Hi, all. Here’s the link to the online version of my newest column at The Greenville News:
“Olympic TV ads hit home with moms and dads”
It’s got Winter Olympics, parenting, commercials and dogs. Hope you enjoy!
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
I've Been Whupped
Folks, I’ve been whupped: by two wonderful but needy children, by a week of no preschool due to snow–during which my 4 year-old and I both had the flu–by a job I love but is a lot of work (yes, husband: I hear you. I know I shouldn’t assign so many papers, ’cause then I wouldn’t have to grade them).
Whupped by my final semester of graduate school (where I want and hope and try to stay engaged and productive), by this wonderful new weekly writing deadline (i.e. my new newspaper column), by a house in which the mess multiples like Hydra’s heads, by writing the next novel in any spare (ha!) moment I have, and by always–always–wanting to be in every single place at once, so my family won’t miss anything.
But I am missing things. So I’m not signing off here, but just stepping back a little until the summer. My posting will be sporadic, but I’ll be sure to link to my weekly newspaper columns when and if they’re available online, and I’ll keep y’all posted with any other writing updates. As always, I’ll drop in if I see something too great not to share. I will also try to update my author Facebook page with news and maybe share a little on my Pinterest boards (I’ve recently posted new stuff there).
I hope you’ll forgive me and stick with me! And please don’t be a stranger: I want to know what you’re reading and doing outside in the great big world!
Thursday, February 13, 2014
First Newspaper Column is Out!
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| Headshot for The Greenville News by Paula Player Photography |
I'm thrilled to announce that my new parenting/outdoor/general life column is now up and running in The Greenville News! Makes me very happy to have a byline in my hometown newspaper again.
To check it out, go here.
And be prepared to read about Shakespeare and refrigerator magnets.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Winter Storm Pax & How I Got the Blues
Winter Storm Pax has officially settled in over our mountains here in Western North Carolina. Snowfall totals, NOAA tells us, could reach up to 14 inches.
Normally, this kind of news would have me pausing only to leap for joy before suiting up and heading outside with my entire family and a sled. But I've got the blues.
Earlier this week, my 4 year-old caught the flu. While she is now bouncing on the leather couch in between showings of Mary Poppins (a family favorite) and "Peg Plus Cat" (thank you, God bless you, heaven will repay you with cities of gold, PBSKids), I am now quarantined to the bedroom.
Here's my bed. Note the laptop, tea, and trash bag. That's for the plethora of gunky tissues. Out of the camera view is my Kindle, some magazines, my cell phone, the thawing ice pack I had to keep on my head when I woke up with a migraine (joy!), and Albuterol inhaler I normally only have to use for emergencies. Nice, right?
Here's me. This is no way for a snow girl like myself to spend the biggest snow event the South has seen in over a decade.
Sigh.
If you are in the path of Winter Storm Pax, I hope you stay safe and warm. And play in it for me, will you?!
Normally, this kind of news would have me pausing only to leap for joy before suiting up and heading outside with my entire family and a sled. But I've got the blues.
Earlier this week, my 4 year-old caught the flu. While she is now bouncing on the leather couch in between showings of Mary Poppins (a family favorite) and "Peg Plus Cat" (thank you, God bless you, heaven will repay you with cities of gold, PBSKids), I am now quarantined to the bedroom.
Here's my bed. Note the laptop, tea, and trash bag. That's for the plethora of gunky tissues. Out of the camera view is my Kindle, some magazines, my cell phone, the thawing ice pack I had to keep on my head when I woke up with a migraine (joy!), and Albuterol inhaler I normally only have to use for emergencies. Nice, right?
Here's me. This is no way for a snow girl like myself to spend the biggest snow event the South has seen in over a decade.
Sigh.
If you are in the path of Winter Storm Pax, I hope you stay safe and warm. And play in it for me, will you?!
Friday, February 7, 2014
Go Team!
I've lately been comparing my role in this wild hootenanny we call life to a juggler. It's not an old analogy: people, especially mothers, are constantly talking about trying to juggle the demands of home and career. Some people make it look easy.
It ain't easy. And I honestly think it isn't easy for the perfect people either--perhaps they just look better in public.
These days--to stick with the juggler analogy--I look like a clown in mid-fall, all my juggling balls in the air. So far, I've been catching them on the way down. But surely this will not remain the case. Certainly, they will all come crashing down. My goal is not to let them all crash down at the same time.
Tonight is the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. I LOVE the Olympics, but I especially love the Winter Olympics. Chalk it up to being a Southerner who's dreamt of snow most her life, but winter sports have always appealed to me. Some day, I'm going to write a novel about a biathlete. Because imagine the body and brain power it takes to cross country ski your brains out--an exercise involving all the large muscles and quite a bit of adrenaline--and then to stop, focus like a laser and engage the small muscles and the intellect enough to shoot and hit a tiny target. Astounding.
The Olympics, of course, are all about teamwork. From the arenas and their building and upkeep, the food, the travel arrangements, the planning to the athletes from each individual country relying on each other in a myriad of ways we never see as spectators. And then, as the TV commercials remind us, of course, there are the athletes' families: those people who have been cheering them on since birth, driving them places and providing them with the upkeep of whatever their sport entails, supporting them in innumerable ways and making sacrifices to do so.
All of it: teamwork.
What I have to remember, as I juggle these many-colored balls in the air--husband, daughters, home, grad school, career, writing--is that I never have to go it alone. I am part of a team. My husband is my key team member, and I'm incredibly lucky to have him in my corner. His sacrifices--from handling the girls alone at least twice a week so I can go in early and stay late after my night classes to study and write, to putting up with the inevitable monthly breakdown that comes screaming out of me like a train off its tracks when my graduate packet is due--allow me to do all these things.
