Life and Fun: Fishing and Rodeos

Two of my favorite activities growing up in the Mid-West was fishing and rodeos. Although I haven't had the opportunity to fish this time, and probably won't due to a couple of reasons, my husband was able to take Ge Ge and Mei Mei out with our nephew to my uncle's pond. If you are not a fisherman, you may have heard that to catch fish you need to be quiet....hmm, Mei Mei only got to go a few times because being quiet is not something she excels at. Now put her in a room with people and she will make them all feel welcomed by chatting away with them. She was just in the wrong setting. 

Anyway, the kids had a great time and they did catch some ~ or at least they came back with some "fisherman's tales". 

Rodeos are something I really have enjoyed for sometime. The open space around the arena. The sounds of laughter from the crowd as the clown does his thing, the quiet respect as the flag is ridden out, the sound of hooves hitting the ground in full 'lope, the lariats whirling in the air and released to catch a calf, and the setting sun.

I had fun, even if Jie Jie almost pulled my hair out. She was scared of the clown and the loud announcements, but she did enjoy the horses and the cowboys(girls), especially one cowboy, her Uncle Runt ~ the pick-up man. He was working that rodeo, so the kids watched in awe as he roped a bull and pulled him out of the arena. 

The flag carried in.

Steer Wresting or what the cowboys call "Bulldoggin'" 

Uncle Runt ~ our favorite pick-up man.

The sunset over the arena. Love those mid-west sunsets.

Life and Fun: Tearing Down Houses

My family is considered somewhat large for the American family. I have three sisters and a brother. They are all married and have children and even some grandkids now. When we get together we are quite the clan. You can only imagine what it was like for the fish fry we had with all my aunts and uncles and their children and grandchildren.

Most of my family live fairly close to my mother, so you can find them gathered just about every Sunday for lunch around one of the tables at Mom's. 

When someone in the family needs help and if you are near and able, you help out. It has always been like that. Thanksgiving was known as the "wood gathering" time. We'd all help Dad cut and bring in a load or two before the meal. This would be considered a chore if you were still living under his roof, but none of were at the time. When my parents re-sided their house, the family all came together and helped out. It's what my family does.

So, when we come to visit it is no different for us. One summer my husband helped take shingles off a roof to help my brother. Another summer we helped my parents re-panel a closet. Another summer we helped build my brother-in-law's large indoor arena. We grab hammers, pitch forks, or the spatula(help prepare the meals) and work alongside my siblings.

This summer was no different. My husband and son helped another brother-in-law build fence AND we all helped tear down a house. Yes, a whole house. Below are some photos of that summer project. I think we got it down in a few days. Guess it doesn't take too long when you have quite a few hands helping out. 

The house after my brother knocked it down.

A crew at work.

After the house was gone, the girls
had their own "work".

I love my family and the fact that we help each other out like this. It helps save them some money and bonds us together ~ and it helped us get over jet lag pretty quick since this was during our first weekend. 

What do you do as a family together? Any fond memories of helping each other out? Please comment below.

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Life and Fun: Memorial Weekend

Memorial Weekend was a few weeks ago, but I'm going to blog about it because 1. I am back in the US and 2. I was battling jet-lag at the time and sinus infection since then. 


I haven't been "home" for Memorial Weekend for at least a decade now. I was sick that weekend, so I wasn't able to do all I wanted to with the kids. Like...take them to buy red poppies, take them to a memorial service, or take them out and put flowers on the graves. *deep sigh* being sick stinks!

I did go out with two of my sisters and my mother one afternoon to put flowers on the graves of various family members, including my own father's. I took a few pictures because many of these grave-sites are just plots in an open field or plots of a country church.

I really enjoyed this day because I was with part of my family, in the country, and remembering family stories. I will bring my kids out to see my dad's before we leave. We'll just make it our own little "Memorial Day" to remember Grandpa together.

What did you do over Memorial weekend? Any traditions?

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Book Review

I just did a review for the book, Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan. You can click here to read the full review.
Definitely a good read.

Social Media Control

What do you post on Facebook? On Twitter? On your own personal blog? This subject has been talked about quite a bit in the last year or so. "You need to watch what you post about because it could cost you your job, your reputation, etc."

This is true, and I agree, but I'm not going to "talk" about that today. Instead I'm going to take a different approach, sort of. I was at BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) a few weeks ago and the speaker made a really good point that has spoke to me as a person and as a writer.
Here is what she asked of us:

"Does what you post on any social media reflecting God in a good light or a bad light?" 

It really brought to light some of the things that I am seeing on Facebook posts, Tweets, blogs, and even more so on comments made on blogs. It also brought light to what I am posting...or at least has made me slow down and re-think before I put it out there before all the world to see. I even redid this post because I felt it was heading into a "preach it sista" mode, which is not what I was going for at all. 


I also read an interesting post by Jeff Goins with the question of whether people are meaner online than they are in real life. It's a good post if you have time to read it.

