My 1st Blogoversary & Giveaway

I’ve officially been blogging for one year today. Considering I began this adventure when I was still pregnant with my now nine-month-old, it’s hard to believe – as it is with so many of life’s affairs – that so much time has already passed. I started this blog on a whim, and I have to say, I’m so glad I did.

For those of you who know me personally, you know it’s somewhat uncharacteristic for me to be spontaneous and unguarded, which is why blogging has challenged me and helped me to grow more than I ever could have known it would. It doesn’t just keep me writing, it doesn’t just keep track of the most treasured moments of my life, but it also allows me to share those things and keep me connected.

So many of you have given me kind words of encouragement, and I don’t think I could ever adequately express how much I appreciate those words. I love knowing that I’ve written things that have resonated with you, brought back memories, made you laugh, given you hope. That’s what you all do for me, and I’m so thankful for each and every one of you.

And to think, all this wonderful fellowship began with one simple post.

As a special thank you, I’m giving away a $10 Amazon gift card to one of my lucky readers. It’s not much, but hey, it’s only my first anniversary, and the traditional gift is paper. Stick around twenty more years, and perhaps you’ll get some diamonds. J

To enter all you have to do is log in below and complete as many of the tasks as you wish. Each task lists the number of entries that it’s worth. A winner will be chosen randomly and announced next Sunday.

Thanks again to all of you, and I hope you’ll keep hanging out with me on my panoramic playground!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Writer's Block

When I was younger, a long, long time ago, in a house that didn’t have fancy things like a computer or the Internet or Blogger, I scrawled my ideas on notebook paper in the forms of silly stories and poetry and carefully composed my thoughts in a little purple diary with a tiny lock on the side.

Sometimes I think I did better back then than I do now. There’s something oddly gratifying about the scribble of a freshly sharpened pencil lead against clean, white paper that doesn’t happen with keyboard clicking. Not to mention there was significantly less eye strain.

My first story, inspired by R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series, was titled “The Horror of the Bunkin Party.”

What is a ‘bunkin’, you ask?

Well, you see, people in the south tend to leave the g’s off the ends of their words, such as when they say something like, “I’m fixin’ to go to the store” or “I’m gettin’ some bacon cause I’m cookin’ turnip greens.”

My mother, a true southern gal, referred to sleepovers as ‘bunking parties’, and I assumed that ‘bunkin’ was just some sort of adjective that described a sleepover where you made pumpkin buns or something.

When I finally discovered the error, I promptly changed the title of my story to “The Horror of the Sleepover.” Cause, you know, I’m so original.

The story was hilarious. I think. I don’t really remember it. (If I have any regrets in my life, it is only that I don’t still have that story.)  I just remember giggling to myself as I wrote it and reread it a thousand times.

All my young life I dreamt of being a writer, not knowing that a writer is simply one who writes. I was a writer – I just didn’t know it. When an idea hit me, I stopped what I was doing to go write it down. I would get up in the middle of the night to write down a dream so I wouldn’t forget. I’d write down silly things that made me laugh, and it all brought me a great deal of enjoyment.

It’s easy to take a hobby too seriously and forget that it’s fun, that you actually love it. When you’ve so tightly woven something into your identity, it can feel like a chore. You think you have to do it perfectly all the time or it’s no longer a part of your definition.

My fifth-grade self knew that the thoughts didn’t have to flow out in flawless fashion. Even if it’s goofy, even if no one reads it, even if it doesn’t make a difference in the world, it’s still okay to write it. Even if it has a really bad title.

It’s what I would do…when I was younger.

Favorite Photo From August

So I decided to enter this photo in the Click It Up A Notch contest for August. I was really happy with some of my straight-out-of-the-camera pics from our beach vacation, and I'm trying to take more time to learn and practice photo editing a little more, so I thought it would be great to get a little feedback. It was hard to choose just one, but I thought this was a fun pic to work with:

 

 

I know I broke the horizon rule (it's not level), but that just makes it quirky, which I like. And I love that the seaweed colors match what she's wearing.

 



Our Beach Vacation -and- Why The Photos Don't Tell The Whole Story

Ah, the beautiful, sunny beach.

 

Well, it was beautiful. But not sunny.

 

 

Happy children posed angelically as they enjoyed the surf and sand.

 

No, actually a worn out little girl played too hard

 

 

And a teething, cranky infant had moments of delight

Mixed with many more moments of displeasure

(Despite what the photos say).

 

But the camera rarely gets grabbed during the tough stuff.

 

 

Because life, in all of its glory and splendor and muck and mess, has these rare moments of awe and wonder that make us stop for a moment and breathe it all in.

 

 

 

We can't get caught up in the grime. After all, it rinses off.

 



 

And we make more time for monkeying around.

 



 

It's okay if the seas get a little rough. As long as we're together.

 



 

 The sun finally comes out, the days eventually brighten, and the big blue eyes light up again.

 

 

 Sometimes, though, I do wonder if, in order to tell the whole story, I need more photos like this one:

 

 

But I've always been partial to the idyllic.

 



 

Maybe it doesn't matter what we choose to capture because it's all part of the story. Besides, the good stuff is supposed to be hard. That's how we know it's worth it.