Yesterday, I was "along for the ride" when the Crowe kids went Trick or Treating at the nursing home...great hilarity! They made the nursing home residents SO HAPPY! I generally don't condone celebrating Halloween, especially after researching it a bit, but nothing could convince me it's wrong for a bunch of little kids to dress up and and go cheer up some lonely elderly people! They just loved giving the kiddos candy. I must say, I think the kiddos enjoyed getting it! ;)
When I came to the door yesterday morning, I was met by Rodgie the Mummy, who seemed to have some difficulty keeping his gauzy trappings intact. We also had Bron the Pirate complete with clip on gold earring and clip on parrot. Then there was Batman Brent and Superman Tucker. Clarky was a lion in a saggy baggy suit- soft, tote-able, and fun to pet. Noey was simply...himself. Adorable.
It's amazing how, while it seems so awkward for adults or, ok, kids acting like adults, (Me, at least) to relate to some of the people in the nursing home, the kids bring the hugest smiles to their faces with such little effort! Especially kids in costumes! Those withered hands reached from wheelchairs to offer candy on every side.
The kids, of course, were living it up. They were really polite and sweet, while at the same time, really enjoying their candy! Clarky trundled down the hall, slurping a multicolored sucker whilst his furry golden tail trailed behind. His ears stuck up, begging to be petted. Later, I saw him sucking a new lollipop, after losing the first in a sticky wasteland of lion hide. The new one was one of those vivid ocean-blue-rasberry sort, so his mouth was duly decorated. It only made his eyes look wider.
Since Deb, Bron, and Noah were going to art lessons, I got to take the rest home for some schooltime. First, though, we needed to document the scene via digital camera. Unfortunately, King Tut had already been having an "Unwrap the graveclothes and let him go" moment in the back seat, so I had to wrap him back up properly. I guess I wouldn't have made a good Egyptian. Everthing kept coming down and there were spots I never could seem to get covered. Fortunately, his white shirt was a good disguise. After saftey-pinning Rodge, rounding up the superheros, and herding the lion and his newly acquired Snickers bar (which was mostly melted all over his front) to the front sidewalk, then finding the camera, then rewrapping Rodge's toes, then retrieving Clarky, then arranging everyone for the shot...I finally snapped the picture. And re-snapped, because Clark wasn't looking. Then wanted to re-snap, because he wasn't looking again...but in the end, I think the picture turned out pretty well, considering. Rodgy trekked into the house and dismantled himself, with great relief. I expect that being swathed from head to toe in stripes of white clothe would become somewhat of a nuisance after a while!
Every time I see those kids, I'm reminded how amazing it is that I get to experience life with them every week!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
All Nano's Eve
It's going to happen...I'm going to start Nanowrimo tomorrow! It's ridiculous, but I am getting butterflies in my tummy! That only happens on Rare and Very Special Occasions, and usually has to do with people, not...words. Especially not 50,000 of them that I haven't written yet!
Stats on the Nanowrimo website show that 58% of the people who sign up don't even start writing! If you simply start, you have a 31% chance of finishing! So, hey, I can start. If I even get, say, 20,000 words, I will probably be pretty impressed with myself. But of course, the goal is 50,000!
My poor blog is probably gonna suffer a bit this next month, but I'll come back, I promise.
*Big Smile*
Stats on the Nanowrimo website show that 58% of the people who sign up don't even start writing! If you simply start, you have a 31% chance of finishing! So, hey, I can start. If I even get, say, 20,000 words, I will probably be pretty impressed with myself. But of course, the goal is 50,000!
My poor blog is probably gonna suffer a bit this next month, but I'll come back, I promise.
*Big Smile*
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Impending Suicide of the Lazy Writer
I'm counting down the days 'til November 1st with a dose of both angst and excitement. For a few years now I've listened wistfully to participants' tales of glory and woe, and this year I'm determined to jump in and join the fray...
I'm going to do NaNoWriMo next month! (National Novel Writing Month), where you try to write 50,000 words in a month. If I take off on Sundays and Thanksgiving, that's somewhere around 2000 words a day. If I carve out the time, I don't think I'll have a problem writing that much, but this will definitely be a huge challenge. I'm not known for great story-finishing fortitude. Or story-starting fortitude, either. I love to write, but I haven't developed much discipline at all. I guess NaNoWriMo excites me because I won't be all alone...there is a goal and a sort of outward motivation to write. I won't be all dithered about subject, motives, time, and this, that, and the other thing. Once I'm in, I'm in.
In my conversations with God concerning NaNo, it was something like this:
"Alright, Lord, if I'm going to do this...if You really want me to commit to this (I really wanted to, but I wasn't sure if He would have me hide away from humanity to write for a month), I need You to give me:
1. A Laptop (which I had already been planning to get at some point, but would have to have if I'm going to be typing up 2000 words a day.)
2. Parental permission and support.
3. An Idea."
It may sound a little demanding of God, but after all, He is God, and I trust that He understood what I meant. I guess He did, because within a few weeks He'd abundantly provided all three. The idea (for a plot) was even kind of a bonus thrown in for good measure...I was willing to just take a leap of faith on that one. Oh, and that's another thing- showers are useful for something besides getting clean...the "Idea" popped right into my head in the solitude of my morning shower. It was so exciting that I layed awake at night thinking about it during the camping trip between starlit trips to the outhouse!