Let me stop you here, lest you think feeding, bathing, and getting a 4 year-old and a 9 month-old to bed is an easy job. A job that anyone could do. Well, perhaps so. But it's a whole different ballgame when you're playing man on man than when you're the only one covering. When it's you alone, it's like running the gauntlet. Except instead of medieval crazy people coming at you from both sides with swords and rocks and spikes, it's naked screaming children with honey in their hair and poo poo on their hands.
But back to teamwork.
It's my job to use my time wisely. If ever a phrase were so over-used ... and so daggum true. It's also my job to finally accept that I may not do all these things well, not all the time.
Here goes....
And Go USA!
It ain't easy. And I honestly think it isn't easy for the perfect people either--perhaps they just look better in public.
These days--to stick with the juggler analogy--I look like a clown in mid-fall, all my juggling balls in the air. So far, I've been catching them on the way down. But surely this will not remain the case. Certainly, they will all come crashing down. My goal is not to let them all crash down at the same time.
- In my brand new Team USA Sochi 2014 sweatshirt. I love a good sweatshirt.
The Olympics, of course, are all about teamwork. From the arenas and their building and upkeep, the food, the travel arrangements, the planning to the athletes from each individual country relying on each other in a myriad of ways we never see as spectators. And then, as the TV commercials remind us, of course, there are the athletes' families: those people who have been cheering them on since birth, driving them places and providing them with the upkeep of whatever their sport entails, supporting them in innumerable ways and making sacrifices to do so.
All of it: teamwork.
What I have to remember, as I juggle these many-colored balls in the air--husband, daughters, home, grad school, career, writing--is that I never have to go it alone. I am part of a team. My husband is my key team member, and I'm incredibly lucky to have him in my corner. His sacrifices--from handling the girls alone at least twice a week so I can go in early and stay late after my night classes to study and write, to putting up with the inevitable monthly breakdown that comes screaming out of me like a train off its tracks when my graduate packet is due--allow me to do all these things.
Let me stop you here, lest you think feeding, bathing, and getting a 4 year-old and a 9 month-old to bed is an easy job. A job that anyone could do. Well, perhaps so. But it's a whole different ballgame when you're playing man on man than when you're the only one covering. When it's you alone, it's like running the gauntlet. Except instead of medieval crazy people coming at you from both sides with swords and rocks and spikes, it's naked screaming children with honey in their hair and poo poo on their hands.
But back to teamwork.
It's my job to use my time wisely. If ever a phrase were so over-used ... and so daggum true. It's also my job to finally accept that I may not do all these things well, not all the time.
Here goes....
And Go USA!
Friday, January 31, 2014
Friday Show & Tell: the Forgive Me Edition
Hi, folks.
I'm on a major deadline for Monday, and my 4 year-old's preschool was let out early one day this week and cancelled for three days due to snow and ice. Less than two inches of it (it's the South). I'm basically a basket case, because the time I needed to spend working on those deadlines was spent teaching and at home corralling my precious little scamps.
Okay, so I went sledding with my 4 year-old. And my dog.
And we walked downtown for bakery items and to make snow angels with friends.
And I watched DVRed reruns of The Newsroom. Which is going off the air after it's 3rd season. Sigh. Nobody writes for television better than Aaron Sorkin. Come on!
So this is partly my fault. But still: three and a half days of no preschool does make a couple of writing deadlines tough to meet. You try to get anything done with a 4 year-old and an 8 month-old in the house. I dare you.
P.S.
I do actually have one thing to share, for those folks in Brevard, NC and nearby: Native Eyewear is hosting the Locals Only Project Award Party at The Lumberyard in Brevard on Saturday, Feb. 8th from 6 - 10 p.m. The new catalog, complete with shots from all around our fair town, will be handed out. I have heard that it's absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to celebrate my adopted hometown!
I'm on a major deadline for Monday, and my 4 year-old's preschool was let out early one day this week and cancelled for three days due to snow and ice. Less than two inches of it (it's the South). I'm basically a basket case, because the time I needed to spend working on those deadlines was spent teaching and at home corralling my precious little scamps.
Okay, so I went sledding with my 4 year-old. And my dog.
And we walked downtown for bakery items and to make snow angels with friends.
And I watched DVRed reruns of The Newsroom. Which is going off the air after it's 3rd season. Sigh. Nobody writes for television better than Aaron Sorkin. Come on!
So this is partly my fault. But still: three and a half days of no preschool does make a couple of writing deadlines tough to meet. You try to get anything done with a 4 year-old and an 8 month-old in the house. I dare you.
P.S.
I do actually have one thing to share, for those folks in Brevard, NC and nearby: Native Eyewear is hosting the Locals Only Project Award Party at The Lumberyard in Brevard on Saturday, Feb. 8th from 6 - 10 p.m. The new catalog, complete with shots from all around our fair town, will be handed out. I have heard that it's absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to celebrate my adopted hometown!
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Snow Day!
It finally snowed! All hail the snow!
And a good time was had by all.
Wherever you are, I hope you're safe, warm and happy. And if you can, get outside and play!
P.S. Lest you think we forgot her, Baby Willa was warm, safe, and asleep inside. We'll get her out today.
And a good time was had by all.
Wherever you are, I hope you're safe, warm and happy. And if you can, get outside and play!
P.S. Lest you think we forgot her, Baby Willa was warm, safe, and asleep inside. We'll get her out today.
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