Six-word Saturday

A whole lotta nothin' goin' on...

 

and that's just the way I want it! After a fun (but busy) week full of commitments, today is my day to relax, and that's just what I'm going to do. I'll read and write and maybe watch a favorite show or two. This is my kind of Saturday. ☺

Wishing you all a fun and relaxing weekend.

Six-word Saturday

Perfect morning: coffee, quiet, many words.

My house is quiet, my kids and husband still asleep. I've been awake for quite a while though, sipping coffee, reading, and writing. I can't think of a better way to start my weekend!

Wishing you all a peaceful and relaxing Saturday. ☺

 

 

Six-word Saturday

Learning to be a kid again.

 

I recently started writing a middle grade novel, and I'm having a wonderful time with the process! It's so much fun to read books for eight- to twelve-year-olds and remember what it was like to be a kid all those (many) years ago. I'm also lucky to know a few kids in this age group, and their input has been invaluable. So far, this book has been a joy to write!

 

Wishing you all a happy, fun-filled Saturday. ☺

 

Let's talk about books!

Today I'm linking up with Booking Through Thursday, a weekly meme about books and reading. You can find out more here.

Today's question is a simple one: What are you reading right now?

As usual, I have a couple of books going. The first is Ted Kooser's Pulitzer Prize-winning Delights & Shadows. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that Kooser, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, is my favorite poet. He writes what many people describe as "accessible" verse, always finding new and creative ways to look at the ordinary, simple things in life. I've read this book before—it's a wonderful collection—and my favorite poem in it is one I've mentioned before, "Tattoo."

I also enjoy this one, "A Room in the Past," which is found in Kooser's One World at a Time. Here he is reading it:



If you're interested in reading some poetry, Delights & Shadows is wonderful—although in my opinion, you can't go wrong with any of Kooser's books.

Another book I'm reading right now is the irreverently titled Sh*tty Mom by Laurie Kilmartin, Karen Moline, Alicia Ybarbo, and Mary Ann Zoellner. It's a somewhat funny (in my opinion), tongue-in-cheek parenting guide. My local library was featuring it, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Would I recommend it? Eh...I'm not sure. There have been moments when I've laughed out loud while reading it, but overall, I think it's just mildly amusing.

A book I do recommend, however, is a young adult novel I finished earlier this week: Every Day by David Levithan. It's about a person who wakes up each morning in the body of someone else, which, because it's the only life the character has every known, seems to work out fine—until, that is, love becomes a factor. The tagline says it all, I think: "Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl." It's not my usual genre, but I found this book to be moving and well-written, and I definitely recommend it.

So that's what I've been reading lately. What are you reading? What do you recommend?


Wishing you a wonderful Thursday!

Location, location, location!

Happy Thursday!

Today I'm participating in the Booking Through Thursday meme hosted by Deb. Click the button below if you'd like to play along.

Here's today's question:

What’s your favorite place to read? Do you have more than one? Can you read anywhere, or do you need things to be “just right?” Bonus points for sharing a photo of your favorite spot.

I can—and do—read just about anywhere: in the car, in bed, in the bathtub, while lying on the couch or sitting on a hard bench at story time as someone else entertains my kids. I read while I brush my teeth and when I cook dinner. I read at the computer and outside at the patio table and during commercials when I'm watching TV. When I was a kid, I even read during church. I know, I know... ☺

My kitchen table, a few of my current reads, and my favorite
mug. (Yes, it's a Santa mug, but I use it year-round!) Behind
the mug is a pine tree branch that my son found and asked me
to put in water. What we won't do for our kids! ☺

My favorite place to read right now, though, is at the kitchen table, early in the morning before anyone else is awake. I get up at around 5:30 each weekday, pack my son's lunch, and then sit down with a cup of coffee and a book for a few peaceful minutes before I need to rush on to the next thing on my to-do list. I love easing into my day by immersing myself in someone else's story.



What about you? What's your favorite place to read?

 

50,092 words for the win!

Happy news on this Wednesday: I crossed the Camp NaNoWriMo finish line last night!

I ending up writing just over 50,000 words in twenty-eight days. My project, a family history memoir, is nowhere near complete, but I'm happy to have made such a significant dent in it. My cabinmates were supportive and encouraging, and we had a lot of fun writing together. Although I've participated in NaNoWriMo many times, this was my first experience with Camp Nano. I'll definitely go camping again!

