our fake tree, with bird ornaments and other trinkets that sparkle for a few weeks each year.

What stories do you have to tell about your holiday trees?

NaNoWriMo: Trying Not to Drown with the Rats

2010-11-30T12:06:00.002-05:00

I abandoned the ship yesterday, with the other rats who pride themselves on survival and self-preservation. We fought the good fight, or at least that's what we tell ourselves as we cower in the lifeboat.

NaNo did not work for me this year again. Before you accuse me of giving up the ship early, consider the possibility of 25K words in two days. Um, no. Not gonna happen.

In a fit of defeatism this morning, I wrote the following in my journal:

November is the dumbest month to even consider something as lame brained as writing a novel. With all that is demanded of my time in November, it's a wonder I even accomplished half a novel. So why do I bother with NaNo when I know I'm set up for failure? Because of the energy! Because of the pep-talks, the forum discussions, the understanding that I am not alone. Because I know there are all these other people working with me. Because of the local write-in's where I can meet other writers. But it's not worth it anymore. NaNo doesn't work for me, it works against me, and it's about time I realize this and work according to a realistic schedule and get away from the pressure of failure.

Will this be my last NaNoWriMo? Probably. My writing needs manageable and achievable goals. Without achievements to celebrate, we're stranded on the lifeboat on an empty ocean.

Decorator Wars, Round Two

2010-11-29T14:36:00.000-05:00

Choosing the color scheme for our living room was much easier than the kitchen (see Round One). Once we got past my husband's Fear of the Dark (paint, that is), I bought sample cans and painted big ugly squares on the walls.

Ugly, you say?

If you only knew what color the walls are now. They are orange-magenta. Hey, we were young and we've outgrown our outlandish tendencies. Of course, my husband blames me for railroading him into that color. Humph.

I painted three sets of ugly squares in an attempt to please Mr. Fearful. The first, as reported in Round One, was too muddy and grey. The second was not muddy at all, but way too blue! But like Goldilocks, the third choice was Just Right.

Three walls will be in Olympic C12-3 Crocodile Tears. You can see in this photo the original orange and a stripe of the second, too-blue color we discarded.

The wall with the mantle will be in Olympic C12-4 Willow Tree. I have to say, this is my favorite wall color and it looks quite nifty next to our woodwork.

Much like the kitchen paint, this paint has the amazing ability to change according to the light. The greens emerge in bright sunlight and the browns in artificial lighting.

Have I mentioned how wonderful those little sample cans are? How did anyone decide on the right color for painted walls without it?

You can mess around with the Olympic Color Visualizer for an idea of what these colors will look like together, but there is no room even close to ours, with the stained wood trim and rustic cherry furniture.

The War appears to have ended and both sides are on peaceful terms once again. The problem is that we won't have time to get the room done until January. My ugly squares will have to accent my holiday decorations this year, I guess.

NaNoWriMo: Buried Under the Rubble

2010-11-26T13:14:00.000-05:00

Five Days.

I knew this battle to birth a 50,000 word novel in full-battle armor from my less-than divine head, in a single month, the single most busy month in my world, would be futile. I've faced the enemy of my moonstruck NaNoWriMo goals for four consecutive years and I've only prevailed once. But that single triumph presented me a laurel wreath that I carefully preserve and occasionally still wear. I won. Who cares that it was in 2008? I prevailed over the overwhelming odds and that means that if I won once I can win again.

There are five more days to write. I have 23,680 words on paper. I need 27,000 more. I may not be winning the daily word count battles, but I have 23,680 words in my handwriting, a direct extension of me, part of the essence that is emerging that will become the story I write and maybe even publish. I don't know if I will obtain a second laurel wreath this year. It's not a safe bet. But I am writing and that's all that matters, right?

NaNoWriMo: From the Top of Half-Way Hill

2010-11-16T05:00:00.016-05:00

From the top of the NaNoWriMo Half-way Hill, I'm looking down at the rest of the month and I'm not relieved. It was inevitable that I would fall behind. The last five days have not seen a single word on paper. The family won the priority battle for four of these five days. The fifth, today, was mine. I soaked in a bubble bath. I listened to The Splendid Table podcast. I ate leftover pie. I read a book. I recuperated. Tomorrow, says Miss Scarlett, there's always tomorrow.

Quantitatively, I have about 19,000 words on paper. Qualitatively, I have some good stuff surrounded by some really conflicted and redundant stuff. No matter, I'm happy with what I've completed.

Tonight I'll read more and begin again tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day.

NaNoWriMo - Day Four

2010-11-04T14:18:00.000-04:00

I'm dug deep in the trenches, covered in a camouflage the colors of my chair cushions. I have the enemy in my sights. They are hungry, they demand clean underwear, they throw their threats across the table. They are formidable and must be dealt with. They are my family.

There was a philosopher, whose name escapes me at the moment, who once said, "Know thy enemy." And to be sure, I do make a point to know them. In this situation, I can't help but know them quite intimately. And I know that November is a no good very bad month to take on this silly novel writing project.

We have no fewer than three family birthday's to celebrate. We must cheer our nephew in his high school football playoff games. There is the school roller skating party, family night, and a karate brown-belt test. Lastly, there is that great feast of gluttony, Thanksgiving, with at least two days of baking and eating and family togetherness. There are the relatives who want your holiday wish lists before December. There are all the normal mom-things for which I'm responsible. None of which can be missed and all of which preclude any shred of writing.

My high word count, here in the early days of combat, is a testament to this insider knowledge. Here on day four, my estimated (remember, I'm writing this with a pen) word count is 9,900. The way I see it, the higher the body...ahem, word...count is now, the better off I'll be when I'll be coerced to abandon my comrades in arms for the necessary evils of November.

Only 40,100 to go.

NaNoWriMo: Day One in the Trenches

2010-11-02T08:50:00.000-04:00

I had a fantastic first day of writing. Of course, it helped that I had a quiet afternoon alone at home and that I've had this story in my head as I waited for November 1st.

My protagonist felt imprisoned and angry as I waited. Since I've written a novel about her before, she is very familiar to me, even if she criticized the first novel I wrote about her. She threw temper tantrums, sneered, jeered, and tormented me until I promised a new story, a better plot, and a new life for her.

Now that she's free, I feel like a scribbling maniac. It came out easily, and although I think I digressed for about a thousand words, I think it's good stuff even if my hand hurts.

First Day Word Count: 4600 words...

...only 45,400 to go...

An important disclosure about my word count: I write with a pen, not on a computer, so my word count is calculated from a sample of three pages that were counted, word-by-word, averaged, and then multiplied by the number of written pages. Of course, it's a rough guess. You don't expect me to count every word in a 50,000 word novel, do you? You'll just have to trust me. Or you could come count them for yourself.

National Novel Writing Month 2010

2010-11-01T05:00:00.002-04:00

Here we go again!

It's time for NaNoWriMo (aka National Novel Writing Month) to begin. That annual crazy habit we pursue where we attempt to complete Fifty Thousand words of a novel in just one month.

I'm re-visioning a previous novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo in 2008. You cannot call it an edit or even a second draft. I consider it an alternate-reality. It's the same runaway protagonist and her dog in a different world. Maybe some day both versions will meld into one, but for this year, they are evil step-sisters.

Wish me luck!

Decorator Wars, Round One

2010-10-05T05:00:00.001-04:00

Way back in February, I think, we needed drywall work in our kitchen to repair a leak. Then my husband and I began Decorator Wars. We knew it was time to repaint our kitchen and adjoining living room, but we could not agree on the color. This was no big surpirse. It took us three years of debate when we first moved into this house to agree on the current color scheme.

I originally chose a lovely Tuscan gold for the kitchen and a teal-green for the living room. My husband would have none of it. I bought little cans of sample color and painted swatches on several walls. My favorite color was painted in a large stripe opposite his chair at the table. He hated the color. I hung a wreath in the middle of that wall stripe. I made him look at it for months and months and months. I waited for him to say "Just paint it already." But he did not say that.

Instead, in early September, he said, "It's time to paint." We kept arguing about the color even after we primed the kitchen white. I picked a different color, a compromise of sorts, a light terracotta (Olympic Chocolate Turtle B16-4). I painted a swatch of this new color. It was, in his opinion, too dark. I wouldn't go a shade lighter (I actually wanted a shade darker). We painted the ceiling a nice soft flat cream color (Olympic Spice Delight B14-1). That was easy to agree upon. A week passed, and he broke under the frustration. Here's the new look:

I don't think the photo does the color justice. There are a lot more brown undertones, but looks more orange here. The odd thing about this paint from the Olympic Audubon Collection, is that it distinctly changes as the light in the room changes. I know all paints do this to some degree, but these amaze me with their variations. In the daylight the room looks more orange (as above), but at night the browns emerge.

Which leads to the problem in the living room. My color choices came from the Olympic Audubon Splendor Collection, all colors that I like and that I find visually appealing together. Since the living room and kitchen are open to one another, the colors must blend. I chose a dusty green (Olympic Earthy Cane C13-3) from the collection for the living room. But when I painted a swatch on the wall I was so disappointed! I love the color in the daylight, but under the artificial lights at night, it is so muddy-colored that it's ugly. So I'm back to the drawing board, only this time I cannot debate the issue for long because I've been given a deadline - before Thanksgiving.

The saddest thing about our painting project was the destruction of the Growing Wall. Since our daughter was one year old, we've been marking her height on a section of wall between the kitchen and the living room. It's prominence, plus the fact that it had so many nicks and scrapes, necessitated we paint over it.

But, never fear, everything was well documented in photographs and with a sharpie marker on this amazing find:

A six foot Grow Ruler! I found this at Pottery Barn Kids, and it's perfect. How sorry I am that I didn't find this sooner. We can even take it with us when we move. In the end, Mom Rules! Ha ha ha.

Stay tuned to Decorator Wars, Round 2: The Living Room, where our stubborn couple decides on a living room color.

Summer 2010 Post-Mortem

2010-10-04T12:05:00.001-04:00

This summer ended too quick. I think we were too busy, or at least that's my excuse for neglecting my blog.

My daughter managed to complete nine of the twelve weeks of Mom's Summer Camp. The one thing she didn't want to do this summer was to learn more French. She completed a week with me, and that was it. I decided not to push my luck and sadly I let it go.

At the beginning of summer, I promised a review of the Scholastic Summer Express workbook in comparison to the Summer Bridge workbooks. I liked the Scholastic book better. The assignments had various skill levels, with enough challenging material that I felt she learned some new things instead of just re-hashing what she already knew. I plan to use them again next summer.

What she did amaze me with this summer was her extraordinary ability to sew! Last summer she made a pillowcase and pajama pants and I was impressed. This summer she made a fleece pillowcase, an embroidered asymmetrical A-line skirt, and a tunic top with a belt!

I had to order her personalized clothing labels for her creations, because they were way too cool to leave unlabeled. She wore the top the first day of school and it was perfect with a pair of jeans. Her girlfriends made much ado about it. Her next aspiration, for this fall, is to design and sew a dress. Look out Project Runway, here she comes!

What's more, my own sewing skills improved as I helped her through each project, mostly by letting her show me what to do. I made a soft-sided, short handled purse of my own and have started to piece a quilt. I never thought I'd like sewing, since anything "Home-Ec" gave me the creeps as a teenager.

We spent the final week of summer on a sailing vacation. We planned port hopping between Put-in-Bay and Cleveland, Ohio, but sadly the weather was un-cooperative. To my daughter's delight, we were weathered-in at Cedar Point for four days. Their marina is quite nice, so aside from the noise factor, it wasn't a bad place to be stuck.

School started after Labor Day and we're now 5th Grade parents. It's hard to believe.

