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By now you’ve probably noticed it looking a bit shiny and new around here, and I’m so thrilled to have this new design! The green, the life, the happy, the wood, it’s all so me. The girls at Ruby & Roja made me pretty, and if you are wanting a fresh look definitely check them out! They are talented and lovely and easy to work with. They even put up with my picky self. Also, Heather at Desperately Seeking Wordpress is the master installer, and her fabulousness knows no bounds!
I finally have a button for you to put up and link to me from your blog, check it out and let me know of your linky link!
Blockage: 5 Steps To Overcoming Writer’s Block
Being flooded in and losing internet for almost a week means that I got out of my writing groove. I’m reluctant to report that it’s very easy for me to get out of this groove, and it happens when I’m not writing regularly and doing things like taking a shower or raising my children instead. I do all kinds of things to get past writer’s block, but this time around it’s harder than in the past. So, to get past my writer’s block, I decided to write a post about overcoming writer’s block. Sneaky, eh?
5 Steps to Overcoming Writer’s Block
1. Stop Trying. Stop trying to write, stop staring at the blank screen and start reading, instead. Reading your favorite blogs, find new undiscovered blogs, or better yet, finding anything fiction, can all help kick start that creative place in your brain that seems to have fallen asleep. If reading the news works for you, great, but the latest gloom and doom always seems to squelch creativity for me even more.
2. Get Out. Getting away from the computer altogether and heading outside can make you feel alive, when the lack of words on the screen can make you feel like sludge. Take time to really slow down, notice tiny details. The web on the porch out front, the many shades of green in your lawn, the work the ants are doing on that rogue crumb left behind by someone. All these things are miracles, works of art, and pure inspiration.
3. Give Yourself Some Space. What is your writing space like? Is it messy and cluttered, with unpaid bills lying next to you moaning about their neglect? Are children or other family members allowed unfettered access and therefore constantly interrupting your brain momentum? Clean out your space–of things and people–and watch your energy return.
4. Jump In. Don’t get caught up trying to figure out the first sentence or paragraph of your next article/post. If you have a funny story or a great quote to include, start writing it and see where it takes you. Even going into free writing or stream of consciousness-type journaling can help unclog the drain in your head. Go back later and fill in the gaps during the editing process, and you’ll find your momentum again.
5. Pencil It In. Establishing a routine each day, and getting into a habit or writing at the same time and place can do wonders for your soul. Even if you are a non-schedule person, you’re still a creature-of-habit-non-schedule-person, so setting up a routine that involves sitting down and jotting down some thoughts is a great way to release those angsty village gates.
Hopefully these ideas can kick start your mind…now I’m off to try some of these myself!
Inspiration
While we recover from the flooding and work to get internet service back, allow me to show you some oldies but goodies…
Originally published October 1, 2007…
Last night at 1am after I finally got all my boys in bed, I managed to crawl into the shower and just breathe. The shower is my own special sanctuary, and I try to get the water as hot as I can stand. I let it run over my aching neck and back and pray the baby doesn’t wake.
I stayed in the shower for a good 30 minutes (probably my longest shower ever) and thought about the things that have been inspiring me lately. Small things like looking at the big tree in our backyard, noticing 3 bright red leaves right at the top, and looking forward to when the entire tree is fiery and glowing. Beautiful things like how perfect the weather is lately, or watching my sister’s pregnant belly grow day, by day, by day. Fun things like the quirky music on my ipod, how my baby holds on to my chest for dear life when he sleeps, and the way my puppy snores loudly when she goes to sleep after her nightly walk. I even reflected on things not so great…like the extra baby weight that isn’t coming off this time around, the incessant way my older boys bicker, or the ridiculous amount of hair that is falling out of my head every day (darn you postpartum hormones!). So many little moments in life, such peace and profound beauty.
All these things can inspire creative writing in someone, and I love taking time to ponder each and every moment. As I gave in and finally accepted it was time to turn off the water and return to the real world, I thanked God for my little respite, for the warmth and the quiet. I thanked Him for the good times and the bad, and for keeping baby asleep just a little bit longer.
Makes Perfect Sense
While we recover from the flooding and work to get internet service back, allow me to show you some oldies but goodies…
Originally published September 28, 2007
Overheard just now…
Jamie (to Charlie): “You’re a poopyhead.”
My Sister: “Don’t say that, say you’re sorry.”
Jamie: “I’m sorry poopyhead.”
Sis: “No, say he’s not a poopyhead.”
Charlie: “He’s not a poopyhead.”
Sis: “No! Jamie, say, “you’re not a poopyhead”.”
Jamie: “I’m not a poopyhead.”
Sis: “Never mind.”
Adventures In Babywearing: Part 4
In case you hadn’t already heard (and weren’t following along with her labor via Twitter), my dear friend Stephanie at Adventures in Babywearing had her sweet baby girl yesterday morning. Her name is Ivy LaRue, and you can see from her photo that she is absolute perfection.
