Hi! I'm back from my blogging break. (Kinda, sorta, maybe.)

I mean I'm sitting here at my computer typing a blog post.  That must mean I'm back, right?

 

But how much of me is back?

 

All of me?  Half of me?  A quarter of me? 

 

(Ugh.  That's disgusting.  Let's keep things together here, shall we?  All this quartering and half-ing is giving me the creeps.) 

 

I don't care.  I'm too tired to care.  Maybe after all there's really only an eighth of me here.

 

Maybe after all you're a complete nut! 

 

*shrug*  Possibly.  But who cares?  What's the point of having a strong intellect if you're too tired to use it?

 

You, ma'am, need to get more sleep!

 

*yawn*  What good will that do?  I'll only get tired again.  Besides all the fun things happen at night.  I can't possibly go to bed early when fun things are happening.

 

You're pathetic.  Did you have something to say or did you just come here to whine about how tired you are?

I most certainly did have something to say!  What do you take me for?  I came here to say hi to my friends because I miss them.  *sniff* *sob*

Oh stop.  I can't stand emotional people.

I can't help it.  It's the truth.  I miss my friends.  I miss our conversations.  I want to be back in the swing of things, blogging regularly, keeping up with everyone, but... 

I don't know if I can do it.

I've just been so tired lately.

So tired.

Well, I have a suggestion for you.

What?

Put off your blogging and your whining till another day.

And GO TO BED!

I have to admit, bed does sound rather nice right now.  *silly, exhausted grin*

*rolls eyes*   I should think so. 

But wait!  *tries desperately to keep eyes open*  I need to give some sort of update on what I've been doing...or something...or...I don't know.  This is such a pointless post otherwise.

You're telling me.

Give me a minute.  I'll think of something.  Oh yes.  I started my new job.  I'm two days in and...yeah.  That's part of the reason why I'm so tired.  (But mostly it's because she never goes to bed on time.)  A-hem.  I mean it's not like it's hard physical labor or anything but still it's a lot of new stuff to learn and learning new stuff can be exhausting.  (Not to mention the fact that I had to get up at 6:00 am this morning.)  I'm going in to work again tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday and...what's that?  A pillow?  I WANT A PILLOW!  Ohhh, for a soft, fluffy, comfortable pillow.  Somebody please give me a pillow on which to rest my weary head!

(Oh good grief.  She's really losing it, folks.) 

 

That's it.  You're going to bed even if I have to drag you there!

 

No, no, wait!  I didn't tell them about how I went car shopping this afternoon...

Big whoop.  You didn't even find anything.  Wait until you find a car and then tell them about it.  (Though I don't know why anyone would care to hear about such boring details.)

But there was more to it than that.  I was going to explain how all that driving around this afternoon made me even more tired.

 

You did come here just to whine about how tired you are.  This is beyond belief. 

 

I don't whine.  I gripe.

Oooh.  I see.  And that makes all the difference.  Yes.  Griping is much better than whining.  Everybody knows that.

 

Go to bed.  Please.

Fine.  I will.  Good-night.

 

Good-night.  (If it is a good night.  Which I doubt.)  (Really, I'm beginning to think I won't get a wink of sleep tonight.  Who could with a loony in the house?)

 

I heard that.

 

That's okay.  I don't mind.

 

*****

 

P.S.  (From the sensible Miss March who's still alive here somewhere)  Hello dear friends!  I've missed you!  I hope all's well with you (and that you're taking better care of your mental health than I am, heehee.)  What's been happening in your lives lately?  Do tell!  :D

 

(Also, Natalie should never have shown me that website full of Emma screen caps.  I'm afraid I'm going to be using them far too often.)

 

A Farewell to March

So long, March.  It was nice knowing you.  Even if only for a short time.

 

Can you believe it?  This is the last day of March already!  (My, how time flies...where does the time go?...and all that.)

