Life in progress

Category Archives: Life


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#SoCS – Bun food

It’s going to be a busy day for me, so I want to write this post before I do anything. Trouble is, I haven’t eaten breakfast yet–in perfect procrastinator fashion, I’ve put it off simply because I didn’t know what to write, which is ridiculous considering that’s the entire purpose of Stream of Consciousness Saturday: to just write when you have nothing to write. So anyway, where was I? Oh yeah.

I haven’t had breakfast. So I’m sitting here starving, trying to figure out what I can write about with “bun” in it without torturing myself. Here’s what I have to avoid, just so you have an idea what I’m going through:

Buns–my eldest son has taken to baking bread lately. He’s planning to bake some buns, from scratch, for our dinner tonight. Can’t talk about that.

Easter Bunny–that’s me. I have to go out today sometime and get chocolate eggs to hide for tomorrow morning.

Bunch of grapes–sitting in my fridge.  They’re going to go bad if I don’t eat them soon. Eating soon is definitely on my mind.

Bundt cakes–giant donuts that can be shared for dessert … or hidden somewhere in the back of the fridge to be consumed in secret after everyone else has gone to bed.

Bungalow–there we go! Something that doesn’t remind me of food. Unless you count the gingerbread house I built at Christmas. I wonder if it’s possible to build a two-storey gingerbread house? Yum.

Bungle–yep, that’s what I’m doing with this post if my goal is to forget about food.

Oh, who am I kidding? I’m going to have breakfast. Cheers with coffee!!

This strangely delicious post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to find all the participating posts in the comment section, and join in yourself. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/03/30/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-30-18/


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#SoCS – Lego

Have you seen how many shapes Lego comes in these days? When I was a young whippersnapper … I just love it when my stream of consciousness goes into character. I’d have been an actress if I could actually act. Where was I? Oh yeah. When I was a kid, Lego came in about a dozen different shapes and sizes, and I had to figure out what to do with it myself. Which was usually a boring old tower. None of these strange shapes with complex patterns existed.

But you know what? It has become a brilliant teaching tool. A kid who can follow the instructions on a Lego set will have no problems building his or her Ikea furniture! Or wouldn’t if the instructions were as easy to follow as a Lego set. But hey, it’s a start! Following instructions is a skill. And one that you have to be in the mindset to do. When I say this, I think back to so many people (mostly men: sorry, men) who refused to follow directions or even GET them whilst driving somewhere. You know the type. You may even BE the type. If you are, don’t deny it.

Lego though. Lego teaches that if you follow the instructions carefully, you’ll be successful. Is it some kind of mind control thing, teaching our kids that they’d better follow the rules or else? (Hey, good conspiracy theory, eh?) That would be an interesting theory if it weren’t for the The Lego Movie, in which they encouraged kids to do whatever they wanted with their Lego sets. (Didn’t they? I didn’t see it, but that’s what I heard.) Which, let’s face it, is that much more difficult when you’ve got crazy shapes to deal with.

In the end it’s all about imagination though. And the power of creating. Whether you’re creating a sweater from a pattern, an embroidered picture, or a toy; a blog post, a colouring project, a painting, a poem, a novel … it’s all about the escapism that comes from concentration and the satisfaction of being able to sit back and say “I created something where before there was nothing.” It’s liberating. It’s self-affirming. And I believe it’s what gets us through life with a degree of the sense of accomplishment. It gives us hope.

Lego gives us hope!

Thank you, Lego.

This (unintentionally) inspirational post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to find all the other participating blogs in the comment section, and join in yourself. Be inspired! https://lindaghill.com/2018/03/23/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-24-18/


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One-Liner Wednesday – The F-Word

Last week, sitting in a restaurant beside a mother with two daughters, aged about five and eight years old, I overheard:

Five-year-old: I said the f-word by accident yesterday.

Eight-year-old: Which one?

Five: You know, the f–word.

Eight: (whispers) Frozen?

Five: No, the one Mommy always says.

It was all I could do; 1, not to laugh (because we all know Frozen is a bad word); and 2, not to look at the mother and embarrass her.

If you would like to participate in this prompt, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Dan Antion

 

 


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#SoCS – So Not Green

Total fail for me on getting to my own prompt on time today. But I did get some work done on my novel. What seemed like a mountain of editing is going pretty smoothly after all. At least it started to when I got away from the Internet.

I had to drop my son Chris off at the theatre to watch a movie, so instead of coming home, or even sitting in a restaurant while I waited, I sat in the car. Backed up to the humongous pile of dirty snow just off to the side of the parking lot, I got into the back seat with my laptop and worked pretty much non-stop for an hour and a half.

When I came home, I had to walk down to visit my mum at the home. She was out of cigarettes. She’s finally accepted that she can’t have them in her room anymore, and doesn’t question having to go find one of the nurses to give her her nicotine fix. So there’s that. Anyway, I ended up spending an hour there. Then back home to have supper and play a rousing game of Monopoly. I cleaned up! And then I had to clean up.

So though it’s St. Patrick’s Day today (Happy St. Patrick’s Day … yesterday!), the only thing green about mine was the broccoli I had with my steak and potatoes tonight. But that’s okay. I love broccoli.

This not-very-green post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click on the link to read all the other posts. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/03/16/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-17-18/


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Random Update on My Week

Day 5 is almost in the bag and we’re all still alive.

