April 20th

Hi, it’s Christina –

I just wanted to take a few minutes, while I was having my first cup of coffee, to wish everyone (who celebrates) a Happy Easter! I’m up really early today, because I ran out of steam and didn’t get everything done. My hubby, bless his heart, colored eggs with Dani last night, cooked up the sausage for the sausage and peppers I need to bring to my aunts, and he straightened up the living room for me, and Dani baked the cupcakes. All I have left to do is clean up the kitchen and help T.E.B. with his morning task.

PJ and Alex will be here by eight, and I would really like to be out of the shower and dressed already by the time they get here. The Easter egg hunt, baskets, and breakfast should take us to nine, which leaves Dani and my husband forty-five minutes to shower and dress before we have to leave for church.

Easter morning is fun around here, and if you’ve read Corporate Blues, you already know my family’s tradition. It will be a little strange though, with PJ not waking up here and Lys away at college, but we are still determined to make it nice for Dani.

First we start with a letter from the Easter Bunny. Here’s a copy of the note the kids will be finding this morning:

A dozen eggs for each, you’ll have to find

I’ve done my best, so take your time

Search high and search low, and then you’ll see

Just how clever this old bunny can be

ORANGE and YELLOW will be Alex’s quest

Let’s see if she’ll be able to keep up with the rest

This year PURPLE and PINK eggs are for my Dani girl

Don’t leave any behind, give it a whirl

That leaves PJ, my only lad

BLUE and GREEN eggs this year, are yours to be had

Of course I did not forget sweet Lys,

Even though this Easter, she must miss

If you see eggs of the sparkly kind,

Those are for her, so leave them behind

That’s all for right now, and I must scurry

For as you know, this morn, I’m in a great hurry

Hope your day is warm and sunny

Love your friend,

The Easter Bunny

     

Then when the race to see who can find all their eggs first is over, they open their eggs, one at a time, alternating. Inside each egg is either money, or a slip of paper saying “Pick a Gift”. After all the eggs are opened, and all the gifts unwrapped, they open their Easter baskets and make a bee line for their Cadbury egg – our traditional “Easter Breakfast”, one which, every year, makes my husband wince and shake his head. Then we scatter and start rushing around, like a bunch of chickens with a fox in their hen house, to try to get to church on time.

Some years we’re more successful than others. This year we need to be on time, because with the way they redid the parking lot at church, there aren’t as many spaces as we used to have, so our minister asked, if possible, could we carpool. My mom will be pulling up at 9:45, so we had better be ready. The one thing she doesn’t know is, she’ll be the one driving, because I never got around to cleaning out our car yesterday. I’m safe though, she would never think to kill me on such a holy day.

Okay, I should skedaddle. I hope y’all have a blessed day, and happy writing!

March 6th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Really late today, I know, but I had several things to do before I could get to my blog. My son sent me a text last night asking if an essay about survival interests me. Translation, he needed help on one of his college essays. Now, in the past “needed help” required a whole lot of work on my part, but I told him sure, email it to me. He has been working all sorts of crazy hours at work – to the tune of seventy plus hours a week – and going to school at night; so I wasn’t really surprised he asked for help.

I opened the email first thing this morning, and boy was I pleasantly surprised. Other than correcting a couple of erroneous commas, replacing a redundant word, and correcting his continuity of tense in ONE spot, the paper was fine just the way he wrote it. Proper English has never been my son’s forte, so seeing the progress he has made over the past couple of years has warmed my heart. It was just a silly little paper, one which probably isn’t worth a whole lot toward his overall grade, but it was well done and he made me very proud. I know, sappy proud mom moment, but I wanted to share anyway.

You’ll be happy to know Lys is feeling a lot better today. Yesterday afternoon she returned to the land of the living, and today she wants to drive over to a camp not too far away so she can put in an application. She also wants to make a few other stops, but we’ll see how it goes after our first stop. She may be surprised at how quickly she gets tired after being so sick for four days.

I have given up waiting for the bank’s website to send me my log in information, so I will be stopping at the bank today and asking them to print the one statement I’m missing. After that, it will only take me a few minutes to plug in the information and update the Schedule C with the new numbers. Hopefully, with the Schedule C completed, my taxes should only take an hour or so to complete, and then another half hour for the FAFSA and I WILL BE DONE!! It’s hard to believe I ever enjoyed doing this type of work, but at one point in my life, I truly did. Silly child!

