IS a series and YES. It's kind of embarrassing to admit that I still like and read even now...
But come on! A nice grandmotherly sort of woman who lives in an upside down house with pets galore and warm chocolate chip cookies all the time and magical cures for childhood ailments like Never-Go-To-Bedder and Pet-Forgetter and Tiny-Bite-Taker.
It's a classic.
*sigh*
I have two kids, under the age of four. And I read to them. Regularly.
This one is Bella's all time favorite...I believe.
Because we've read it.
And read it.
And read it.
And read it.
And read it.
And...you get the picture. :)
It's hilarious. I would have put her other favorite books by Sandra Boynton - It's Pajama Time and Fifteen Animals, but they are a couple pages bigger. :)
Either way, you should definitely check them out. Especially if you are a mother (or father) of young children.That way, when people ask you what you're currently reading, you can have a really good excuse for the answer. :)
Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes rings in at a whopping 1104 pages - hardcover style.
Yes, I did read all 1104 pages. No, I cannot remember the entire story. Yes, I liked the musical MUCH better. No, I did not get to see it on Broadway - yet...
Don Quixote is a man of old-fashioned - some would call it archaic - values. He desires knighthood, the love of a fair lady, and a battle to fight - not necessarily in that order. So he sets off on a quest to find all of these impossible dreams with only his trusty nag and a long-suffering servant named Pancho - who loves his master like only a long-suffering servant can.
Along the way to knighthood, Quixote jousts with windmills, saves a fair maiden - who's about as pure as the final snow of the winter season - and battles uncouth mule drivers - who REALLY like the fair - unpure - maiden Don Quixote saves.
Okay, have I mentioned that this whole story is being narrated by Miguel de Cervantes to a bunch of rag-tag jury of prisoners awaiting trial - or execution - before the Spanish Inquisition? He was forced to finish his unfinished work in order to save himself from the prison's own version of an Inquisition...
And he's supposed to finish this all before the Spanish conquistadors retrieve him for his life or death trial before godless pharisees hell bent on stamping out heretics...
Can we say, "No pressure, Miguel?"
While the musical is much easier to understand and a lot shorter, I love the classics and would greatly recommend this one. Keep in mind it is translated, so there might have been something lost along the way.
I signed The End to the bottom of my last page. It was late last night, so all I really remember in the haze was a feeling of euphoria and a bit of panic.
Now what? I've had a couple editors tell me they would like to see more of my work, but for editing purposes. Which means breaking the budget to polish and perfect my work in order to even get to the point where it is submission worthy...
I could pay those same editors to write my query letter, synopsis, outline, and everything...pretty much do all the hard work for me.
Again, we run into the money problem. Here I am trying - with my husband - to get us out of debt. This writing thing was supposed to help us at one point or another. I'm not seeing how putting more money into it up front is going to help in the long run. But I also don't see myself stopping the art and craft of writing either. So my dilemma is...
WHAT NOW?
I could pray that a fairy godeditor decides to take pity on me and edit my work for free, knowing that they have a winner of a story to sell once they've done the difficult part. I have actually signed up for a couple of contests that would give me thousands of dollars worth of editing packages for free. That's IF I actually win it. Knowing my luck lately, that is highly unlikely.
I could self edit, put it through the critique group ringer, and let all my friends and family have a go at chopping it to little bits. Then I could risk a free self-publishing site which would take away the costs, but only return me as much as I am able to market myself...
I am not a salesperson, but I better start learning I think. :(
Grrrr...
It all boils down to my own impatience and need for the world to see that I CAN and DO write better than Stephenie Meyer. I definitely don't rank close to J.K. Rowling, but I love telling my stories and I know I've got something publishable.
Even if it is just a diamond in the rough right now.
Which begs the question again...
NOW WHAT?
PS Donations toward my poor, starving artist fund would be appreciated. Check, cash, or money order please. :)
Your words were found and I ate them,
And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.
~ Jeremiah 15:16
The first time I went through this challenge, I confess I don't remember this verse in Jeremiah. At that point in the challenge, I was behind and pushing to get done on time...things fell through the cracks.
I was listening to James McDonald's Walk in the Word broadcast this morning and this verse stood up and shouted at me. Your words were found and I ate them...
More importantly, God's word became a joy and delight for Jeremiah. Now I don't know if you know this, but Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. His task was pretty much to warn Israel of its doomed path and weep over Jerusalem's fallen state. Not really a job I would ever covet. But God told him to do it. He wrote Lamentations as his addendum to the other doom and gloom prophecies in the first book.
