"I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another."
~ Brenda Ueland ~
Image by: Clarkston SCAMP
Kreativ Blogger Award
Now you will all know the truth about how unbalanced I am. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. Awww, never mind. I guess it does.
Annnnnyway…
One of my favorite author friends, Heidi Willis, presented me with the Kreativ Blogger Award back in (cough) February. And I’m only just now getting around to officially thanking her for it and following the directions that go along with accepting it.
I’m supposed to write ten things about myself and then pass the award on to a few bloggers I enjoy. So, here goes!
Ten Random Things…
1. All my spices are alphabetized.
2. I tend to “speak” in movie quotes. A lot. (I do it often enough that my kids and hubby can usually complete the next line of dialogue when I start it. I know, that’s bad, right?)
3. I laugh really hard at my own jokes. Even if nobody else does.
4. I ALWAYS read the manual.
5. I’m a slow reader and try to make up for it by reading 2-3 books at the same time.
6. The minute I finish a book I really like, I immediately do an Internet search for every interview with the author I can find.
7. I’ve tricked my son into watching a variety of musicals as well as the first three Twilight episodes.
8. I never got to perform in a play in high school, but got the lead in the first college play I tried out for.
9. Um…I started running out of ideas here, so I just asked my daughter to give me a random fact about myself and she said, “You hold one-sided conversations with the dog.” Yeah. It’s true, I do. I say something. Then I make him say something. Then I respond. And so on. It’s sad really.
10. Okay, this last one is going to make me sound really mean, but I purposely park next to cars that are poorly parked (like on huge angles over the line and stuff.) I park right in the center of my space which typically makes it difficult for the bad parker to get back into their car. I feel like I’m performing a public service when I do this, though. I’m helping that driver become aware of the need to park more considerately in the future.
Now, let me send you on to some blogs I enjoy--beside’s Heidi's, of course!
Teresa is über talented and funny. A writer, homeschooling mom and unlike me, she grows stuff her family can actually eat!
Freelance journalist and author Kristine Meldrum Denholm shares interesting posts and encouragement for writers.
Annette Piper is a talented jewelry artist who blogs about her awesome creations and her life on a cattle farm in rural Australia.
Nancy blogs about her faith and life in the Midwest.
Ivy is a talented singer and writer. She blogs about her family, faith and living life to the fullest.
Quote of the Week
"I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that."
~ Lauren Bacall ~
Image by: Ftbester
Sup Dawg
Soooo…I was chatting with my boy the other day. And I was telling him how I’d met a woman whose kids were in their older teens and twenties, we were comparing war parenting stories when she’d joked, “My kids live for those moments when I use words wrong.”
Josh frowned at me, so I explained, “she meant slang.”
Aaahhh. His furrowed brow cleared.
“You know, I wouldn’t mind learning the meaning of some of the different slang terms you and your friends use?” I said, plopping down onto the couch beside him as he skillfully battled bad guys on his X-Box.
I caught him in a generous mood because instead of rolling his eyes as I might have expected, he was happy to expand my knowledge in this area. Now some of you younger, hipper moms may know all this stuff, but I didn’t--at least not all of it. So figured I’d share the info for the unenlightened, like me.
Just for the record, Josh assured me that “cool” is still cool, and “awesome” is still awesome. But as far as some of the newer stuff... (For simplicity, I’ve put the slang term in bold within a sentence.)
“Gotta bounce!”
Josh assured me we’re not talking about jiggling body parts here! It just means “I must depart from your presence now.”
“Let’s chill at Josh’s.”
“It means ‘hang out.’” Josh told me.
“Even if I have the heat on?”
“Even then.”
“Edward and Bella are going out.”
Varies with age. But for you parents of middle-schoolers, no worries. If your son or daughter is “going out” with someone, they’re not actually going anywhere. It just means they passed one of those notes--er, text messages along the lines of: “I like you, do you like me, circle YES or NO.”
“I’m planning to hook up with so-and-so later today.”
If you EVER say this in front of your teens, be prepared for them to start ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing). When I say “hook up,” I mean “connect with.” When teens say it, they mean, um… “really connect with,” if you know what I mean.
“He looks so hot!”
A friend of mine innocently said this about a hard-working repair man last summer, and yes, her kids were ROFL! She’d just informed everyone, her hubby included, that the guy was really, REALLY good looking.
“Ha! She totally owned you!”
This is not a throwback to indentured servitude or anything. Just means she totally dominated you in a game or something.
“Hey, Shoddy.”
Apparently, even some twenty-somethings can be out of the loop. My 20-year-old daughter was working at a soup kitchen. One of the gentleman diners asked her a question. Once he’d gotten his answer, he said, “Thanks shoddy, you can go.”
When she shared the story with one of her fellow workers, he cracked up. “He called you ‘shoddy’?”
“Yeah, why? Doesn’t it just mean ‘shorty’?” (My daughter’s only a couple of inches taller than me, which isn’t saying much!)
“Uh, no,” her friend replied. “It means, ‘hot girl’!”
“Oh.”
“Shotty front!” (Not to be confused with “shoddy”above.)
Shotty is derived from “shotgun.” The person who calls it first gets dibs on the front passenger seat in a car.
“Dude, that’s sick!”
You’re thinking gross or disgusting, right? Actually, it means the opposite. It’s so awesome, it’s…sick!
“Oh Snap!”
Pretty much like “Oh darn!” A polite way to say you’ve made a mistake.
“Sweet!”
While I automatically think of chocolate here. Josh explained it’s just another synonym for “cool.”
“His new car’s lookin’ tight.”
“Um…that all the bolts are screwed on and everything is holding together well?” I ventured.
“No, mom.” Josh laughed. “It means cool, excellent, awesome.”
“He’s such a tool.”
“He’s handy with a wrench or hammer?” Wrong again. It means that guy is a flirt, a total player.
“Don’t be a chicken, we’ll do the Bungee Jump together! YOLO!”
Not to be confused with that delicious milk chocolate and caramel candy, ROLO, YOLO means “You Only Live Once!” So go for it!
Final Notes: Apparently, there’s an unspoken rule that “grown-ups” aren’t supposed to use this slang. But whatevah! Why waste all this newfound knowledge? YOLO!
Image by: Rodrigo Favera
Quote of the Week
"A terrace nine stories high
Rises from a handful of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles
Starts from beneath one’s feet."
~ Lao Tzu ~
Image by: Francisco Dietz
Selective Attention
I’m currently deep in research for an article I’m working on and in my research I came across this fascinating video. At least I found it fascinating! I challenge you all to give it a try--it’s super short, only a little over a minute-- then post a comment to let me know how you did!
Quote of the Week
"We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."
~ C.S. Lewis ~
Image by: Steve A. Johnson
Spring Break
Okay, okay, I’m just kidding. I swiped this awesome photograph from a website I know nothing about but stumbled across because of its beautiful tropical images. You know when you’re stressed out and people tell you to go to your “Happy Place”? Well, right now this is mine! On previous spring and summer breaks, I’ve taken you gallivanting with us to Rome, Paris, Hawaii and more on this blog. But this year we are enjoying a simple “stay-cation.” I’ll be back in a couple of weeks.
Happy Easter, everyone!
Quote of the Week
"The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you can never know if they are genuine."
~ Abraham Lincoln ~
Image by: Alexander Gardner
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