Happy Birthday to One of the Happiest People I Know

(One more post....
then officially on BLOG BREAK :)

Today is my husband's birthday, one of the happiest people I know. He is incredibly blessed to have achieved so many of his dreams. He really is a happy man, and he would be the first to admit this if you were to ask. I know I am in there too somewhere (blush, blush), but that's a another topic for another time. 

Favorite photo of Vince and me, and the RV8. St. Maries, Idaho

Foremost on his mind has always been his desire to fly and a passion for aviation, as a young boy, a teen, and as the man I married at 19 (he was 20). It was a long struggle getting his pilot's license, interrupted by jobs, school, raising a family, home repairs, remodels, car, boat and RV repairs, etc. He also reads and edits the fiction I am writing and hope to publish one day. He has a heart for middle grade and young adult fiction, especially for troubled youth who were unfairly treated and are struggling to overcome the odds. To give you some idea, he read the Harry Potter series twice!

So is it any wonder it took twelve years to build an airplane in our garage? (Yep....that's right, in our garage :-).

But as the pilot's license eventually became a reality, so too did the plane he labored over and eventually flew. He soloed in 2009.

Here is the RV8 in 2007. The wings are hanging upper left. I helped with the riveting and did the upholstery, but Vince did everything else. It is still amazing to me an airplane was built in our garage. The boys in the neighborhood would stop by to visit and just drool. One boy even went on to get his pilot's license and became an instructor. He is now training in Montana to be a missionary pilot 

 

Vince at 14

There have been other accomplishments of note . . . finishing his
degree in his forties, a university career (he is about to retire), teaching computers in Malaysia for one year, and playing classical guitar, but flying and owning an airplane have always been somewhere at the top. If you have ever doubted that dreams can be achieved, he is the perfect example they can be.  

Happy Birthday Vince!!

Copyright 2014 © Sharon Himsl 

Sharon M. Himsl

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

Celebrate the Small Things: Sometimes We Need a Break

I think I need a break......

A Sleigh Ride through the trees would be so nice right now.

I rebelled and avoided my computer for most of the day. I'm feeling pressed for time as the end of January approaches one week away. But as always, there is much to celebrate and it is good to reflect on the week . . . I know I will feel better after I do :)



First, it is always good to remember ....

Today
 I have no Yesterdays,
Time took them away;
Tomorrow may not be--
But I have Today. (Pearl Yeadon McGinnis)


 Things to celebrate this week....

1) I  put my living back together after the fireplace install (had to move the furniture back). I actually like rearranging furniture. I can work out a lot of stress this way, and anyone who knows me has seen me do this a lot over the years. 

We are still waiting to have the rug re-tacked. Ugh. A small thing really, but finding a carpet business willing to take on a small job when they have more important jobs to do (i.e. large carpet orders) was a bit irritating. "I'm your future customer," I wanted to say . . . "or not." Okay, long story short, someone finally agreed to help . . . tomorrow....so celebrating one merchant's kindness and consideration.

2) Completed some serious edits on the last chapters of my book. Not sure I'm going to make the 'end of month' deadline for a full-on submission, but I'm going to try. I'm a whole lot closer this month than last month.

3) Read 3 chapters for my Master Gardener's class and took three online quizzes. Holy moly! I'm learning about cell structure, botany, soil chemistry, and all things related to plant science and horticulture. Gardening is all about good planning and knowledge beforehand.

But the good news is I'm really enjoying it! Met someone in class who planted an heirloom apple orchard 2 years ago...179 trees! Can you imagine? She and her husband are having a ball taking care of them and already have a cider press ready to go.

4) Edited a book proposal on Biofuel Production for a professor I occasionally work for. I know nothing about Biofuels, but it will be interesting to learn about this subject. We certainly need more fuel alternatives!

5) Celebrating a product called 'Arnicare' for bruises and aches. When I slipped on the ice and hit my head last week, I had a terrible bump and bruising. Still do, but it looks a lot better. Hope I don't shock two writer friends this Saturday. I know I look like someone punched me in the eye.

6) Attending a SCBWI writer's workshop in Spokane this weekend called "Building a Following: How to Grow Your Author Platform Before and After Publication." Hopefully, I will learn something!!


So back to needing a break, I really do. I'm going to drop off the blog grid for a while, probably for the rest of January. I need to get my book ready for submission......so it's crunch time. But I'll be back, I promise. Blogging is in my blood. Sometimes we just need a break . . . 

