This is one of our family’s favorite holidays. To celebrate we got about a foot of snow and a snow day from school. Here are some other ways to enjoy today:
Watch a movie: Groundhog’s Day with Bill Murray
Read a book: Will Spring be Early or Will Spring be Late by Crockett Johnson
Our you could go directly to the source: The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club
Prompts
Photos
A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place
Quotations
Motivating Your Organization and Organizing
Recs
Inspirational Book – Under the Tamarind Tree
Instant Inspiration (writing)
Products
Original Writings and Reflections
An Actual Agenda for This Week 😉
Current Events/Politics
I Remember (Thoughts on MLK Day)
Domestic Violence
BDSM? Or Abuse? (cross-posted with Sexuality)
Sexuality
BDSM? Or Abuse? (cross-posted with Domestic Violence)
Repost
Reblogs
Unsure of a Title, Tags, Categories! (suicide and suicide prevention)
Buttermilk Pecan Pie for National Pie Day
Blogging 101
Words in Space (Etheree Poetry) (cross-posted with Memoir)
Writing Exercise (Mockingjay, page 82, line 3)
Links
Random Acts (charity)
The Trevor Project (lgbt+)
Brother Mickey McGrath (spiritual, art)
Thesaurus (writing)
Urban Dictionary (writing)
IRS (money, taxes)
Punxsutawney Phil (holidays)
National Domestic Violence Hotline (domestic violence)
National Weather Service (weather)
Catholic Culture (spiritual, history)
Transgender Law Center (lgbt+, legal, trans-specific)
Fifty Shades of Grey in its own words describing why it’s glorified abuse
A chart showing the difference between BDSM and Abuse
Blog Housekeeping
Apparently, I’ve Hit the Wrong Button (I lost my theme)
I don’t always realize that I have a morning routine until I get a prompt like this. Or try to deviate from it.
Whatever time I wake up, whether it’s 6am or Noon (rarely that late), I always begin (and end) with my Kindle. I use it for everything, and my morning routine only proves that.
Free is good. I head straight to the Amazon Appstore and check on the Free App of the Day. It’s usually a game, but I’ve also found some great professional apps there, like Office Suite (with Word) and Informant (awesome calendar/task app).
I move on to check my social media – Facebook, Tumblr, like and reblog anything that doesn’t need thinking about, and check my email. I generally delete about sixty emails just upon waking. I really need to unsubscribe from many lists. I barely read most of these.
I read a couple of the blogs that I follow on WordPress that immediately catch my eye.
I continue using my Kindle Fire to check my bank’s app, and then balance my checkbook on Spensa.
If I’m not running late, I try to take a few minutes to read Give Us This Day – the daily saint or revered person and the reflection. I bookmark the Evening Scriptures for later. If I don’t have Mass, I read the daily mass from The Word Among Us periodical. I sometimes hold off on this until later in the day when there isn’t any rushing out of the door or errands to run.
I check my daily list and get a feel for how my day is going to go. I make sure that my daily post goes up on WordPress or that it’s ready to go.
I take notes on what other writing I’d like to do this week or add to my Editorial Calendar, which is literally a calendar book from Mead that I’ve found overwhelmingly helpful.
And that’s about it.
I take a shower and get dressed and head out to Mass three days a week. It vaguely changes on the weekend, but not really. It all depends on the family.
Sometimes it takes thirty minutes; sometimes ninety. I never know until I get through the list, but I do find that it helps get me focused on what needs to be done so I don’t forget anything important.
On occasion, I get brain fog, and I need much more rigid lists, but lists are good for me. And when all the items are checked off and not deferred to the next day, it’s a feel good like no other.
Simply, I took this photo because I was writing a post about the book/movie Mockingjay (Movie, Part 1) and I needed a photo for the post.
That particular mockingjay was an impulse buy at a huge Toys R Us sale. It had that as well as a couple of amber stones and a bow with two arrows. Two Thanksgivings ago, I lost my silver bow and arrow that I’d had since the 90s, from when I was studying archery in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). I wanted the bow and arrow, and I’m a fan of archers – Robin Hood, Merida from Brave, Hawkeye from The Avengers, Green Arrow, Katniss; all of them. Soon after I finally watched the Hunger Games and Catching Fire, and I was drawn to those movies in a way that I hadn’t enjoyed a movie since Harry Potter. My son and I couldn’t wait for the Mockingjay movie to be released (as I’ve mentioned before) and I really got attached to the character and the symbols. At another sale (this one at FYE), I found what looks like a convention pass with a larger Mockingjay coin-like charm; trinket.
I am lover of trinkets.
Talismans.
Stones.
Medals.
So while the picture itself was really a simple thing, the overall meaning for me is the balance that a related photo or drawing brings to my writing. It brings in the more visual readers, and I’m also a big fan of symmetry; duality. Sort of like the blending of the jabberjays and the mockingbirds that give us the mockingjay.
I talk often about how I feel like my generation missed a boat or two. We don’t have a cutesy nickname like Baby Boomers or Milenials or even GenXers. It’s like time forgot us. We are sometimes a sandwich generation taking care of parents and kids but that’s about responsibility; there is no community.
We are in-between generations. We are in-betweeners. Eh, not loving it.
The people in my age group went to college, got jobs, had kids, some stayed home, some stayed in a career and both got crap for it. Pensions disappeared, job security became non-existent. We ignore illness until it can be ignored no more.
I’m 48 and the first time I felt at home with friends was in 2011 where our ages ranged from 20-45, experiences ranged equally, only two marriages in the group, one with kids. I fit.
But I also kind of fit with the PTA set; most there were about ten years younger than me, but it still worked.