There is hope in those pages, but you have to squint REALLY hard to see it.
All this to say, Jeremiah STILL found joy and delight in God's word. It was a comfort and sustenance for him as he carried out God's less-than-happy work.
I love that. I want that. I need that.
I will not by any means compare myself to Jeremiah. He had a job no one else wanted or appreciated.
Right now though, I am a wife and mother. And there are days when those jobs are far from glamorous - right up there with uncoveted and unappreciated. I still have the roles even when I am sick and tired and wanting to be off by myself somewhere where no one else can reach me. I do not lose the task God has set before me just because I say I quit...and I've only said those words in jest, so don't get your undies in a bundle.
I love motherhood. I love being a wife. Sometimes, I just love myself more. What I want more than ever is to love God and God's Word SO much, that loving myself doesn't even cross my mind. That my joy and delight with His word will make my task seem like the LEAST I can do to please Him.
I DO love God's Word. I still love me more. I long for the day when that is no longer true.
So what's happening with me lately?
I'm kind of at a strange time right now. It's good and bad. Good because I am definitely in pursuit of my dream of writing.
Bad, because I feel like several other areas of my life are taking a hit - namely, my family and my sleep.
How does one juggle all the dreams and goals in life? I am not expecting to be a superstar and win fame and fortune on this endeavor. It would be wonderful, but I also am realistic. I may never make it past the first few royalty checks, if that. But gosh darn it, I'm going to keep trying.
The problem is that I don't know if I can do it all. Work part time as a registered nurse in a job that feels more like a full time one - with all the stress and daily grind. (As I write this, I realize I need to be up in four hours for another turn at the grinding wheel. Grrr...)
Believe me, the positive attitude and faith has been top priority lately. I've spent time daily in the Word, listed the things I'm grateful for time and again, and even spent time nursing my sick children and loving on my husband.
It doesn't stop me from feeling utterly devoid of life and drained. I want the world to stop spinning for just one day - just so I can find my bearings again. I'm truly freefalling, and I want to fly.
This blog post is a fine example. I'm supposed to be maintaining my blog and building a support structure/fan base for my writing. Instead, I find myself going months or weeks without writing only to shove a bunch of words onto the blank screen in the hopes that people won't notice I was gone.
Where did the consistency go? Or did I ever have it to begin with?
Okay, in light of my mercurial mood and the lateness (earliness) of the hour...I must say goodnight. Perhaps my outlook with be a little better come morning.
Yes, and four hours of sleep is totally refreshing when I've gone the last four or five days on about six hours all together.
Lemmings. (See: mindless,hairy rodents who follow their rodent leader off a cliff with no thought to self-preservation or self-thought)
Truth: Lemmings follow mass-migratory patterns over, under, and through many obstacles when their population grows too rapidly for their habitat. This means that the little mammals - who are usually great swimmers - can sometimes miscalculate their own abilities and drown in the rivers they are attempting to ford.
The misconception of mass suicide has been encouraged over the years by the media.
Truth: that's one thing lemmings DO have in common with the American people...mass media says something and we believe every word that's spoken.
(See: Mass media would have the Republican faithful believe that Mitt Romney has the election in the bag...certain sources outside of the mainstream seem to think Mitt Romney is panicking because his lead isn't NEARLY as solid as Fox, NBC, and other major news corporations affirm. In fact, if these outliers have any spark of truth, Ron Paul is closer to the White House by quite a few delegates...)
I don't care really. I know who I am voting for and I am not here to talk about my political beliefs. Heck, I'm not even going to rave about my "religious" views - much...
No, my rant has more to do with how any American Citizen - educated or not - can look at the government and say with complete confidence,
"I love the way the government is being run. In fact, I love it so very much, I am willing to sell my SOUL to believe everything our faithful leaders promise. And I don't mind taking every handout they give me either...because as long as it's not coming from my own pocket, I don't care what hard-working citizen gets taxed to pay for my lazy, greedy lifestyle."
Frankly, these people make me feel extremely unChrist-like. I admit it. I'm human, I'm a sinner by nature of my old self, and being redeemed by God doesn't actually MAKE me perfect. His grace through me and in me are working on that part of the covenant...
My own sinful nature creeps up still to ruin the image in which I was created. I've been struggling it out with my Creator; it's a process that won't speed up or slam to a halt on the views of others who read this post. You don't like what I say here, that's fine. You are free to own opinions and world views. Just don't screw with my worldview when I speak up.