Hope there were good things in your week, too. 

Celebrate.... was started by Viklit at Scribblings of An Aspiring Author. Sign up below and meet some terrific writers and bloggers!  

Independent Publisher Book Awards: 2013

Last but not least, the IPPY Awards. The Independent Publisher Book Awards were created in 1996 in recognition of independent authors and publishers. Since then there have been over 3,000 IPPY Awards . . . and the number is growing. Included are genres reviewed here, but there are plenty more at their site. Check it out!


Fiction: Juvenile

--Gold - The Bulldoggers Club: The Tale of the Ill-Gotten Catfish by Barbara Hay (The RoadRunner Press)
--Silver - Martin McMillan and the Secret of the Ruby Elephant by Elaine Russell (Create Space)
--Bronze - Prairie Journey by Frances Bonney Jenner (Irie Books)

Fiction: Young Adult

--Gold - The Immortal Von B. by M. Scott Carter (The RoadRunner Press)
--Silver (tie) - Bi-Normal by M.G. Higgins (Saddleback Publishing) and Untraceable: The Nature of Grace series, Book 1, by S.R. Johannes (Coleman and Stott)
--Bronze - The Elephant of Surprise by Brent Hartinger (Buddha Kitty Books)

Fiction (Multicultural): Young Adult and Juvenile

--Gold - Three Years and Eight Months by Icy Smith, illustrated by Jennifer Kindert (East West Discovery Press)
--Silver - Robinson’s Hood by Jeff Gottesfeld (Saddleback Educational Publishing)
--Bronze - Tessa’s Dance by David Edward Walker (Thoughtful Publishing Company)

Nonfiction (Multicultural): Young Adult and Juvenile

--Gold - People Who Said No by Laura Scandiffio (Annick Press)
--Silver - I Call Him My Brother by Chris Morse and Robel Alemu; edited by Carolynne Krusi (Authorhouse Publishing)
--Bronze - Rangoli: An Indian Art Activity Book by Suma O’Farrell (Mazaa LLC)

Nonfiction: Young Adult and Juvenile

--Gold - Their Skeletons Speak by Sally M. Walker and Douglas W. Owsley (Lerner Publishing Group)
--Silver - Understand Your Self by Dale Carson and Kishore Khairnar (Bick Publishing House)
--Bronze (tie) - Soup Should Be Seen, Not Heard! by Beth Brainard (Good Idea Kids); and Wondrous Creatures by Dean Jacobs and Amy Tharp (Self-Published)

Picture Books: Children (7 and under)
--Gold - Arlo Needs Glasses by Barney Saltzberg (Workman Publishing)
--Silver (tie) - A Night Time Story by Roberto Aliaga, illustrated by Sonja Wimmer (Cuento de Luz); and Bee Life by Lynette Evans, illustrated by Francesca D’Ottavi (Insight Kids)
--Bronze - You Can Count on Gracie by Joan Harrison (Little Minute Publishing)

Picture Books: All Ages

--Gold - America’s National Parks: A Pop-Up Book by Don Compton (W.W. West)
--Silver (tie) - Whose Egg? by Lynette Evans, illustrated by Guy Troughton (Insight Editions); and Rabbityness by Jo Empson (Child’s Play)
--Bronze - Belle, the Last Mule at Gee’s Bend by Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Bettye Stroud, illustrated by John Holyfield (Candlewick Press)

E-BOOKS

E-Books: Juvenile and Young Adult Fiction 
 
--Gold - Wish I could have said goodbye by Shari A. Brady (Wise Owl Press)
--Silver - Finding Peace: A Medieval Romance by Lisa Shea (Minerva Webworks)

--Bronze - Long Black Veil by Jeanette Battista (Self-Published)

E-Books: Children's Picture Books

--Gold - Red Is… by Ivy Wong (Ripple Digital Publishing)

--Silver - Every Walrus Can Fly by Brian Phillips (The Basement)

--Bronze - Egg Mania by Sherry Maysonave (Empowerment Productions)

  

Africa Mercy - Square Wheels: One Nurse's Journey

Hi....another email post from Marilyn in the Congo on the Africa Mercy! The challenges continue, this time with a large turn-over of personnel and translator problems, but the beauty of Mercy's mission to aid those who otherwise lack access to health care has not changed and God continues to provide.