Today was Dani’s last late arrival, so I wanted to surprise her with breakfast (not my forte). I saw a photo on Facebook where the person put a piece of bacon right inside a pancake, and I thought cool, Dani likes pancakes, and she loves bacon, so let’s give it a try. I got the bacon all crispy, whipped up some pancake batter, assembled them, and with a big smile on my face for not screwing up, I handed Dani her breakfast. After a few bits she asked why I was feeding her raw bacon. Apparently, even after the bacon is fully cooked and extra crispy, the pancake batter makes it all gooey again. Needless to say, breakfast was an epic fail and I will NOT be making pancakes and bacon like that ever again. What can I say, live and learn right?

Okay, Lys is ready to leave, and the quicker we get her errands completed, the quicker I can get back here and finish those dang taxes. I hope y’all have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

(I’m going to step WAY out of my comfort zone here) Your challenge is to write a poem – silly or serious, rhyming or not – the choice is yours

It’s a poem you say I need to write

The mere thought fills me with dread and fright

Several cohesive lines of rhyming verse

I worry of sounding trivial, or juvenile, or worse

Don’t fail me now oh illusive muse

Let me come up with something I can actually use

Make it inspirational, or funny, or light

Please help me now so I don’t fret all night

Alas I must hang my head in shame

Defeated yet again, and poem was its name

Your Next Challenge is:

Create a holiday (you can thank Lys for this one)

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

March 4th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I got to sleep in a little today because they are doing HSPA testing for the high school juniors, so the other three grades get to go in three hours late. I was pleasantly surprised my internal clock allowed me to do this, I’m not usually so lucky. I did wake up at my normal time, but then I rolled over and went right back to sleep. This may seem boring to all of you, but I’m excited. That was the first time, in I don’t know how many years, I got seven hours of sleep in a row.

Lys is still running a fever and still feeling miserable. She’s taking antibiotics as well as Motrin every six hours. I just gave her her fourth dose, so hopefully she will start feeling a little better by the end of the day. She has been good about drinking even though her throat is really sore, and last night she even ate a bowl of oatmeal. I was worried about her taking the antibiotics without having any food in her stomach, but it doesn’t look like I’ll need to worry too much. After I bring Dani for Dunkin’ Donuts (she’s been begging for days, so I relented) and then drop her off at school, I’ll make Lys some eggs. They should be soft enough that they don’t hurt her throat and heavy enough to pad her stomach from the meds.

Today I will continue gathering everything together for my taxes, and hopefully by tomorrow I will be organized enough to put the information down on the proper forms. Although I had everything written down in my appointment book, what I really should have done from the get-go was have a monthly income and expense report. It’s taking a bit of time to get everything set up properly, but if I do it correctly now, and enter everything on a monthly basis from now on, future years will be a breeze.

As a writer you need to wear so many hats, and so many things take time away from actually being able to write. Obviously you need to be a writer, but you also need to be a marketing agent, a PR specialist, a social media guru, an editor, an accountant, an event coordinator, a research analyst, a public speaker (oh, I forgot to tell you, I have a speaking engagement next Tuesday…yikes!), and I’m sure several other things I’m forgetting to mention or haven’t come across quite yet. This past year has been a learning experience to say the least. There have been high points and low point, and I have stumbled a few times, but I am learning. Thankfully, there have been other Indie authors out there willing to lend their support and advice. I cannot imagine what kind of disasters I would have gotten myself into if I had to do this completely on my own.

Okay, I need to go get lunches made and get my hubby out the door. I hope y’all have a phenomenal day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Oh, that will never work…

Science projects. I hate science projects! I hated them while I was in school. I hated them when I had to help my oldest two children with theirs, and I still hate them now while I’m helping my youngest child with hers. We’ve had to build ecosystems, volcanoes, apparatus to keep an egg from breaking when dropped from great heights, and mousetrap race cars. As if those weren’t challenging enough, now we need to build a roller coaster – with a loop, none the less. Are you kidding me? Are we in high school or engineering graduate school? To top it off, it needs to be made from scratch, no prefabricated pieces, and it needs to be made small enough to be able to be transported. Good grief!

After days of sketching and scrapping the sketches because we realized the designs would never work, we came up with a simple design; one which simply used gravity and centripetal force to make it work. Now all that was left was to transfer what was on paper to an actual working model and to pray it would actually preform the way we had planned.

Thank GOD, this roller coaster project was one the kids had to do in class and not as a take home project, because I seriously doubt I would have been able to help with this one, and I am positive we would not have been able to build it in the two weeks allotted. It does amaze me at how much more difficult projects have become since I was in school. The stuff they are now learning in junior and senior high, we weren’t learning until we got to college.