 

I'm gonna try to do something really wild today.  (Are your ready for this?)  I'm gonna try to write a blog post about random things that happened in March...all in the space of 1 hour.  You don't think I can do it?  (Well, neither do I come to think of it.)  Still, let's give it a try, just for the fun of it.

 

Ready.  One, two, three, GO.

 

 

Received one of the loveliest birthday presents ever in the shape of this blog post written by my dear friend Natalie!   I can't begin to tell you how happy it made me.  Seriously, it blew me away (on a balloon.  Had a hard time getting back down again, haha) and I just have to say THANK YOU again, Natalie, for being such an utter sweetheart!  *hugs*

 

 

Ate this entire bag of candy.  Well, just about.  I guess I did share a few pieces, but most of it I ate.  It was a birthday present from my brother.  (I really had the most wonderful birthday, people.  I can't even begin to describe how wonderful it was!)  And yeah.  Just wanted to note.  Whoever it was who said "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach" really should have said "the way to a man and a woman's heart" because honestly (and I'm speaking for myself here) we women deserve to be included!  ;)

 

 

While we're on the subject of birthdays, this is what I got as a present from my parents.  'Tis quite a fun game, especially when we don't play entirely by the rules because then it's a lot easier.  (I like easy.)  And just for record, I'm pretty much an expert at finding three letter words.  (Which isn't surprising considering that three letter words are about the easiest words you can find.)  (I told you.  I like easy.)

 

 

Received a number of very sweet birthday cards/emails from a number of very sweet friends.  (Yes, I'm still talking about my birthday.  Sorry.  Apparently there's so little that happens in my life that a happy birthday is like a huge big deal!)  Anyway, just wanted to say thank you to all of you again for making my birthday one of the best birthdays ever!  (Fun fact: I got my first ever card from Europe!  Now THAT'S a big deal!!)

 



 

Found twenty-five of these under my pillow (as well as a box of chocolates on my headboard bookshelf) when I went to bed on the night of my birthday.  They were from my sister.  One of the sweetest, dearest people in the whole world!  Thank you, sister dear!  (And yes, she knows the way to my heart just like my brother does.  *wink, wink*)  (Don't tell this to anyone, but that candy is all gone, too.  This has been a very sweet month.)

 

Now I really am done talking about my birthday.  (Honestly.  You'd think it was the event of the year or something the way I've gone on about it!)

 

Moving on...

 

 

Finished this book--which is the second in the series I've been reading--and almost made it through the whole of the third book.  Currently feeling very proud of myself for having done so much reading this month! 

 

 

Finally had some weather appropriate to the season.   I mean like a real snow fall.  Big enough for work to be canceled and for my younger siblings to go out and play in the snow.  Big enough even for me to go out and play in the snow...but, 'hem, that's a story for another day.  (This picture is actually of a snowfall we had back in 2016, but I figured I didn't have to be entirely accurate.  Besides I failed to take any photos of this year's snowfall.)

 

 

Been watching quite a bit of Hogan's Heroes lately (and I mean quite a bit...like multiple episodes every available evening), which is why my intelligence has been rising at an enormous rate this month.  An enormous rate!  Seriously, I can't begin tell you how many stupid things I know now.  (Really though, this TV show is hilarious.  It's completely  ridiculous and unrealistic but...so much fun!)

 

 

 

And speaking of my superior intelligence, I'll have you know it only took me four times of restarting the dryer the other day (because the load of clothes wasn't getting dry) before I realized that it wasn't going to get dry; that in fact I'd been running the dryer all afternoon to no purpose; and the clothes were as damp as they'd been when I started.  I took this dilemma straight way to my mother because that's the smartest thing to do, and she came in directly and diagnosed the problem.  The dryer wasn't blowing any hot air!!   Ah-ha!  So that's what it was!  A dryer without hot air simply does not dry very well.  I could certainly see the sense in that!  (So yes.  We've been without a dryer this whole week.  Slightly inconvenient, I must say.  Though I won't deny I have rather enjoyed not having to do any laundry!)