It's Unplug You Day

2010-08-31T05:00:00.060-04:00

Sometimes I feel like a Borg - always connected to something electronic, as to a hive mind, with a constant buzz of electrical information, background noises, and multi-tasking. I'm not sure what this is doing to my brain in the long term. I'm even more unsure what it's doing to the brains of children who are growing up with electronics I never dreamed of when I was a child. Whatever it is, we love our technology and have no plans of running to the Hills to escape it, but I do insist on some down time.

Engaging your brain on something that's not electronic is a good thing. We get outside, we take walks without our iPod's, we watch birds and listen to them sing, we go sailing on the lake, and best of all, we read books.

That's why I'm excited that Macmillan publishing is promoting Unplug Day as part of the release of Lane Smith's new book for children, It's a Book. The link here is to the video trailer for the book release; ironic, isn't it?

I hope you will join the party. Turn off your electronics, grab a book and escape to your nearest park, patio, or armchair and relax into the pleasures of reading. Not to worry, it'll be OK. Take thirty minutes, an hour, or all day. You never know, it may become your next favorite habit.

The 90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment

2010-08-26T05:00:00.077-04:00

On this day in 1920, women were officially granted the right to vote in America with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to our Constitution.

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

(art from Life magazine featured in Writing Women Back Into History Gazette, Winter 2010)

Women have had the right to vote for 90 years, and we must continue to make a difference!

It is another election year, and 37 Senate and 37 gubernatorial seats are up for re-election in November. Read about your state's candidates, make a choice and use your voice.

The fight for the right to vote wasn't called Women's Suffrage because it was a walk in the park. Our fore-mothers suffered to claim our right to vote. Don't waste it.

For more information on the 19th Amendment, check out the Our Documents web site.

For more information on Women's Suffrage and other resources, check out these sites:

The 19th Amendment at Our Documents.
HerStory.
History.com, The Fight for Women's Suffrage.
The Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership at the University of Rochester, Suffrage History.
Library of Congress, American Women, Marching for the Vote.
Scholastic's Teacher Pages.
National Women's History Project.

Fun Monarch Butterfly Facts

2010-08-06T05:00:00.003-04:00

Our butterfly hatching experience inspired my daughter to learn more about Monarch Butterflies. Here are a few fun facts she found the most interesting:

Monarchs migrate between southern Canada and Mexico each year, about 3,000 miles! On their journey south, they travel together, so you can see large groups migrating in the fall. But the northern migration is done alone.
Monarchs are poisonous enough to give their predators a nasty stomach ache. This is because the Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed leaves, and the milkweed toxin stays in their system for their entire lives. This is why they are never fearful of predators, who have learned not to snack on them.
Viceroy butterflies have capitalized on this protection from predators by mimicking the orange and black markings of the Monarch. You can tell the difference by looking for the distinctive white markings on a Monarch's body.

More information on Monarch Butterflies can be found at:

University of Washington Nature Mapping Program
National Geographic Animal Facts
Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Foundation

The Monarch Butterfly overwintering habitat is at risk. You can learn more about the work to protect the forests of Mexico that are the winter homes of the Monarch from the World Wildlife Federation Butterfly Reserve.

Our Monarch Butterfly Hatching

2010-08-05T09:16:00.001-04:00

A friend of ours raises Monarch Butterflies. She calls herself a Butterfly Farmer.

She sent two home with us one night.

The chrysalis for each was carefully harvested from her collection and tied to a stick stuck in a paper cup full of sand for balance.

One is a pale milky green color. If you look closely, you can see the fine gold beading that decorates the chrysalis. Amazing stuff.

The second has turned black, almost translucent, as an indication that it will hatch the next morning. You can see the color from the wings distinctly at this point.

Around 7 AM the following morning, our first little friend emerged.

My daughter named him Fred.

We are entirely unsure if this was a boy or a girl butterfly, but Fred was the first name to pop into her head, so it stuck.

He stretched for almost two hours - his body shrinking and getting long and slim and his wings taking shape. Then we moved him gently outside to one of my flowerpots.

I imagine warm morning sun must have felt great.

He began calisthenics about an hour after moving him outside - walking along his stick and opening his wings.

Around 11 AM Fred took his first flight. He fluttered about a foot away, into my basil plant, and then off into the big world.

We felt oddly sad to see him go.

The weather was nice for the remainder of the day, so we were sure he got a good start to wherever it is he was going.

Our second butterfly hatched five days later. This one emerged later, around 8 AM and was away into the wild before Noon.

A Huge Thank You to our friend Terri for giving us the opportunity to witness such an amazing process.

Almost Too Angry for Words

2010-07-28T12:39:00.002-04:00

Today's news carried a story about another oil spill, this one right here in Michigan.

From Channel 7 News: "The oil was discovered leaking from a ruptured [Enbridge Energy] pipeline in a creek in Marshall. By Tuesday evening the slick had traveled almost 30 miles, creeping closer to Morrow Lake [near the Kalamazoo River]. In the path of the oil, animals, including birds and fish. Also homes that have stood for decades are now empty because some residents were forced to leave... . All told almost 850,000 gallons – or 19,500 barrels – of oil has spewed from the broken pipeline. The cause for the breach in the 30-inch diameter line is still under investigation, though it has been sealed. State officials say it was last inspected in 2009."

(photo from Channel 7 News)

When will it end? Will we ever see a time in the future of the human race when we are responsible stewards of our planet? Or will humans just continue to degenerate into the world of irresponsibility, greed and exploitation at the expense of every living thing, including ourselves?

I fear the latter and I am pissed.

Common citizens, those of us to try to be responsible and live honest lives, seem to be unable to influence or correct the sheer irresponsibility of corporate America in their pursuit of the almighty dollar. We can stage protests and we are laughed at for being a bunch of crazies. We can boycott companies, which works to punish a only very few. We can join environmental groups and make small donations of support, but these small donations can't fight those with Big Bucks. We can write letters to our congressional representatives, but if we don't make obscene monetary donations, our voices are ignored.

This isn't a partisan issue. We're not talking Republicans vs. Democrats or Liberals vs. Conservatives. So don't bother calling me names like liberal communist tree-hugger. Labeling people doesn't change the fact that we're all people and

We're All in This TOGETHER!

What are we to do in an irresponsible world governed by greed?

Bayview Mackinac Race 2010

2010-07-22T05:00:00.001-04:00

The sailors set out from Port Huron on July 17th for the 86th Bayview Mackinac Race.

My husband sailed on Avatar (US15056) this year, a Santana 35, with eight other crew members.

They crossed the finish, off Mission Point on Mackinac Island, around 6:30 AM on July 19th, taking 4th place in their division.

After missing the last two races, we enjoyed being back on the island and catching up with old sailing friends.

A Summer Hike at the Botanical Gardens

2010-07-16T05:00:00.004-04:00

The Matthaei Botanical Gardens has something to discover each month as the seasons unroll. Part of the University of Michigan, it has 200 acres on the east side of Ann Arbor, Michigan, with walking trails, an indoor hothouse for non-native plants, and space for workshops, classes, and yoga.

We took a stroll last week, in the late afternoon for some cool summer shade, a nice break from all the hot sunshine.

A fleet of dragonflies and damselflies were busy skimming the frog pond. This one took a rest on an old log.

The wild raspberries were ripe and the birds were not happy we interrupted their snack.

And we found this strange, and quite large flowering plant I have yet to identify. Most of them were over 5 feet tall, but this one was about 4 feet tall and easier to photograph. My field guide to wildflowers doesn't seem to have a photo of this one. I'm open to suggestions.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

2010-06-14T05:00:00.033-04:00

"The past, the present and the future are really one: they are today."

by Harriet Beecher Stowe, (1811-1896)

Today is her birthday!

She was born, on this day, in 1811. She is best known as the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. It is believed that when she met Abraham Lincoln for the first time, he bowed to her and said, "So, you're the little lady that started this war."

More information about influential women in history can be found at the National Women's History Project - Bibliography Center.

Mom's Desk: Mom's Summer Camp 2010

2010-06-10T05:00:00.003-04:00

Today we begin activities for Mom's Summer Camp 2010. Like last year, I created a binder with a tab for each week of summer vacation. Divided between the weeks are activities to keep us occupied, including daily reading times, journaling, and handwriting practice.

For creative art, I am using pages from Discovering Great Artists and How to Teach Art to Children. I highly recommend these two books for kids through 6th grade. They are parent-friendly teaching resources with easy to accomplish projects that don't require studio art level resources.

For academic skill practice we're using Scholastic's Summer Express workbook. We've always used the Summer Bridge workbooks in the past and I felt I wanted a change. I'll follow-up on a comparison once we've explored a few weeks.

Here are some highlights of our special activity schedule:

* Make Birthday Party Invitations.
We could always buy them, ready made, but a handcrafted card from the birthday girl herself has such a personal touch. This year the party theme is: Ice Cream. We have candy shop patterned papers, an ice cream cone paper punch, and plain notecards and envelopes to embellish.

* Sewing Classes at JoAnn Fabric Kids Camp.
My young Project Runway designer has her heart set on learning to sew more than just pillowcases and totebags. She'll be learning tank tops, skirts, and shorts this year.

* Karate.
Already a purple belt in Okinawan Shorin Ryu Karatedo, she will be spending the summer focusing on weapons training and practicing for her brown belt test in the fall.

* Read and see some Shakespeare in action.
We'll be attending a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the University of Michigan. She'll also be reading A Midsummer Night's Dream for Kids. This is a well written and illustrated edition of the play that appeals to children in younger grades. I'm re-reading the play again myself, although in an adult edition.

* More French Language Lessons.
For the third summer now, I'll be tutoring her in French. This year we'll be focusing more on making sentences and conversations and less on vocabulary building.

* Sailing Lessons.
This is a tough one for us. We'd like to see her in the Junior Sailing program, where she'd learn to sail the Optimist dinghies. She, however, would rather that Dad taught her 'big boat' sailing, conveniently on our boat. The jury is still deliberating this one.

With any luck, this will keep her interested all summer. She is threatening to lay around and watch TV all summer, and I may be enforcing some rules soon.

Mom's Desk: Last Day of 4th Grade

2010-06-09T19:02:00.000-04:00

Today my daughter finished 4th grade. These last few days of school were one big party with outdoor field day events, movies, desk cleanings, popsicle consumption, and general ruckus.

To celebrate the start of summer vacation, we made a trip to the mall for a new summer outfit and a treat from Godiva. We each tried one of their new Ice Cream Parlor Truffles. My daughter had a Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Truffle and said it had too much chocolate and not enough mint. I had the Neapolitan Ice Cream Truffle and thought it was excellent. It tasted exactly like Neapolitan Ice Cream, only better. If you join the Godiva rewards program, you're entitled to a free truffle each month. That's incentive enough for me.

After our mall indulgences, we went to see Shrek 3 and had popcorn and sodas for lunch. We were completely alone in the movie theater - a private screening. We saw the 3-D version, which I thought was well done even though I don't care for 3-D movies. The plot was rather dark, and I'm not sure young audiences will get its subtleties. It was also not as funny as the first two movies. Those memorable one-liners from Mike Myers (Shrek) and Eddie Murphy (Donkey) were almost absent. We thought this was the weakest of the three movies, but it was still fun to see.

Now that she doesn't need an alarm clock to wake her in the morning, aside from a leaping-upon by the dog, my daughter said she is looking forward to staying up all night.

On Deck: The Loyal Shore Crew, or Why I Don't Race

2010-06-09T06:57:00.000-04:00

Last night a friend of ours asked why I don't race sailboats with my husband, after all, I've been sailing with him for many years. It is a good question that gave me pause.

