by Sarah | Apr 1, 2012 | Photography, Scavenger Hunt Sunday, Simple Things, Weekly Winners
A few old pictures and a few new make up my entries this week. For one of these I just didn’t want to try to compete w/ an old picture I had (Sun Flare).
All taken w/ Canon Rebel XS or my HTC Thunderbolt.
1. Clouds
“Every cloud engenders not a storm.” — William Shakespeare.
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2. Sun Flare
“Today a new sun rises for me; everything lives, everything is animated, everything seems to speak to me of my passion, everything invites me to cherish it.” ~Ninon de Lenclos.
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3. Seven
“I have low self esteem, but I express it the healthy way…by eating a box of Double-Stuff Oreos.” ~Miranda Hobbes
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4. Low Angle
“April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.” ~T.S. Eliot
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5. High Angle
“How can you be content to be in the world like tulips in a garden, to make a fine show, and be good for nothing.” ~Mary Astell.
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A Simple Thing:
The beautiful scent of our lilac bushes drew me outside. The butterflies littering the bushes were my simple pleasure for the week.
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You can find more pictures over at my flickr account.
Scavenger Hunt Sunday is run by the beautiful Ashley. Head on over to see more Hunters.
by Sarah | Mar 21, 2012 | All About Kennedy, All About Molly, Anger Issues, Autism, Special Needs, Therapy
[flickr id=”6270891807″ thumbnail=”small_320″ overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]We have known for a long time that our sweet little Angel girl had a temper problem.
Dichotomy that she is – she was the sweetest and smilingest baby ever…then on a dime she would launch into a screaming fit the likes of which I can’t begin to describe. She has the capability to burst ear drums with her high pitched scream. Worse than that, and the part that frightened us, was her tendency to self injure. Slamming her head into the corner of doorways, the floor, our faces. You know, whatever is handy.
We hoped she’d outgrow it. She hasn’t. Fortunately the self-injury part of it is softened down to the occasional digging at her nose until it bleeds. While she still throws major tantrums and fits – they have become the slamming her bedroom door and kicking it and the walls while screaming that life is unfair for a six year old little girl.
Then she started school. We didn’t know what would happen there. Feared the worst.
At her parent teacher conference we learned the truth of it.
When a teacher of Kindergarten children says there’s a temper issue – you know there’s a problem.
Since then we’ve heard little (or rather nothing) else that her temper was a continuing or growing issue. Until last week. Angel brought home from school a permission slip. The Guidance Counselor offers “small group counseling” for the students. Angel had been pegged and needed permission to participate in one.
“Friendship and Social Skills (Communication, appropriate expression of feelings and wants, problem solving skills)”
Hmmmm….Temper much?
So now every week my little Angel goes to a counseling session to try to learn to control her temper.
Tell me why this wasn’t offered earlier? Like when I asked the school about how to help her – or expressly said that she had a temper issue and we needed to know how to take care of it if it was noticed at the school.
Why is assistance only after a LONG period of them witnessing it? Why aren’t we listened to when we expressly say there are issues with our children? Are we not a squeaky enough wheel?
*~*~*~*
(P.S. Riley has also come home this week w/ the same note and will start her sessions on monday. Considering she has autism and spends EVERY recess all by herself – this also should have been offered sooner for her)
by Sarah | Mar 18, 2012 | Photography, Scavenger Hunt Sunday, Simple Things, Weekly Winners
I’m hoping that the upturn of weather means I’ll be more photographically active again. As it is, I had to sort of reinvent one of the prompts to make them all fit ;).
All taken w/ Canon Rebel XS or my HTC Thunderbolt.
1. Vintage
“Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.” — Heinrich Heine.
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2. Word or Quote
Time wasted is existence, used is life. ~Edward Young.
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Health is not valued until sickness comes. ~Thomas Fuller.
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3. Nature’s Own
“Just living is not enough…One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” ~Hans Christian Anderson
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Nature reclaims what humans destroy
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4. People
People Destroy
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And then rebuild
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5. Photographer’s Choice
“By plucking her petals you do not gather the beauty of the flower.” ~Rabindranath Tagore.
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A Simple Thing:
Something that I’ve come to enjoy finding is a wonderful vintage book. I love that the local half-price books carry them and once in a while I find one that is in excellent condition from the 19th century…If I can snatch it up right away. Like this one I got several months ago.
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You can find more pictures over at my flickr account.
Scavenger Hunt Sunday is run by the beautiful Ashley. Head on over to see more Hunters.
by Sarah | Mar 14, 2012 | All About Denver, Crap, The Teenager
[flickr id=”6982397429″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]It was bad enough last year when he hit the all too frightening age of 13. A teenager.
Then I get this in the mail.
“Freshman Course Planning”.
Suddenly we are talking what sort of diploma he’ll be getting. Extra curricular activities, electives, college courses taken at high school level.
It’s all happening too fast.
Forever he’ll be my baby…
But he’s not a baby any longer.
by Sarah | Mar 12, 2012 | Changing Tracks, General, Writing
Two years ago I wrote my first draft of Jane Doe’s story. It was a rush job, the story just wanted to come out too fast for me to be delicate and careful. Plot holes, bad grammar, really random head-hopping littered the project everywhere. It didn’t matter. When I write, that’s how I roll.
I wrote something like 225 chapters (approximately 500k words) in a five month period. I wrote the original 3 book series, and a lengthy 4th book in my ‘first draft’ sloppy format.
In the midst of that writing a character appeared in the third book. He started with just one line – and was never meant for more.
That one line gave me this picture in my head of this man. This man that would go by the nickname ‘Hammy’. The kind of man that would all but live on a bar stool (a la Norm), yet call a woman “Lady Jane”. That would mix it up with these rough & tumble men of the frontier, yet blush when my main character kissed him on the cheek.
This character wouldn’t let me go. He wound into my heart and now in my final drafts appears as early as the fourth chapter. His role isn’t major and it isn’t linear – his appearances are random, but always filled with heart.
This character went from being a one-note-wonder – a one-liner without anything further to add – to being a special part of the story.
I do love when that happens.
It’s not the first time it’s happened, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
It’s part of what excites me about writing.
What about you? What are your favorite characters that crawled their way out of nothingness?
