This makes me happy:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060329/ap_on_sc/condor_nesting

One of my favorite lines from DON'T DIE DRAGONFLY by Linda Joy Singleton

Manny is tells Sabine:

"There isn't much point in having a gift if you don't unwrap it." He wagged his pencil at me. "Use your powers." Leave a comment  5 

There is no place like Asilomar. I had a wonderful time visiting with LJ friends, Linda Joy, Meg, and too-briefly, Susan. I came home inspired, tired, and ready to write. I've been struggling with time management so it was timely to hear Gennifer Choldenko discuss the issue during the Q & A panel. She explained that she deals with what matters ( Read more... )

Two more days until I go to Asilomar. We moved inland last summer, and I realized today that I haven't seen the coast since August. It must be the longest ocean-less stretch of my life. I'm so excited for the retreat -the writing, the thinking, the learning, the comaraderie, and the ocean. There's something about looking across the horizon that ( Read more... )

I reread the introduction to THE ARTIST'S WAY last night and this bit about our internal critics ( Read more... )

What you don't want to hear:

"Let's be quiet so we don't get bothered by the evil Mommy."

What you don't want to see:

That your darlings have written all over your printer photo paper to play post office.

The bright side:

At least they are writing. Literacy, right?

After colic and potty-training, teaching my six year old to tie her shoe-laces has got to be one of the most frustrating parenting tasks I've attempted. Her kindergarten teacher has suspended half of the homework this month so that the kids can learn to tie laces by the 28th. The successful kids will earn all kinds of riches and my little one does ( Read more... )

From ANNE OF GREEN GABLES

"Marilla, isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

I recently had an encounter with some of my "friends", who mocked my culinary prowess. They went so far as to name-call. Lest you think that I've been hanging out with an aggressive sort, I'll point out that many of these "friends" are your "friends" also. Yes, these so-called sweet LJ bloggers called me the f-word, (not THAT word, I mean the word ( Read more... )

I was struck by this bit from THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB by Karen Joy Fowler:

"Sylvia thought how all parents wanted an impossible life for their children--happy beginning, happy middle, happy ending. No plot of any kind. What uninteresting people would result if parents got their way."