I have been on a racing crew; twice I sailed in Ladies' Day Races before my daughter was born. In a way, I objected to the concept of a 'ladies race', simply because it assumed that women don't race, and if they do they need a nice soft-and-fluffy day of their own. Viewed another way, it was one of the very few opportunities for us women to boot the men off the boats for the day, which if you know anything about sailboat racing men, it's similar to stealing and running away with the ice cream cone of a 4 year old. The reaction is surprisingly similar.

As far as an understanding of the boat, the course, and the forces at work, I am certainly capable of racing. My reasons for remaining on shore have varied over the years. Here are a few of the major excuses...um, reasons...why I don't race.

#1 - I don't like getting yelled at. The phrase "swears like a sailor" was coined on a race course. It's one thing to tell someone to do something, it's another thing to holler like a drill sergeant in a colorful, but limited, vocabulary. I can imagine my reaction being something similarly colorful and amounting to a "Do it yourself."

#2 - I've limited upper-body strength. Taking a breather because I can only winch (hoist) that ridiculously huge sail half-way without a pause just doesn't work in the critical moments of racing. Then there are the other strength-related issues when it comes to the forces at work on lines and sails. I'd have to start a serious body-building program so I could work at the expected speed. See #1.

#3 - I am not by nature very competitive. For me, sailing is fun. After we spend our days working on activities that cause stress, why add more stress? It's like playing a game. Some win and some lose; it's all about having fun in the process. Voicing this concept is akin to mutiny on a racing boat. See #1.

Consequently, I leave the thrill of sailboat racing to my husband and I remain content on shore socializing with the other women who watch their men play with boats all afternoon, in all manner of weather.

I have a deep respect for those women who do sail competitively. One of our local Michigan celebrity racing women is Dawn Riley, veteran of the America's Cup and Whitbread races, who promotes a love for sailing with her organization, America True. She is only one of many who, unlike myself, inspire girls to get out there and compete.

On Deck: Detroit Nood Regatta

2010-06-08T12:25:00.001-04:00

This weekend my husband crewed on Avatar (US15056) in another Detroit Nood Regatta, sailing from Bayview Yacht Club.

My daughter always makes jokes: "Are you sailing in the NUDE, Dad? That's just gross!" It is good for a few laughs, but it's a competitive three day race that's taken very seriously by our sailboat racing friends. Held in several coastal cities around the country, sailors compete for bragging rights and for the chance to travel to the Caribbean for the championship.

The racing weather on Lake St. Clair was wet, windy, and at times wild. The shore crew, or those of us who do not race, sat in the rain on the patio at Bayview Yacht Club and drank Dark 'n Stormy's until the award ceremony on Sunday. Avatar took Second Overall for their class, a respectable finish (here are the results).

It was good for my husband to be racing again and it was good to see all our racing friends.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-06-07T05:00:00.002-04:00

"It is very wrong for people to feel deeply sad when they lose some money, while when they waste the precious moments of their lives they do not have the slightest feeling of regret. Such an indifference comes as a result of not realizing the value and rarity of the precious human existence."

by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, The Path to Bliss.

Mom's Desk: Friday Postmortem

2010-06-04T16:58:00.000-04:00

My No-So-Headline News for Friday June 4th.

Insatiable Makes First Sailing Voyage of the Season

As I mentioned in a previous post, not only can boats be such a pain, but they can also strain relationships. Unexpected problems seem to haunt us and we spent countless hours preparing for our scheduled weekend voyage to Cedar Point. Right until the 11th hour, we were not sure we would be able to go, but my husband pulled it off after I had given up. He has unbounded patience for his other woman...ahem...his sailboat. Sometimes I wonder how I would be tolerated if I were equally as difficult. I better not go there.

We brought our dear friends and their kids along for their first overnight sailing experience and their kids first visit to Cedar Point. It was a good trip and it was a bad trip. My husband got to go sailing for a few hours on Saturday. Good. Both of our friends' kids got seasick on the cruise over. Bad. We arrived in good weather at the Cedar Point Marina. Good. Our guests recovered from their motion sickness, we had a yummy rib dinner at Famous Dave's and enjoyed the park until closing time. Good. We spent all day Sunday at the park. Good. We had a terrible dinner at TGI Friday's - it took almost an hour to come from the kitchen, and then it was lukewarm, poorly cooked, and incomplete. All three kids were cranky. Very Bad. I raced a go-cart for the very first time. Good & Bad. We left on Memorial Day and had 10-12 knot winds on a close reach that allowed my husband to do some serious sailing. Very Good. Thunderstorm warnings appeared as we passed Put-in-Bay and the remainder of the ride back was wet, rough, and at times even disturbing to us seasoned sailors. One of the kids got seasick again. Very Bad. Although everyone had fun at Cedar Point, I'm not sure our friends will want any more overnight sailing trips.

I Successfully Completed Sewing 101

My daughter wants to take sewing classes again this summer. Last year she made herself a pillowcase and a pair of pajama pants. This year she wants to make a tote bag, a sundress, a skirt, and a tank top. I felt obligated to finally educate myself in the mysteries of sewing machines, fabric, and patterns. I was a bit intimidated at first, but I had a great instructor (class at JoAnn Fabrics). I left feeling quite confident in some basic skills and may sign-up for a more advanced class myself. Here is the tote bag I created in class. The handles are a bit too long, so I knotted them.

That's all that was exciting this week. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-05-31T05:00:00.000-04:00

"How much creative energy am I wasting on a Tweet?"

by Michael Zadoorian, author

I listened to a Pen on Fire interview with Michael Zadoorian and he reminded me how much energy we writers are wasting when we get too involved in social networking at the expense of our work.

Mom's Desk: A Young Theatre

2010-05-27T10:06:00.001-04:00

Many, many years ago, I went on the first date with my husband and we saw The Music Man at the Fisher Theater in Detroit. Things went well on that first date, and last night our daughter had her first "big" stage debut in her school's production of The Music Man Junior.

After four months of rehearsals twice a week, prop building, and much anxiety, the kids gave us a fantastic show last night at her school. Those kids, mostly from the 3rd through 5th grades, can really act, sing, and dance. Of course, they got a standing ovation.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-05-24T05:00:00.000-04:00

"A writer's task is to make the words, the language, disappear and leave the reader with a visual memory they didn't create themselves."

by Siri Hustvedt, author

Mom's Desk: Are Your Priorities in Order?

2010-05-20T06:42:00.001-04:00

You know your priorities are screwed up when...

you consider your iPhone a more important invention than the flushing toilet...

or the washing machine...

or pain killers.

The folks who answered this survey have obviously never had to scrub their clothes on a washboard, endure PAIN at the dentist, or be forced to use an outhouse!

Come on people. Seriously?!? You'd rather have an iPhone than an indoor flushing toilet??

See the NPR Marketplace article for the full mind-blowing details.

Mom's Desk: Ann Arbor Book Festival Writer's Conference 2010

2010-05-18T05:00:00.137-04:00

I attended my third Ann Arbor Book Festival Writer's Conference on Saturday. This is a great little affordable venue, especially for local writers. It has only been held for four years, so it remains small, but I like the intimacy and prefer it over a larger conference. Every year I leave this conference feeling rejuvenated and inspired.

This year they offered three sets of small-group sessions and one large-group speakers panel. The conference was smaller than in previous years, with fewer offerings, vendors, and attendees.

This year I was lucky to find two sessions on poetry, both of which were fantastic. This was even more fortuitous because I've been using poetry as my excuse for not editing my novel.

Here is a short summary of the sessions I attended.

Methods of vision & (re)vision, by Aracelis Girmay

She led us through a writing exercise that opened our eyes to the things around us that are not part of the stories we hear. This exercise seemed to tune me into a Grand Poetic Feed, where I began to see things that tend to be only peripheral.

We studied "I Made a Journey" by Nazim Hikmet, a Turkish poet I had not previously read, but I now long to find more of his work. In the study, we practiced the art of translating English-to-English, by taking a line from this poem and turning it into our own words. In this way, we learned how to re-vise our poetry to get to the essence.

My favorite advice, in her words, from the workshop was: "What can you push on in your poem that can open a new space?"

At the end of the workshop, I was so impressed with her that I purchased her book, Teeth (2007).

The Girl With No Hands, by Rachel McKibbens

The focus of this workshop was on Magical Realism and how to incorporate the fantastic as a reality in our stories. She spoke about our personal truths, how miracles are ordinary, and how to "resist capture by traditional logic."

My favorite quote from her workshop was, in my paraphrase: "What you become, in that bloody moment of giving birth, is someone who has raw access to the creature within."

As with the previous session, I was so impressed that I also bought her book of poems, Pink Elephant (2009).

Drawing Fictional Characters, by Ann Pearlman

I liked this workshop the least. It's not that it wasn't entertaining, it just consisted of a shout-out exercise of techniques to portray your characters and ended with a writing exercise where a character the group developed was incorporated into a short dialog of our own.

What was unique to the writing exercise, was that she read random words from a dictionary, at intervals, while we were writing. It was her theory that we'd consciously or unconsciously incorporate those words into our writing. I could not do this. The words were only a distraction to my flow of words. However, others in the class were able to incorporate all of them quite creatively. To each his own, I suppose.

My favorite advice was, oddly enough, not related to character development: "Use rhythmic activities to open your mind, such as walking or drumming."

Overall, the conference was another fun day for me and I'm working on two poems that my muse brought me from the experience. Just don't ask about my novel.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-05-17T05:00:00.001-04:00

"Faire et se taire."

by Gustave Flaubert

Literally, this means: Create and keep quiet.

It is a more polite way of saying: Shut-up and get to work.

I've read about several writers who post this where it haunts them. I have not posted it anywhere...yet. But I think soon I'll need to get out the label maker.

Invisible Fence Training Camp

2010-05-14T23:00:00.001-04:00

The Score Remains Tied in Invisible Fence Training Camp.

The dog and I continue our stubborn tit-for-tat training exercises within the confines of the Evil Invisible Fence. She still won't let me walk her around the boundary on leash. But, we began playing vigorous games of fetch down the front lawn. The ball remained, due to her careful management, clear of those scary boundary flags. She resisted a wicked squirrel chase, screeching to a halt before getting zapped. Plus, the neighbor across the street walked in his yard twice and she didn't attempt to visit. Yay! I was feeling pretty confident, until Thursday afternoon when she spied a neighbor dog gleefully chasing a ball in its own yard. That was all it took and off she went, through the shock barrier in a flash of black fur and tumbling headlong into that ball at full speed. This will, obviously, take longer than I expected.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-05-10T06:50:00.000-04:00

"Laughter is a virus and it infects us with humanity. "

by Louis Alberto Urrea, author

Mom's Desk: Adventures in Invisible Fencing

2010-05-08T05:00:00.003-04:00

My crazy dog believes the yard is evil.

We're not allowed to have fences in our neighborhood so we re-installed the Invisible Fence to keep the dog in the yard. The dog wears a collar that gives an audio and physical correction when they come in range of a wire buried at the yard boundaries. This system worked for our previous dog-friend. But then again, our previous dog was not a freaked-out-over-everything Border Collie.

This ends week two of training. We are taking it slower than the guide recommends because my dog is a basket case.

First, she didn't like the orange flags I planted in the lawn. They are scary when the wind blows. When she finally mustered enough courage to investigate them, the signal collar made this horrifying buzz that sent her flying to the back door, dragging me behind her. We didn't even have the shock enabled yet. It took me two days to convince her that the leash was not evil. She refused to go outside to "get busy". She even refused to go on her daily walk with me, something she used to eagerly anticipate every day.

You're not supposed to drag the dog across the yard on the leash when doing the boundary training. So what am I to do then, when I finally do get her outside and she lays down just outside the door and refuses to move, like a stubborn mule?

I thought it would be nifty to get a fun squeaky ball, let her off the leash and show her how much fun playing ball can be, in the yard. She was able to play, but was very careful of those flags, watching them at all times from the corner of her eye and never getting too close. After much cajoling, we returned to our daily walks and a more normal routine. Score one for Mom.

