Celebrate the Small Things: Taking a Breather

Celebrating the end of the A-Z and enjoying a breather. 

I'm getting ready for my mother's 90th birthday out of town this weekend. The family is planning a surprise potluck for her at my brother's home, one of her favorite ways to gather. Then I'm bringing her back with me for a couple of weeks. I have no idea what we will do, but I have a hunch we will end up in the garden pulling weeds, or down by the river collecting rocks, or sipping coffee on my patio. 

Maybe we will go bird watching. I have been told there are pelican down by the river. I haven't seen one yet, but I did see a bald eagle one day perched high in a tree. I'm still learning about all the bird life here. I have seen plenty of killdeer, geese, robins and quail already. Maybe I'll take Mom to Bingo at the senior center or Bible study at the church on Monday. 

And I'm dying to take her out in our new golf cart. She doesn't play golf (I barely do myself) but I know she would love a tour of our lush green course. Whatever we do, I know it will be relaxing and filled with plenty of conversation. I have learned much from this still 'young at heart' woman of 90 years!

Check out our new toy, and it's all electric. I know how to drive it, just wish I 

knew how to golf (one lesson wasn't enough). One nice thing is 

we can drive off the course anywhere in the community.

Have a nice weekend everyone!!

  

Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is visit the Celebrate page on Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful for that week. It can be about writing or family or school or general life. This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! (Originated by VikLit)

Co-hosts of Celebrate the Small Things are:
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Katie @ TheCyborgMom

Celebrate the Small Things: Daily Pleasures

 
A long walk down 
by the lake.

A wind-free day 
when fifty-something 
felt like seventy. 

Geese flocking together on the water.

Flying in for the 'honking' convention. 





 
Killdeer following me as I walk, leading me away from their family. 

Do killdeer really nest this soon? 

Tortilla pizza lunch with friends,

A nurturing talk with my writer bud

Helping another with her new blog. 

My Recipe for Tortilla pizza

1 flour tortilla
Meat topping
1 TB Tomato paste
Vegetable toppings
Mozzarella

Spread tomato paste on one tortilla. Sprinkle with oregano and/or other Italian spices. Top with meat (try cooked chicken breast and/or sausage). Add vegetable toppings (I like green & red pepper, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and one green olive, all chopped of course). Sprinkle mozzarella over all.  Place on one lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake in 400 degree oven for 12 minutes. If tortilla isn't crisp, bake longer. It's the crispness that makes this thin crust pizza so delicious. Also, I purchase freshly made tortillas, so try to buy fresh if you can. Enjoy!


  These are the kind of daily pleasures that filled my week. The only thing that sort of went wrong was not entering the Pitch Madness contest on Monday. Since word count was an issue, I spent up to the last minute deleting words in my book, but failed to make the midnight deadline. That EST acronym blew right past me. Yep, that's right, I forgot the Eastern Standard Time zone. But maybe it's just as well. The book was flabby in places, I discovered. ~Sigh~

How was your week? 

Have a nice weekend!

Thank you Lexa Cain for hosting this blog hop!

And co-hosts: L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge  

and Katie @ TheCyborgMom

Celebrate the Small Things: Just Two Goals

"Even the woodpecker owes his success to the fact that he uses his head and keeps pecking away until he finishes the job he starts" (Coleman Cox). Ha-ha. I read this today and had to laugh. It helps that the woodpecker has a stout beak for doing the job. However, Cox makes a good point. When do we apply our smarts (or that of others) when trying to achieve a goal?

All of us are self taught to some degree and some of us are more brilliant than others. I am hardly the latter! For the vast majority of us, there is a high learning curve. There are plenty of 'self-help' or 'how-to' books available for learning how to achieve more, be more, and do more. Goodness. An entire profession has been devoted by some on instructing in the various fields: writing, art, psychology, health, and religion, to name a few. I have read my share.

A huge motivator for me in the past in pursuing such instruction has always been a basic unhappiness or an unmet need...... I read avidly about the various faiths (mostly Christian), until God finally shook some sense into me and I saw how 'unworthy' and then (surprise) 'worthy' I was as a child of God. I pushed to finish a college degree rather late in life, alongside my adult daughter and son. After graduation, I took on two 'work for hire' projects for two publishers (I also had an editing job) and worked so hard the back of my neck actually swelled. I can be stubborn and persistent sometimes. 

Funny thing though is now that I am older, I am no longer as driven, which is a real handicap when you are trying to finish a novel. Is it laziness? A bad habit? Have I decided the original goal is not worth the effort? Perhaps the goal has evolved into something new, I have reasoned. For instance, I love blogging about family and things unrelated to the writing profession. I love letting a friend share her experience as a nurse on the Africa Mercy. I love that I now exercise regularly. (Health issues forced me to take exercise seriously and now I am ten pounds lighter). But truth be told, and here's the bottom line....I still want to finish the book!! So, in the left hand column of this blog I still record my (pitifully small) writing output and exercise (so proud of that).

Last but not least, my plate is rather full right now, but in a good, happy way. Vince and I have been exploring retirement options and the possibility of a move, and you can just imagine the reading material available on the topic. Next year is the year! We keep asking, where do we really want to live? Near our out-of-state children? Near our aging family? For that matter, staying here is a viable option, too. These are serious considerations that will determine so much of what happens to us in the future. We have spent hours discussing our options, a debate that will no doubt continue into 2014.

Like the woodpecker, I (we) will keep pecking away at the stated goals: finish the novel and decide where to live in retirement. When I look at it that way, it is really just two goals to accomplish. So today, I am celebrating the lesson of the woodpecker, who knows (in a small way) how to get the job done, one peck at a time!

How do you handle goals? Has your experience been similar?

Hurry Spring: My Patio Awaits

 "I'll make coffee"

 The robins are ready

 
Now, back to my neglected novel. 
Time to write!!!

Copyright 2013 © Sharon Himsl

The Amazing Cockatoo

Just had to share this! Listen and hear for yourself. There is a reason this beautiful bird is called a Cockatoo. The Cockatoo actually belongs to the parrot family. It has a lifespan of around 70 years, but has been known to live much longer. They range in size from 12-26 inches, and also in color. Their native habitat is in the southeastern part of the world in countries like Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Philippines and Indonesia. Its name, Cockatoo, is Indonesian in origin.

 In Malaysia, the Cockatoo is called Kakatua, and there is a popular Malay folk song that children in Malaysia grow up singing. It is a song I use in my book when my characters Callie and Lucas travel to Malaysia to find their mother's family. Listen and you can hear the Malay version.

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing