I would not have been inaccurate in that assessment.
September 23rd? I haven’t written anything since September 23rd?
Okay, so I’ve written since then, but not in my blog.
I tried.
In fact, I started another blog on another site, figuring that I’d trace my Mom’s journey with cancer on that one. That failed miserably. Two entries. Two.
I suck at blogging.
During that time I did complete a novel and few short stories and did some editing.
But blogging? Not so much. In fact, not at all.
However, here it is, April, and I’ve signed on for Camp NaNoWriMo. 30 days of writing, setting my own goal, meeting it.
Right.
My goal for the month is 30,000 words, which should be easy: 1000 words per day.
And what I’m writing? Well, since I have so many novels hanging out in my apartment and on my hard drive waiting to be edited, I don’t want to go in that direction. Instead I’ve decided to write short stories. I’ve jotted down some random words and phrases and some notes to go with them and those are supposed to assemble themselves into stories.
Right.
It’s now April 4th and I’ve managed to write one story (just under 1400 words) and part of another and am struggling.
In other words, if I want to succeed at this, I’ve got to find something to get me writing, another source of wordage.
So. . . What I’ve stumbled across is the A to Z Blog Challenge. This can be found here: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/what-is-blogging-from-to-z.html Or maybe I’ll figure out how to insert that link properly. Who knows?
Anyhow, I’ve stumbled across that challenge and though it’s already April 4th, I think I can do this. I’ll just try to blog every day (yes, I know, we all have seen how that goes) using the formula of <insert letter here> is for <insert something beginning with that letter here> as I work my way through the alphabet.
I could stop here. A is for April, when I’m doing this. A is for Alphabet, which is the basis of this challenge.
But I think I’ll throw in a couple more, just to keep in the spirit of why this blog was created: to record memories of my past that might eventually be lost.
I could just tie in to what I’ve already chosen. “April showers bring May flowers.” Okay, that’s the extent of my April memories. Move on.
Alphabet. I don’t remember when I learned the alphabet, but I know that I didn’t start reading until first grade. That’s the way it was in those days.
However, I can add a little more about alphabet: alphabet soup.
When I had alphabet soup, it originated in that familiar red and white Campbell’s can. It was a good idea, but somehow it never worked the way it should. Yes, it was fun to have letters to play with while eating, though it kind of went against the “don’t play with your food” adage. But alphabet soup had its problems. For one thing, it was usually too hot to play with, and once it cooled, it was close to inedible. Add to that, trying to find the letters to spell anything. And the noodles became so soggy that they didn’t seem to work out.
We had an alternative: Alphabits cereal. It was sugar-coated, which really wasn’t an issue then. After all, sugar-coating was the way of the world at that time. We had Sugar Pops and Sugar Frosted Flakes and Kool-Aid. Lots of sugar. And fluoride toothpaste was just making its way to the market. But that’s not the point. The point is that Alphabits were a little more conducive to making words. After all, I could dump out a bunch of them on the table, and put the letters I wanted in my bowl and the ones I didn’t in my brother’s. Unfair? He was three years younger than I was and couldn’t spell so what difference did it make? Again, sogginess was an issue, so it was usually better to eat them plain and drink milk from a glass.
Many years later I came across something even better: alphabet pretzels. I bought them at a farm market, in bulk. My own kids were older and not really impressed but I used some of my petty cash to purchase bags of them for the kids in the class I taught. I wanted this to be a challenge but a doable one, so I also bought a box of zip-lock sandwich bags and sat at my desk sorting them by letter. Then I made separate baggies for each of the kids in the class, including the letters of the child’s name and a few extra pretzels and a name card with the child’s name lettered in capitals. It was a fun activity for them because after they had matched the letters, they could eat the pretzels. I usually had to buy several large bags of pretzels to get enough of each letter, but it was worth the cost and the time to sort them. And my assistant and I had snacks for when the kids left for the day.
Of course, nowadays we have “Let’s Move” and snacks as rewards are a no-no. Besides that, some of the cultures I’ve encountered feel that it’s disrespectful to play with food. Darn.
One more A word: Audubon. There’s a name that isn’t used as much lately. The Audubon Society is over a hundred years old and is dedicated to protecting birds and wildlife and their habitats. When I was in fourth grade, my teacher, whose name I’ll add if I think of it, was an avid bird-watcher. She belonged to the Audubon Society and thanks to her, all of us became members of the Junior Audubon Society. Basically this meant that every Friday our morning Bible reading (yes, we read the Bible in school in those days) was Psalm 8 (because it described the majesty of nature) and our afternoons included Jr. Audubon meetings. I don’t remember what we did in those meetings, but it had to be better than some of the “teaching to the test” that goes on nowadays. And I got to wear a cool button and carry over my interest with my grandparents who also were bird watchers.
I suppose that I should also mention another A word, one that is part of my impetus to write in this blog: Alzheimer’s. Two grandparents suffered from this. So far my dad is okay, but who knows what the future holds for any of us. It’s probably best to get all of this down in readable form before I forget it.
No comments:
Post a Comment