The training guide emphasizes the need to train on-leash. This is not working for us because she limits her yard to the patio, the driveway, and the five feet of lawn that borders each. She won't even come close to those flags. So, I occasionally let her test her boundary off-leash, even if my husband has fits about it. She made up her mind to run through the audio-correction to greet a favorite neighbor. Score one for Dog. I took the rubber covers off the shock prongs.

She was tested next by the neighbor dog, ON leash. These two taunted each other to play, but when she attempted to cross the line she got her first zap and dragged me back, once again, to the back door and refused to move. No amount of playing or tasty treats would make her budge. At least she didn't cross the line. Score one for Mom.

This is where we are today. She needs a high-value treat (chicken anyone?) to convince her to let me connect the leash, and she needs me to walk outside with her so she can "get busy" on that five feet of lawn that's not scary. Minus one for Mom.

The score remains tied, Mom 1, Dog 1.

Bye Bye Facebook

2010-05-07T22:00:00.010-04:00

I Deleted My Facebook Account!

It was fun while it lasted. After performing a cost-benefit analysis, it was a clear-cut decision. A complete erosion of privacy occurred after the recent introduction of "connections". News articles began piling-up the damages and accusations. One of the most damning came from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a respected organization in the Technological World: Six Things You Need to Know about Facebook Connections. I urge you to read this article if you use Facebook. You may as well live in a fishbowl for all the privacy it now allows.

It amazes me how much revolves around Facebook today. It's not just about finding long lost high school friends. It's become a professional requirement for some. I'm sorry, but I refuse to continue to be held hostage by a company like that. A fellow writer I know likened it to Stranger Danger. Don't put your personal information, your lists of friends and relationships, your likes, dislikes, affiliations, or comments on the Internet because you don't know who is lurking in the shadows and privacy doesn't mean privacy anymore.

Mom's Desk: Our Diplomatic Encounter in Prague

2010-05-04T10:00:00.003-04:00

It was April 9th. I was exhausted and attempting to snooze in an over sized wing-back armchair in the library of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Prague.

We left the US the day before, arrived in Prague way too early in the morning, and were not allowed our room until 2 PM. We had not slept or had a decent meal, but we brushed teeth, washed faces and my daughter and husband got their second wind and went for a walk.

Three fellows with British accents and a news-network-sized video camera arrived in my quiet room and began to rearrange furniture. They were polite and apologized for the interruption. I smiled weakly and pulled out my Prague Guide from the pile of dumped carry-ons alongside the chair. Eventually, I decided to stop being introverted and asked what they were preparing for.

"We'll be interviewing the Latvian President as soon as he's finished his breakfast."

"Oh, wow," I said. I'm such a dork. Do I have nothing better to say than: Oh wow?

My sleepy senses were dull but I began to put things together. The police cars posted around the hotel now made sense. (We've travelled to so many foreign countries that a strong and armed police presence doesn't affect us anymore.) So did the multitude of men in black suits in the lobby and the halls.

I remembered that President Obama was also in Prague to sign a nuclear treaty with Russia. "Did he meet with President Obama?" I asked.

"He got the usual ten second handshake and greeting," the reporter said and they left the room.

It wasn't much later that the room was invaded by the news reporters, a woman I assumed was the Latvian President's PR manager, and several tall, stern men in dark suits.

"I suppose you want me to move," I said.

"No no, you may stay," the woman said, "and take photos, without the flash, if you want."

It was interesting that security didn't ask to search my bags or even ask me any questions about who I was. But they watched my every twitch. I almost wanted to smile at them because it was somewhat funny.

Just as I was wondering if my husband and daughter would return in time, in they came and I explained what was happening. Security didn't question them either.

My husband, the extrovert, had no trouble chatting with the reporters. They were from Al Jazeera, Athens office, and were following the meetings the Heads of State gathered in Prague.

Barnaby Phillips did the interview. It was interesting to see an interview taped, with the movements of the camera around the speaker and then watch the video later on TV (unfortunately, I've been unable to find the video on the Internet). They discussed the nuclear treaty, but spent a good deal of time discussing Greece's financial worries and the potential for assistance from the IMF (International Monetary Fund).

Afterward they thanked us for being so courteous and asked if we'd like our photo taken with President Zatlers.

We thanked them for the honor. We've never met a Head of State in person before.

Life is full of unexpected surprises.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-05-03T05:00:00.002-04:00

I'd laugh to-day, to-day is brief;
I would not wait for anything:
I'd use to-day that cannot last,
Be glad to-day and sing.

Christina Rossetti
from Another Spring

Mom's Desk: NaPoWriMo Wrap-Up

2010-05-01T11:43:00.002-04:00

National Poetry Writing Month is over for this year. I didn't write a poem every day as planned. I'll place the blame on our two weeks in Prague, which distracted me. Sounds like a good excuse, doesn't it? But seriously, it is hard to write poetry while on vacation. You don't get enough quiet, meditative, or solitary time to really think.

What I did accomplish made me feel good. I wrote thirteen new poems and edited four old ones. Of the new poems, five are worthy of additional work (the rest are just plain silly). Plus, I sent the four old poems out to a literary journal contest.

Now to maintain my momentum, and to mine my vacation journal and photos for poetic inspiration.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-04-26T05:00:00.007-04:00

It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.

by Rita Rudner

We just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. I couldn't have picked a better guy to annoy...ahem...spend life with.

(art from Microsoft's Clip Art Collection)

Mom's Desk: Spring!

2010-04-25T09:20:00.009-04:00

The harsh winter must have been ideal because my spring yard is the prettiest it has been in years.

Mom's Desk: What do you know about volcanoes?

2010-04-24T05:26:00.003-04:00

The Core Knowledge Blog published a nice little volcano quiz in honor of our friend, Eyjafjallajökull, in Iceland.

Here are the questions. Good luck.

(1) What is the difference between lava and magma?

(2) Geologists generally identify four types of volcano: cinder cones, composite volcanoes, shield volcanoes, and lava domes. The Hawaiian Islands are a chain of which type of volcano?

(3) A massive eruption of this volcano on 1883 killed over 36,000 people; ash from the explosion may have caused a worldwide drop in temperature.

(4) Nearly 75% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes occur in a zone called the “Ring of Fire” around which ocean?

(5) Which country has the most active volcanoes?

(6) The world’s tallest volcano is in the United States. What is it?

(7) The word volcano comes from an island off the coast of Sicily. During the Roman Empire, it was thought that Vulcano was the home of which Roman god?

(8) How many active volcanoes are on Earth? Less than 500? 500 to 1000? 1000 to 2000? 1000 to 2000? Or over 2000?

(9) The expression “to blow his top” is thought to come from volcanoes. When this U.S. volcano blew its top in 1980, it lost 1,300 feet from its summit.

(10) Last week’s eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland is an example of a “Plinian” eruption–when a volcano spews a massive column of ash and gas into the stratosphere. The name comes from the Roman statesman Pliny the Younger, who wrote a detailed description of the eruption of which famous volcano?

So how did you do? Go to the Core Knowledge Blog Article to find the answers.

Cheers.

Mom's Desk: Crazy Dog Groomers

2010-04-23T08:51:00.005-04:00

Our dog goes to a nice kennel when we are away. It's not the posh kennel, but she is a dog's dog and doesn't require pampered pooch services. We were away for two weeks, so we asked that she get a kennel bath before we picked her up yesterday. Was I surprised to see her.

You see, Miss Maui the Dog is, although a mix breed, primarily a Border Collie. Her looks and her disposition are clear, except that she's black and brown without the distinctive white Border Collie markings. She has luxuriously long, wavy, silky hair that I strangely like to brush even though she finds the whole business horrifying.

Well, she did have long, wavy hair.

The kennel groomer, who clearly spends too much time with those poofy prissy pooches, decided Miss Maui would look better with a short neat trim. All I could do was stare, in an odd way, at the dog who I knew was mine but resembled a short-haired black Labrador Retriever puppy-ish-thing.

"I took care of that wild hair for you!" the Crazy Groomer said, proud of her handiwork.

"Well, I, um, rather liked the long wild hair," I said from the corner of my breath.

"This will be so much easier to handle, you'll see," she said with authority and hustled off to her next victim.

There was nothing I could do. I could have a fit, but I like the owner of the kennel. I kept quiet and kept chanting: it'll grow back, it's just hair. I was too tired from 14 hours of travel and crossing several time zones to argue.

All the way home, I'd look over to her in the seat next to me, sigh, and think how ridiculous she looked.

When I got home, I let it out on my husband. "Who the hell gives a Border Collie a haircut? How long before her pretty hair grows back? Good grief, she looks pathetic."

So the question remains: How long will it be before she looks normal again?

Mom's Desk: Europe, Volcanoes & Planes, Oh My!

2010-04-22T23:00:00.001-04:00

It's April 15th, and we are comfortably enjoying our holiday in Prague, when my husband and daughter return from a swim and he tells me to turn on the TV. I'd been busy completing my daily journal and the blah blah blah of the television was the last thing I wanted.

"No, really, a volcano erupted," he said and hopped into the shower.

Because I'm interested in volcanoes and other geological forces, I turned it on and watched the footage of ash explosions and the explanations of volcano versus glacier. The glacier loses round one and retaliates with thick black ash made of fine glass-like particles. But somehow these two have an agreement, being Of Nature Herself, so they join forces and conspire to thwart the comings and goings of those pesky, swarming humans.

Mother Nature 1, Humans 0.

What humans forget in our stubborn arrogance, is that we are not in control and we never will be.

Hotel occupants in every corner began to buzz about the consequences of being unable to fly. Being North Americans in Europe, our only other option is a boat or a really really really long walk. It's a good thing our flight is scheduled for the 21st.

"No worries," my husband said and we went about our holiday.

It's April 16th and the BBC News interviews a vulcanologist. The last time this volcano erupted it did so for many months. European airspace is closing as meteorologists show us maps of drifting ash particles in the atmosphere. But we still laugh and joke about having to call into school to say that we won't be there because a volcano erupted.

As the weekend wore on, our fellow travellers worried over their scheduled flights and we began to formulate our own contingency plans. The volcano, whose name no one can pronounce, Eyjafjallajokull (creatively shortened by the military to E15), maintains its diabolical ash cloud. The images are amazing.

In the end, it was only anxiety for us. Our flight departed on schedule. We squeaked past the ash cloud crisis. Passengers on our plane cheered when we landed at JFK airport, safely back in North America.

However, several of our friends have still not left Prague.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-04-19T05:00:00.000-04:00

Find out who you are and do it on purpose.

by Dolly Parton

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-04-12T05:00:00.000-04:00

It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility.

by Rachel Carson

The Blue Marble from Apollo 17
NASA
December 7, 1972

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-04-05T05:00:00.001-04:00

"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves,
and it is not possible to find it elsewhere."

by Agnes Repplier

Mona Lisa
by Leonardo Da Vinci
c. 1503-1506

(image public domain)

Mom's Desk: NaPoWriMo

2010-04-01T22:15:00.005-04:00

It's National Poetry Writing Month.

Folks say it's like National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, but I'm not so sure. I've participated in NaNoWriMo for three years, and it's really really hard to get 50,000 words of a novel written, even if they are not good words in poor order. For NaPoWriMo, we're asked to write one poem a day in April. I'm sure some poets take this task seriously, but to me it sounds like fun. I may even get something good from it, or I may end up with a collection of silly dumb rhyming poems, like this one:

Roses can be pink,
but violets are still blue.
My puppy gave me a wink
before she bit into my shoe.

OK, that was bad. Here's another one...

Sniffle! Cough! Achoo!
I caught this cold from you.
Don't sit there and deny it all,
Just bring me that box of Tylenol!.

