The Strange In-Between Magic

Tags

breaks, in-between place, limbo, productivity, ProjectREUTSway results, vacations, writing

I’m caught. Trapped.

And that’s okay.

The week between Christmas and New Years is odd. Weird. I float through the week as if in limbo. The kids are on vacation. I am still reveling in the whole Christmas-was-awesome feels. There are still a couple *cough*several*cough* Christmas movies DVRed that I must watch. Hi, my name is Kathy, and I am addicted to the Hallmark and Lifetime channels during Christmas.

And it’s someone’s birthday on the 31st, so…

I love this time of year. 2014 wraps itself up in fabulous memories. 2015 peers over the horizon, offering serious awesomeness. Serious. Just wait.

Anywho… this week won’t be filled with major productivity. I will read. Perhaps finish my Christmas movies. See The Hobbit… cause my birthday demands will be met. I’ll hang with my kids, maybe play some video games.

And I will begin to plot my return to writing. Work on a few short stories. Planning the emotional journey of Bryn in the second Doors book. And working on a new project to post on Wattpad (possibly with more of my drawings). All the while waiting patiently for the end of January for the results of the ProjectREUTSway contest I entered last November. Or mostly patiently, which means constantly stalking Twitter to see if any of the judges are tweeting lines from my stories.

Does this Twilight Zone of limbo bother me? Nope. I am quite content here. Quite. I worked pretty hard last year. Breaks are allowed.

Anyone else joining me in the fabulous in-between or is everyone frantically working? If so, GO, GO, GO! You rock! Soon I will join you.

The Magic of Far Away

Tags

Black Hills, camping, Crazy Horse, family, inspiration, Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, thoughts, vacations, Yellowstone

I went on vacation! YEA! For everyone who missed me… HELLO! For everyone who didn’t even know I was gone… HELLO! *waves*

We went far away.

11 days.

6 states.

4225 miles. Yes, we drove.

Tons of fun, experiencing new wonders, and learned a bit.

And met a mega-fabulousTwitter friend in person! Which rocked! *waves* Hi, RENA!

Vacation. Everyone has a definition in their head. A trip to the beach. A cruise. A ride on a plane to exotic locals. Staying at home doing nothing. A cabin in the woods (though as a horror movie lover, I don’t advise it). An adventure in a big city.

For me, it’s mountains. Waterfalls. Trees. Roasting marshmallows and reading a book by a fire. This trip gave me all of that and more.

As we drove to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, we encountered many sites and places to stop. First Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, Wind Cave, and Custer State Park in South Dakota. We spent one fun-filled, super-packed site-seeing day. Whew! We traveled on into Wyoming, stopping at Devils Tower… well, because duh! I hummed the theme to Close Encounters during my entire visit. On our way up through Montana, hubs couldn’t resist a stop at the battle site of Little Bighorn (history buff). Of course, too long wandering and an incident where the keys were locked in the truck we arrived too late to enter Yellowstone so spent the night in the truck in Bozeman.

Yeah. Ew.

NEVER AGAIN!

Anyway… we found a great campsite in the park the following day and spent the next four days SEEING EVERYTHING!

It was fabulous. Let me give you a taste. Let me tell you, what I saw was inspiring… as in ideas, dear readers, ideas for future books!

 

Yea! Camping!

Aw!

Crazy Horse Memorial

Mount Rushmore

Pretty mountains

Cathedral Spires in Custer State Park

Sylvan Lake, Custer State Park

Devils Tower… and ME!

Camp site in Yellowstone

My kids and me near Wraith Falls

Mammoth Hot Springs

Fairy Falls… hiked there because, well, fairy.

Prismatic hot spring

Grand Teton Mts.

There were Bison IN THE ROAD!

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Lower Falls

Dragon Mouth Spring

So… there’s a slice of what we saw. If you have never been to the Black Hills or Custer State Park in South Dakota… if you have never seen the geysers, waterfalls, and wildlife of Yellowstone, I suggest you go. You don’t have to camp. I promise.

