Laying Low

I’m taking sort of a day off. I’m in the middle of changing my mind about this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge. I had pretty much figured I was not going to do a theme. Then, over the last two or three days, I have been flooded with hints and pushes to attempt a theme around “abuse”. If I can pull it off, it will be a month of short posts with definitions of different abuse, and statistics on same. And I will highlight stories, both fiction and non, about the people, the lives, of the abused and the abusers.

So now I think I need to keep quiet and let my mind go where it wants as I try to list some of the potential posts.

That’s where I’m at this Friday afternoon.

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Thoughts On A Monday Afternoon 9/17/15

It’s very quiet here today.  Well, except for someone across the street using a power saw and cursing about the “damn union rules”!  But it is mostly quiet.  The kitty is getting acclimated but she wants to be in my arms or on my lap.  She doesn’t like it when I have to move her so I can do something besides hold her or stroke her fur.  But I have to, dear kitty!

I’m working on an ongoing project but right now I am waiting to get some more Command strips.  I am trying to get as many photos out of my phone and onto the walls as I possibly can.  Why take photos and keep them on the phone?  It’s like the boxes and boxes of print photos that I have.  So I have been finding a lot of frames in all sizes, mostly from the Dollar Tree, the Goodwill, Big Lots, and any place else I can think to look.  I just go by when I am in those stores and have a look to see if they have any that are nice, usable, and not too expensive. Then I bring them home and put pictures in them and use Command strips to mount them on the walls.  I have a small stack of photos from my last trip and from park days with the boys that I have sent to be developed (mostly the one hour service at Walgreens).  I pick and choose then I wait for coupon codes to get a deal then order the prints.  Right now I need to get a deal on the Command strips.  I think I found some on Amazon but I’m also looking other places because I sometimes find them on clearance.  It’s nice to look at the walls and see photos of people I love.  I’ve also started printing some of the photos of places…like sunsets, trees, some mission (California mission) photos that I really like. I’m waiting for a deal on enlargements so I can print the photo I took of the sun rising over the top of Haleakala volcano in Maui.

When I get my printer working (it works but it isn’t playing nice with my computer) I want to start printing a lot more pictures in different sizes and this time, instead of framing them I have a different plan.  I want to cover my sliding closet doors (they take up a whole wall in my bedroom) with white paper and then cover the paper with photos that I print on my printer.  A huge collage, if you will.  I remember doing that when I was in college and I think I would really like doing that on the closet in my bedroom. Printing on my computer will be much cheaper and I will be able to manipulate the size and the cropping of the photos much better.

Do you take a lot of pictures?  What do you do with them after you take them?

I’m reorganizing the living room so I can have room to get a scratching post/tree for my kitty.  The boys’ toys are all over the living room in big bins.  I have to minimize that.  I am sorting them into what they still use and getting rid of what they don’t use or maybe just putting them away in the outdoor storage shed.  I also got all their books out of a big bin and onto a small bookshelf that was not being used efficiently in another room. Now to rein in the Legos!  That’s a monumental task!

Well, this is sounding like a coffee share post, which I didn’t mean to do but now I’ve done it so there!  I’m hoping to come up with some new stuff this week..ideas that have been in my head for some time need to come out.  I have to see if I can still think and write like I used to.  We shall see.

Just popping out to say hello.

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So I Forget Things

If we were having coffee, it would be a little earlier than usual.  I got up early and fixed breakfast and coffee. I was looking forward to my chorizo and eggs so much that I forgot all about my coffee.  It wasn’t until after I had finished my breakfast that I realized I had not even touched my coffee which was still sitting on the counter!  I do that a lot.  I start one thing, then get distracted, and forget all about what I had started.  The other night I heated my dinner in the microwave and forgot I had put it in there.  A couple of hours later I wondered why I was so hungry after eating dinner.  Then I went to heat up a snack in the microwave and found my dinner!  No wonder I was so hungry!

Anyway, I didn’t forget you were stopping by for coffee so that’s a good start for the day!  Let’s catch up!  I feel like I am just getting back to normal after the road trip with Anderson.  We got back Sunday night and it has taken the week to get back into every day mode.  I finally have had a few moments to myself to spend a little time reading.  The problem is that by the time I stop doing and start reading, my eyes are too tired to stay open. I did manage to read for about fifteen minutes the past two days. I want to finish the book I started before the trip and get on to a new one.  I’m reading a light murder mystery called Tapas, Carrot Cake and a Corpse.  What are you reading?