It's just as bad, I know. But see? I have not just one, but two poems written for today. Task complete.

Maintaining a sense of ridiculous humor is important for a Mom. After all, who can write like Milton every day?

Mom's Desk: Divertissement

2010-03-30T05:00:00.003-04:00

If I were SOMETHING, I'd be just THAT.

I’d be FRIDAY at MIDNIGHT.

I’d be VENUS in the heavens
a WHALE in the seas
a RAVEN in the skies
and a BEAR on the firmament.

I’d be the NORTH
and flowing MAPLE SYRUP.

I’d be an EARTH elemental
a MOUNTAIN in the YUKON
an AGATE under an OAK.

I’d be a DAFFODIL laughing in a THUNDERSTORM.

I'd be the VIOLET of the sun just set.

I’d be the voice of the CRICKET
nature's VIOLIN
an arrangement of MOZART.

I'd be woven SILK
with the scent of AMBER
and sensual FINGERS.

I'd be PENSIVE
a RASPBERRY in the thornbush
a HALF-CLOSED door.

I'd be HIKING BOOTS
and CHOCOLATE
ready for adventure.

I'd be the HEROIC COUPLET.

by Kelly Jo
March 29, 2010

Inspiration received from Yolanda at Perfectly Imperfect.

What would you be?

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-03-29T05:00:00.001-04:00

To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage.

by Georgia O'Keeffe

Blue and Green Music
by Georgia O'Keeffe
1921

(image public domain)

Mom's Desk: March Is Reading Month Wrap-Up

2010-03-26T05:00:00.000-04:00

If only kids could maintain this dedication to read for the other 11 months of the year...

Reading Month has come to an end. My daughter exceeded expectations this year. She more than doubled the required minutes for both the school challenge and for Mom's challenge with a whopping 1550 minutes. That's more than 25 hours of reading. Wow!

This earned her $15 in bonus book dollars to spend at the Book Fair and a trip to the mall with Mom. It can't be all about books, you know - a girl still needs to be fashionable when she's reading.

Now to try to retain some momentum as we move toward the end of the school year.

The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more you learn, the more places you'll go.

by Dr. Seuss

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-03-22T05:22:00.000-04:00

"Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding."

by Marc Chagall

Mom's Desk: A Mystery Solved

2010-03-19T11:30:00.002-04:00

Last Sunday morning, I woke up to find the ivy that had been growing up our largest oak tree had been pulled off the tree. It baffled me, how a mature ivy with large branches that hugged the oak could just come undone. Something must have pulled it down, as strange as that sounded.

On Tuesday, my husband chopped it near the base and hauled away the carnage. It's not dead, by any means, but it will be years before it climbs the tree again.

Today, I'm sitting at the kitchen table working on my writing and watching the birds and squirrels in the yard when I notice a weird growth in the oak, a bulge, and I think, Great, now I'll have to call the tree service again. But I got my bird binoculars out (my eyes are not so great, even with glasses) and find I have an oversized raccoon in my tree, curled up, tail over it's nose, having a nice snooze.

I've never seen a raccoon sleeping in a tree, even though I'm sure they do. I've seen them stuck in trees. And I've never seen one in broad daylight.

It's pretty well hidden, up high in my tree. And given it's size, it explains why the ivy around this tree came down. It also explains why our trash bin was raided last night.

Mom's Desk: Survivor Week

2010-03-16T05:00:00.001-04:00

It was like a scene from Survivor...

Stranded on a island without electronics and only books to read. How would you cope?

That's how my daughter felt last week during Turn Off Your Media Week. Part of the March is Reading Month program, the kids were challenged to do without electronics (TV, Wii, computer, DS, etc) for a whole week.

Monday was calm. We came home from school, ate dinner, did homework, showered, and read for 90 minutes before bedtime.

Tuesday is our busy day. With French and Karate classes after school there was little time for anything else. No time for reading.

On Wednesday the anxiety began to creep along the floor. She began to ask Why? questions: Why are electronic things bad? Why was Mom still allowed to use the computer? Why can Dad watch TV and she can't? It is so unfair! We managed the small melodramatics enough to get some homework done, eat dinner, take a shower, and complete 60 more minutes of reading.

Thursday came with a big sigh. Karate class after school, dinner, homework, and 60 minutes of reading. Whew.

Friday was a ticking time-bomb. Friday evening is traditionally our Family Movie Night. We all sit together over popcorn and sodas for dinner and watch a movie together. She had rehearsal for her drama class after school, but the real drama started when she realized there would not be popcorn for dinner, or a movie. The Oh-Woe-Is-Me began before we even got out of the car. "This is dumb," she said, "who made up this silly idea?" Then she went on strike. We ate dinner and she disappeared into her room with a swish of her hair and a slam of the door. For a time I thought she was reading, and I think she really did some, so I gave her 30 minutes on the chart.

The explosive drama started on Saturday. She did her best procrastination, only emerging from whatever she was doing in her room when she was hungry. At one point we found her sitting on her bed in a meditation position listening to my Zen meditation music. I let her be until 1 PM when I insisted she complete her tasks. She spent an hour making her bed, and another hour showering and applying her "spa lotions." After all, I want her to have nice skin, right? Finally, she got to reading and managed a huge 180 minutes before bedtime. Nice.

Sunday was dreamy. Nothing in particular to do, she spent the day reading. No complaints. She read for a total of six hours (360 minutes). She finished one book and started another. I was shocked, but remained devoid of emotion so not to spoil the moment.

Then came the negotiations. School challenged her to a total of 625 minutes for the month. Mom challenged her to a total of 750 minutes. We added our minutes before bed on Sunday night and she has a total of 1060 minutes and the month is only half over.

"So, Mom," she asks, "what will I get if I double your challenge?"

That would be 1500 minutes by March 25th. I could only reply that it would be something super cool. I guess there should be a big prize, just like at the end of Survivor.

Mom's Desk: Women's History Month

2010-03-15T11:59:00.000-04:00

It's March 15th, the month is half over, and you would never know that the month of March is National Women's History Month.

It's not advertised in mainstream media, online or otherwise. You have to want to find it, that is if you know it even exists.

History and media do not appear to want to recognize the myriad contributions of women.

CNN doesn't consider it newsworthy. There is a small indirect recognition on it's money pages when American Airlines announced it would honor women's contributions in a special exhibit at the C.R. Smith Museum. They also have a minor history lesson in the CNN Student News. Nothing at all is mentioned about the contributions of current women in the world, unless, of course it is sensational or celebrity focused.

Fox and ABC News stations gave it space on its Lifestyle pages (as if women's history is a lifestyle choice), but only lifted, word-for-word, the statistics reported and published from the US Census Bureau. Apparently, they couldn't find anything worth publishing on their own. To make it worse, the page includes links to articles such as "Simple Ways to Track Your Baby's Communication Skills." Gee, thanks Fox and ABC, for your support.

It's up to us, the "unimportant" women of America to get the word out that we, too, have contributed and continue to contribute to our country, our families, and our world.

Ire and sarcasm aside, the National Women's History Project continues to bring us back into the picture. Women's history is not just about winning the vote or equal opportunity. It's an ongoing presence in our lives that continues to be overlooked.

When ever I bring up the topic, I hear men respond: "Women can be anything they want today, we're not stopping you." That's a cop-out. Advances in science, math, medicine, engineering, literature, and more, when made by a woman, rarely make the news. Women continue to make roughly 77 cents to every dollar a man makes in the same career with the same skills. Our history books, taught to children nationwide, include the token woman, but focus on the "big" things men have done. One little girl in Maryland, complained about this discrepancy in a letter to the governor, arguing that when women are not included in history, it makes us think they don't do anything. This is precisely the problem. We women are invisible. Our contributions, big or small, are not recorded, remembered, and are consequently seen as lesser value.

The theme this year for National Women's History Month is "Writing Women Back Into History." There is so much missing from the historical record, but there is a growing movement to change.

Here are several great resources to check out:

History.com has articles, videos, and profiles of famous and influential women.

Gail Collins, NYT Editor and columnist, wrote two outstanding books that I highly recommend:
America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines
and
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. An excellent review of this book is posted on Slate.

The National Women's History Museum "affirms the value of knowing Women’s History, illuminates the role of women in transforming society and encourages all people, women and men, to participate in democratic dialogue about our future."

The Department of Defense acknowledges women's contributions to our military with a nice page of links about women in the armed services.

The National Register of Historic Places has a nice page filled with places important to women's history.

Women's history is human history - there is no distinction. We women need to demand acknowledgement of our contribution to humanity.

What can you do, ladies, to write women into the history books?

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-03-15T05:00:00.002-04:00

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

by William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Mom's Desk: Do We Know How to Read?

2010-03-11T05:13:00.001-05:00

Those of you who know me well, know that I am a wild and insatiable reader. I find few things in this world as thrilling as a good book. And you've probably seen my post on March is Reading Month from last week.

Today I found a timely article related to reading and how Americans don't know what to do with unbroken lines of words without pictures, videos, or hyperlinks.

Nation Shudders At Large Block Of Uninterrupted Text.

I love The Onion, but sometimes the satire does have a sickening truth.

The greatest thing you can do for a child is to introduce them to a good old-fashioned printed book.

Mom's Desk: Dining with Disney

2010-03-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

Visiting Walt Disney World can be intimidating because you have so many options, so many choices, and you want to make the most of your visit and your dollars.

Within the past sixteen years, we've visited three times. During our first two visits, we did not think eating at WDW was exciting. Most sit-down dinners, although good, were basic and expensive. Fast food options were a disappointing mix of processed foods, which made breakfast and lunches not very appealing. Worst of all, there was no place to find a good coffee - only this instant-from-a-machine-imitation cappuccino. It amounted to a lot of expensive, over-processed and mediocre food. I attributed this to the parks being catered by Nestle, which was not unfounded.

This year, expecting much of the same, we decided to save money by purchasing the Disney Dining Plan. We would get six days of food, which included one quick meal, one snack, and one sit-down dinner each. This amounted to just a little over $600, and it did end up saving us money, just like the advertisement claimed.

My single complaint was that our daughter, at 9 years old, was limited to the kids menu for all her meal tokens. Either our kid is weird or their age limit is too high, because she did not appreciate being limited to kiddie-food like chicken nuggets or mac & cheese. There were some exceptions to this "American Kid Food", but we had to search long and hard to find them.

The Disney travel agent recommended that we book all our dinner reservations in advance so we would not lose our sit-down dinner tokens. I thought this odd at first, but I am thankful we did. Many of the places we wanted to eat were fully-booked during our stay, and this was a month in advance! These were not the super fancy places, either.

Not knowing what places we wanted to eat, I started by googling for restaurant reviews. There are not many to be found. So in this part of my vacation review, I want to share what we learned.

First, I want to say the food has improved. And, much to our pleasure, you can finally get a real cappuccino or a good cup of coffee.

Breakfast

Breakfast options are mostly cafeteria-style, and expensive if you are not on the dining plan. The dining plan considers breakfast a quick meal.

There are few places to eat breakfast in the parks themselves, but all of the resort hotels have a cafeteria open for breakfast. The usual breakfast suspects are there: pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, fresh fruit, cold cereal, and sometimes Belgian waffles in Mickey shapes. The Wilderness Resort cafeteria was too small and crowded with families with small children and over-sized strollers. We timed our meals to avoid the crowd.

The best breakfast we had was at Fairfax Fare in Hollywood Studios. Here we had huge breakfast bagel sandwiches, with eggs, cheese, and sausage or bacon.

Lunch

Lunch options are plentiful, but are the least exciting, in my opinion. In the dining plan, these are also considered quick meals. All of the places that serve quick meals are fast-food style, where you order, pick-up your meal at a counter, and find a place to sit. They are not, thankfully, all fast-food quality. The most annoying part of quick meals is finding a place to sit. Seating was inadequate every place we went.