Also on the writing front this month: I bought two new books: Now Write! Nonfiction and The 3 A.M. Epiphany. I'm looking forward to reading the first one because it contains several writing exercises pertaining to memoir and creative nonfiction, which I'm certain will be helpful as I finish my Camp NaNo project and look toward revising my own memoir. The second book looks great as well. Its focus is fiction, which I'm eager to start writing once again. I have to—those voices in my head need to get out!

So that's been my month in a nutshell—"camping" and reading. How was your August? Did you read anything great? Do a lot of writing? What's been keeping you busy?

B is for Books

I love to read. When my sister and I were kids, we would stay at our grandma's house in town for a few days in the summer, and we'd always walk to the library, then carry home stacks and stacks of books, which we'd devour in no time and then crave more. I still read like that, which is probably why I don't get as much sleep as I should. Every year I set a reading goal. Last year's goal was 104 books, and I read 108. This year I've set the bar at 110. I'm reading number 27 now.

The push and pull

Today's 100 words:

I stayed up too late reading again last night. I never mean to--I know how deeply tired I am and how much my body and mind crave rest since my first child was born five years ago. Before, I used to drink coffee in the mornings because I liked the taste. Now I drink it because I need it to push me closer to awake. Still, as anyone who reads knows, it's hard to put a good book down--no matter the time, no matter how tired, no matter the push/pull of reading love and need for sleep.

It's gotta grab me

Today's 100 words:

I used to feel as though I needed to finish every book I started. In the past couple of weeks, however, I've probably given up on at least five books, and of the three books I started yesterday, I think I'll continue with only one. (Admittedly, that was an odd reading day.) I pick up books based mainly on their back covers, and as we all know, sometimes the writing doesn't deliver on the blurb. As I've gotten older, I've decided that if a book doesn't grab me in the first thirty or forty pages, it's not worth my time.

On sleep (again)

I've noticed that the older I've gotten, the more I think about sleep--and my lack of it. There are so many things I want to do each day that often sleep seems secondary and unimportant. I woke this morning after getting about five hours of rest, and my tingly hands and tired eyes led to today's 100 words:

I need to get more sleep. Nearly every morning, I wake up with tingly hands, something that always signals I haven't had enough rest. I've gotten myself into habits that are hard for me to break: getting up early so I can have an hour or two of quiet time and going to bed late because I like to read and write after the kids are asleep. Most nights I get between four and six hours of rest, which my nearly forty-year-old body can't seem to handle anymore. Something has to give. Reading, writing... Sleep is important, too.

Cocoon

Today's 100 words:

Some mornings when I wake up, I look over at the stack of books next to the bed and wish I could abandon all my responsibilities just for a day and read the hours away, curled up on the couch with something to drink--coffee or tea, perhaps--and a blanket to wrap up in, one of the ones my mom crocheted, and I think I would read and nap alternately, since those are the two things I seem to crave now--books and sleep--and outside my lovely cocoon, the day could bring whatever it wanted: sun, rain, snow...

Snippets

My husband went back to work today after having had ten days off for the holidays. I'm sad. Even though I as a mom never get a vacation, it was nice to have some extra help around here.

This morning I picked up a copy of Charles Bukowski's The Pleasures of the Damned. It's a volume of poems written between 1951 and 1993. At nearly 550 pages, it will take me a while to read, and I'm looking forward to starting it when I get a spare moment.

Right now my priority needs to be sleep. My two-year-old daughter has croup, and last night she woke me up three times. I think I might have gotten three or four hours of sleep in total, which is just not enough. The kids are eating lunch right now, and I think I might try to sneak a rest when they finish--one ear open and listening to them play, of course. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll let me.

So that's life at our house today. How are things going at yours?

Rain

Today's 100 words:

It's raining today, one of those I-wish-I-could-stay-in-bed-and-just-forget-about-the-world kinds of days, gray, no hint of sunshine, the only sound the pitter-patter of raindrops on the window, on the roof. It's an I-want-to-just-sit-and-read-all-day kind of day, curled up on the couch with a blanket and a cup of tea or hot chocolate, letting the world go by while I live someone else's story, experience someone else's life. It's a never-get-dressed kind of day, a stay-in-my-pajamas kind of day, a day to let the world go on without me while I disappear inside myself and hide away, safe behind my own four walls.

I spy

Today's 100 words:

The tree house was the perfect place to spy on people. High in the backyard maples, it wasn't noticeable unless someone were to look up, and even if a person did see it, it would be difficult for him or her to know if the house was occupied. I spent summer days reading there, sitting in my little red chair near the screened-in window, looking up from my book from time to time to watch leaves dancing in the breeze and listen to the people outside, talking freely, never suspecting they were sharing their secrets with me.