It’s been an interesting week. I managed to write and submit a new short story to my publisher (I can’t believe I can actually say “my publisher”!) yesterday. Transmundane Press’s next release will be an anthology themed on dreams. I’m happy with what I’ve written–hope they will be too. Wish me luck.

Speaking of luck, it’s lucky St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow. If you’re interested in reading the stories that have kept me busy editing for the last three weeks, you can download the e-book, Shamrocks, Shillelaghs & Shenanigans for free at your favourite e-book retailer. C’mon. With a cover like this, I know you’re curious:

You can find all the links at the bottom of this post.

In other news, as I was driving the other day, annoyed that it was taking so long to get to my destination, I started to wonder if I’m getting spoiled by fiction. Okay, I know that doesn’t make much sense on the surface, but hear me out.

When I write scenes, if I want my characters to go from one exciting scenario to the next, I just put them there. Because let’s face it, most of the time traveling is boring. There’s a reason kids ask “are we there yet?” I spend so much time in the world of fiction, whether I’m reading it, writing it, or editing it, that it has become more the norm than what’s normal.

I really need to get out more, don’t you think?

Anyhoo, that’s my short update. Back to work.

Here are the links to the FREE book of sexy short stories.

Enjoy!

Amazon US

Amazon Canada

Amazon Australia

Smashwords

Apple

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

 


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One-Liner Wednesday – Report

Day Two of March Break has come to a successful conclusion: we are all still alive.

In other news, is it spring yet?

Asking for a friend.

If you would like to participate in this prompt, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Dan Antion

 


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#SoCS – Sofa, so good

Well, I was going to get loads of work done today. Work on my own novel, on the short story I’m writing to submit to the upcoming anthology by Transmundane Press, work on my editing website, and on the introduction I need to write for the St. Patrick’s Day anthology I edited. And what have I done so far? Your guess is as good as mine, but it wasn’t any of the above.

Thing is, I have been working all day. I must have, because I didn’t play a single computer game. I did do a final proofreading run-through on the St. Patty’s anthology. And my butt is square from sitting on the sofa all day, so I must have been on the laptop.

I do keep getting up to grab myself something from the fridge in hopes that when I get back, I’ll get something done. But it’s like there’s so much to do I’m not sure where to start, so I end up doing things like chatting on Facebook (I have to–it’s anthology work), or scrolling through the, like, 50 tabs I have open to see what’s new. Social media is my downfall. I admit it.

What else have I done today? I avoided wine. That’s gotta count for something, especially since Alex is on a rare weekend at his dad’s. I know, I say I “avoided” wine like it’s flying through the air, aiming at me. It’s not true. It’s actually tucked into a wine rack in the basement. All two dozen bottles … Mmm, wine.

BUT, I can still get some work done tonight, can’t I? It’s only … 11:06pm. Oh damn, the clocks go forward. It may as well be after midnight. Where does the time go?!? Alex will be home before I know it, and I won’t have any work done!! May as well give up and drink wine.

Oh look! There’s a bottle now! Better catch it.

This crazy post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt post here and read all the contributing blogs! https://lindaghill.com/2018/03/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-10-18/


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One-Liner Wednesday – Misunderstandings

When your best friend spends five minutes explaining that it will take four people to put the cat on the back of the pickup truck and one person to bolt it down, and for five minutes you’re totally confused, only to figure out that he said “cap,” not “cat.”

If you would like to participate in this prompt, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Dan Antion

 


by 16 Comments

#SoCS – Hoping it’ll be fine

My eldest son, who lives in the basement, is my constant source of support when his brother acts up. Which is a wonderful thing, or will be until–as he pointed out yesterday–it isn’t. I can’t and don’t expect him to live here forever.  Yesterday as I was battling with Alex over one of his regular behavioral issues, my son said point blank that if I don’t stop giving in to Alex, he’s going to walk all over me when my support moves out.

So this morning I decided to battle it out alone. I got yelled at and punched (he’s seventeen, but only the size of a ten year old; his little knuckles are bony, damn it!), but I managed to get him to calm down and behave himself. I have to do this. Otherwise, I won’t be fine.

This short and far from sweet post is brought to you by a frazzled Linda, in conjunction with Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Join in the fun and read all the other posts! You can find everything you need here: https://lindaghill.com/2018/03/02/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-3-18/


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#SoCS – Doors we don’t go through

As the last door I went through that wasn’t mine was my son’s school door, it got me to thinking about my own school. I refer to it as mine loosely, for two reasons. One is I haven’t taken a course in almost a year–I’ve either been too busy making money to afford one, or too broke to afford one. There has to be a solution there somewhere … Save the money? Yeah. But I keep spending it on stupid things like hydro and gas.

The other reason I hesitate to call it my school is I’ll probably never walk through the front door of it. According to Google maps, it’s about 4,600km (2,858 miles) away, which is apparently a 42-hour drive. That’s one hell of a commute every day … or every four days if I don’t sleep. It really looks like a lovely place though. https://www.sfu.ca/ Lovely enough that I’ll try to visit one day.

Weird that we now have the technology and means to go anywhere in the world, but we rarely do. I imagine if I cut off my Internet and saved the money instead to fly around the world, I’d get out a lot more. But then, how would I know where to go without the Internet to show me the great places I could visit? Sure, I could go to restaurants and use their Internet, but that would result in spending my money again. Especially if I have to drag the kids along so they could get their Internet fixes. Yeah, bad idea.

This post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to read all the other entries, which you’ll find in the comments, and join in yourself. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/02/23/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-24-18/