Barns, Bloggers and Dryads

 This is where I found my tree sprite after church last week.

Michelle, who writes at : Simplify Live Love, invited Iowa bloggers to a conference last Saturday, to meet, share and learn at her incredible family homestead, above and below. I got to meet bloggers who know how to do everything from promoting your blog, connecting to brands, increasing your page views through an increased online presence, to working with a virtual assistant and managing time. I am not sure how much of it will pertain to what I do and write, but it was invigorating to be in a roomful of people, men and women, who write for a living and love doing it. Thank you, Michelle, for hosting us! What a day!

My favorites? The people, and the really pretty chickens!

 Warming up my lasagna, we had a potluck straight out of a gourmet cookbook. Check out the Le Creuset showcase behind me...ooo!Beautiful stuff!

 My blogging girlfriends; the casual sort of blogger, like me. Melanie's blog: Many Hands House, and Rebecca's: Archie, Down!

 A shot inside Michelle and Dan's passive house.

One highlight: finding a high school friend...of my cousin's!...whom I remembered meeting a few years ago at my cousin's high school reunion. This is Nicole, who blogs at SAHM Reviews.

A Day Off? Letter-Writing, The Blood-Red Moon

I woke up this morning and thought that maybe we needed a day off. I sat down with my tea to contemplate what that would look like, and opened up the MCC *(Mennonite Central Committee) review we receive. I read about a day in the life of Congolese refugee children and their mother in a camp where they have lived since 2009. I realized that every single day of my life IS a day off. It is all about perspective.

Refreshed and ready then, I thought I would share our "back-to-letter-writing-campagn,"

Great Expectations

are not always As You Like It, sometimes they are more akin to A Comedy of Errors. When it comes to computers, I often feel like I am falling through a rabbit hole and I need a little Persuasion to get back on track. Today's experience was no exception. I began the day with a new intention; 30 days of keeping one daily habit, mine was to work on my book for 1 hour a day. It will feel like Paradise Found to finally finish a book.

Only, my google-doc-thingy, once opened, would not allow me to edit my book.

Writer's Block or Procrastination?

Writer's Block or Procrastination?

It's something to think about when assigning writing assignments to the children, only to find them walking around with a pensive air, "doing research" on the topic before beginning or mysteriously strumming a guitar in the corner, all thoughts of the project forgotten. Perhaps it is neither, perhaps this is simply part of the creative process, to be cherished and honored. This is November and for the first time I have given myself the goal, along with millions of other insane people doing "NaNoWriMo", of jotting down 50, 000 words of a novel in one month.

So far, this morning, I have entered an essay contest to win tickets to a Harry Potter event, ( way too cool to pass up), checked my email (who doesn't), posted a reply to a Waldorf homeschooling group, (it was a very moving post), sent a quick note to a friend, (a timely thing that couldn't wait) checked the weather forecast, in two different cities,(you never know), written in my food journal, (or I would have forgotten to add that fabulous homemade, gluten-free pizza my hubby made for me last night, mmm, not likely) made myself tea, (sleep is so dehydrating) played with the dog, (poor, fuzzy little guy) and written 0 words of the daily 2000. Maybe I should employ Lily's typewriter instead of this distracting computer. Sure, then I would finish a knitting project or paint the bathroom before settling down to write.

Have a fruitful day, I'm going to go write 2000 more words!

Days of Joy: Day Twenty

Charles Dickens

Our read-aloud these days is "A Christmas Carol," the original tale. Quote of the day from this work:

Dickens' description of the first time Scrooge sees his old pal, Marley's face in the door knocker:

"Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar."

Please be so good as to improve upon that, if you will.