My Two Blessings

Good bye June. You went by much too fast.  Tomorrow marks the beginning of July and the start of a new month and Jennifer Blanchard's Recharge Your Batteries in 31 Days journey.  Jennifer says " This recharge is about getting yourself on track to becoming a badass creative person."  Well, I'm all for that since my creativity needs a recharge. To get the most out of this Creative Recharge, you’ll want to have the following: An Open Mind —I can’t express how important this is. Without an open mind, you’re not going to accomplish much of anything. Some of the tips/tasks are going to seem strange to you, even downright weird, but if you keep an open mind and attempt them anyhow, you’ll see the point. A Commitment —to yourself and to completing the 31-day challenge. Sure, you could continue to make excuses for why you can’t, but you will never, ever reach any of your goals that way. A Willingness to Share —you will get more out of this challenge if you...

Finished reviewing, organizing, and figuring out James final grades for 6th grade and he did pretty darn well, better than I expected.  6th grade became a year of growth, both physically and mentally.   James finally began taking initiative, worked independently on the majority of subjects, even those that required teaching by hubby or I.  He'd get up in the morning and dive right into his lessons which pleased me to no end.  We had more hits than misses this year which was a good thing.   I did discover than James and hubby think a lot alike and curriculum I thought would be easy to do wasn't because their brains just didn't get it.   What we accomplished: Voyages in English is a hit as always and plan on continuing with it in 7th grade.  I like the layout and most of all James gets it, most of the time.   The grammar part is excellent, the writing section leaves a bit to be desired however.  Kept writing pretty inf...

Angel's Tip by Alafair Burke Back cover:  Thrilled to spend the final hours of her spring break in the VIP room of an elite Manhattan club, fresh-faced Indiana college student Chelsea Hart remains behind  when her girlfriends call it a night.  The next morning, joggers find her body in East River Park, her blond hair brutally hacked off. NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher believes the group of privileged men last seen plying Chelsea with free-flowing alcohol most likely includes a murderer.  But after building a tight case against a young hedge fund managed, Ellie has her doubts, because Chelsea's slaying is eerily similar to three other murders from nearly a decade ago.  Continuing the investigation long after the department brass is satisfied with their case, hard headed Ellie plunges into a late night party world of conspicuous wealthy and hedonistic consumption to catch the real killer--unaware that a psychopath is watching her every move...and eager to kil...

Good morning! We are still alive and kicking around here. Just full of summer laziness. I refused to schedule or plan anything the past two weeks even though said laziness caused boredom for one particular party which resulted in getting in mischievous trouble.  I needed the break...badly.  We contemplated our navels for awhile, read a lot, hung out, and generally drove father crazy.  *grin*  Seems he thrives on schedules as well. Now feeling a bit more refreshed and even rewrote one page of my current wip this morning. May not seem like a lot, but its progress.  The 2nd round of ROW80 has come to an end and I don't feel like I accomplished all that much.  My goals were to finish the 2nd edit of Eyes in the Ashes.  I like the creative part of the process so much more than the editing process.  Once I reread and outlined the story, discovered had done a lot of head hopping with several points of view.  Narrowed down the points ...

Never Tell by Alafair Burke Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Julia Whitmire appeared to have everything: a famous father, a luxurious Manhattan townhouse, a coveted spot at the elite Casden prep school. When she is found dead in her bathtub, a handwritten suicide note left on her bed, her parents insists that their daughter would never take her own life. But Julia's enviable world was more complicated than it seemed. The pressure to excel at Casden was enormous. Abuse of prescription anti-depressants and ADHD medication ran rampant among students; an unlabeled bottle of pills in Julia's purse suggests she had succumbed to the trend. And a search of Julia's computer reveals that in the days leading up to her death, she was engaged in a dangerous game of cyberbullying against an unlikely victim. NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher is convinced the case is a suicide, but she knows from personal experience that a loving family can be the last to accept the truth. ...

We are done with 6th grade and hence the elementary school years.  It has been a family affair and an accomplishment we are all quite proud of.  Little did we think when we started homeschooling James and taught him how to read, that we'd still be doing it today.  We took it day to day and year by year and each year decided to just kept going.  We decided for the Junior high years we needed a bit of help, so signed up for the local public home school charter school.  We are hoping to ease James into some classroom situations over the next couple years so he'll be ready for regular high school.  But who knows what the future will bring with schools changing so much and the majority of textbooks all turning electronic. I'll be posting our 6th grade wrap up sometime this week.  As far as writing is concerned, I didn't accomplish anything last week.  Heck, I feel like I haven't accomplish much this whole round.  Too busy concentr...

Brother at  Mogollon Rim, AZ Happy June, hello Summer.   We have one more week of lessons and James will be done with 6th grade.  A milestone for the whole family because it has been a family adventure. Will wax poetic when all said and done.  I haven't accomplished a whole lot writing wise.  I have a new story percolating in the back of my brain and trying to ignore it while editing Eyes in the Ashes.   Which is going slowly - but surely. My goal is to be done by the end of June and by George I am bound and determined.   Came across two wonderful blog posts from the two people who always give me much encouragement:   My unofficial virtual mentors - Jody Hedlund talking about Macro editing "If we skip the macro edits, then we’re neglecting the sculpting part of the process, the chipping away, the molding, the plying. If we move directly to the line and copy editing stages, then we’re polishing a lump of clay." ...