Happy Easter

This morning is Good Friday. Happy Easter to you all.

As I sit at my computer and listen to the sounds of the world waking up outside, I heard the noises of the grandchildren waking up inside.
I went to check on them and this is what I found.

One is still sound asleep but the other two are quietly reading.
I love moments like these.

Would you Rather

Miss Joey from joeyfullystated answered a challenge/interview the other day about her reading. She chose not to nominate anyone to carry it on, however left it open to those of us who haven’t done a blog post in like, forever wish to answer the same questions to do so.
I figured it was a perfect way to get myself somewhat back into this blogging gig. (I truly can’t believe it’s been over a month since my last post). So here goes…..

Cute Puppies and Terrorist Cats

I have made the decision that my days need to become more structured. I mentioned this the other day I know. However I needed to actually sit down and put together a weekly plan that would be flexible enough to allow for unexpected realities of life yet still get me back on track with my studies.
My mentor spoke with me on Saturday morning and the goal was to have this weekly plan completed by Sunday night.
Yet Sunday (as it generally does in my home) engulfed me with twists and turns that were totally unexpected.

Dear author,

I get that you have lived with your characters through over a dozen books or so. You journey with them each day as they traverse your mind and go about their adventures. I understand you see every gesture they make, every nuance in their voice and appearance and you hear the inflections in their voices as they speak. You no doubt have huge spreadsheets filled with every little thing you have written about your character in order to build their reality.
They are your creations, and you have lovingly shared them with the world at large in novels of up to 800 pages long.
But here is where we differ.
I am a reader.
This means that sometimes my interpretation may differ vastly from yours.
It’s not that I am wrong, it’s just that we are different.
So when you shared who you imagined you would like to play one of your main characters in the screen adaptation of your books, it threw me.
He looked nothing like the image I had built in my mind and naively I shared that on your Facebook post.
And then a short time later I received a notification that you had replied to my comment. That’s kind of exciting in my little world seeing as you are a well-known author and all that. So I raced to my computer to find what you had said because my iPad doesn’t set out the comments in the same way (something I find extremely annoying as it makes it difficult to follow conversations).
And then I found this:

My 2014 reading list

I love to read and often have two or three books ‘on the go’ at the same time. For this reason, some books may take me months to finish whilst others take only days. I read what I feel like at any given time.
Having read a post on another blog about her reading list for the year, it prompted me to look in my own book cupboard, bedside table and  iPad to work out what books I have actually finished in the past 12 months.
I was firmly of the opinion that I hadn’t read much at all but was amazed when I counted over 20 books. Mind you, by my usual standards that is a pretty low number.
So, just in case you might be interested, here are my reads (and thoughts on them) for 2014.
If you aren’t interested, then I promise I won’t be offended.

Playtime should be a part of life

I was reading an article in a magazine the other night that discussed finding the child within us all once again. It went on to say that in this day and age, we really have lost the ability to ‘play’ and that re-connecting with our inner child is not only good fun but great for our mental health as well.
Before I poo-poohed the idea, I gave it some thought and came to the conclusion that the article writer is correct.
In this day and age, we have forgotten how to play.
Oh, I don’t mean sitting in the sandpit and making sand castles but if that is what you want to do, then there really is no reason that you shouldn’t. I mean finding joy in doing little things.

Future Intentions

This morning I was thinking about some of my intentions for this year. (I have still to do my vision board but will share when done).
One of my intentions is to write more – not just blog posts. I want to re-work my book proposal and idea and play around with that concept. But I also want to write some fictional short stories. I’ve got a couple of stories here that I began many moons ago that need ‘fleshing out’, hard editing and reworking so I’ll begin with them.

Another of my intentions is to travel. In the past months, I have developed a desire to learn more of my roots. This would entail a trip to Budapest to meet family I have never met and to visit the place where my father grew up before defecting the country. I figured that if I am going to leave my country to visit another, then I may as well plan a trip. When I looked at flights and realised that that many flights require stop-overs and flight changes, and that I wouldn’t be able to leave the airport I was a bit miffed. I’ve planned out a trip in my mind (and on paper) where I travel, stop for a couple of days and then travel on again. This way we can see parts of the world that I have always wanted to. So far, this is a dream but I am working on the GG.

The other thing I want to do more of is to read. I am challenging myself to get through the pile of books beside my bed. I must curb my appetite for purchasing new fodder (2 new e-books, one received in the mail and another one just ordered) that many of you enablers out there are sharing with me as well. I will never get through the pile if I keep adding to it 😉

And I want to take more photos again and try to keep up with scrapping them. I saw a system the other day called “Project Life”. It is quite expensive to start with but I figure that I don’t need to buy all the little bits and pieces of the kits because I have a craft room full of stuff that I can cut down to size and do myself. After a chat with a fellow blogger last night (I’m planning a special Fellow Blogger feature for her in February), I have decided to work on this and try to keep my family scrapbooks up to date (currently 5 years behind). This will entail taking photos.

I have also set the intention to put our last two holidays into photobooks ( 😳 not done that yet).

So to end this post – here are some photos from both of those holidays 🙂

Journal Prompt #4

Write about a secret that you kept from your parents.

Well, I’m not sure that my mother ever knew this. If she did, she never let on and I’ve always thought that I got away with it…..

I love to read. This is no secret. Most of my life, I could be found with my nose stuck in a book. I figured that if I had to go to the toilet then it was a good place to read as well. Until my parents told me I couldn’t take a book with me. That kinda sucked a bit but I decided to find a way around that little rule. We lived in an old home in Blacktown NSW. It wasn’t my most favourite house that I have ever lived in but it had a great bathroom. At the end of the bath/shower, there was a false wall (it was actually the back of the linen cupboard that opened into the hallway). Anyway, it had a lip around the edge at the top and it was the most perfect place to hide a book. Funny how I always needed to go to the toilet when it was my turn to do the dishes!! 🙂

Love you Mum!

So what secrets have you kept from your parents??