 

 

I've realized again that my writing is a very fickle thing.  Or perhaps it's my opinion of it that is fickle.  Whatever it is there's something wrong somewhere.  You know that story I was working on back in November for National Novel Writing Month?  Well.  I read it over sometime later and it was all too plain.  The whole thing was horrible!  Like really bad.  Lots of terribly awkward sentences, and lots of blah!  It would have be rewritten.  Entirely rewritten.  That was all there was to it.  

 

Enter this week.  I got it out one evening and read it again.  And oh, that ornery bit of writing!  I actually liked it!  Actually thought it was pretty good.  It was, in fact, rather disconcerting.  I mean, my writing can't do this to me!  How am I ever going to trust it if it keeps switching sides on me?  Is it good or is it bad?  What IS IT?!  (Fickle, fickle writing.)

 

*****

 

Well!  That's all for now! And guess what?  I did not write this post in only an hour's time.  (What did I tell you?  I knew it was impossible.)  But at any rate I wrote it.  And finished it before the end of the month.  That's gotta count for something.

 

 

 

So long everyone!  Thanks for stopping by!
(And good-bye, March.  We'll see you next year!)

 

Here we go again...

No doubt you've noticed a rather pathetic theme running through the posts on this blog recently--something to do with writer's block, and lack of thinking power, and the absence of inspiration, and just plain all around nothingness. 

 

Well, it's true.  Miss March is in a writing funk...again.  (And, yes, I know you're probably sick of hearing about her writing woes, but please bear with her. She must find a vent for her frustrations somewhere.)  

Let me put it this way.  Though Miss March is a very organized person, and generally not prone to misplacing things, yet of late she seems to have acquired an uncanny knack for  losing her head (or brain, or mind, or marbles...whichever expression you prefer), just about every single day.  In other words, she feels on the verge of insanity.  (Not to over dramatize or anything...ha!)

 

This is, of course, very careless of Miss March, as everyone knows a person cannot function too well without a head, nor think very well without a brain, nor reason at all without a mind.  And as to losing one's marbles!  Well, that's just sad...

 

...The game's no fun if you haven't got marbles.  :(

I'm sorry to say that Miss March, while being fully aware of her sad predicament, has as yet no clear idea how to remedy the situation because--obviously--her mind is in such a jumble of a state that there's hardly a clear thought in her head at all.

It's not that she's lacking inspiration, altogether, I mean she has a lot of post ideas--probably too many--but for some reason whenever she tries to write them down she feels like she's hitting her head against a stone wall.  The thoughts just won't flow.  And when she does get something out, it doesn't seem worth publishing so it just sits in the drafts and becomes another of those unfinished projects which loom threateningly over her head like a huge dark thunder cloud.  Then, too, the constant reminder that there are other writing projects aside from blogging which also demand her attention, has a provoking tendency to paralyze her and hinder her from accomplishing anything.

What to do?  Oh! what to do? 

She told her brother the other day that she feels like a "time bomb just waiting to go off."  What she meant by this statement is not altogether clear, unless she was referring to the fact that she could at any moment explode into a flood of tears, and officially become a nervous wreck.  (But perhaps she's that already...)

Anyway, I guess the reason I'm rambling on about all this is because I'd like you to know--to set your mind at ease--that if Miss March suddenly disappears for  a time and you don't hear much from her, it's nothing to worry about.  Nothing serious.  She probably just hit her head against the wall a bit too hard and gave herself  a concussion, or dissolved into tears and drowned in them, or just decided to shut her mouth and stop talking because she's not making much sense at this point and shows very little hope of improving in that area anytime in the near future.

So that's that. 