Now, back to laundry and unpacking and generally putting life back into the realm of reality. Ug. But I only have a sec, because tomorrow is my writers’ group The Summit City Scribes summer get together where we eat and chat and have a lot of fun! Then Thursday I shall blog about my next adventure… something new and exciting, so I am completely terrified, but I will have support in the form of Twitter friends! Rena! Jamie! But more of that later.

I hope everyone has great vacations. Whatever it is you choose to do, have a blast!

 

Family Magic

Tags

childhood, family, life, love, magic, road trips, thoughts, vacations

My sister and her family (hubs and two girls) are ON THEIR WAY HERE! They have quite a drive, so I’m sitting… waiting. The house is fairly clean. There is food in the fridge and fun awaits us for the next four days.

Eeeeeek!

Company is coming. Isn’t it great?  YESSSSSSS!

I grew up in Peoria, Il. and moved to Springfield the fall of my junior year of high school (yes, tramatic, but a story for another day). My dad grew up in St. Paul, Mn., my mom in Holliston, Ma.

I know everyone is wondering… how in the name of all things geography related did we end up in Illinois? My dad was sent to work in Holliston and rented an apartment down the street from my mom’s house. Cute story of boy meets girl follows. Dad got a job in Peoria and they moved.

I grew up away from all my relatives. We did not go to Aunt So-and-so’s house for Christmas Eve, head to one set of grandparents for Christmas morning then go to another relative’s house for dinner. Nope. It was us. Mom, Dad, my two sisters and me. Rarely did we ever have a holiday away from home. We had school. Dad had work. And the drive time eliminated any and all three day weekends.

We visited during the summer. One summer we’d head up to Minnesota and the next we’d make the trip out to Massachusetts then back up north then out east – you get the picture. I looked forward to those trips, seeing grandmothers (I never knew my grandfathers), aunts, uncles, and cousins I didn’t know. And it never mattered. We were family. After a few awkward moments all was well.

When I grew up, moving away seemed like the thing to do. To Indiana we went because that’s where hubs got a job. The drive to see my parents and sister in Springfield or my sister in Missouri is not quite as killer as Massachusetts. Nope. Just 5-6 hours. My kids see their relatives A LOT more than I did. It’s pretty cool how excited we all get when someone comes to visit or we go invade someone’s house.

The distance between family doesn’t matter. There’s a magic bond that ties us together. Through sickness, frustration, joy, and the other roller coaster aspects of life. We’re there for each other. Because.

I still love to go visit my relatives in Massachusetts. We have a great time. And even though I no longer have family in Minnesota, I hang onto my fond memories.

Even though my sisters and I screamed and yelled at each other growing up, we couldn’t live without each other now. I’m sure there were times when Mom wanted to run away from her three darling little girls… now she can’t wait until we’re all together.

Funny, that getting older thing.

Even crazier that family thing. Hang onto yours, whatever it looks like – adopted, step-families, really good friends that earn an honorary membership. Enjoy each other. All the flaws and fabulousness. We only get one shot at this living thing.

 

 

 

 

When Anxiety Strikes

Tags

anxiety, losing focus, stress, vacations, visitors, writing

I can feel it. Panic. Stress. Nervousness settles in my bones, making my mind whir.

It happens.

I can tell you why. Today is June 30th. HOW DID IT GET TO BE THE LAST DAY OF JUNE? July is going to be a whiz-bang of a month.

My sister, her hubs, and their two fabulous girls are coming to visit on Thursday! They live six hours away, so this is good. I am excited! There will be 4th of July fireworks, a trip to the zoo, and laser tag to celebrate my son’s 13th (yes, teenager, *hyperventilates*) birthday. There will be water balloons and hopefully swimming in our pool (if I can whip it into shape). Before the fun. the work lurks. Cleaning. Meal planning and shopping (and pool cleaning). BWAAAAAHHHH! *flails* What if I can’t get it done, what if the house isn’t clean, WHAT IF?

