Category: Ruminations and Crackpot Theories

Observations on life in general.

WIP Wednesday: Prepping for the New Year Part 1

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I do set goals every year. My best friends, my writing peeps (a.k.a. The Purples), and I have been doing goals together since 2005. We even gave a workshop on goal-setting to our local chapter in October of last year.

I first started seriously thinking about goals–specifically writing goals, but all goals–after attending then listening to a workshop by Barbara Samuel at the RWA National Conference in 2004. It seemed appropriate to run into her when thinking about my goals for 2015. I found this blog by her shortly before Thanksgiving.

I shared the link with the Purples. One Purple friend shared this link. And this one. Another Purple shared this. And another link showed up on our e-mail loop.

I think the recurring theme in most of these shared blogs is that we’re all feeling overwhelmed. We’re juggling too many roles. The demands on our time are increasing and any support systems seems to be vanishing. I once read a book–I thought I’d written down the quote, but I can’t seem to find it–in which the author wrote, “If one more person tells me to get up an hour earlier to do whatever they think I should do–eventually, I will never get to bed.”

We are too demanding of ourselves when we set our goals. We need to take a step back and take a deep breath.. Setting our goals needs to be rooted in reality–our reality, with our families, our homes, our day jobs, our spiritual communities, and other obligations.. We need to create realistic expectations for ourselves, and the number one goal should be, “Say No.”  Our goals need to be grounded in truth, not fantasy. One person can do only so much.

 

 

 

Reading By The Season: December

There are certain books I re-read at certain times of the year. There’s just something about the stories that suit my mood for that season.

Every December, I re-read Silver Lining by Maggie Osborne. My paperback copy is in tatters. The Kindle edition is on my wish list.

The heroine of the story is a woman alone in the 1800’s, who could have made her living on her back, as the preacher reminds the hero after their “forced” marriage, but instead worked all kinds of jobs to support herself. Her varied careers give her more insight into what makes the hero tick than he has into her. It takes his mother to point out certain home truths about his unwanted wife to the hero. There’s a perfect villain and a wonderful cast of secondary characters.

The reason I read this book in December is because of the Christmas scene. The heroine had never had a family. She’d never had a Christmas: “…she was positive that her first Christmas Eve with a real family would be the best evening of her whole life.” The hero’s family works together to give her a Christmas to remember. “Tonight was the most wonderful, the most beautiful, the absolute best evening of my life!”  It’s a turning point scene in the book. I shed a few tears every time I read it.

Do you have a favorite holiday story?

 

Slice of Life Sunday: Movie Review-Authors Anonymous

I reserved the movie Authors Anonymous from my library after someone recommended it. The plot sounded amusing. I’m in a writing group. I’m always looking for a good flick.

The story started out cute, a mock-umentary of sorts, and I thought I would enjoy the movie. But almost immediately, the alleged heroine wasn’t likable. She never went to college. I don’t see that as a problem. But she couldn’t name a favorite author. She couldn’t name any author. Throughout the entire movie. She’d never read a book, yet she was a writer and became extremely successful during the course of the story. She’d never even heard of Fitzgerald or Hemingway. Because she’d never been to college.

EXCEPT: I read Fitzgerald and Hemingway in high school. I went to a small, rural public school, not a posh, private school for exceptional students. We read The Great Gatsby, The Old Man and the Sea, and several other books/authors mentioned in the movie.

I really didn’t like the portrayal of successful authors as ignorant. Authors read other authors. Even the prolific Nora Roberts says, “I don’t think you can write — at least not well — if you don’t love stories, love the written word. One of my greatest pleasures is falling into a story someone else has written.”

The other female in the writing group couldn’t pronounce anyone’s name.  She was trying to come off as smarter than she was, and it didn’t work for her.

The only redeeming quality in the movie was the realistic portrayal of vanity publishing.

This movie may have been directed by a woman, but the underlying misogyny of the writer and his jealousy of the romance genre were first and forefront.

One star.

Thanksgiving: Food & Beyond

I have never cooked a Thanksgiving Dinner in my life. We’ve always gone to my mother’s or (in the early years of marriage) to my in-laws’ for the holiday. In recent years, we’ve all started contributing to the meal. I seem to be in charge of the “yellow vegetable” category.

I made butternut squash with baby spinach several years running, but spinach and cranberries have been added to the ever-growing list of foods someone in the family can’t eat. We also try to avoid dairy (two severe allergies plus several intolerant of  lactose) and gluten (one severe allergy). In 2012, I tried to make a Sweet Potato Galette, which didn’t turn out quite as wonderful as I’d hoped (the story is here), but did become the basis of what I’m now asked to bring to all autumn/winter feasts (fresh fruit salad is my spring/summer contribution). This dish is more savory than sweet–the thought of marshmallows on sweet potatoes makes my teeth ache. And yes, some of these photos are from that earlier blog.

swwet potato 01Wash the sweet potatoes. Please note I purchased long, narrow ones to better facilitate the slicing process.

Peel the potatoes. Then slice (I use a ripple mandoline, but this year, I purchased a new slicer thingamabob.)

2012-11-21+18.11.22I usually buy 6 sweet potatoes, which makes just enough of a side dish for our family of 14 (give or take).

2012-11-21+18.32.48

I also chop one sweet onion (which tends to be large). I mix all of this together with Wegman’s basting oil. (If you don’t have a Wegmans near you, perhaps your supermarket sells seasoned oils. If not, you should move some place where there is a Wegmans. It’s worth the move. Seriously.) Put the mixture in a casserole dish/glass baking pan (My lasagna pan is perfect). Bake at 400F for about 40 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

The great thing about this dish (besides meeting everyone’s dietary requirements) is that I can make it the night before, then take it to my parents’ in Tupperware and reheat it in their microwave right before the meal is served. Couldn’t be easier. Unless someone else made it.

I’m so lucky that my family can still be together on the major holidays. We’re a clever bunch of people who try to accommodate each other whenever we can, and that’s good, too. Getting together isn’t about the food, though. It’s about being a family and being there for each other.

“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.” Eric Hoffer