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Insights into the writing life of an exhausted mom of four 8 and under. |
Hey! You! Yeah, you! Could you bring this momma some coffee?  I'll be sharing my struggles and triumphs as I try to pin down inspiration while juggling an 8 year old, 6 year old, 5 year old, and 5 month old (oh, and also navigating my chronic illness). There'll be lots of humor, probably more than a little complaining, and just all around good times. I hope you'll come along for the journey! (Don't forget the coffee; I'm serious about that!  ) AlyCatAuthor A Proud Member of 
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| Who was born on August 29, 1915 and also died on August 29, 1982. This same person was involved in a scandal and reprimanded on the Senate floor. Can you name something they're famous for besides the scandal? Oh I love prompts like this one. Now let me go to the Googler real quick and see what I find. Ingrid Bergman is the name I am coming up with. She was in Casablanca, I know. That is about all I know. I didn't even know about the scandal before this blog prompt, but now I've done some research on her. Thanks for bringing such an interesting person to my attention. AlyCatAuthor |
| Prompt: "Every moment in your life tells a story." Write about this in your Blog entry today I think this quote is very true. We are different people in each moment. Sometimes we don’t like who we are in a particular moment, but as long as we are alive, there will be more moments and we can change that. I also think about this in terms of scrapbooking. I typically only capture the big moments, but there are some very special moments that are more casual or candid that I also love to capture, because sometimes the smallest moments are the biggest. AlyCatAuthor |
| Prompt: "Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper." Robert Frost Is what Robert Frost says true for you? What makes you lose your temper? Um, I must not be very educated . If I have to listen to anything repetitive for too long, I will lose my temper. If I hear the word "mom" more than a hundred times a day, I will lose my temper. If I hear outright lies, I will lose my temper. But different viewpoints? Different opinions? Simple disagreements? I am willing to listen to them without losing my temper. There is no point in getting angry at someone for thinking differently. Correcting a misconception is one thing, but I don't think anyone should have to tolerate outright lying and slander. AlyCatAuthor |
| Prompt: How about a little trivia fun-- What song was number one the year you were born or what book was number one on the New York bestsellers list the year you were born? Are you familiar with the song or the book? Would you recommend either to us? Oooh I get to put on my research hat!   So the number one song was "I Will Always Love You" (the Whitney Houston version, an absolute classic!). I would definitely recommend this song and, as a matter of fact, I find myself singing it quite often.  The number one book was "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt. I have never even heard of this book, much less read it, but a glimpse through the Googler at the synopsis seems like a very interesting read. It's apparently considered a dark academia classic, and I am a big fan of that vibe. AlyCatAuthor |
| Prompt: “Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.” Meister Eckhart What resistance or skepticism does this quote bring up in your mind? And why? I love this mindset so much. I love to learn new things, and I love the feeling of beginning something new. I actually don't have any resistance to this whatsoever. No matter how much we have learned about any given topic or skill, we can always learn more. How great would it be to approach everything with the hopeful enthusiasm of a beginner. AlyCatAuthor |
| Prompt: "I want to live my life, not record it." Jackie Kennedy Write about this quote in your Blog entry today. I want to do both! I am a scrapbooker as well as a writer. I love taking photos and writing the stories that mean a lot to me. Recording my life helps me to reflect on it and really soak in the lessons it has for me. It also helps me to memorialize certain fleeting seasons of my life that I know I will want to look back on it. That said, I don't want to do so much recording that I forget to pay attention to the present. It's always a constant battle for balance. AlyCatAuthor |
Prompt: Secrets What do you think about secrets and keeping secrets? If a secret would be against your morals or beliefs or if it was about hurting someone or a group of people, would you still keep it? That's a difficult question to answer, because there are so many possibilities of how this scenario might manifest in real life. What if it was your child telling you these things? What if the person they have hurt carries with it a heavy consequence? It would be difficult to tell the truth and turn in your own flesh and blood, but it would be the right thing to do. Much easier said than done, however. Long story short, if I thought revealing the secret would do more good than harm, I would likely reveal it. If the situation is complex and I don't have all the information, I would likely keep it until I got more information. Anything involving the safety of a minor, and I would not be keeping that secret (allegations or confessions of abuse and the like). AlyCatAuthor |
| Prompt: How can you find relief when you're feeling overwhelmed? Write about this in your Blog entry today. I like to try and get outside when I'm feeling overwhelmed. Just standing outside on my deck and listening to the birds singing, someone mowing the lawn a few yards over, and feeling the wind and sunshine immediately calms my emotions. If it's raining, sometimes that's even better. I'll open my back door kitchen window and listen to the rain. Sometimes the cause of my overwhelm is my curious children and their loud, repetitive questions. I get sensory overwhelmed very easily, so sometimes I ask them to whisper their questions, or raise hands and speak one at a time. If I'm extremely overwhelmed and on the verge of snapping (usually because my children are arguing or fighting with each other), I will often send them outside to play. It resets their nervous system as well as mine. Usually turning down the volume on external stimuli and doing my best to create a calm environment around me helps me recreate calm within myself. AlyCatAuthor |
| Prompt: "Cats are distant, direct, impeccably clean and able to stay silent. What more could be needed to be good company?" Write about this in your Blog entry today. I chuckled when I read this prompt. Many cats I've known in my life had their "distant" moments, but my current kitty is no such thing. Anytime I'm at my desk, sitting in my rocking chair (or sitting anywhere, for that matter), he is there, looking up with his big eyes to see if he can jump up in my lap. The other three adjectives describe him nicely, though. At this very moment, while I'm writing, he's giving himself a thorough bath, and has been for the past ten minutes.  Impeccably clean. He meows when it's time to feed him, when he wants pets or treats. Direct. He doesn't meow at any other time, not even the way some cats do at night when they're roaming the house and can't find you (despite you being in the same bedroom for years). Ability to stay silent.And I would agree that makes for very good company. AlyCatAuthor |
| Prompt: Empathy "The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy." Meryl Streep What are your thoughts on empathy? Empathy is the ability to feel what others are feeling. To walk a mile with them, in other words. It's an incredibly vulnerable thing to do, but often rewarding. Sometimes suffering alongside others is necessary-what I mean is, when we love people, we naturally suffer with them whether or not we consciously "want" to. That is a gift we can offer our fellow man, a superpower we possess as humans. When we have empathy for the ones we love, and even extend that empathy out to those outside our immediate circle of loved ones and friends, it can go a long way toward fostering a better world. As a person with chronic illness, but also a person who's deeply sensitive, it can be difficult to juggle my own energy needs with the needs of those around me, especially my children and my husband, so I must be very careful in how I expend my emotional energy. For that reason, I don't watch a lot of news or current events. Instead, I offer prayers for the needs of the world while taking care to save my energy for those that need it most--my "neighbor", my family members, and often, myself. Some might say that makes me selfish. As I've grown older, I find myself caring less about what people say and more about how I treat people. When I have no energy left, I retreat into myself. I have nothing to give. I must first take care of myself if I am to be of service to my neighbor and to the world. AlyCatAuthor |
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