Marilyn is now on Facebook and I urge all of you interested in her  journey to connect with her there. She has posted some new photos. You might want to mention you discovered her at my blog, so she doesn't think you are some spammer. For now, I will continue to post her letters.

(This is a running email post written by a volunteer nurse serving on the Africa Mercy, a hospital ship that travels the African coast. In your charitable donations please remember this worthy organization).


January 19, 2014
Square Wheels

 In honor of the new year, I've started something new--facebook! Not that I know what I'm doing... Anyway, if you want to "friend" me and I haven't found you to ask you yet, maybe you could let me know how to find you on facebook, if you are there. Hopefully, the more savvy folks around me will help me to figure out privacy settings, messages vs. timelines, and so forth. And maybe facebook will help me to know what's going on in your worlds, if I can figure out how to navigate it without spending all my waking hours poking around.

We've had three weeks of surgery since the Christmas break. They have been difficult weeks, in a way. There's a large turnover in personnel at the end of the year, a problem that seems to have affected the OR particularly hard. Not only did we have a new surgeon, we had a new team leader in the eye OR, new nurses to assist and to scrub, and new translators. They had to reinvent the wheel back there, it seems, and that slows things down. Then, they were having a lot of difficulty with the new translators not showing up for work on time and taking unseemly long breaks when they did show up. Our eye patients only get a local anesthetic, and they need to be able to cooperate with instructions during surgery. The whole system breaks down if we can't communicate.

The OR solved that problem by borrowing one of our translators from the peri-op room. Ordinarily, that would have been a hardship for us, but the OR was working so slowly that we didn't have any trouble keeping up with them.

Because of the difficulties in OR, our work in the peri-op room was tedious, with long hours of boredom waiting for patients. We start more than an hour before the OR does, preparing the patients, and we stay half an hour after they do to discharge patients, so we were "working" eleven hour days, but accomplishing little, with only ten patients per day. After a couple of weeks of this, our day crew got restive. The harmony of our little team started breaking down. When we keep them until after 4:00 or 5:00 PM, it becomes difficult and expensive for them to get home; they started demanding changes. We are looking at some options, but haven't solved the problems yet. It has been a bit disheartening to see the camaraderie of our team fraying at the edges.

One obvious solution is to do fewer surgeries until the OR team gets up to speed. That is not a good solution for a couple of reasons: 1. fewer patients receive their sight (this is the reason that resonates with me...), and 2. we are under a tremendous amount of pressure to reach our target numbers to keep both the donors and the Congolese government happy. (sorry, my gut reaction to that isn't very nice.

Maybe it's a good thing I'm not the manager who has to deal with these realities.) Compounding the problem, one surgeon scheduled for two weeks in February just canceled, and last-minute efforts to fill the gap were unsuccessful. So, that's another 100-120 surgeries not able to be done. Our team leader is trying to make up some of the difference by pushing the surgeons she does have lined up to do more surgeries each day than originally planned. In the peri-op room, it feels like we're between a rock and a hard place...

Have you ever contemplated the mystery of life? For an organism to survive, every single function of the body must be in working condition at all times. If the heart misses 6 beats, you're toast. If the liver, if the kidney, if the brain... Have you noticed that even when you have something as minor as an infected toe, it affects the whole body? So it is with organizations trying to perform complicated tasks. If you haven't got a translator, if someone in the home office fails to order supplies, if a surgeon's family member gets sick, if, if, if... you have to have it all, or you have nothing. 

While not as complicated as what even a single cell must do to stay alive, still I find it a marvel that Mercy Ships can keep on functioning despite the obstacles that arise. When everything is functioning smoothly, we're traveling on nice round wheels. These last few weeks have felt like square wheels most of the time, and one day, I declared we even had triangular wheels. Not a smooth ride! And yet, still I see the Lord's hand of provision. Patients continue to receive sight. We do still function as a team despite the challenges. The mission of Mercy Ships goes forward, pretty much on course. 

Blessings,
Marilyn


[Click here to learn more about the nurses and doctors on board the Africa Mercy.]

Celebrate the Small Things: Batteries and Ice Packs

Still setting up wiring on left and carpet needs to be re-tacked

I almost hesitate to call this a small thing. My husband and I are enjoying a brand new fireplace, one that I never dreamed possible until now. It is gorgeous! I have spent untold hours this past week just staring at the flames and enjoying the toasty warm heat. Two weeks ago we were relying on an electric fireplace to supplement the heat downstairs, which was quite pretty to look at but a joke at putting out heat when the temperature dipped.