We found yummy sandwiches at the Backlot Express in Hollywood Studios. There we had a grilled vegetable sandwich on a ciabatta roll, a grilled turkey sandwich on multi-grain bread, and a bacon cheeseburger.

We had mandarin chicken salads at the Restaurantosaurus in the Animal Kingdom park. It was nice to see a salad on the menu, but they were not much better than your typical fast-food salad.

My husband had a famous (or infamous) turkey leg from the Fife & Drum in Epcot. He had been watching people walking with these over sized roasted turkey legs, wrapped in white butcher paper, and finally needed one himself. He said it was fantastic, but my daughter and I were not interested in eating like a barbarian. For dessert he had an apple dumpling, which was also delicious.

We ate at the Lotus Blossom Cafe in Epcot and were disappointed. It was nothing more than cheap Chinese food, of the quality you would find at a mall food court. However, this was one of the places where my daughter enjoyed her meal because sweet and sour chicken was on the kids menu.

Snacks

Snacks are available at the little food vendors and cafes - a variety of items from popcorn and sodas to pastries and coffee. The pastries and confections are outstanding. We watched them make huge batches of Rice Krispie treats (with Kellogg's Rice Krispies and real marshmallows) at the Main Street Bakery in the Magic Kingdom. These squares of Krispie Treats are gigantic and Oh So Good!

The Fountain View Ice Cream shop at Epcot has fun, and free, international soda tasting, sponsored by Coca-Cola. With little dixie-type cups you can sample fountain drinks from around the world, such as Mexican ginger soda or Japanese vitamin-enhanced soda.

At the Animal Kingdom, there is a tea vendor, not listed on the map, in the Asia section on the path to Expedition Everest. Here you can get a fabulous chai latte. Plus they have a huge selection of traditional Asian teas and tea preparations. If you like tea, hot or cold, don't miss this spot.

And who could pass up the opportunity to have a pint of good ale at the Rose & Crown Pub at Epcot. Here we were able to grab a Guinness and stroll the World Showcase with some friends from home we found vacationing there also.

Dinner

Dinner took the starring role each day. Our first night we had dinner at the Japanese restaurant, Teppan Edo in Epcot. Here you sit around a large flat grill and the chef chops and flips and performs dinner preparations for you. Dinners are prepared with either steak, chicken, or shrimp. It was delicious and everyone enjoyed their food. Plus, the warm sake helped take the edge off the cold rain outside.

We returned this year to Chefs de France at Epcot. We had a fabulous dinner on a previous trip and this year we enjoyed it again with friends. The maitre d' is one of Disney's best. The food was magnifique. I recommend the escargot and the duck, with creme brulee for dessert.

We attended one dinner show, the Hoop De Do Review at the Fort Wilderness Resort - a frontier-style traveling stage show. The meal was served family style in frontier buckets, and consisted of BBQ chicken and ribs, mashed potatoes, salad, baked beans, and strawberry shortcake. You eat mostly before the show begins and have dessert near the end of the show. The venue is good, if you are on the main floor. We had balcony seating, which was awkward for viewing and for eating (you face the wall to eat and turn around to watch the show). We were not impressed with the food. The ribs were over seasoned and the mashed potatoes tasted like they were dried and reconstituted. However, the show was hilarious and worth the price even with average food.

We took a troublesome bus ride to the Animal Kingdom Resort to have dinner at Boma. It was worth the hassle to get there because this was the best dinner we had during our trip. Served buffet style, you choose from a selection of African-themed breads, meats, salads, rice, and desserts. I think we sampled all of it, and there were a lot of choices!

If you plan to visit, get your reservations booked early, even if you don't have the Dining Plan. Some of the menus are available online, at allears and on the WDW web site (you'll have to search to find them here).

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-03-08T05:00:00.000-05:00

photo from ISS Space Station & NASA

"This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it."

by Thomas Carlyle

Mom's Desk: March is Reading Month

2010-03-07T09:30:00.002-05:00

Our local schools celebrate a love of reading each year through the March is Reading Month program. At our school, students are encouraged to keep a reading log and are challenged to read a minimum number of minutes a day.

In addition to the reading goal, one week is designated as Turn Off Your Media Week. If this challenged is accepted, the student spends one week without watching TV or playing video games (the computer is exempt for work activities only).

At the end of the program, students who meet their goals get gift certificates to the Book Fair which begins in April.

For a fourth grader, the program set my daughter's goal as 25 minutes of independent reading each day. Although this is a good goal, I feel my daughter can read at least 30 minutes a day, so I added a Mom Goal to her reading log, promising her an additional incentive gift if she reads at least 30 minutes a day.

The challenge started on March 1st, and today she's exceeded the Mom Goal for the week, with a total of 240 minutes. Tomorrow begins the dreaded Turn Off Your Media Week. She's not so confident that she'll survive.

Mom's Desk: Adventures at WDW

2010-03-03T10:40:00.007-05:00

For the most part, unless you like winter vacations, the February Mid-Winter Break is not a time to escape the winter, unless you travel far far south. This may explain, in part, why we were able to get such a great deal for a Walt Disney World (WDW) vacation during what is usually considered a peak time. Orlando isn't far enough south, it appears.

We arrived in Orlando in a cold, windy, torrential rain that lasted all day and into the next. We were ill-prepared for cold, wet, blustery weather. Didn't we just leave that behind in Michigan? Anyway, we were obliged to purchase rain ponchos, at an annoying $7 each, so we could get to Epcot and our dinner reservation while still looking somewhat civilized.

We didn't stay long in the park after dinner, but ducked in and out of places as we made our way back to the exit. My daughter suckered us into a Japanese silk kimono and a hair pin. The women at the kimono shop had fun dressing her and doing her hair.

The remainder of our trip was dry but cold and blustery with highs in the 50's and lows in the 30's. I never imagined I'd have to think about a wind chill in Orlando.

We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, a place we had not stayed before. It is considered a Deluxe resort, but it is the most affordable and in our opinion, the nicest for the money. Our room was in the main building, overlooking the lobby. This made it a bit noisy, especially during mealtimes when the restaurant patrons and staff were whooping-it-up. Our room was clean and well maintained. What distinguishes the Deluxe resort from the lower-cost resorts are the details. Everywhere you turn the building, the furniture, the floors, are decorated with the resort theme.

For example, that bar inside the elevator, the one you hang onto during a wild elevator ride, was sculpted into a stick being held by two beavers on each end. The bedposts in our room were each carved into different woodland animals. The grand fireplace in the lobby was designed as a cross-section model of the geologic layers of the Grand Canyon, complete with fossils.

We visited all the parks at least twice during our six-day stay. All were crazy busy even with the weather. No sign of a recession at the Happiest Place on Earth. We took advantage of Disney's Fast Pass system, but even that didn't save us from at least a 30 minute wait in line. Without the Fast Pass, we stood in line for over an hour several times. It took the fun out of things. I don't think we'll visit again during a peak time.

For those unfamiliar with the Fast Pass, it basically gives you an appointment window (usually an hour) to return to the ride so you don't have to stand in long, boring lines. The problem with the Fast Pass is that they hold up the rest of the line until all Fast Pass holders get on. If the Fast Pass holders all arrive at the same time, everyone else waits. The average line wait we found was at least 100 minutes. That's a lot of time wasted for the cost spent to enjoy a vacation. You would think the famous Disney Customer Service folks would devise a better system. Are you listening, Disney?

We also experienced several ride break-downs. We were shipwrecked with the skeletal pirates, it seemed, in the Pirates of the Caribbean when the boat ahead of us was filled with overweight people who caused their boat to bottom out. They had to disembark and be evacuated back-stage before the ride could continue. We waited in line for Spaceship Earth at Epcot for 45 minutes when we were told the ride was closed. I overheard other visitors who were frustrated with the number of ride closures or temporary break-downs.

Aside from the inconveniences, the rides and shows are all creative and well-executed. One of our favorites was the Lights, Motors, Action! stunt show at Hollywood Studios. Yes, the flames on the right of this photo is a stuntman on fire.

My daughter loved the Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, but she rode only with Dad this time. When we visited two years ago, not knowing what to expect, I got on and was rather frazzled after that super fast ride that turned me upside down several times. No thank you. She also loved Expedition Everest which takes you on a roller-coaster ride with a surprise visit from the Yeti.

What I enjoyed was Toy Story Midway Mania where you ride and play in a 4-D video game. It does not turn you upside down. I also liked the safari at the Animal Kingdom. This year we saw more animals than last time. Here are two lounging cheetahs.

We spent the least time at the Magic Kingdom during this visit. This is due mostly to the fact that my daughter is now beyond the princess-phase. However, their redesigned night-time light parade is spectacular, as are all the fireworks shows at each of the parks.

It was cold, but we had a good time. It was a nice taste of early spring weather and it was hard to come home to six more weeks of winter.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-03-01T05:00:00.003-05:00

"Poetry and Hums aren't things which you get, they're things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you."

by Winnie-the-Pooh, as dictated to A.A. Milne.

Clip From:Pooh Coloring Pages.

Mom's Galley: Don't Mess with My Milk

2010-02-22T07:00:00.003-05:00

It's no secret I'm a fan of organic food. Food should be food and not something synthesized in a factory or enhanced with insecticides. I buy as much organic as I can, preferring to speak with my consumer dollars, since money seems to be the only thing the world listens to these days, but I digress.

This past weekend we returned from vacation and we needed some basics in the refrigerator. I didn't go to my usual grocery store and the milk selection at the store I did shop only offered one brand of organic milk: Horizon Organic Milk with DHA Omega-3. So I bought the half-gallon size offered, which was not cheap.

Be warned, this is an awful milk product. I regret my hurry at the store and not reading the label. It is supplemented with DHA Omega-3 which is provided by adding DHA Algal Oil to the milk. Sounds healthful, right?

The problem is that they added oil. Have you ever tried to enjoy a cup of coffee, hot tea, or chai with oily milk? It leaves an unpleasant slick on the surface of your hot drink, it doesn't froth well for cappuccino, and it makes your drink quite unpalatable. It doesn't work well on cereal either, as my daughter commented, "What's wrong with the milk, Mom?"

I wish these food companies would just stop messing around with our food.

What a waste of my time and money.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-02-22T05:17:00.001-05:00

"The dog was created specially for children. He is a god of frolic."

by Henry Ward Beecher

Mom's Desk: Zombie Parents

2010-02-19T19:00:00.004-05:00

There was a day when there was nothing anyone could say to convince me to become a parent. Kids were nothing but loud, dirty, ill-mannered beasts. I'd sneer at parents across the airplane aisle as their kids kicked the seats, screamed, and threw food. I would think to myself that perhaps when I was older and willing to wear dirty t-shirts and drive a minivan with soda and cheerios stuck to the seats I would be ready for kids.

We did wait until we were past thirty, and that gave me the opportunity to observe a few things about parenting. It is a fine art practiced by few, and it does not require dirty t-shirts, sticky seats, or disrespecting others by laughing when food gets thrown.

First, I recommend forgetting about all those advice-giving books about what to expect when you're pregnant or how to raise your child. I read them and I threw them away. They are nonsense and they promote a cult of zombie parenting that leaves innocent bystanders with airplane food in their hair.

Kids are not born with manners, and we cannot expect them to reliably employ manners until they are older. But all is not lost. The trick: keep them occupied with appropriate activities. A child who is bored will become a minor beast. A child who is ignored will become a major beast and will act out for attention with increasing volume.

Parents need to be present with their kids. The kids know when they are not and they enact a price.

