Getting in a December Post

I really meant to post this month, truly I did. But it proved to be a very busy and a bit stressful month, and for the last week I've been sick with a head and chest cold that has made me miserable. I am feeling quite a bit better, though, and I am thankful that I haven't had the stomach bug a lot of people have had around here.

Nothing really to say tonight, I just wanted to make one last post for 2013. Hope everyone has had a nice evening, and I hope that 2014 is everything you want it to be!

 

Ruminating on Stobs and Seasoning Sheets

Well, I made 26 posts last month, so although I didn't complete NaBloPoMo, at least I posted more than I have in previous months this year, and a few of the posts were even halfway decent!

Yesterday was a gorgeous day! After several days in a row of cold temps and rain, 50+° and sunshine was very welcome. I even hung some laundry out. Any time I can keep from using a dryer, I will do it! I may have written about this before, but once I was drying some sheets out on the line, and I said to Thomas, "My sheets are probably almost totally dry. I'm going to bring them in to season them." And I kind of shocked myself, because I couldn't remember having used that term before. But Mom used to say it a lot. She'd have something that she had mostly dried outside, then she'd bring it in and "season" it in the dryer or (in the wintertime, especially) in front of the fire. 

I looked at Thomas with a shocked expression on my face and said, "Did I just say 'season'? Where did that come from?" I was just surprised to hear it come out of my mouth, because it wasn't something I normally would say, and I didn't have any conscious thought of using the word. And Thomas said, "Yes, you did, and surprisingly I know what you mean!"

I find that more and more often a word or phrase from my childhood will pop out of my mouth before I can stop it. For example, not too long ago I cautioned Eler Beth to "watch out for that stob" when we were walking through some woods. She said, "What's a stob?!"

Did you ever run around barefoot when you were a kid and step on a stob? Well I did, and I can still recall the pain. Stubbing your toe on one was just about as bad as cutting your foot. And if it cut your foot, it would almost invariably be on the soft arch or under or between your toes; wherever it would be the most painful while it healed. 

I was thinking about the word "stob" today, so I decided to see where it originated. I found conflicting information. One source says it is from a Gaelic word, and it would make sense that my Scottish and Irish parents would have used the word. Another source says it comes from a Middle English word meaning stump. I'll have to do more digging. Anyway, regardless of the origin, in my little world it's a broken off or cut off stump of a small tree, bush, or thick weed, even, that sticks up out of the ground just enough to either stub your toe on it or step on it and cut your foot.

Okay, so I've started off December with a post, and I'll try to post several times this month, even if I don't post every day.

55,667

That was my final word count when I sent my "novel" in to be verified today. So I made it past the 50,000 word count goal by the end of the month.  I learned a lot and now have a lot of editing and fixing to do. I realized I need to do a bit more research in some areas as well, and, of course, the book will end up being much longer than these 55,000 words. December will be a busy month, but hopefully I'm in the habit now of sitting down and writing almost every day. So even if I have to throw out half of what I wrote this month (or more), it was worth it!

In the Home Stretch

44,000 words and counting....

Ice Skating

I told Eler Beth I needed to do my blog post but didn't know what to post about. So she told me to post about the ice skating rink in town opening up this weekend. So I am.

We don't have any permanent ice skating rinks in our town, although there are a couple across the river in Louisville. But a couple years ago they put up a temporary rink in downtown Jeffersonville during the holidays, and it was so popular they left it up through most of January and then brought it back last year.

Eler Beth is a very good roller skater -- since she could walk, she could skate! And a few years ago she had her first chance at ice skating. Last year she made it to the rink here in Jeff and had such a great time! She wore her Necomimi fox ears when she went, and the little kids got a kick out of that. She's a good ice skater and is looking forward to the rink opening this Friday. 

So I'll try to get some pictures and maybe some video of her.

And hey, I'm right on track with my NaNoWriMo novel -- I'm actually a bit ahead at the moment!!

Observant and Confident Daughters

For Better or For Worse, Thursday, November 21, 2013


This reminds me of Eler Beth. I can remember working a lot of overtime when she was about 4 years old, and sometimes Thomas would start dinner for me. He would tell me how she would know exactly where I kept everything, and she would correct him if he cooked or cleaned anything differently from me. "That's not how Mom does it," she'd say, and then proceed to tell him how to do it. He took it with good grace.

When our local Meijer first opened, it was the first store in our area with the self checkout, U-Scan lanes. Once when she was about four years old, she was in there with her Dad, checking out, and it was one of the first times he'd used the self checkout. Whatever it was he was trying to buy wouldn't scan. He kept running it over the scanner, but for some reason it wouldn't scan. (Apparently he wasn't doing it right! lol)  She couldn't even see over the top of the counter, but, without saying a word, she reached up, took the item from him and ran it across the scanner.  The scanner beeped, and she popped it into the bag. Thomas said an elderly couple in line behind him burst out laughing. 

That's my girl! She has always been observant and confident, and ready to take charge when needed!

Jigsaw

Andrew dropped by after work this morning to see if Eler Beth wanted to go run some errands with him. She was still asleep. Here's how he reported the conversation they had.

Andrew: "Hey, Eler Beth, do want to go to Game Stop with me?"

Eler Beth: "I don't have all the pieces."

A: "What?"

EB: "Some of the pieces are missing."

A: "Pieces of what?"

EB: "The jigsaw puzzle. In my head. I don't have all the pieces."

Andrew to me when he came out of her room: "She's not going anywhere for a while."

He told me what she'd said, and I thought, you know what? If I had a jigsaw puzzle in my head, there would most certainly be missing pieces!