A necessity

Today's 100 words:

I love to read. Each year I resolve to read 104 books, a manageable two books a week. In 2005 I started keeping lists of the books I read, and although so far I've never met my goal, I've always come close, reading anywhere from 95 to 102 books a year. This year I expect to succeed, as I've already read 86 books. I can't imagine my life without the escape that reading provides, can't fathom being unable to immerse my mind in someone else's life and forget about my own. For me, reading isn't a luxury; it's a necessity.

But have I learned my lesson?

This morning's 100 words:

 

My hands are numb this morning, the way they always get when I haven't had enough sleep. It's a pins-and-needles feeling, and I don't know why it happens, but I wake up with it whenever I don't allow myself to rest. The stupid thing is that I know I need to get more sleep, but each night I go to bed well past the hour I should. I stay up late reading, usually, or writing, then finally turn off my light for my scant five hours of sleep, knowing I'll complain the next day about how tired I am.

My ongoing battle with time

One of the things I'm still struggling with as a writer is finding the time to work on my bigger projects. As a mom, I realize that the moments I can carve out among cooking and cleaning and playing with the kids are precious, yet at the same time, I have difficulty utilizing those ten- or twenty-minute writing sessions effectively. Although they're perfect for writing things like blog posts and drabbles and my 100-word exercises, when I attempt work on anything larger, like my novel, I find that I can't concentrate, and before I'm even able to begin, the moment is gone and something else calls me away from the computer.

Getting up a couple of hours before the kids do used to ensure productive writing time, but I'm finding now that I'm often too exhausted to write, as I generally get only four or five hours of sleep a night. Going to bed earlier might solve that problem--and that's something I'm working on--but I have trouble unwinding after a long day with the kids and find that one of the only things that relaxes me is reading. Unfortunately, I just don't know when to quit, and I often stay up until one or two in the morning, going to sleep only when I can't keep my eyes open one second longer. These marathon reading sessions are creating a new problem: I often oversleep, something I wrote about in my 100-words entry this morning:

I overslept this morning, which has been happening more and more frequently lately. I had one of those heart-stopping moments where something woke me up (thankfully), and I sat up quickly, pulse racing as I realized that the clock said 7 a.m. and not the 6 a.m. it needed to say. My daughter's two-year checkup was scheduled for 9:30, which made my getting up late all the more difficult to deal with. Before I had kids, I never imagined how hard it would be to leave the house on time.

Now I know.

Anyway, regarding my larger writing projects, I'm at a loss. I don't believe it's an issue of finding time as much as it's an issue of learning to use the time I have more effectively. I'd be interested in hearing how you utilize the small bits of time you carve out during the day. How do you make the best use of those precious few moments?

Slow down

Although the day ended beautifully--warm weather and sunny skies--it started out quite gloomy, hence this morning's 100 words:

 

It's rainy today, dark and gray, and I don't feel like doing much of anything. I certainly don't feel like making a trip to the post office and another one to Sears, lugging the stroller out of the back of the van, strapping in the youngest, all the while getting soaked as the rain pours down. Today is a day that should be spent inside, reading books with the kids, writing, drinking hot coffee while wrapped up in a warm blanket on the couch. I welcome these gloomy days--they remind me to slow down, take time out, enjoy life.

Another memory: lazy weekends

I've been thinking a lot about my childhood this weekend, and this morning I wrote this one-sentence, 100-words exercise about lazy weekend mornings: 

 

I remember many lazy weekends when I was a child, mornings spent in bed, reading my favorite books and listening to the hum of the household around me--Mom and Dad talking in the kitchen, my sister in the living room, her spoon clanking against her cereal bowl, the Road Runner's beep-beep blaring from the television--and I would keep reading, forgetting about breakfast, forgetting sometimes about lunch, as I immersed myself in someone else's reality, someone else's life, until from a kind of fog, I would hear my mother calling me, jarring me back to my own reality.

A memory

A lengthy sentence I wrote for today's 100 words exercise:

Spring was a muddy time in Upper Michigan, and I can remember recesses during elementary school when we weren't allowed on the soggy playground and instead were told to play on the school driveway and sidewalks, where teachers and aides would patrol among us, ensuring that we didn't run out into traffic or throw balls at cars, and I can remember the gym teacher, Mr. Teddy, commenting on my looped pigtails as I paced the sidewalk that led toward the high school, wondering why we had to play outside at all, wondering why we couldn't just stay inside and read.