Why, you ask, am I giving a lecture on parenting? Because I spent almost three hours yesterday on an airplane seated next to two classic screaming, seat-kicking, food throwing kids, a father who put on his headphones and ignored them entirely, and a mother who, seated next to me, would throw her book in my lap every two minutes so she could lean across the aisle and screech at her kids to behave. It is this that makes people write mean-spirited articles about banning children on flights and in other public places.

We've taken our daughter on all of our vacations. She had her first flight when she was 10 months old. We've been to fancy restaurants, art museums and foreign countries. Travel with small children can be accomplished with grace and courtesy.

The trick: Keep Them Occupied!

* Bring the comfort toy, stuffed animal, blanket, or other snuggle item that makes them feel secure in a very insecure situation.
* A small pad of paper and some crayons are great. Add some stickers and you're golden.
* Read picture books aloud on the airplane or while waiting in a restaurant.
* Clip a small bag of their own on the stroller to give them access to a toy without asking.
* Buy art postcards at museums before visiting the exhibit and play Can-you-find-It?
* Exercise is important. Sitting in a stroller is boring. Get them walking in the airport terminal. Play Don't-step-on-the-Cracks.
* Teach them to play tic-tac-toe.
* Feed them small snacks frequently. Dry things, like cheerios, cheese crackers or pretzels are easy to carry and won't upset airline security.
* Don't give them all activities at once. Secret away an activity or a toy you can whip out to preempt a crabby moment.

But my best advice is this: Pay attention to them. Talk to them. Listen to them. Answer their questions. Be present. This is the best gift you can give your kids and the others around you.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday (a day early)

2010-02-14T08:04:00.003-05:00

In honor of Valentine's Day.

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."

by Charles M. Schulz

The recipe for these Chocolate Heart Throbs can be found at the Food Network web site.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-02-08T08:20:00.007-05:00

Photo from University of Missouri Extension.

"Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?"

by Pablo Neruda, The Book of Questions, translated by William O'Daly

Sometimes it is the un-answerable questions that make us think with great creativity. However, the idea of an un-answerable question made me wonder: if a question doesn't have an answer, is it still a question?

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-02-01T07:59:00.003-05:00

This quote applies, sometimes humorously, sometimes not, to the fine art of parenting.

"A learning experience is one of those things that says: You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."

by Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

Mom's Desk: Math Or Else

2010-01-28T14:39:00.003-05:00

Here's something silly I wrote for my daughter last night when she refused to work on her math homework while I was making dinner.

It's either multiplication or starvation,
that's what my mother said.
So what could I do?
I wanted the stew.
I'd rather do math than be dead.

She didn't appreciate my humor.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-01-25T07:52:00.003-05:00

A reason to read (as if I needed one).

“That gift of understanding extends our lives and makes them bigger. Reading opens us up so we can live everywhere.”

by Naomi Shihab Nye

Mom's Desk: No Boys Allowed

2010-01-19T05:37:00.001-05:00

What fun is there in being a writer if you cannot seize the opportunity to use your fine-point poison pen on occasion?

I found just such an opportunity this last week and she has been begging me for release, so I let her out...

I belong to a women writer's group on the Internet. The mission statement of this group is to support women writers. The name of this group obviously indicates this is a women's writing group. Get the picture? This is a group for women.

So, as I'm reading recent posts I run across a comment from this man who made himself a profile, uploaded his photo, and wants to add his writing there.

Um, excuse me, but this is a WOMEN'S writing group. What part of 'women' don't you understand? What is it about you men who think you have all the right in the world to stick your Y-chromosome into whatever strikes your fancy? What makes your arrogant male ass think us women are here to support your writing? There are plenty of venues for writers of both sexes. Have some sense and find an appropriate one. Now go away. No Boys Allowed!

I think she's thoroughly satisfied now.

Mom's Desk: Inspiration Monday

2010-01-18T07:39:00.005-05:00

I thought it would be nice to start a regular inspirational Monday quote, since Monday's are generally seen as the beginning of a new week of the rat-race of work, monotony, and routine.

This quote is for writers, but you could replace 'writer' with any creative passion and get the same feeling.

"A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, or because everything she does is golden. In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway."

Junot Diaz, O Magazine, November 2009.

Mom's Desk: Happy 2010!

2010-01-01T07:02:00.002-05:00

A Happy & Healthy New Year to all my Blog Friends!

Mom's Desk: Puppy's Visit from Santa

2009-12-25T11:52:00.001-05:00

Maui wasn't sure what to make of the paw-stocking full of toys and treats, but she didn't waste any time pulling out the first toy...

"Anything else in here..."

"Maybe a little snooze before I play."

Mom's Galley: Gingerbread

2009-12-24T22:49:00.003-05:00

I bake gingerbread cookies every holiday, and mostly I settle on the tough and not-so-tasty variety that will withstand gingerbread house construction. No one likes to eat it, but the decorating fun is what keeps us doing it.

This year I found a super tasty recipe from the Food Network (see Alex Guarnaschelli's recipe). We had few cookies to decorate because they were consumed right out of the oven. They didn't need icing or other embellishments to make them great.

It's softer than what I've used in the past, and so we had to be extra careful with the house walls. As you can see in the photo, we broke one wall so miserably that my daughter made a doll house this year, complete with furniture. The frosting is Martha Stewart's Royal Icing recipe, which is wonderful super-glue for the pieces.

Mom's Desk: Happy Holiday!

2009-12-24T11:12:00.003-05:00

May you find Peace, Goodwill, and Happiness this holiday season!

Mom's Desk: Santa On Deck

2009-12-05T08:47:00.005-05:00

Belief in things magical are important for all of us, and Santa is likely the most magical in our house, next to the Frost Fairies who make the world sparkly on cold clear mornings.

We've visited Santa or one of his helpers in various places over the years. My daughter always had some skepticism about Mall Santas (don't we all?). However, last year we were in Chicago and I could have believed the fellow we met at the Chriskringlemart was the Big Man himself. He was indeed the Spirit of Santa.

This year we met Santa at Bayview Yacht Club, where he arrived, courtesy of the Coast Guard, to the cold and blustery docks, and spent a few moments with each child at the party.

My daughter had a chat with him, asking for Lego Indiana Jones 2 for her Wii, and politely said, thank you. Later at lunch she told me that he wasn't the real Santa, only a helper. She's getting wise.

Most children her age have stopped believing in the magic of Santa. But I must wonder why we need so much reality in our lives. Our favorite holiday movies are Elf and The Polar Express. Both address the need to believe - the need for magic, generosity, and joyfulness. The world could use more of these things.

Mom's Desk: National Novel Writing Month Wrap-Up

2009-12-01T08:45:00.003-05:00

I didn't accomplish what I set out to do this year, but I don't feel too terrible about it because I did get almost 25,000 words of a new story twisted out onto paper.

About ten days from the end, I started procrastinating, but that was only a symptom of a larger difficulty. What I was really feeling was a deep dissatisfaction with what I had written so far. I didn't like where I took the plot and I felt my characters were dull and predictable. This was a good thing, because it forced me to seriously think about what makes a good thriller. It was a bad thing, because of the deadline.

The first of my difficulties was that although I had a rough plot outlined in my head, I left the details to spontaneous writing, which I have been known to do well. I don't like extensive plotting or outlining, but I discovered that this novel needed more preparatory thought - maybe not a strict outline, but something more than what I gave it.

Second, after diving into this novel, I began to wonder if it should be a novel at all. Originally, this story emerged in my head from a writing exercise and from there it become cinematic when I considered it for my NaNoWriMo novel. I can no longer dismiss the possibility that it should be just a short story.

I will keep writing this story, because I believe in it, but only time will tell what it will become in the end. This year I can laugh about being a "NaNo Loser", but there were valuable lessons in this loss.

.

Bookshelf: One Writer's Beginnings

2009-11-30T09:14:00.001-05:00

One Writer's Beginnings, by Eudora Welty (1984).

This book is a thin collection of three essays, Eudora Welty's loose memoir, presented as lectures to writing students at Harvard University in 1983. In it we get a glimpse behind the storyteller and into the author herself. She writes a good deal about her parents and it is the insight she gains from observing them that she uses to frame her fictional characters.

She also leaves readers, and writers, with little anecdotes and philosophies about the art of observing and writing. My favorite is this:

"It is our inward journey that leads us through time - forward or back, seldom in a straight line, most often spiraling. Each of us moving, changing, with respect to others. As we discover, we remember; remembering we discover..." (p.112)

However, despite a small collection of quotes I noted in my journal, there is really not much interesting to be found in this book. I may have liked it better if I heard it as the original lecture series, rather than in book form.

.

Bookshelf: The Stand

2009-11-28T15:25:00.002-05:00

The Stand: Complete and Uncut, by Stephen King (1991).

I had a love-hate relationship with this novel. It was my introduction to Stephen King, and I chose this one, from his huge collection, because it was claimed to be his best work.

The plot kept me turning pages, until I got to page 900. At that point I decided I hated the direction it had turned. Yes, my feeling was as strong as hate, but after investing in 900 pages, another 200 didn't seem to matter so I kept reading to the end.

What kind of a novel will work for as many as 900 pages but then fall apart? It wasn't the fault of characterization. I like the way King draws his characters on the page. They may not be likable, but they are real and they have believable responses to the terror of the plot. That is, until page 900. Until this time, I understood the implications of the good versus evil theme and I suppose, assumed (therein my problem) that the labels used, Good = God and Evil = Satan, were simply a familiar way for the surviving humans to relate to horrific events. But on that fateful page 900, the God representative returns from a wandering in the wilderness and the plot gets squirrely.

The remaining 200 pages are a quite unrealistic battle between God and Satan, wherein God sacrifices more of the precious few "good" survivors in order to destroy his immortal enemy. In a very unsatisfying end, humans are no more than pawns in a macabre game of chess between God and Satan, a game where God proves his is indeed like his adversary by being equally unmerciful and uncompassionate toward his pawns.

After more than a thousand pages, I felt cheated. I suffered through the plague, the horrors, the survival, and the Celestial Chess Game, only to realize that in the end the game was a draw, but not for humanity.

.

Bookshelf: Schubert's Winterreise

2009-11-20T09:19:00.003-05:00

Schubert's Winterreise: A Winter Journey in Poetry, Image, and Song, by Franz Schubert (2003).

This is a collection of photography, Wilhelm Muller's poetry, and Franz Schubert's musical composition. It tells the tale of a tortured lover on a winter journey. Each page carries a line from the lyric in English and German, with an artful photograph opposite. Listening alongside the text and photos make it a multi-media presentation, of sorts.

The music performance is the best part, performed by Paul Rowe, baritone. It is delightfully moody and inspiring at the same time. I find it's perfect to listen to while writing.

In close second is the text of Wilhelm Muller's poem, Winterreise, translated by Louise McClelland Urban. It is a good translation, but not my favorite. In my experience, poetic translations are always tough because of the many ways each language carries its own connotations and musicality, so I have much respect for a poet who can cross linguistic poetic boundaries.

The photography, by Katrin Talbot, is the least inspiring. Many of the subjects, poses, and perspectives are repeated, sometimes multiple times, and lack the creative potential I envision for the lyric. However, some of the photos are stunning in their representation and accompaniment to the lyric.

Overall, a pretty coffee-table book to showcase for the winter holidays.

.

Mom's Desk: Still Procrastinating

2009-11-19T11:26:00.005-05:00

I made some minor progress on my NaNoWriMo novel this morning before everyone else got out of bed, but then I started the laptop and it went downhill from there.

This link was sent by a friend and I believe the cartoon should be drawn as a girl with curly hair and glasses...

Video for Procrastinators.

Now to find some lunch so I won't be hungry while I get my stuff done.

.

Mom's Desk: Procrastination Central

2009-11-18T21:34:00.005-05:00

It's November 18th. I should be more than half way through my NaNoWriMo novel, but I am not. I've barely written 40% of the requisite 50,000 words. With the Thanksgiving holiday fast approaching, and all of the family events, winning NaNoWriMo this year is going to be a stretch of my willpower.

