Monday Rambling

Do I look older?

Watch it now how you answer. My birthday was yesterday. No, I don’t remember how old I am.  Don’t ask. Yes, I celebrated it with my family. My mom always makes an awesome meal and cake for me. That part I like very much and spending time with my family. Getter older—not so much.

Writing

·         It’s not a good thing when you know a market takes 3-4 months to read your submission and they send it back in one month.  I lost my mind and sent a manuscript with 200 words more than the magazine wants.  I’d like to believe I’m a detail person, so I don’t know what happened.  But, I was invited to fix it and send it again.  I did. I don’t know why it went out with the wrong number of words. But then…

·         I stood and watched an empty toaster—waiting for the toast to pop up. After a couple of minutes, I realized I hadn’t inserted a slice of bread.  

·         I’m still working on a short for a children’s magazine for my Write 1 Sub 1 monthly challenge.

·         I still need to write five more posts for the A-Z April Challenge. And I need to edit the others. Bloggers are still signing up for the challenge. When I wrote this there were 1083 bloggers signed up.

Work

Recently, we had a PD day on what to do in case of an intruder.  We’ve had many directives on what to do, but I don’t remember an actual training. It was awesome and tense. We had to be a part of three intrusions, after the training.

Let’s just say, I was shot two times, but never killed. Let’s just say that the third time, I took action with the men and one female teacher (in my group) and kept the intruder out.

We were tense and stressed which made it a good simulation.

Some things I learned:

·         Fight back when necessary.  It’s better to fight back and risk being shot than not

·         Most people do not die from gunshot wounds.

·         Only God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. An armed intruder is not. (My summation.)

·         Cowering under a desk makes you a target.

·         If escape isn’t safe or there’s a breech in your hiding place, fight back.

·         Intruders don’t go into a school to get sympathy they go to kill and be killed. They have nothing to lose.

·         Even though it seems we hear a lot about school killings, they are actually rare when compared to our population.

·         Don’t be a victim. Fight.

Have a great week. Be productive. Be kind.

The Shepherd’s Commitment

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. – Psalm 23 (KJV) (Emphasis Mine)

I chose the King James version, for this scripture, to post because of its poetic verse. I encourage you to read this scripture aloud and let it speak to your heart, mind and soul. Then, trust in the Shepherd’s commitment to you.

Out

Out of the Office (Blogfice)!

Be back soon...

when my bad mood passes.

Swapping One Story for Another

I do it all the time and it’s never fair. I ask my colleagues, on the spot, for updates about students we’ve been working on together. Understandably, I {often} get a blank stare. Yesterday, a colleague asked me about a student they wanted me to see a month ago. I started the recall by repeating the name of the student and talking about what popped into my mind, like—"I think I sent you an update by email about this student". (This person didn’t remember the email.)

So, I kept talking. My colleague responded to my recollection with additional information which in turn triggered my memory and the story emerged. At one point, I stopped to think and then said, “I want to make sure I’m not confusing one student’s story with another.”

This reminded me that, while writing my A-Z stories for the April Challenge, I wrote two stories that began one way but later ended in a totally different way than I intended. In one of the stories, my main character did everything she could to hold on to her story, but the secondary characters came in and changed the ending. (Read it April 5, AKA the letter E.)

When all was writtien, I said with an attitude (and out loud), “What?”

Somebody (I won't mention names) swapped one story for another and I like it much better. Go figure.

Do your stories, paintings, or craft ever take a different turn than you intended?

Journaling Woman

Storm Update

I spoke too soon, last week, when I told you my family did not experience property damage. My former in-laws, who I still consider my family, lost their house. In fact, they lost two homes.  They are 85 years old and "didn't have a scratch on them". 

And they should have because when I visited the farm (as my son puts it), I couldn’t believe the amount of destruction.  They had been asleep in their bedroom when the tornado arrived. They heard a boom, got out bed, hurried to the “den” (another bedroom) and hunkered down. That’s what we do in MO—hunker down.

Power went out and (I think) they stayed put until morning. That’s when they saw most of their house was gone except the two bedrooms where they had stayed. The right side of the house sort of exploded. The left side scooted north some (it looked like to me) and on the grass. The old farmhouse, my grandmother- in-law’s home, was roofless. The shredded curtains were blowing out the windows. It was haunting.

I have so many memories connected to the farm.  Some were happy memories and some not so much. I hope I don't forget any of them.

You’ve heard about things coming full circle? Life is doing that for me. Circling. I guess it happens to everyone as they get older. You have to be careful about the full circle circling you. You might get caught in the middle without a way out.  Just saying.

Have a great week.