Breathe.

So our visitors leave on Tuesday the 8th. BUT WAIT! We leave for vacation bright and early on the 10th! And not just any vaca, dear readers, a long 12 days filled withdriving, hiking, and camping in Yellowstone! Eeeek! It will be so fun. But first, I have to find and assemble all the camping gear, clothes, food and get it packed in the truck. And hubs will be gone … GONE IN ANOTHER STATE… for the two days before we leave. Ug. Understand, until we drive off in the car, I will hold in my panic at leaving and thinking… we should stay home, home is good, we can stay.

I question why I opened the pool. Really, we could have just left that drama out of the equation. Some of you might get the stress of an above-ground pool. In the past, I have had little luck balancing chemicals in this sucker. So I am not confident in my attempt. But I will try because pools are fun! If I keep saying it I will believe it.

Amidst this pressure, I find me slipping away. I lose who I am and who I am striving to be when anxiety hits. I give up on workouts because I can’t focus. I start to eat whatever because I just don’t care. I don’t write because… that focus thing. Why do I let stress steal my power?

I DON’T KNOW! All I know is that I am constantly wondering what I am forgetting, what I should be doing, which means I fall further behind.

I will get VERY LITTLE writing done in July. I will work on edits for Reuts’ anthology. Hopefully I will blog a couple of times. And this is frustrating because I am close to having Doors ready to query. AND I WANT TO QUERY IT!

Breathe again.

I want to workout, write, be me, but anxiety takes it away. Take me out of my comfortable rut and I FREAK OUT.

So…

Let it go. Right? Get done what I can get done and forget the rest. If there isn’t enough food? Go to the store. If my house isn’t spotless? Who cares? So I miss workouts. I do a bit of stress eating. I obsess over the pool. And the words will be there when I get home. July will be fun-filled! My sister is coming! I’m going on vacation!

But still I wonder … aren’t I supposed to be doing something?

*flails* *runs hither and yon*

Spring break!

Tags

family, kids, spring break, thoughts, vacations

Even though spring is hiding … somewhere … we have reached the magical time of the school year known as SPRING BREAK! A little vaca from school and all things related, getting up earlier than I would like, packing lunches, driving them to school, signing homework planners … all that blah, blah, blah.

Every spring break we take a trip, the same one. First we go to my parents’ house in Illinois. My mom and dad, my sister and her hubs and two kids all live there. My other sister and her hubs and two kids usually drive up too so we can ALL BE TOGETHER!

I love these visits. As my kids grow, my favorite moments are watching them interact with my family. We’re awesome. A little crazy, but in a good way.

I get to visit with my four nieces, who I don’t get to see enough. And you should hear some of our conversations! Six-year-olds know things! And they share everything and there’s no one better to talk silly than with my nieces. Seriously. Weird runs in the family. 🙂 I’m certain I will be called upon to read ALL THE BOOKS to them! Skippyjon Jones being one of our favorites.

We are going to see The Muppets: Most Wanted. We will take the three block walk to the local candy shop. We will go see the progress my dad has made on the house he is flipping. We will chit-chat and laugh hysterically.

A moment of honesty … I hate leaving home. I get serious anxiety at the thought of going away even to visit my marvelous family. Once I’m gone, I’m fine, but before … *flails* … My cats. My house – my safe, comfy place. But I leave, and I survive. And I have a great time.

So HAPPY SPRING BREAK … even without warmer temps and spring flowers. I am headed for joy-filled days with my family. I am ready to let go of everything I’ve been over-thinking (yes, writing, that could be you … yes, workout and eating, that could be you). I will be relaxing, not worrying, taking a break from real life.

There is magic in a bit of down time. Everyone should grab hold of those moments.

So I must dash, because I am not READY TO GO! Bye! *waves*

What is the best way for you to unwind?