My husband and I went into debt to get our degrees. We fought through years of hard work and meaningless, mundane jobs to get to where we are. We are not independently wealthy by ANY stretch of the imagination, but we work for everything we have. Someday we hope to have that hard work pay off when our children and our children's children can be secure in the knowledge that we stewarded God's abundance well and we've left a legacy of security because of it...
We made mistakes and we lost money and respect for some of our choices. It's part of being human. But we are trying to do God's will as best we can. And we are seeing the rewards of living in that will. It doesn't take care of the consequences automatically, but it does give us hope that our future will be all the better for our surrender.
We help others in need. At some point in our life, we want to expand our abilities to give with open hands to the poor, the widows, and the orphans of this world. It's our God-given responsibility and it's also our responsibility as citizens of this universe. We reach out because we WANT to. We are two people. Hopefully, if our children catch on we will carry on that legacy of servanthood to them as well.
I am not boasting about our successes; just stating fact. We DO what we can with what we have to bring heaven to earth. We want to do more.
You don't like being stolen from right? No one does. It's a violation of our rights as human beings to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You have someone rob you; you are going to feel the pain and violation of that act.
So why is it that by and large the American people - at least the lower class ones - seem to feel it's all right to steal? Don't believe me?
Our healthcare sucks - royally. The insurance companies are out for blood money and they aren't afraid to exploit their customers to get every last drop. Meanwhile health care costs skyrocket, pharmaceutical companies ram more and more drugs down our throats, and the government lobbyists tuck away a pretty penny as well. All the while our taxes go up and we are forced to pay money toward whatever new whims the government decides will benefit us. And we don't ask questions...
Trillions of dollars in debt...with more added to that heavy burden every day. Where does it all go? Because I'm sorry, but I don't really see an improvement in our healthcare, our education, our roads, our security...
Meanwhile our president has taken numerous vacations in the four years he's been in office. I am not counting, nor am I going to give any actual numbers regarding just how many days he's been outside of the White House enjoying himself. As the President of a massive nation, I do not begrudge the man a break to rest and recuperate. Every president that I know of in recent years has golfed, vacationed, and enjoyed luxuries I can only imagine. I don't begrudge a few perks for the Commander in Chief of our nation.
But $4,000,000 vacations? Are you kidding me? The taxpayers are footing the bill for vacations they will NEVER see in their lifetimes and we're okay with this just because he's the President?
Not a chance. $4,000,000 could have fed a nation of starving children for life...and the next couple generations at that...
I take care of the family budget. Sometimes I do a poor job of it, but I have to BUDGET every penny for months or weeks in advance just to pay for a $400 vacation. And I feel the harshness when those dollar bills leave my hand, thinking of what good it could have done for someone else. Does this mean I hem and haw and fuss over that money after all's said and done? No. I DO however, know the value of every dollar that I've spent on pleasure.
Now tell me, because this is the argument I hear regularly from the Obama health care supporters...
If Obama was such a SAINT for helping redistribute the wealth to the poor with his policies and laws, why on earth are you not charging him with hypocrisy? Because I'm not even going to mention that HIS healthcare insurance is completely paid for and will be his for life even after his term runs out - and it's a hell of a lot better insurance than any normal American citizen is ever going to get, Obamacare or not...
He just spent $4,000,000 of your hard working dollars on a VACATION...and you think he's going to save you money on insurance costs by ramming his own version of nationalized healthcare down our throats.
$4,000,000 could definitely give the poor in our country some decent health care. So why are you so willing to argue that the rich in this country should be redistributing their wealth more equally among the lower classes - like the wealthy don't deserve what they've worked for - and yet you do not see how Obama IS exactly what he complains the top 1% of our nation are - a greedy, undeserving, money-hungry miser.
And don't even get me started on the argument that this whole screwed up mess is a racial issue. I find it fascinating that the Obama worshippers are the most vocal about all the racial issues...
Obama is not even a full blooded African American. He's a mutt. Just like I'm a mutt. I have a bit of Native American in me...it doesn't mean I'm gungho to start scalping people or start throwing all the blame of my money problems on the government because they shoved my ancestors onto tiny little reservations. I have Irish in me. I have Polish in me. I am French and English, and a bunch of other strange and wonderful and awful and beautiful ethnicities...I wish I did have a little African in me...maybe some Chinese and Japanese just to round myself out a bit. Each one of these ethnic groups has seen both good and bad in their history.
Unfortunately, they all seem terribly adept at repeating the bad in their history and not quite so good at learning from their mistakes...Caucasians included.