(Really, though, things aren't as bad as they appear from this rant--or perhaps they are...but, hey, I'm trying to be a little positive here.  ;)  I wouldn't worry about or sympathize with Miss March too much.  She's just having a fit of her usual writing problems, that's all, and she needs to learn to deal with them and stop being such a grumpy face about it.  So now.) 

 

I fear you have long been desiring my absence.  I shall leave you now. 

 

Good-night!

 

Just a Bit of Random Chatter All About What I've Been Doing Lately

Okay.  So I have a problem with overthinking my posts.  I have so many ideas in my head but I don't make much progress on them because I keep trying to make them into some kind of polished, major work of writing.  As if I'm writing a top-notch essay for college or something, instead of just a simple conglomeration of my thoughts.   

 

So, throwing aside--for the time being--the four posts which are currently languishing in my drafts, I'm simply going to ramble on about the things I've been doing lately.  Such facts may prove of very little interest to anyone but myself, but whatever.  Here goes nothing.

Oh!  Just one more thing before the nothing.  This is a very random post, so it will be complete with random pictures and all that.  And I'm going to try not to worry about it all making sense...because that will take me too long.  Sometimes nonsense is a necessity. 

 

 I've been enjoying...

 

1.  Spending time with my adorable little nephew, who slept over at our house for the first time this past weekend while my brother and his wife were away.  I got to hold him at our church dinner, and feed him off of my own plate, and this just thrilled me to no end!  (I was born to be a mother!  I just know I was!)

2.  Staying up late at night talking and watching movies with my family.  

I have not been enjoying...

1. The fact that late nights don't mix too well with early mornings.  I've been finding it extremely difficult to get out of bed these days.  And cold weather, which makes one's bed so comfortable to curl up in, doesn't help either.  

I've been playing...

1. The piano.  As usual.  It's my go-to when I'm feeling out of sorts, or when I'm feeling extra full of joyful, pent-up emotions.  I'm so thankful my mom had me learn an instrument when I was younger, because I don't know what I would do without it now.

2. Pool.  We inherited my grandfather's pool table this year and it has been in high demand.  It used to be more of a boys' game, but I've found that I enjoy hitting the balls around, too.  It's another means of releasing pent up emotions, ya know?  Boy, but I can really slam those balls around when I'm in the proper mood.

I've been reading...

1.  Too many depressing news articles which make me want to go and shake some sense into the entire population of our country--and particularly into the members of our crazy government. 

2.  Eve's Daughters.  This is an excellent book by Lynn Austin which Naomi recommended in a review on her blog.  I really enjoyed this book and I heartily recommend it likewise.

I've been laughing at...

1.  The cute antics of my nephew.  How can you not laugh when he's helping his daddy put the eggs into the egg carton and sticks his little thumb right through one?  Poor baby.  He was so taken by surprise.  The eggs had never played such a trick on him before!

2.  Old articles written by me and my siblings for our family newspaper.  I was reading over some of these with two of my brothers the other night and we were laughing our heads off.  (That's a rather formidable image, isn't it?)

3.  My pitiful pool playing skills.  My adage is: Close your eyes, hit, and hope for the best.  Only I don't close my eyes, because I'm not THAT silly.  (Really though.)

4.  Loves Unfolding Dream.  Don't get me started!  That movie was SO painful.  And I laughed in derision the whole way through it.

I've been dreaming about...

1.  The stories in my head and thinking about getting them down on paper.  (Thinking about it.)  Every time I ride in the car and the music begins to play...oh!  anything is possible!  But when I sit down in front of my computer?  Forget it.  Dreams can wait until another day!

2.  Becoming a wife and mother.  This is a nice thought.  A very nice thought.  The hope of it's realization is pretty much nil at this point, but hey!  It's a dream!  I can at least have my dreams, can't I?  (Haha!)

I've been watching...

A lot of movies.  Including Persuasion (1995), which I really enjoyed; and Ivanhoe, which we just finished watching for my brother's fourteenth birthday.  (It's sort of a fourteenth birthday tradition.)  Also I've seen quite a few Danny Kaye films lately which aren't top-notch according to my standards, but which are still quite entertaining. 