I live in a five-year-old, two-story home, with a natural gas furnace in the attic. You would think that is a marvelous thing at first . . . no furnace room in the basement to deal with, no furnace in the garage taking up valuable space. Imagine all that free space! But who would have thought a furnace in the attic would be a factor in heat distribution, which it absolutely is? Part of the problem has been the poorly designed duct work. It never occurred to us that duct vents in the ceiling would be a problem. Duh . . . heat rises! Consequently, our feet froze on the bottom floor and it was too warm on the top level. Great in the summer when air conditioning kicks in, but a disaster in the winter. Problem solved with our new gas fireplace.

Now here is the small thing I'm really excited about: BATTERIES. Due to a minor problem with the installation (a tile section arrived cracked and a replacement is en route), our pilot light has been operating on batteries for the past week. Once the tile piece arrives, the fireplace will be AC wired permanently. In the meantime, the delay has allowed us to operate the fireplace on batteries, which we were quite curious about since we were told the fireplace would operate in a power outrage. It does!

We occasionally get power outages in the Pacific Northwest that, if bad enough (as happened in the Midwest recently), can last up to two weeks. My mother was without power on the west side for this long, but had a gas fireplace that (operating without the AC fan) kept her quite warm. Just an hour and a half to our north in Spokane, an ice storm came through one year that put a large number of homes out of power for as long. Yay . . . we now have backup!!

Here is another small thing to celebrate this
week. ICE PACKS! I slipped on our driveway this week, hit my head and bruised my elbow. Thankfully, no concussion or anything serious, but I am black and blue and have a headache. It all started out as a walk on a bright, sunny day. I failed to see the black ice. Ee--eh! I'm back to using my tried and true treadmill . . .



Celebrate.... is the brainchild of Viklit at Scribblings of An Aspiring Author. You can join, too. Go ahead, sign up below and meet some terrific writers and bloggers!

What are you celebrating this week?

Copyright 2014 © Sharon Himsl

Young Reader's Choice Awards: 2013

The YRCA is the oldest children's choice award in the U.S. and Canada. Sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Library Association (rep. Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Washington; Alberta and British Columbia), the award was first established in 1940 by Harry Hartman, a book seller in Seattle. He believed that every child deserved the opportunity to read a book that gave them pleasure. Award nominations come from children, teachers, parents and librarians. 


Winners 

--The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (Disney-Hyperion, reprint 2012) (age 10-14)
--Smile by Raina Tegemeir (Graphix, 2010) (age 8-12)
--Crazy by Han Nolan (HMH Books for Young Readers, reprint 2012) (Age 12 up)


Nominees:

Junior Division (12 under)
--13 Treasures – Michelle Harrison 
--Big Nate: In a Class by Himself – Lincoln Peirce
--Fatty Legs: A True Story – Christy Jordan-Fenton
--Lone Wolf – Kathryn Lasky
--The Lost Hero – Rick Riordan
--The Mysterious Howling – Maryrose Wood
--The Strange Case of Origami Yoda – Tom Angleberger
--Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer – John Grisham

Middle Division (mostly age 12 up)
--As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth – Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow Books, reprint 2012) 
--The Cardturner – Louis Sachar (Ember, reprint 2011)
--Halo – Alexandra Adornetto (Feiwel & Friends, 2010)
--Heist Society – Ally Carter (Disney-Hyperion, reprint 2011)
--The Red Pyramid – Rick Riordan (Disney-Hyperion, reprint 2011) (Age 10-4)
--The Second Trial – Rosemarie Boll (Second Story Press, 2010)
--Smile – Raina Telgemeier (Graphix, 2010) (age 8-12)
--Sorta Like a Rock Star: A Novel – Matthew Quick (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2010)

Senior Division (teen)
--Before I Fall – Lauren Oliver (HarperCollins, reprint 2011)
--Bruiser – Neal Shusterman (HarperTeen, reprint 2011)
--Crazy – Han Nolan (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2012)
--Matched – Ally Condie (Speak, reprint 2011)
--The Replacement – Brenna Yovanoff (Razorbill, 2010)
--Ship Breaker – Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, reprint 2011)
--Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green and David Levithan (Speak, reprint 2011)
--Winter Shadows: A Novel – Margaret Buffie (Tundra Books, reprint 2012)