I don't give a flying fart about what percentage of melanin is in my President's skin. He can be black, white, yellow, red, orange, green or blue. Heck, I like the color purple even. I don't care if the leader of our country is male, female, young or old, married or single. She can be the most beautiful woman in the world, or she can be an ugly hag...He can be charming and charismatic or he can shock the pants off the people with his vulgar, backcountry hick speech.
I DON'T CARE...
What I do care about is that our President represent the people he leads. That means - in my book - servanthood, sacrifice, understanding, unconditional love, and selfless service that transcends ALL boundaries. I want to follow a man who represents the greatest and best parts of being human. I want a man who is not apologetic about the freedoms and standards that our country should - and once did - stand for. I want a man (or woman) who is the first to lead the charge against tyranny and oppression and the last to retreat in the face of other's bigotry and prejudice. I want a President who shows by his character and moral uprightness that he will not be overcome by corruption and bribery and scandal. I want a leader that I can be PROUD to follow, not one I'm ashamed to even look at.
I want a leader who is more concerned about setting an example of service and sacrifice than a leader who feels ENTITLED to $4,000,000 vacations and other's hard-earned paychecks. I want a leader who lives with his/her hands OPEN as an expression of just how much he or she is willing to give to others without expecting anything in return. I want other nations to look at ours as a beacon of hope and humanity, a small piece of heaven on earth when all other countries struggle with hopelessness and despair, war and hate and death and disease. I want a President who is the first to eat meager rations during war time and the last to enjoy the luxuries of hot water and health care and fine clothing. I want him or her to be the first to donate the firstfruits of their wealth to meeting the needs of the poverty-stricken.
I know that whoever leads this country will be far from perfect. It's inevitable, unless we've decided that God's going to take over the kingship again, we will get an imperfect human being in office.
I just want that human being to stop playing God. Stop thinking with his wallet and start thinking with the heart that God gave him or her. I want them to stop seeking the power for their own gain and start seeking how best to use the power they've been given to meet the needs of the people they lead.
Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans...
~ John Lennon
I recently heard a song called "Dancing in the Minefields by Andrew Peterson.
It's about marriage and giving it everything we've got. I took it a little further...
To me, it says that life is all about everything that happens (good and bad) in the midst of all of our planning/plotting/scheming...
It says that what makes it worth every last bit of the battle, is those moments in between our scheduled events that have us dancing. Sometimes the dance is somber and quiet, a reflection of our grief, pain, sorrow, etc. Other times, the dance is one of joy and peace and utter contentedness.
My children are sick today. My brain is foggy from lack of sleep and I've been unmotivated in EVERYTHING...my husband came home from work with a headache and a bit of a dwarf Grumpy complex. He's doing better now, but I was looking to him to be MY support and encouragement and it didn't really work out that way. I found myself being the rock HE could lean on. And right now this ROCK is pretty much worn down by the floods of life. So support is sadly lacking.
It's funny, because just a few days previous, we were rejoicing and living off the high that comes from getting rid of several major debts!
Now we are giving Tylenol, wiping runny noses, and changing the mess after our children miss the toilet/diaper...
I have not written a substantial piece of ANYTHING for several weeks and the withdrawal is driving me crazy...
I'm exhausted, my tank is completely empty, and my head aches with a weariness I can no longer fight.
Thank God, for His never changing, never stopping, always and forever love. He is holding me and I can sense His presence even through the fog...
I've been in a funk for a little while...
Which is why the blogs are not getting posted, household chores are piling up, dinner seems to be leftovers (a lot), and I stay up until God knows when paging through pages of fiction trying to figure out where the story is going (and how on earth I got so far off track in the interim)
Yup. I am stuck in a rut.
Although, technically I am in the process of climbing OUT of the rut. So it's not really stuck per se...and well, oh who am I kidding?
I am climbing out, but the exit is a whole lot more tedious than the entrance. Because in the process of falling into the rut, I somehow managed to find a shovel in my hand, digging my way further down.
Believe me, the logic was sound when I first started digging. Somehow, I'd convinced myself that digging DOWN was the most effective way to climbing UP.
You had to be there during my reasoning period...
You ever get the feeling that you KNOW what the problem is...but you PRETEND you don't see it staring you in the face?
I like to blame it on all manner of things - this rut digging.
In the end, the only one able to put myself INTO the rut is the only able to get myself OUT of the rut...
ME
It's pretty simple and straightforward. And a lot of really famous people have said it WAY better than me.
Habit is necessary; it is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive.
Edith Wharton
And
The great advantage of being in a rut is that when one is in a rut, one knows exactly where one is.
Arnold Bennett