So, what do I do before I hit the "post", the "send", or the "publish" button? I ask myself this:

1. Is this going to hurt someone's character? I'm not talking about critiques of one's work, but of them personally. 
2. Is it TMI (too much information)? what I ate, what my kid did on the toilet, anything that I did that would make my mother blush - I hope I'm past that stage in life *blushing myself thinking of the past*
3. How is this going to reflect Christ? I am a Christian so this is important to me.

So, what do you think? Do you think people are meaner online? Do you think people are too vocal about what they do in the personal lives? Or is it just me? Have you been able to keep your posts positive and encouraging? I'll be honest, I think I've posted a few things while writing this that I wish I hadn't. They weren't HUGE or anything, just snide remarks that could have just not been written. Anyway, would love to know your thoughts as I'm pondering these types of questions.


*picture from microsoft.com

"I Am Special" Review and Interview

"I am Special", written by Lai Yit Loong and Catherine Lai, is a picture book relating the life of Benjy, a boy with autism. The reader gets a glimpse at what he can do and his accomplishments thus far. As a parent of a special needs child I was encouraged by the letters and poems written by Benjy's older sisters. 

I had the opportunity to this great couple a few months ago. When I heard that they had published a book, I immediately wanted to ask them loads of questions regarding publishing. So, below are the questions and answers by Yit Loong.

1. How did you decide which publisher to use?

 

Since I had not published a book before, I wanted a publisher who could offer a complete range of services with few or no restrictions and conditions, was flexible and accommodating, and willing to publish anything for a fee. I wanted to fully experience the journey of writing and publishing a book from the initial draft all the way thru to having the book finally printed and featured on Amazon.com.

I came across Authorhouse from a friend who had published a cookbook a couple of months before I decided to start the project.

2. What did you find to be the most difficult part in publishing?

 

The most challenging part was to decide the target audience of the book. The book grew and evolved as we got deeper into the project. I started with a simple idea of writing a story for my son's birthday present. Just for him to read. Then the idea expanded. I thought, wound't it be nice if the parents could read the book together with the child ? So I added my story and Cat's story for the parents. Then the idea grew again: why not make it into a family book that everyone in the family could express how they feel towards Benjy ? So I added stories from my girls. The next question came: why not make it into a book that we could share with our friends and family? So we added a bunch of photos. Finally, I thought it would be so cool if we added some illustrations to add more colors and variations. So writing this book has taught me many things, especially how to develop and turn a simple idea into the book. The most important thing I have learnt is an idea will remain an idea locked in your head, and rather meaningless until you do something about it. Wonderful experience and great results will follow when you act.

 

3. How have you marketed your book?

 

Authorhouse helps to put the book on google search and makes it available on the online stores. We discuss and share our work on Facebook with our friends. Cat shares it with other TAS mothers and friends. Thanks to TAS PTA (Parent Teacher Association) to help promote it. We also promote it at the school's Spring fair. We are grateful for friends and families who have supported us.

4. What do you feel has been the best way to market your book?

 

We find reaching out and openly talking about our experience raising Benjy and why we have written the book very effective in connecting with people. Benjy did a good job trying to autograph every book we have sold. We have been pleasantly surprised and extremely grateful at the level of support we have received so far.

5. Any advise to those seeking publishing?

 

Start with a passion to write. Then just do it. There are a lot of people and resources out there offering to help.

6. Plan to write more books in the future?

 

Yes...I would like to write an anthology on my family stories, a family cookbook and a business book.

I liked Yit Loong's advise, "Then just do it." 

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Ways to Get Back into Writing

Life gets busy.
Kids need to be fed. Floors need to be swept. Child forgets lunch for school. A mountain of laundry is forming in front of your eyes. Oh, and the kids need to be fed again.
End of day, tired, no writing done.

Or the motivation to write anything is just gone, but you want it back.
Here are a few ways that I have used to help pull me back into the writer's chair.

1. Enter a critique giveaway. I entered Marcia's  January critique and won. I was forced to edit my first 1000 words of the novel I had shelved to submit to her. It was exactly what I needed. If you are interested she seems to have them every few months. Next week Amy will be giving away one to celebrate her birthday, so if you are needing a nudge here is a great way to start.
2. Enter a critique blog fest. I entered Sharon's blog fest last week. It led me to pull out an old PB manuscript that I had been working on. Now I'm polishing that up. This was just the first 100 words, so how hard was that? I've seen these around in the blog world, so keep your eyes open. It was my first one and so much fun.
3. Enter a writing contest. Find a writing contest that interests you and polish something up or create something totally new to enter.
4. Journal. Go back to write your own personal story. I find that writing is therapeutic for me. It just helps me to shut down and reflect on the situation(s).
5. And when all else fails - Block time and sit bottom in chair and start typing. That is what I just did to finish up the PB manuscript for critiquing and to write this post.

What do you do to motivate you to get back in the writer's chair?


*Photo by xlibber on flickr