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I have revived an old idea for a collection of stories that I could put in a book.  I seem to revisit this idea every time I make the driving trip down south.  The idea came from all the times the kids and I drove up and north US 101.  It’s the “old road” and the one I was familiar with as a child.  My parents told us a lot of stories about the area and over the years, our travels have created and discovered more stories.  My kids used to be able to finish the stories for me because I liked telling them as we drove past certain places on the highway.  They even suggested I put the stories in a book. So I am thinking of a book called “101 Stories” with the “101” inside of the highway sign or being the highway sign.  It would be a collection of 101 stories, each centered somewhere along US Highway 101. I’ve come up with a narrator and have a call in to an old friend for his help to make the narrator authentic.  I’m thinking it might be a good NaNoWriMo project if I do my research now and line up all my ducks!  How about you?  Do you have any projects, writing or otherwise, in the works?

I am helping out with the boys a little later today.  Anderson wants to go for a walk to see flowers and he wants us to take Spencer with us.  His mom works later today and his dad will be processing strawberries. They got so many strawberries for volunteering at the Gleaners that they have enough to make a gazillion jars of jam!  They make delicious jam.  She has had some luck selling it to a local farmers market guy that sells it at his booth at various markets.  I helped take the caps off of strawberries last night and my hands are still red!  We only did about 10 pounds last night.  There are  about another 60 pounds to go today.  So I will help by keeping the boys busy out of the house for the afternoon.  We are also trying to get some mint in exchange for some jam so we can make strawberry-mint jam. They have a few mangos and might make strawberry-mango jam.  They made a few jars a couple of months ago and it was delicious!  That’s what I want…strawberry-mango!  I didn’t get a jar last time, just a taste.  This time I want a whole jar!

If we were having coffee, I would ask you about any travels you have had or are planning for the summer as it winds down.  I have made my two trips, one by plane in June and one last week by car.  I think that’s it for me.  I would like to drive to the coast but that probably won’t happen.  I don’t like going places by myself and I don’t want to take the boys to the ocean…too much responsibility for this one non-swimming nana to watch a 5 year old and a 2 year old at the beach!  How about you?  I know some of you have taken trips and promised posts about them.  Have you posted about them and maybe I have missed them?  Have you forgotten to post about your trip?  And for those of you still going on trips soon, be sure to take a few pictures for a post, even if it is just a coffee share post.  I know I would love to see the pictures and I’m pretty sure others would too.

Well, it’s time for me to get a few things done and read some blog posts (I am miserably behind as a result of my ten day trip) before I have to go get the boys and entertain them.  Let me know what you are up to.  I really do want to hear.

Make it a good week and we’ll see you next time!

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Weekend Coffee Share is a weekly blog hop hosted by Diana and Part Time Monsters.  It’s a fun thing. Come join us.  Write and publish your post then stop by Diana’s latest #WeekendCoffeeShare post and link to the blog hop using the blue linky at the end of her post.  Try it; you’ll like it!

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Coming Soon To A Blog Near You…

I discovered this week that my blog doesn’t have an “About” page. I think I used to have one when I first started this blog but I deleted it at one point because I was unhappy with it. I have trouble describing what my blog is about or telling people what I am about so that page no longer exists. But that should not be the case. I thought I had one. Oops! Well, I resolve to write a new “About” page before the page turns to October on my calendar. (Well, I don’t really have a calendar, nor do I wear a watch or use one, but that’s maybe something I can put into my About page.)

I’m also experimenting with changing my blog theme but I have to spend some time looking at what is available because a lot of the themes I have seen appear very cluttered and confusing to me. When I can’t figure out how to navigate a blog I land on, and I spend some time trying to and still can’t, then I have to conclude that the theme is too difficult for the Every Day Person to figure out. I have been blogging, writing them and reading them, for close to two decades so if I can’t figure it out, then something is wrong. So in the coming weeks I hope to find a new theme that works for me (and for you), however, if I don’t I’ll modify this one and update it so it looks a little newer. I will at least have to find a new header photo. The one I am using now shows my oldest grandson when he was about 20 months. He’s now 4 1/2 years old! So I need to change it!

I also want to add a page with books I’ve read in 2014, or maybe a widget listing the book I am currently reading or a link to my Goodreads page. We shall see.

Posts I need to write soon:
1. How to effectively critique a piece of writing without stomping on the writer and making them back into a corner never to pick up a pen again. Yeah, that happens. It shouldn’t. I’ll write about it.
2. My experiences with writing groups: what makes them work and what doesn’t (hint: it’s related to number 1 above).
3. How to help a child begin writing so that they learn to love it (should work for “non children” as well). I guess it will be an assortment of tips and tricks I’ve used while teaching writing and coaching writing teachers. I’m actually thinking it could be a once a week thing or maybe a separate Writing Page on this blog.

As you can see, I’ve a lot to do with this blog and I figured that if I put it down here, it makes me stick to doing it. These are my plans for this blog and I hope to get some of them done by the end of October so I can be free to concentrate on NaNoWriMo once again. Some things won’t be done but I hope to have started them…such as the Writing Page/Series.

So y’all come back now, y’a hear?

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