I won't say anything more about "The Idea" right now other than that it involves an eleven year old boy, a music box, and talking camels :) I figure that, right now, writing for kids is my best bet since I'm surrounded by plenty of raw inspiration (though I don't know about the camels...I haven't seen any of those recently!) I'm warning myself that this try at writing "in bulk" is only a practice round anyway.
I'm going to do NaNoWriMo next month! (National Novel Writing Month), where you try to write 50,000 words in a month. If I take off on Sundays and Thanksgiving, that's somewhere around 2000 words a day. If I carve out the time, I don't think I'll have a problem writing that much, but this will definitely be a huge challenge. I'm not known for great story-finishing fortitude. Or story-starting fortitude, either. I love to write, but I haven't developed much discipline at all. I guess NaNoWriMo excites me because I won't be all alone...there is a goal and a sort of outward motivation to write. I won't be all dithered about subject, motives, time, and this, that, and the other thing. Once I'm in, I'm in.
In my conversations with God concerning NaNo, it was something like this:
"Alright, Lord, if I'm going to do this...if You really want me to commit to this (I really wanted to, but I wasn't sure if He would have me hide away from humanity to write for a month), I need You to give me:
1. A Laptop (which I had already been planning to get at some point, but would have to have if I'm going to be typing up 2000 words a day.)
2. Parental permission and support.
3. An Idea."
It may sound a little demanding of God, but after all, He is God, and I trust that He understood what I meant. I guess He did, because within a few weeks He'd abundantly provided all three. The idea (for a plot) was even kind of a bonus thrown in for good measure...I was willing to just take a leap of faith on that one. Oh, and that's another thing- showers are useful for something besides getting clean...the "Idea" popped right into my head in the solitude of my morning shower. It was so exciting that I layed awake at night thinking about it during the camping trip between starlit trips to the outhouse!
I won't say anything more about "The Idea" right now other than that it involves an eleven year old boy, a music box, and talking camels :) I figure that, right now, writing for kids is my best bet since I'm surrounded by plenty of raw inspiration (though I don't know about the camels...I haven't seen any of those recently!) I'm warning myself that this try at writing "in bulk" is only a practice round anyway.
Food for Thought
(Well, just a snack)
"We all must at some time or another face forthrightly the tragedy of love and death, so that one day the pain of separation might be replaced by the joy of reunion with the beloved one."
-Vigen Guroian, Tending the Heart of Virtue
"We all must at some time or another face forthrightly the tragedy of love and death, so that one day the pain of separation might be replaced by the joy of reunion with the beloved one."
-Vigen Guroian, Tending the Heart of Virtue
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
More on the Camp Out
To answer Jesse's question...We camped with the Fritzes, Cavels, Reynolds, Hellmuths, and Bourciers. The weather was gorgeous...cold at night but not so unbearable you couldn't get up in the morning, and sunny\breezy during the days. It was lovely and clear until the minute we packed up, when it began to rain. Most of us were more or less packed, anyway.
Monday, October 22, 2007
The Camp out
Clean is a happy feeling. This is especially true after a camping trip :)
Our camp out went well, though I started out with a case of the sniffles and a bundle of misgivings. The happy camping words I listed in the last post were just optimistic attempts at a good attitude. I usually like camping, but I was pretty low on energy because of the head cold. I told Mom, with characteristic whinyness while standing in a kitchen cluttered in unpacked camping gear, "I just don't know if I'm up for this," and she said "You haven't even done any of the work yet!" Which was true. I confess, I'm not much of a fighter when I'm the least bit sick. I basically revert back to babyhood and wish I could curl up in somebody's lap with a blankie.
As I said previous to that unnecessary rabbit trail, the camp out went well. It was a lot more fun being with other families, (and probably cut down on my complaining.) The fresh air perked me up a lot.
On Saturday, eleven or so of us went on a nine mile hike on the Buckeye Trail, during which half of the group dunked themselves in a pool of icy water under a small waterfall that came down a chute. My crazy Dad was one of the dunkers. He was pretty animated the whole trip, because camping is one of his favorite things and he's somewhat of an expert at the whole map reading-trail blazing thing. All the non-dunkers sat on logs or took pictures. I refrained from the dunking business, hoping to avoid pneumonia.