And...

...because this is a  very random post...

I thought I'd share with you a little random snippet from Winnie the Pooh.  Just because.  I thought it was funny...and you might to.  (Or you might not, but whatever.)  It's actually the Contradiction for The House at Pooh Corner (which is the second Winnie the Pooh book...but you probably didn't care about that.)  Anyway...

Contradiction

 

An Introduction is to introduce people, but Christopher Robin and his friends, who have already been introduced to you, are now going to say Good-bye.  So this is the opposite.  When we asked Pooh what the opposite of an Introduction was, he said "The what of the what?" which didn't help us as much as we had hoped, but luckily Owl kept his head and told us that the opposite of an Introduction, my dear Pooh, was a Contradiction; and, as he is very good at long words, I am sure that that's what it is.

                                                                                                ~The House at Pooh Corner, A.A. Milne

 

 

I just thought it was funny.  That's all. 

 

And while we're on the subject of funny.  I wrote this little rhyme the other day.  It just kind of came to me.  An inspiration of the moment you might say.  Do you want to hear it?  (Well, I can't wait for your answer so I guess you're going to hear it whether you want to or not.)  Here it is:

 

I don't know what to write,

I don't know what to write,

That's why I'm sitting here,

Writing nothing.

 

If the words would just unite,

My thoughts could then take flight,

But they won't and so I sit,

Doing nothing.

 

Okay!  So I'm not a poet.  And now you know it!  (Haha!)  But hey, give me credit.  At least the words rhymed! 

 

Now I'm going to publish this post and feel very proud of myself for publishing two posts in one day!  And then the pride is going to give way to embarrassment and I'm going to go hide my head in the sand in shame that I've just made such a ridiculous fool of myself.  :D  (Oh, dear!  But I haven't got any sand!) 

 

 

Well, good-bye, good people!  Cheerio, and all that! 

 

(And as Tigger would say, "T.T.F.N.!  Ta, ta for now!") 

Incoherent Thoughts, Attempting to be Coherent

I'm feeling restless tonight.  I don't know what comes over me sometimes, but I'm in one of those moods where I can't seem to sit still.  There's a stirring inside me, a longing for something...

On nights like these I have an irrepressible urge to run through a field of flowers.  To feel the wind whipping through my hair.  To sing at the top of my voice until I'm exhausted and can sing no more. 

 

 

I want to write.  There are so many feelings and emotions inside me; all I can think of is getting them down on paper.  But I can't.  I don't know how to convey the thoughts churning in my brain.  I want to write words that stir people's hearts and make a difference in this hurting world.  But words fail me.  All the time.  I can't hold on to them long enough to put them into any sort of coherent order.   

 

It's a helpless feeling.    

 

When I hear certain strains of music, when I read powerful words which other people have written, when I see the beauty all around me in God's creation, my heart responds.  Something leaps inside me and I wish that in turn I could pass those feelings on to someone else by the words that I write. 

 

 

But maybe that isn't the point.

 

Maybe I will never be a real writer.  Maybe expressing myself in words never will come easy to me.  Maybe writing is not the area in which God will truly use me. 

 

It doesn't matter.  If I never get beyond wishing to be a writer, it's okay.  All I truly want is to fulfill God's plan for my life.  Wherever He sends me, whatever He tells me to do.  I want to be doing that with all my heart and soul. 

 

Okay.  So now you're probably wondering, "What's she babbling on about?"  Your guess is as good as mine.  I really don't know.  I told you, I don't express myself very well in writing.  Even I don't understand what I'm trying to say.  :)

 

Let's just end this incoherent post with a song that's a whole lot more powerful than any words I could ever write.  (And no, this post was not written merely as an excuse to include this video.  But really, if I can't share my feelings in my own words I may as well use somebody else's.)