If I could only find a job that had procrastination as a requirement, I'd be a millionaire. I have excuses, good ones, you know, for my failure to get words on paper. For example, yesterday I cleaned the basement instead of writing. I could hardly make my way to the washing machine. It needed to be cleaned.

Here's a lovely little gadget that is supposed to track my progress...

Watch the red bar grow...

Or watch the paint dry that I may put on the kitchen walls instead of writing.

Mom's Desk: National Novel Writing Month

2009-11-01T05:00:00.003-05:00

Today the insanity of National Novel Writing Month begins. Every year us crazy folks sit down and write, or attempt to write, a 50,000 word novel completely during the month of November. Check it out here at the NaNoWriMo web site, and join us if you're daring and adventurous.

I completed a novel last year, despite a very slow start. I wanted to have it in a final-ish draft before this year's challenge, but c'est la vie. This year, I have another novel bouncing around in my head, just waiting to get out, and it won't tolerate another word of the old novel to interrupt its being.

Now go away and leave me alone to write...unless you have chocolate.

Mom's Desk: Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T07:46:00.003-04:00

The culture, at least where I live, is slowly but surely moving away from community holidays and toward, dare I say, privatization. Historically, all holidays, religious or secular, were publicly celebrated events. The community joined together, knew each other, watched the children grow.

Halloween is the last public holiday on the calendar where there is community interaction, but it is slowly turning to private parties with elaborate costumes. Fewer and fewer homes welcome trick-or-treaters each year, and those that do prefer the youngest children.

This year, my daughter attended three private events. We did go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, but only a third of the homes participated. However, I did join a group of moms for a glass of warm mulled wine for a time and this reminded me that the desire for community is still there.

Here is my Ninja Warrioress.

This was the first year she did not choose a traditional female costume. Last year we had Cleopatra, and all the years before that were Disney princesses. This change is comforting, in an odd way. You go girl.

On Deck: And Out of the Water

2009-10-30T16:38:00.006-04:00

The end of the 2009 sailing season officially ended today as Insatiable was hoisted out of the water and settled onto her cradle for the winter.

The process of moving and storing a twenty-five thousand pound boat still amazes me, but here she is, with her bottom cleaned of the mud and zebra mussels she collected, waiting to move to her winter home.

It turned out to be a nice day, with a warm wind blowing off the lake and keeping the rain to the west.

This is, by the way, how the beach looks when there is water in the west end of the lake, compared to the westerly gales that bring the Lake Erie Tide.

Now I get to spend the winter months doing all the boat laundry (towels, sheets, blankets, etc) and thinking about where we will vacation next summer.

Mom's Desk: Why Blog?

2009-10-23T12:58:00.006-04:00

Recently I've run across articles in print and online media asking the question: Why blog? These articles all pointed back to one written by Andrew Sullivan for The Atlantic Online, Why I Blog.

It seems everyone these days has a blog. OK, that's a bit of a stretch. My Grandma does not have a blog. The thought of posting her thoughts to just anyone would be scandalizing. But there are so many blogs out there it's impossible to keep track, or at times, even to care what they have to say. Some are serious journalism, some are educational, and some chronicle everyday happenings of a life, and it matters not if they are interesting. What matters is that they are providing an outlet, as Sullivan writes, to "write out loud in ways never seen or understood before."

Blogging is a personal conversation with the world.

As for myself, I blog to keep my writing skills sharp by sharing the things I find interesting in my life. I enjoy sharing what I've learned and what I've experienced with the hope that I'll inspire someone somewhere. I can hope, anyway. But in reality, on most days I'm not all that inspiring. My blog is not my diary. I have one of those and I loathe sharing it. I edit my blog posts, I ponder them, sometimes for days or weeks, before publishing them. I could never be an opinion-of-the-moment blogger.

You'll find here on my blog, a segment of my story.

For those that are curious, I'm in the process of merging an older, disused blog with this one. I'm attempting to remain chronological, so there will be new posts popping into old dates. Not to worry, you're not going crazy.

On Deck: The Eerie Lake Erie Tide

2009-10-07T12:55:00.009-04:00

OK, so it's technically not a tide, but having spent some time near boats that must deal with ocean tides at dock, this sure felt like one.

Lake Erie is a narrow west to east oriented lake. It is also quite shallow. When a strong and steady west wind blows, the water, pushed by the wind, empties out of the western end of the lake, leaving behind a muddy bottom that betrays how shallow it really is. Aside from this being one of Mother Nature's neat tricks, it causes havoc in the marina.

Twice this autumn, a western gale howled across the region. The first was last Monday, September 28. Gale warnings were issued for 40 knot winds and the subsequent low water warnings followed. I was at the marina twice that week to adjust the dock lines and the fenders.

I was shocked to realize how low the water really fell, having never witnessed this phenomena before. It was so low that Insatiable's keel was squarely sunk in the mud at the bottom of our well and her dock lines were pulling dangerously on the deck hardware. The water was so low that the dock was an easy 8 feet or more from the deck. I had a heck of a time releasing the lines in the howling wind and rain. Many boats were damaged as they hung from their dock lines or fell into neighboring boats as they settled into the mud. Fortunately, Insatiable suffered only minor scrapes.

Then it happened again. This time I brought my camera, because no one seemed to believe my story last week. Gale warnings were issued again last night. When I arrived at the marina this morning it was deja vu. A neighbor had tended our dock lines and said the water had already begun to rise about a foot from where it was around 6 AM.

Here are a few victims who had deep keels stuck in the mud.

And here is where the dock fell from the weight of one boat hanging from it last week.

Insatiable managed to settle herself into the mud again.

You can see here where the water line should be. There is probably 15 feet from the dock to the water here. A good time to find anything you may have dropped overboard.

From this angle, it looks like you could walk right off the dock onto our bimini.

I walked down to the lake shore and found that the beach had grown quite large. You can see how far the mud grows in the distance to the left (east).

No one will be entering the marina today except the ducks.

Mom's Desk: They Grow Up So Fast

2009-10-01T11:09:00.001-04:00

Puppies, like children, grow at lightning speed. Deep in the routine of daily life we fail to notice, until...WHAM!...it strikes you that months have passed and your puppy isn't very small and puffy anymore.

Within her small 7 months, Maui went from a tiny fluffy puppy to a silky 45 pound puppy-teenager. When we brought her home, she showed off her intelligence by learning sit, down, shake, and speak very quickly. Housetraining was complicated because we kept her on the move by living in two places - the house and the boat. However, I believe we're finally out of that stage. I say this as I knock on wood and rub various talismans.

She communicates with me quite well, although I'd rather she learned to communicate with the others in the house besides me.

Last night we started our third dog training class, which will focus more on obedience than on manners. As I sat in class listening to other dog owners speak about difficult doggy behaviours I laughed at the irony of teaching teenagers obedience, even if they were dogs. Even still, they are wonderful companions, best friends, and darned cute.

Mom's Galley: Bear Drop Wild Blueberry Cobbler

2009-09-10T11:03:00.006-04:00

Wild blueberries are prolific in the North Channel of Lake Huron. One can go ashore just about anywhere in the late summer and find these short, hardy little bushes. Wild blueberries are tiny, they have tiny spiders who live on the bushes, and it takes a zillion of them to bake with.

Here's the Insatiable crew hard at work collecting a bag of tiny berries.

We visited Bear Drop anchorage during both of our North Channel cruises. Bear Drop is well known for blueberries (and bears). The first year, I was unprepared and we were limited to blueberry pancakes. But I've since perfected a cobbler recipe that can easily be prepared on board.

I cook this cobbler in an open 10" brazier pan in the galley oven, but any pan large enough will work. The trick is to have a pan with high enough sides so the juice will not bubble over. If you don't have a pan with high sides, be sure to line the bottom of your oven with tinfoil. There is nothing worse than burnt food in a tight galley oven without a self-cleaning feature.

We have a Force 10 galley oven that lights both on the top and the bottom of the oven. When making this recipe in a galley oven, only light the bottom burner in the oven or you will burn the topping.

In this recipe, I also took under consideration galley provisions, and some things, like flour, I've just learned to keep aboard in tight-sealed plastic containers. Lemons keep well in an open basket and butter will keep in the bottom of the refrigerator (where things freeze). The only issue is the buttermilk or yogurt, which needs a refrigerator or can keep in an icebox sitting right on the ice.

Blueberry Filling
Pinch salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp grated lemon zest (for pectin)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
8-10 cups wild blueberries, rinsed and picked over

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything above but the blueberries in the baking pan. Add the blueberries and gently coat with mixture. Bake berries in oven for 15 minutes. Stir berries and cook another 10 minutes, until bubbling.

Topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp melted unsalted butter (cooled)
1/3 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt (not fat-free)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

When berries come out of the oven, change oven temperature to 400 degrees. Mix together the dry ingredients in large bowl. Add cooled melted butter, buttermilk (or yogurt), and vanilla. Mix until just combined. Drop large spoonfuls of topping onto hot berries, spacing them so they do not touch. Bake until topping is golden, about 25 minutes. Cool and serve warm or room-temperature.

Mom's Desk: Summer Camp Post-Mortem

2009-09-08T09:44:00.008-04:00

We survived our second year of Mom's Summer Camp and I sent my daughter off to Fourth Grade today.

I was better prepared this summer because I spent last school year researching grade-school curriculums and homeschool materials. Not that I'll be homeschooling my daughter, but I did an extraordinary amount of "after-schooling" (teaching at home what was insufficiently taught in school). I recommend the What Your [Xth] Grader Needs to Know series by the Core Knowledge Foundation. I hope this year, with a change of teachers, I will not need this extra work. However, it was an eye-opening exercise and I do not regret the time spent.

For the summer, my daughter needed to improve in math, grammar, and punctuation. I began with an appealing cloth covered three-ring binder with a Paris Fashion design. Inside I used twelve numbered divider tabs, one for each week of summer vacation, and a weekly workplan with small activities in each of these subjects: Math, English, French, Reading, Journal, Art, Handwriting, Field Trip, Special Activities, and My Goal (which was her chosen goal for the week). When the workplan was complete we had a special treat (shopping, ice cream, playdate, etc). Unlike the first year of Mom's Summer Camp, she actually completed all but the last two weeks of the binder this summer.

The best thing about this system was that she had at least an hour a day of quiet learning activities and then she could do what she enjoyed more - reading, art, and playing Wii.

For the Math, English, and Handwriting sections, I purchased workbooks from Holcomb's Knowplace, a teacher supply store, and printed worksheets from edHelper.

For French lessions, I used the Learn French Together box, published by Living Language, and the French Fun workbook, published by McGraw-Hill.

She read an amazing number of books this summer, all of her own choosing. If she wanted to see a movie, she had to read the junior novelization first. She started the summer reading smaller chapter books and those lousy junior movie novelizations, and ended the summer reading older, good quality, independent readers. Of the books she read, I recommend The Old Country, by Gerstein, and both The Doll People and The Meanest Doll in the World, by Martin, Godwin, and Selznick.

It was in Art that she was the most creative and enthusiastic. Some of the activities we did together, such as painted suncatchers and papryotamia, but mostly they were her projects - a Nature Notebook, sewing classes, painting and marker art, weaving loom, and modeling clay. Her most creative accomplishment was the Tinkertoy Art Museum, where she created scupltures out of her Tinkertoys, made a museum exibition brochure (complete with the history and description of each sculpture), and sold us tickets to the show.

In addition to all this, she took two swimming classes, participated in puppy kindergarten class, continued her Karate classes so she could earn her purple belt, and of course, went sailing. It was a busy summer and I'm happy to have the house to myself again.