Your Next Challenge is:

(I’m going to step WAY out of my comfort zone here) Your challenge is to write a poem – silly or serious, rhyming or not – the choice is yours

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

December 24th

Rushing around, my heart all a flutter
Cooking and baking, dang where’d I put the butter?

The house is a shambles, I am in distress
I seriously don’t have time to deal with this mess!

The cats and dog are wrestling, there’s dust bunnies galore
And the list is getting longer of what I forgot from the store

I’m starting to stress, I’m beginning to twitch
But because of the season, I refuse to be a *****

In a few short hours, everyone will be gathering here
And I just know I won’t be ready…this is my fear

The kitchen needs cleaning, the vacuum needs to be run
Oh how I long for the days when holidays were fun

The house is now stirring, the kids are alive
With a “Hi Mom” and a kiss, reinforcements have arrived

Suddenly there’s  laughing and singing, one kid’s baking, one kid’s cleaning
Can I finally breathe, or am I dreaming?

No, it’s real, and my turmoil can now cease
Just having my babies home puts my heart at peace

They are my reminder of what this holiday should be
A time for love, and for faith, and for family

Wishing you all of the blessings of the holiday, from our family to yours…
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

July 13th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

It’s Saturday again. Boy that week went fast! We’ve had quite a long string of hot (in the 90s), sunny days with only a passing thunderstorm in the late afternoon, which are to be expected.  Today it is cool and rainy, and my sister-in-law is probably having an absolute fit. In about six hours, she is to have a house full of people, who very well may end up IN the house as opposed to in the back yard as planned. UGH! Say a little prayer that the rain lets up.

Yesterday I did hit the half way mark at camp, so Corporate Blues is shaping up. Still haven’t heard back from the email I sent the FBI about a procedural question, but they’ll respond eventually; it’s not like research for a novel would be any kind of priority. In the meantime, I have a sign in the middle of the chapter that reads {{INSERT INFORMATION FROM THE FBI HERE}}. The same sign will probably appear again several chapters down the road if they don’t get back to me in the next week, but at least I’m not letting myself get hung up over missing information. If the info they give me contradicts something I’ve written, I can always fix it, but I will worry about that during the first editing phase.

Since I only have until nine-thirty to write, I’m going to sign off for the day. I hope you have a great Saturday!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

So much sorrow, so much pain

Play over this blood soaked ground like a somber refrain

Daily I wander, rail and cry

For all the young souls who had to die

 

Can you hear me?

Most didn’t understand what they were fighting for

But now they know there can be no winner in a war

Broken promises, hopes and dreams

Torment and heartache to extreme

Can you feel me?

 

I search these woods from dusk ‘til dawn

For a love who’s now long gone

Someday we’ll find each other again

And be able to walk away hand in hand

 

Can you see me?

 

ICK – I gave myself the chills. Poems still surprise me when they come out, and I found it really strange that a picture challenge prompted one. I can’t recall if that has happened before…

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

For me, THIS is the happiest place on Earth

 

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

Day 3 Challenge - April 20, 2013

Happy Saturday Morning! It’s Christina.

I think I have temporarily figured out a way around the technological problem. Until I can get this blog running the way it should, I am also posting the challenge questions on my Facebook page. It’s not ideal, but it’s a bandage. I can’t wait to get the bugs out though because I’m excited to see what y’all have written.

So how did you do with yesterday’s challenge?

I am from another world and unfortunately I cannot see color. Please describe RED, BLUE and YELLOW to me.

Here’s my reply:

A world without color, how sad

I could not even imagine, but I shall try my hand

Red is a rage you feel

Red is the heat of the sun to help you heal

Red is a warm towel from the dryer

Red is the anguish at a funeral pyre

Blue is the snowflakes on your tongue you catch

Blue is a high soaring bird you cannot reach

Blue is cool water on a hot summer day

Blue is the sorrow you feel when a loved one goes away

Yellow is comfortable, serene and calm

Yellow can be a healing balm

Yellow is meadow flowers dancing in the wind

Yellow is a memory you pull from within

Colors can hold more meaning than just sight, it’s true

Because you cannot experience them, I truly feel sorry for you.

Where the heck did a poem come from? Not usually my area, but there it be. So onto the day 3 challenge.

 

You wake up one morning to find you have turned into a (insert animal here).

 

Same rules - You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.