Black

Hello fellow writers!  I am about to do my usual thing and attempt to follow the prompt to the best of my limited writing ability.   This week Jenny Matlock has assigned us the following: Use the picture - a black canvas, to create a 25 limit centus.   Click on the button below to link to the meme and read wonderful examples of real writing!  

I was inspired my the words on my favorite singer/songwriter...Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam.  These are not my words, they are his...but they are part of a truly lovely song about love lost.  My entry is in bold. 

"Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay...

Were laid spread out before me as her body once did.

All the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything..."

Sorry, too long, totally not my own work, but this came to mind immediately after seeing the prompt picture.  


For those who are regulars and know about Superman Sammy (my son who has been fighting leukemia), he is now OFFICIALLY OFF TREATMENT!!! Our canvas is no longer black....but we look forward to painting many pictures on it as we enjoy our lives together.  If you would like to celebrate with us and help fight this dreadful disease,  please visit: Sammy's Page




For your pleasure:

I Hope I Never Lose...

I hope I never lose my appreciation for the life I have. Although there are many major setbacks, particularly with my own child’s health, I am blessed with a wonderful family, friendships and relative stability. I live in a wealthy nation, I am educated, and I never go hungry. While I could look at those with more and feel slighted, I don’t. I really do understand how lucky I am, and I never want to lose that.

When we go through hardships, friends can be so crucial to both mental and physical survival.  Relying on others can also have a negative effect; one feels helpless, useless, a pain in the neck.  Yet, if we really stop for a moment and give ourself time to realize it is okay to accept the help of others, two things happen: first of all, those helping feel good about doing it, and secondly, there will be a time when  the need for support lessens and one can ‘give back’ in some way. 

So what is my point?  Well, I have learned many lessons related to all of this in the past couple of years.  I have accepted help and now have several projects in motion to ‘give back’.  When I saw a writing prompt about what I hope I never lose, my answer came instantly to me.  I have perspective and appreciation for life which, only a year ago, I would never have imagined having. 

A Challenge for You...and a Way to Promote Your Blog!

Friends are the most wonderful people.  Some are fun to hang out with, others are casual acquaintances, while a few are beyond "there for you" when you really need them.  I am blessed with many friends and especially blessed to have a few who are my rocks.  One such "rock" has created a fun Change Challenge to help raise awareness and donations for my son, Sammy's Light the Night walk.

Many know Sammy has been battling leukemia for over two years.  While we celebrate the end of treatment in a few weeks, the picture I took today (see above) clearly shows how much of a toll the chemicals we have to give him to fight the cancer takes on his little body.  This is "Steroid Week" an experience I would not wish on my worst enemy.  Hence the need to continue looking for cures and medicines that are less harmful for patients: Sammy is disabled...hopefully able to recover once treatment stops...and we have to monitor him forever to see if late-effects do more damage as he ages.

If you want a fun challenge, promote your blog, and help kick cancer's butt, click on over to Shannon's wonderful blog designed to help Sammy and the thousands of others fighting now and in the future.

Children

Children are the greatest people on Earth. They speak from the heart, make no judgement about a person based on physical features, and have a knack of making me smile even at my darkest times.

Children don’t come with a handbook, which can lead to a number of issues with their upbringing and dealings in general. Despite every attempt at reading the Mommy Handbook, Parents Guide to Babies, How to Raise Kids who Love Themselves, etc…you could never find one book that actually gave you an answer to the particular question you had at the time….and there have been many questions!

Children grow and change.  Again…no handbook for this!  Children have their own point of view and you have NO idea where it came from….surely you made YOUR point of view very clear about respecting others and their differing opinions?  Why isn’t the message getting across like YOU want it to?  Why does your child insist on thinking and doing the opposite of what you want?  Oh yes, because you are trying to raise them to be thinkers!  Now, where is that handbook?

Children are exhausting!  They can run faster and longer and with a much higher pitched squeal than you ever did.  They can function on minimal intake of nutritious food and need less sleep than those books we now store in the garage say they MUST have in order to be human!

Children also love to REALLY need to have the latest and greatest gadgety thingy that has just been advertised, just like all the others that now lay broken in the garage along with the handbooks!

But what children REALLY are cannot be put into words.  The first smile, gummy and drool filled.  The hand that fits so snuggly into yours as you walk along the beach collecting shells.  The excitement of Christmas, the Tooth Fairy, the night before their birthday.  The scraped knee and the knowledge that only YOU can really make it better.  The kiss goodnight, sleep tight, mind the bedbugs don’t bite!  The words that come from the person who loves you most in the world…”I love you Mommy.”  And the knowledge that this little person means more to you than anything in the world as you utter, “I love you too!”

Forgetful

FORGETFUL!  That has been me of late.  Not just now and again, but all the time!

Take today for example: I prepared the lunches this morning and toddled off to work with the kids ready for school, only to discover that the lunch bags were still sitting on the kitchen counter instead of in the car!  ”Bother!” I said to myself…or something along those lines.

By lunchtime I had forgotten to call the doctor to cancel an appointment that  I only remembered I had this morning, thus had not arranged for someone to pick up the kids, hence the need to cancel….

At pick up, I had my youngest son’s backpack all ready to go, turned to talk to someone and promptly walked off to the car without said backpack!

Now I am home with my stale lunches, the backpack is still at school, and I am sure there is something I need to do now, I have just forgotten what it is!!!

Tuesday Tunes: Lonesome Tears

Lonesome Tears by Beck takes me back to living in a small apartment in Scarsdale, NY with my husband, new baby and two cats.  Beck is not the cheeriest songwriter in the world, but the album this song is taken from, Sea Change is well worth listening to.  I played it the night after my beautiful cat, Beetle, was put to sleep at only two years old.  He had kidney failure!

Now I am not a big cat lover, but Beetle was special...he just got into my heart and was my 'baby'.  (Don't worry, I loved my real baby a whole lot more and in a very different way.)  But my lovely little, kooky cat had left me and I was really sad.  Driving home from a class I was taking, Lonesome Tears came on and I just pulled over and blubbed my eyes out! I still can't listen to it without thinking about my Beetle.

I recommend ignoring the video (I don't like it much) but just closing your eyes and listening to the song...that is the best way to enjoy it!

Irish Breakfast

Link to the SOOC website by clicking the camera for background on this meme and links to other much more professional-looking pictures! 

A Good Irish Breakfast!

When my mum comes to visit from England, we tend to be tourists and do things I would not normally do in the place I now call home.  But for some reason, as many tourists do, we still cling to what we know...hence my mum ordered a good old Irish breakfast at a good old Irish bar in the heart of good old...Connecticut.  Go figure!