Category: Writing Projects

Not So Much Photography Today, but Currently. . . .

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As you can see, I am late posting. I am tired. It is the end of the mod at Remington where I teach written communication—grammar, composition, critical thinking and reading. . . .  I have a bunch of essays I need to grade tonight in preparation for close-out tomorrow.

So, today, I am lifting a page from my Happy Planner (check them out at www.michaels.com or www.meandmybigideas.com). This has become my daily planner and “scrapbook” to keep up with daily life and to record memories. At the beginning of each month, there is a list called Currently. Here is my “Currently” list:

Reading: Fervent by Priscilla Shirer. My morning quiet time is routine, and it always includes a “little” prayer. I have been trying to think of a way to make my prayer time more meaningful, and this book is giving me some things to think about.

Planning: a road trip to the mountains this weekend (note: the road trip has been postponed, courtesy of Hurricane Matthew) and the Write31Days Challenge.

Watching: Dancing with the Stars. You can blame my mama for this! She started it. I do enjoy DWTS on Monday nights. I haven’t picked a favorite yet, although I must admit that I’m pulling for “Marcia Brady” and Marilu Henner.

 Cooking: hmmmm. . . . chicken. I made two really good dishes in the last couple of weeks. I started by cooking three or four chicken breasts in the crock pot with some water, a sliced onion, and some carrots and seasoned with some salt and pepper. The chicken will cook in about three and a half hours on high. I stirred up the chicken until it fell apart, and then I got creative. For one meal, I added a can of cream of mushroom soup and a jar of alfredo sauce and simmered for an hour or so longer. Then I added some noodles and let them cook (about fifteen minutes or so). The second recipe began the same way except I used cream of mushroom soup, golden mushroom soup, and some sour cream with noodles added shortly before time to eat.

Eating: popcorn for afternoon snacks.

Drinking: lots of lemon water. Have you tried La Croix’s sparkling water with lemon: no sugar, no sodium, no artificial anything.

Crafting: melt-and-pour soaps. These make really sweet hostess gifts. And then, the bomb shell fell—son Aaron wrote last night on Facebook: Just so you know, that soap you made for Sherry is great. I’ve been using it, too. Would you make some for me? And I’m looking at some things to make to decorate for Halloween.

Going: to the mountains later this month to get some apples and see the changing leaves.

Loving: this cooler October weather (but not the threat of a hurricane.

Listening: I love classical music, and lately I’ve been listening to Mendelssohn’s “Songs without Words,” and I’m working on a couple of them for piano lessons.

Celebrating: family. This weekend, we will celebrate Homecoming at my church (photos to come) and a family reunion. Next week, the church of my childhood is celebrating Homecoming. It is good to have these to look forward to!

As you can see, there are no photographs, just words. Sometimes, when we are the family photographer and the event photographer, we don’t always get to participate in the event fully. We’re too busy looking for the next best shot and the perfect image. We lose ourselves behind the camera. Next time you have an “event,” put down the camera and live fully in the moment. Create your own “Currently” list based on that event and on the life that is going on right in front of you.

Decisions, Decisions, and Maybe an Answer or Two

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I have worn contact lenses for thirty or more years, with a couple of breaks to wear glasses when contacts didn’t work. I started with the soft lens that had to be sterilized every single night by “boiling” them in saline solution. Yep, if I traveled, I had to pack up the sterilizer and a bottle of saline plus the cleaner. At first, I used the prepackaged saline with thimerisol as preservative, until I developed a sensitivity to that solution. Then I bought the saline tablets and made my own with bottled distilled water.

Then came the gas permeable “hard” lens, a cross between the old hard lenses that my brother wore and the soft lenses I started with. They were heaven. Until they began to wear ulcers on my corneas after John was born, and I had to discard them. I wore glasses for about two years again until the corneas healed and my eyes were “better.” Then came the soft lenses again. No boiling, no separate bottles of cleaner and storage solutions. This was easy. Until I needed bifocal glasses and/or reading glasses.

Bless my poor ophthalmologist at Columbia Eye Clinic.

We tried quite a few pairs of bifocal contacts, but with my astigmatism, they just didn’t work. We finally found a brand that works, and I could see! I wore those Preference Toric single vision lenses forever!

Until they didn’t work anymore. Since April, I have tried at least six different types of contacts in every brand available. I have not been a happy camper. They aren’t working, so I’m back in glasses for the time being.

Except the glasses aren’t working!

Yeah.

New glasses, lenses, frames, prescriptions. . . . and I can’t see! So what’s the problem? Today’s exam and glasses check may have some answers. I learned that my old contacts did not do a very good job of letting the eye breathe. As a result, the cornea may have been swollen, which meant that the doctor was not able to get an accurate reading. Wearing the glasses (as imperfect as they are—and actually I’ve been wearing glasses–old ones and new ones– since June or early July) may actually be helping since the cornea swelling is going down. I ordered a new right lens for my glasses, which will be in next week (I hope), and new trial contacts that will be in a few weeks. We shall see.

But what does this have to do with “decisions, decisions”? Nothing, really. Except that I have some things to think about for the next couple of months. October is the traditional time for the 31 Days of Blogging challenge when bloggers choose a theme and write and post daily entries for the month of October. I’m wishy-washy. Do I do the challenge this year? And if I do, what will be my theme?

To write, or not to write; that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler. . . .

Uh, I think I’ll leave those weighty questions to Shakespeare and let him play with the iambic pentameter to deal with such things. I’m thinking about it.

Then there is November. Two kinds of writing challenges pop up then: Thirty Days of Gratitude and National Novel Writing Month. We can always use daily reminders of what we have for which we are thankful. There is real research that points out that people who give thanks, keep gratitude lists, and the like are happier and even healthier and less stressed than those who don’t. Why reserve thankfulness for one day a year?

I have wanted to write a novel for a long time. I’m a good writer! (she says a bit defensively) I have started at least one, written in long-hand in a black composition book, using my trusty fountain pen (yes, you read it correctly. I write by hand with a FOUNTAIN PEN, or at least one of them. I have a couple of Schaeffers, a pen or two from Michael’s, several Cross fountain pens, a Franklin pen, and now a Pilot fountain pen. I seem to be a collector!). I have some websites for guidelines on how to develop plot and character and how to outline the plot so that the main plot and subplots do not compete with each other but compliment. (Is that the right word, or should it be complement?)

So, in the next couple of days, I need to make decisions. Now that I’m getting my eyes straightened out, perhaps the decisions about the next couple of months writing will be clearer. I’ll come back here in a few days and let you know what I’m up to.