I also fit with my church where my closest friend just turned 85.
I’m at home on Tumblr when most of my age group thinks it’s a gymnastic group.
I’m equally opinionated on politics and fandom, and I haven’t found a place that blends my passions; that’s what I try to do here. I’d like to continue that, but I’m not sure how to describe it without using potpourri, which I don’t want to use.
I write conversationally, but I also want to be taken seriously, especially in the areas that I consider myself an expert or authority.
I try to balance family, depression, church and writing plus whatever else pops into my head. I’m trying to form a new generational home seemingly alone.
And this is only the part that spewed out this morning on this very bright, white snow day.
Last fall, I started a new format for my blog/website. I gave myself a series of weeklies. Monday through Thursday, I post on a topic – I offer prompts for writing or reflection, a photo, a quotation and the recs that I think help many. I try to collect them all with a weekly theme (beginning this year), so my goals are mainly continuing that.
In September, I began to use a Mead day planner to plan out my site and that’s been working well.
Goal 1: In addition to the daily serial post, I’d like to post a second one related to the theme that I’ve decided on for that week. This week’s theme I’ve titled Groundhogs, Spring is just around the corner. On Fridays, I want to try writing a Reflection each week.
Goal 2: I’ve been published in local small-presses, and self-published a chapbook and a variety of newsletters. I would like to write for money. I’d like to start by monetizing my blog, but I’m not sure how to go about that. I’d like to learn.
Goal 3: Increase my quality of photography and writing and continue learning my craft to gain readers and continue growing as a writer. As an aside, I’d like to expand into travel writing.
1. Richard Sherman of the Seattle Seahawks
2. “You’re a Minion! Twirl your blue overalls”
3. Lenny Kravitz
4. The bet between Chris Pratt and Chris Evans*
5. Commercial from No More saying no more to domestic violence in a prominent spot
6. Brady Bunch Snickers Commercial
7. Pigs in blankets and Taquitos
As I recently said on my Facebook, I try not to pass judgment on people’s likes and dislikes, especially when it comes to books, music or movies. However, Fifty Shades of Grey crosses the line from problematic to dangerous.
What worries me about Fifty Shades is the amount of young people who want to try something new sexually but aren’t experienced enough to realize what’s abuse and what’s normal BDSM play. They go into relationships with a superficial idea of a curiosity and what they want to try out, but don’t always know how to stop something they might not like.
These are two links I found today that are worth reading and keeping archived for future reference, especially if you’re a parent or close relative of a young person starting out on their intimate relationships. This also holds true for more experienced people who are confused by what’s okay for them and how they can say no when they mean no.
Fifty Shades of Grey in its own words describing why it’s glorified abuse
I was playing around with the mobile update and hit the button changing my theme by accident and now I can’t figure out how to get my old theme back.
This might be a good mistake but I kind of liked my old theme, so if any of you happen to have noticed its name, I’d be eternally grateful.
Thanks,
Kb
I watched the first two Hunger Games movies, and then my middle son got interested, so we rewatched them together. It was a nice Mommy-G moment. After that we had been waiting for Mockingjay, Part 1 to come to our cheapy theatre ($5/adults, $3.50/kids) so we could go together. (This movie theatre is really the only way our entire family could go out to the movies all together, all five of us, which we are lucky to do more often than we would be able to.)
While we were waiting, hanging on every trailer, I unfortunately read a spoiler that I regretted (spoilers almost never bother me, but this one knocked me down). I decided to read the third book since it would be weeks until the movie got to our theatre.
I managed to borrow it from the library for my kindle, and as a YA novel it was a very fast read. I wasn’t sure how it would go because I’d never read the first two books, but I dove right in.
I really enjoyed the tone of it, Katniss’ voice. I’m certain that it helped to have seen the first two movies. I think it was written with that in mind, not that it would be turned into a movie, but with the pacing of watching a movie. (I often write like that, so it was very familiar to me.)
I could easily picture the characters through their actors’ voices. It was very vivid, and even with my ritual of pausing at each chapter, the intensity and the suspense remained and kept me riveted.
For the Blogging 101 challenge, I was asked to pick up the nearest book, turn to page 82 and read the third sentence.
I’m trying to think of a witty comeback, when Boggs says brusquely, “Well, don’t expect us to be impressed. We just saw Finnick Odair in his underwear.”
For Katniss this was the moment where she softened on Boggs. She said as much in the next few sentences of the chapter. I missed that this wasn’t in the movie. I understand that there isn’t room for every favorite incident from the book to fit in the movies; there just isn’t enough time, but I really liked this one.
I thought it not only made a District 13 person more human, less machine and more humane and I immediately liked him right before Katniss did, but it also made the District 13 bodyguard much more than one-dimensional. Up until that moment, he was a cardboard cutout. Suzanne Collins did a good job of giving him a physical description so I could picture him in my mind, but up until then I was waiting for a shoe to drop.
Would Katniss try to escape from his constant guard? Would he betray her to his district’s higher objectives? Would they be at odds for the rest of the book?
After this, there were other shoe dropping to look for – the inevitable conflict Boggs would have between his loyalty to his President and home district and to his newfound loyalty to Katniss, not only all that she represented as the Mockingjay, but as a person he really liked and cared for.
This was the moment when he wasn’t just doing a job; he was her ally, and I loved that about this subtlety.
I won’t give any spoilers on how the book turned out, but even knowing the end, I can’t wait to see how the next half of the movie will be!
Instant Inspiration: Quotes on Writing and the Writing Life
Selected and compiled by Cheryl A. Craigie
Instant Inspiration: Using Quotes to Guide You to Your Goals [Paperback] by Jerry Jerome
Griffins and Ginger Snaps 