Castle in the Clouds

Jenni asks, "If you couldn't answer with your job, how would you answer the question, 'what do you do'?"  If I can leave my title and job description out of the answer, I think I should be able to completely ignore that thing I do that helps pay the bills and put food on the table. Sure, I go there and perform the same duties every weekday for 8-9 hours at a time, but it's not what I really do. What I really try to do is enjoy the moments.  If I've learned anything in recent years, it's that tomorrow is not promised.  Things change, people change, circumstances change.  Enjoying what you've got while you've got it is oh, so important. Be silly.  Dress up.  Have a little zany fun.  Halloween Ren Festival      80s Festival  Vacation with people you love. Vegas Maine Florida Disney Chicago Vegas Cedar Point Waiting for the AmTrak Get your picture taken with Santa.

When we get to the "your three worst traits" post in the May Challenge , writing consistently will have to be right at the top of the list.  Luckily, the topic for what should have been May 5th's post is a little less painful than admitting my flaws, of which there are many.  Therefore, today, I bring you a fellow blogger that I stalk  follow.  Maybe you already know of her and her blog.   In print , she goes by many names: S.L. Viehl, Gena Hale, Jessica Hall, Lynn Viehl, and Rebecca Kelly.  Her blog posts are signed Lynn Viehl.  Strangely, this is not the first name that associate with this particular writer, though.  In the writing community where we first met, I knew her by an altogether different name. I'm not sure if that name is fit for public consumption  though, so we'll leave Lynn as Lynn and move on to her website and why I love it (and her) so much.  Paperback Writer First and foremost, she keeps it real.  I'm sure there's a lot that

I fell in love with this quote when my oldest was just a wee little dude still in diapers.  As a new mom the words resonated.  I'd say the reaction was hormone-fueled, but the truth is I still feel this way.  

The challenge for day 3 is to talk about things that make me uncomfortable.   Road Rage.  While this is not something I do, it is something I've seen in others.  It not only makes me uncomfortable, it scares me.  Maybe I've seen too many episodes of Criminal Minds, which has resulted in my cynical view that most people are C-R-A-Z-Y, but I'm always afraid the other guy could be armed and dangerous.   Space invaders.  No, not the little green men from Mars kind.  I'm talking here about people who get into my bubble.  What can I say? I like a little bit of elbow room! Making it public.  I don't like arguing in general, but make it a public argument and I'm wishing I was anywhere but there, even if I'm not directly involved.  Disagreements between family members should take place in the privacy of one's home, not in a crowd.  Oh, and snide remarks are no better. They may be presented as a joke in some passive/aggressive maneuver, but they have the po

This post is supposed to highlight something I do well or know a lot about.  On the surface this seems easy enough. I mean, I know stuff.  I do a lot of stuff, some of it even successfully.  After all, the kids survived infancy and early childhood, I've held a steady job, earned almost all straight As through my undergrad and graduate work (there was an A- in the bunch), I read a lot, I research things that interest me, I take pictures, write stories, and scrapbook.  Yet, I don't really have any profound insight or sage advice to offer.  I'm not an expert in any one field. I am passionate about many things, though.  So, for the purpose of today's challenge, I'm going to focus on reading.  Read indiscriminately.  Challenge yourself to try something new.   I was a voracious historical romance reader for many, many years.  I read nothing else.  I went from swashbuckling pirates to arrogant lords of the realm to Indian braves.  Not a single story set in the mo

I am really enjoying BlogLovin .  I can't even tell you how I've discovered some of the great blogs I've discovered, but one of them has inspired today's post.  The author, Jenni, challenged her fellow bloggers to post every day in May. Challenge accepted!   Technically, this post should have gone up yesterday, but I already had A Doggy Walk ready to go.  It felt time sensitive, even though it probably wasn't, so I decided I'd play catch up on the challenge.  Expect two posts today.    Here goes...my life in 250 words or less.  I am the oldest of five children.  Two brothers, two sisters.  We grew up in a three bedroom ranch on a back country road surrounded by few neighbors and lots of trees.  The ten acres my dad had bought off my great-grandpa back in the early 70s butted up against State Land.  To say we spent a fair amount of time in the woods and skirting the cattail-ringed ponds would be a gross understatement.   My parents divor

I don't want to speak too soon and risk the return of winter, but I really think spring has arrived.  Sure, we'll probably have some cold, rainy days in our near future.  We may even have to wear our winter coats - or at the very least our fall jackets - and crank the heater in the car on the way to and from work a handful of times.   But, this.  This tells me spring is here and summer must not be too far behind.  Given the warm temps, budding leaves, and the months of cabin fever in our not-so-distant past, I couldn't resist packing up the pup and taking him for a long overdue walk.  While my oldest boy opted out of our little adventure, my youngest was up the challenge. This is what happens when I ask the boy to smile.  He looks slightly unhinged, doesn't he?  Silly kid. Here's the boy trying to keep Dexter the Devil Dog out from underneath some unwary cyclist's tires.  It probably wasn't a necessary precaution, though, as the p