I’m too sick to visit Ivy at the moment, but I can’t wait to finally meet face to face the little person in the belly that I’ve known for months. Steph had a home birth, so be sure to check back with her to read the story as soon as she posts it. Having two home births myself, I can tell you it’s an experience that is beyond words. Who uses “fun” and “relaxing” as a way to describe childbirth? Well, I did, and Steph did too this time around.
Go over and give her some love, along with the rest of the internets!
Flood? What Flood?
If you follow me on Twitter, you know that we’ve had a rough weekend. With Ike having descend upon the Country, many have it far worse than us right now. But we are not without our special brand of drama. This is a picture from yesterday looking out from my driveway:
Yeah, we’re experiencing a *tiny* bit of flooding. I took this picture standing in my garage, so you can see where the water was. Some really not smart person thought they were cool and tried to drive our street. Since it finally stopped raining, the waters have receded somewhat, but it seems like this is going to take a long time to drain away.
With the Country focused on Texas, I’m pretty sure most people don’t realize the serious flooding going on in this area (Chicago/Northwest Indiana). Our town received about 15 inches of rain in two days. Seriously.
Thankfully we’ve not had any damage, but we have had close calls (like the pump getting overwhelmed and the water being a few small inches from flooding our basemnt), which means that our nerves are shot.
The kids alternate between being really excited and wanting to swim in it and asking if we can go buy a boat, and totally freaking out because they are so massively off routine and don’t understand “what is wrong with this world” (as my 4yo put it).
If you look in that picture you’ll see the two small transformer boxes on the right hand side. The one on the left? That’s our internet. Yeah. Mama is blogging from her sister’s house down the street right now.
It’s almost time to close the laptop and hike up my sweats and step into the frigid cold water and wade back down to my house. I’m hoping I don’t encounter any wild life swimming around along the way, because slipping and dropping my computer and my phone in the river-that-used-to-be-my-street would really not be cool. At all.
But we are very grateful, because yes, it could be SO. much. worse.
Video Interview: 5 Minutes for Mom
I finally had the courage to post this, despite the fact that I’m all shy and puffy on camera (note to self: professional video shoots are best when not straight off a 4 hour flight).
Come see my video interview where I talk about what it’s like in my world.
Where Were You When?
A collection of tweets from just this morning…where were you when you discovered what was happening, this day, seven years ago?
To those that lost their life that day, we remember you. We will always remember.
Living Between The Trees
We’ve been living a life of uncertainty for quite some time now. Beyond not knowing if our autistic children would ever live normal lives, we have had a couple years of major trials and tribulations. Any seemingly good thing that has come along has quickly been countered by an even bigger bad thing. Or so it seemed. Many times something bad, like losing a job, can actually turn out the be the best thing that ever happened. It may just take you a while to get to that realization.
While chatting with some friends yesterday, my husband and I talked about what a life of uncertainty is like. Our friend had a great analogy (I’m paraphrasing): It’s like being dropped in the middle of the desert, having no clue which way to walk. Up ahead you see a tree, so you just try to get to that tree. Once there, you see another tree, and so you walk to that one. All the while, you have no idea how many trees there are. You can’t think about that. You can only keep going, one tree at a time. Perhaps some day you will get to a big clearing where you can clearly see the journey ahead. Perhaps not.
What we’ve learned, through many many months of asking “why” things keep happening, is that eventually you stop asking why and start living. Between the trees. There is so much life, between the trees.
Let’s Play Catch-up
With so many birthdays and school start ups (and their annoying-there I said it-endless amount of meetings), I’ve got a little bit to update you all on.
First, you should know that at 8:30am the beach is the most gorgeous ever. The crisp morning air, and the WAVES. Oh my, never saw Lake Michigan (by our house, anyway) with Pacific ocean like waves. Being an insomniac doens’t always lend itself towards early morning discoveries, but with both kids gone at least in the morning, baby and I and my husband have a chance to explore during the morning hours for the first time in the 2 years since we moved here from Los Angeles.
Second, my formerly special education oldest child is now in a mainstream (albeit a private school) kindergarten! I tell the story over here.
Third, in case you don’t follow me on twitter or haven’t heard me talking about it for a while now, I am looking for new job opportunities. I am your girl if you are looking for marketing/business development/online publishing/writing/branding and more. My husband is also on the hunt. So if you need my skills, as well as a handsome MBA who’s a marketing genius and can rock pretty much any job, shoot me an email at arianne [at] tothinkistocreate [dot] com. Our lives, like so many others, are changing the work paradigm (i.e., man works full time, brings home the bacon to the lovely stay at home mom) that we’ve known well for many years. It’s a shift, my friends. But I think it’s a good one, and I’m excited to see what’s just around the corner.
Fourth, I must tell you about the new addition to our family. It’s the most awesome car seat EVER. And it’s brand new, just came out. Check out my experience over here.
Fifth, I don’t have a fifth, but I hate ending lists in an asymmetrical way like “4″. The number 4 may seem symmetrical, being all even and stuff, but it’s most definitely not. It just hangs there, waiting for a friend to come give it some closure.
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