July 14 2017

Comfort (Five Minute Friday)

Thinking about things that bring me comfort. A warm blanket on a cold night. Air conditioning in the heat of summertime. Dried beef gravy, and spaghetti noodles all wavy. Chocolate in most any form, pumpkin pie all nice and warm. A hug when you are feeling down, a friend who can turn the frown upside down. Blue skies, and oceans too. Rainbows after the cleansing rain, when the sun begins to shine again. The safety of a partner to help me with the struggles in life, make me want to be a better wife. The knowing that someone will soon be home and the freedom to get in a car and roam. Chasing lighthouses in our car, wish more were near but they are not too far.

Comfort comes in many forms, but most of all, from God alone.

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Comfort
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

Category: Five Minute Friday | 4 Comments on Comfort (Five Minute Friday)
July 8 2017

Play (Five Minute Friday)

play

When was the last time you, as an adult, took the time to play? I have found that taking the time to do things just for me, like participate in groups related to my hobbies, helps recharge me.
I participate in 3 different monthly meetings with crochet groups. I attend weekly writing group meetings and really look forward to seeing the revolving group of writers each week. Not everyone makes it to every meeting, but there are always a few of us there to write together. For me, these meetings are play time. I look forward to them and really miss not going when my schedule keeps me from attending.
You need to decide what it is that you consider play and find ways to work those activities into your life. “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy” and it makes me grumpy. This is why I make it a point to fit these meetings into my schedule before other things that I might enjoy less and not look forward to. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when something else is more important than attending one of my meetings and sometimes it is impossible to plan vacations so I don’t have to miss any of them, but it can be easier than you might think if you prioritize play. Take time to play and you will be glad you did!

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Play
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

Category: Five Minute Friday | 3 Comments on Play (Five Minute Friday)
July 8 2017

Blessing (Five Minute Friday)

Blessing

I have been thinking a lot lately about blessings. I have been having trouble with my leg for the past couple of weeks since my knee decided it would be a good idea to try bending the wrong way while walking up the ramp after work to my car. Even when it first happened, it was a blessing that it was no worse than it was. It hurt, yes, but I could still walk on it ever so gently. I got the rest of the way up the ramp of the parking garage and into my car where I could sit and rest it for a while and consult Google to see what I might have just done to my leg and whether it was bad enough that I needed to get it looked at. Even Google was a blessing at that point. I was further blessed when I went to my writing group meeting because I could still use the leg to work the gas and brake and drive myself around. The meeting was very near a hospital that night, another blessing. There was nobody home to help me if I needed it, so hanging out where I could get dinner and sit and write while I rested my leg with friends around to help me if I needed it seemed like another blessing.
Two weeks later, it still hurts most of the time but is tolerable. I tell myself it is a blessing that, even with this pain, I still have both legs and they still work, although not as good as they once did. I can get up and down out of a chair and walk pretty much anywhere I need to. It still doesn’t feel strong enough to actually think about walking for exercise but at this point when it heals some then I tweek it again somehow, I am just glad it is still basically functioning. It is getting steadily better and that too is a blessing.
Your life is full of blessings every day. When you are feeling like you are a burden or life is not worth living for whatever reason, take a look around you and you can ALWAYS find someone else whose life is worse than yours who would trade you lives in a heartbeat if they could. Counting your blessings and thanking God for all of them is a great way to have a positive outlook on life. Give it a try.

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!

The prompt this week is: Blessing

The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

Sorry, this one is over a week late. This was the prompt for Friday 6/30/2017.

Category: Five Minute Friday | 1 Comment on Blessing (Five Minute Friday)
June 25 2017

Steady (Five Minute Friday)

Steady is something I think I have always tried to achieve. To me, steady means dependable, consistent and ongoing. I want to be a steady writer with a steady income and feel like that writing life is stable. I like the idea of working consistently toward a goal by breaking it down into baby steps that are manageable.

I have been making steady progress on a few of my goals for 2017. While I got off to a very slow start (5 months into the year before starting) on the office clean out project, I feel like I have gotten a great deal accomplished on that so far in June.

My goal of crocheting 26 hats this year for charity is one I jumped on very early and got ahead on. Now, before the year is even half over, I am finished with 25 of the 26 hats that I set as my yearly goal. If only I could make such steady progress on other things!

I have wanted, since November 2013 when I finished my first NaNoWriMo challenge, to become a year-round writer. To me, that means someone who writes during the other 11 months of the year, not just in November. It has taken almost 4 years, but I can honestly say that I AM a year-round writer now. I may not be writing books all year, but I am writing and publishing blog posts.
I feel like all of these little things helps me to make steady, albeit slow progress toward achieving my goals.

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!

The prompt this week is: Steady

The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write. 

Category: Five Minute Friday | 1 Comment on Steady (Five Minute Friday)
June 16 2017

Worth (Five Minute Friday)

WORTH

What are you worth? I have discovered lately that I am worth having a clean space to call my own. It is worth the hours I will put in to sort through every single thing in my office to clean it out, organize it and make it mine again. I am worth having a clutter-free space to work in. As I sort through everything I am finding many things that cause me to question why I thought they were worth hanging on to at all. If you keep piles of paper long enough, eventually an awful lot of it will become trash and thus easier to part with.

The things that are worth keeping are sometimes hard to decide how they should be kept for easy retrieval later and where they will be kept. I have had to get brutal and peel the layers away one at a time to get down to what I really think is worth keeping. Do I love it? Does it bring me joy? Do I need it? Will I be able to find it when I do? Could I let Google find it for me the next time I need it? Could I maybe scan it or take a photo of it and store it on a computer or hard drive for future reference? How do I know which way is the best way and is it worth all this effort or would I be better off pitching it and moving on to the next piece of paper?

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!

The prompt this week is: Worth

The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write. 

Category: Five Minute Friday | 9 Comments on Worth (Five Minute Friday)