On the latter part of the hike, Mary taught me her hiking technique of following the footsteps of the person in front of you...it definitely makes you keep up! I trotted along behind Dad and Mary trotted along behind me and...it pretty much ended up in hypnosis on my part! We had some interesting conversation, however! I discovered in Mary one of those rare personalities with whom you can discuss a subject analytically without actually having a debate. We both like to think and discuss, but really hate arguing. So we pondered aloud such questions as "If someone you know and trust told you to go jump off a cliff, would you do it?" Still undecided on that one. By the time we got home (to camp), I was somewhat dehydrated in brain as well as body :)
I made a new friend this weekend. Her name is Sarah, and she's five years old. I think she and Ethan are destined for each other, but that's just a matter of opinion :) Heretofore, she's always played with Mattie and Ethan, but this weekend she must have had an extra burst of friendly compassion, and latched on to me. While I was getting my shower stuff together after the hike, she came and plopped down on an air mattress next to me, observing my activities calmly from large serious brown eyes. "D'you wanna come see our camper?" she asked. I hemmed and hawed a little. She gazed intently at me for a while, and her eyes got a little more mocha every second. 'I've been waitin' for you all afternoon," she stated. I hadn't realized she knew I existed. Well, her charms soon had me taking a quick tour of the camper, and it was settled. We were friends.
Over the course of the weekend there were short bike rides, sightings of "Duckerina" from the dock, joint effort dishwashing, and a piggy back ride. I was thrilled. There's nothing more consoling than a small hand in yours, not to mention exposure to unlimited 5 year old imagination and a small head of tously light brown curls and bright brown eyes popping up everywhere you turn.
For some reason, I often get really mopey on camping trips, (too much time to think?), but thanks to Sarah, it was a very happy time! I think it was nice having everyone around in general. I 'm so thankful for our friends, for nature, for the perfect weather, for God's great love toward us.
There's a lot more to say, but it's time for some zzzz's.
Our camp out went well, though I started out with a case of the sniffles and a bundle of misgivings. The happy camping words I listed in the last post were just optimistic attempts at a good attitude. I usually like camping, but I was pretty low on energy because of the head cold. I told Mom, with characteristic whinyness while standing in a kitchen cluttered in unpacked camping gear, "I just don't know if I'm up for this," and she said "You haven't even done any of the work yet!" Which was true. I confess, I'm not much of a fighter when I'm the least bit sick. I basically revert back to babyhood and wish I could curl up in somebody's lap with a blankie.
As I said previous to that unnecessary rabbit trail, the camp out went well. It was a lot more fun being with other families, (and probably cut down on my complaining.) The fresh air perked me up a lot.
On Saturday, eleven or so of us went on a nine mile hike on the Buckeye Trail, during which half of the group dunked themselves in a pool of icy water under a small waterfall that came down a chute. My crazy Dad was one of the dunkers. He was pretty animated the whole trip, because camping is one of his favorite things and he's somewhat of an expert at the whole map reading-trail blazing thing. All the non-dunkers sat on logs or took pictures. I refrained from the dunking business, hoping to avoid pneumonia.
On the latter part of the hike, Mary taught me her hiking technique of following the footsteps of the person in front of you...it definitely makes you keep up! I trotted along behind Dad and Mary trotted along behind me and...it pretty much ended up in hypnosis on my part! We had some interesting conversation, however! I discovered in Mary one of those rare personalities with whom you can discuss a subject analytically without actually having a debate. We both like to think and discuss, but really hate arguing. So we pondered aloud such questions as "If someone you know and trust told you to go jump off a cliff, would you do it?" Still undecided on that one. By the time we got home (to camp), I was somewhat dehydrated in brain as well as body :)
I made a new friend this weekend. Her name is Sarah, and she's five years old. I think she and Ethan are destined for each other, but that's just a matter of opinion :) Heretofore, she's always played with Mattie and Ethan, but this weekend she must have had an extra burst of friendly compassion, and latched on to me. While I was getting my shower stuff together after the hike, she came and plopped down on an air mattress next to me, observing my activities calmly from large serious brown eyes. "D'you wanna come see our camper?" she asked. I hemmed and hawed a little. She gazed intently at me for a while, and her eyes got a little more mocha every second. 'I've been waitin' for you all afternoon," she stated. I hadn't realized she knew I existed. Well, her charms soon had me taking a quick tour of the camper, and it was settled. We were friends.
Over the course of the weekend there were short bike rides, sightings of "Duckerina" from the dock, joint effort dishwashing, and a piggy back ride. I was thrilled. There's nothing more consoling than a small hand in yours, not to mention exposure to unlimited 5 year old imagination and a small head of tously light brown curls and bright brown eyes popping up everywhere you turn.
For some reason, I often get really mopey on camping trips, (too much time to think?), but thanks to Sarah, it was a very happy time! I think it was nice having everyone around in general. I 'm so thankful for our friends, for nature, for the perfect weather, for God's great love toward us.
There's a lot more to say, but it's time for some zzzz's.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Small Embarrassment
I'm embarrassed to find that I spelled pomegranate wrong multiple times throughout my last post. Horrors! I did use spell check and saw that I'd spelled it wrong, but for some reason the corrections didn't take. Oh well.
I won't be posting for a while because we're going camping in Arkansas (Shady Lake) for a long weekend with some other families. Breezes...campfires...coffee...stars...falling leaves...should be nice.
As Tigger says, "Te-Te for then, Ta ta for now..."
I won't be posting for a while because we're going camping in Arkansas (Shady Lake) for a long weekend with some other families. Breezes...campfires...coffee...stars...falling leaves...should be nice.
As Tigger says, "Te-Te for then, Ta ta for now..."
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