Super Saver Weekend Sale June 27-28

A great sale over at Inspiration-Lane for all you digi-types. Here's what Scrapper Girl Designs has to offer:



Also check out the great deals on items by Kiki Halbert Designs and Sharia Braxton. Happy Scrappin'!

Maybe someday....

What’s going to be in the book you are going to write?

No matter what the subject, or whether it is fiction or non-fiction, or how long the piece is, my writing must always contain an element of hope. Even if the subject matter is grim or depressing, the reader must always come away feeling the hope and redemption of God.

I have no idea what my book will be about --- I have a couple of ideas rattling around in my head --- but I pray that the characters will be people you'd love to have a cup of coffee with, a story line that keeps you reading and an ending that will make you smile.

Ahh. Maybe someday.

****
My entry for the ScrapOrchard CT contest. Using the Starry Night kit.

Older than the hills...

Blog prompt: Name five (5) things that have been in your refrigerator for more than a week.

1. Salad dressings of various flavors
2. Large (I'm talking Sam's Club large) jar of dill pickle chips
3. Yogurt
4. Sour cream (our favorite addition to nearly every meal)
5. Wheat germ

I hope that list is no more bizarre than anyone else's :)

An exercise in creative writing

From creative writing prompts. Using one of the sets below, use all the words in your chosen set to write a mini story of 300 words or less.

Set 1: paper clips, principal, lunchbox, swing, girl with a pink ribbon
Set 2: biology, class card, foreign student, leaf, blood sample
Set 3: typewriter, filing cabinet, puncher, clerk, carbon paper, janitor


I fiddled nervously with the paper clips that were on my desk. My desk. Yeah! I had a desk. I opened the bottom drawer on the left side, reassuring myself that my lunch box hadn’t walked away. I had my own desk, with my own paper clips and my own lunch box.

The shrill bell rang, knocking me back to the present. The doors to my classroom exploded inward with the force of twenty little bodies coming full speed. I couldn’t help but smile at the bundles of energy that would be in my charge for the next six hours. I breathed a quick prayer and took a deep breath. How much fun we would have!

That was 7:55am. Now it was 12:45p and although I had started out with high hopes, my day had by now devolved into a disaster film. Two children had hidden in the corner to eat paste, while I was distracted with the budding engineer who had created a swing out of a sheet from the puppet stage and a couple of yardsticks. I’d already sent a little girl to the nurse’s office. She now had a purple shiner that would compliment her pretty pink hair ribbon.
Finally, mercifully, the bell rang. The door closed behind the last angelic child and I laid my head on my desk. My ears were ringing, my body ached and I didn’t even look up when the principal walked into my office. I just raised my hand in a gesture of surrender.

I could hear him chuckle a little bit. “I’ll have to tell you about my first day sometime. Mine was a doozy too!”

Living within my means

Blog Prompt: e e cummings once remarked, “I’m living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.” Do you find that more people today are living beyond their income?

Yes, it seems that most people will live well beyond their income for several reasons, I think.

1. To have what their parents have, or the same lifestyle they enjoyed before they needed to provide for themselves
2. Because they feel entitled to what they want, whether or not it is good for them
3. Or they believe that having things will make them successful and happy
4. Or because they're stupid (how's that for not mincing words?)

My family and I work very hard to live a comfortable life within the means we have. We've learned to live on (horror of horrors!) a BUDGET. If we don't have the money for it, WE DON'T BUY IT!. I admit to being a Dave Ramsey fan and changing my way of thinking about finances has certainly changed my life. I don't miss all the "extras" like eating out or going to movies. And because we've been 'good', I have the privilege of working a part-time job now that I love! If we were in debt (like most of America) I'd be working in a gloomy little cube farm and hating every minute of it. GET OUT OF DEBT, AMERICA..you'll thank me for it, someday!

* Do you think you hit one of my hot buttons with that prompt, Tink? :) *

Digital Scrapbook Deal

Sharia Braxton is selling her latest Digi-Duo (with Kandy Kane Creations) at a discount for Monday, June 15th only! Check out the layout I did, starring my sweet little boy, Jackson:

Beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Seems that spring finally deigned to descend upon us. The weather was unbelievably beautiful yesterday, so the children spent most of the day working off all the energy accumulated by two weeks' worth of rain and no sunshine. The kids all played, while my neighbor and I caught up on some grown-up conversation. What a treat. Thanks, Jaime!

**Scrapping news: If you haven't noticed, I'll just say that I am privileged to be a CT member for ScrapperGirl Designs. Her kits have beautifully-textured papers, a great variety of elements and her alphas are fun, but not too cutesy. If you haven't seen her kits, check it out at Inspiration-Lane. And today is the Super Saturday Sale:

Politically Correct

Blog Pompt: “Political correctness is tyranny with manners.” ~Charlton Heston. Do you agree? Why or why not?
I'd never heard this quote before (by one of my favorite actors of all time!) but I agree wholeheartedly. It is difficult to call a spade a spade when one needs to fear criticism because the word spade might cause someone offense. When political correctness is a way to 'manage' dissemination of the truth--from either the left or the right--then it is tyranny. For example, because it is politically incorrect to say that that men and women are inherently different, we are not allowed to use that truth to overcome the obstacles created by that truth, but we instead skirt around it, fixing symptoms and ignoring the foundation. We do ourselves a disservice by hiding truth behind a veil.


My May Month in Review layout. Click on image for full credits.

Zoo Month? Who knew?

On Sweet Shoppe's blog, they mentioned that June is Zoo Month and asked what our favorite animal at the zoo is. Here's my answer: I don't have a favorite! If you've followed this blog for any time at all, you'll know that I am not really what you would call an "animal person". So when I go to a zoo or aquarium, I tend to view the animals with a scientific or philosophical bent. When we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in April I enjoyed finding out that sea otters have a million hairs per square inch (far more than humans who have about 20,000) on their bodies which made their pelts so valuable and why they were hunted almost to extinction. We went to Reptile Gardens recently, and I loved seeing the 128-year-old tortoise (think of all the things that have happened to the world since that tortoise was born--not that he cares!). And who doesn't love watching somebody wrestle an alligator? At the Denver Zoo a few years ago, there were peacocks just walking around and I loved that. So, nope, I don't really think I have a favorite!

**No segue here, but fellow scrapper's take note of a great deal coming this weekend:

I used the alpha on this page and loved it!

Me? Famous?

Would you like to be famous? Why or why not? If so, what would you like to be famous for?

There are certainly many different kinds of fame. The word 'notorious' is a perfect example of fame that I would prefer not to have. I would rather be noted for my intelligence, humanitarian efforts or my creativity than for doing something stupid, illegal or (heaven forbid) both :) I'd like to write a book and publish it, but I somehow think I wouldn't be a very good celebrity, as I am much more comfortable in my role as a wallflower.

The minute I saw this prompt, this commercial came to mind. It's one of my favorites of late. Maybe you'll get a laugh out of it as well.