And the stars align

Just when you think it is safe to go back in the water the sharks come back out to play!

You drag yourself and your family through a rough time, see the light at the end of the tunnel and normality begin to descend again. Only to have the rug pulled from underneath once more. A little voice laughs at you and says 'nope we're not done messing with you yet deary.'

It's not like we haven't had a hard enough year already, but no now life wanted to have a pop directly at my little girl; take a nine year old child and strip away all her self-confidence and make her feel useless. All as a result of a few unkind words from those who would be her friends.

Of everything we have had to face this year I think that was by far the worst, watching the vivacious young girl we raised break down piece by piece in front of us. Just feeling completely helpless!

In the middle of fighting to build our munchkin back up into the confident and happy girl she was we randomly entered a competition to win tickets to see the Imagine Dragons, a band both of us love.

view original here

I had to be told twice when the e-mail came to say we had won tickets, not least because various other things had conspired to make us available on the night we had won the tickets for. And the look on her face was priceless when I told her she was going to get to see one of her favourite bands. This one thing has brought a smile to her face this week, it's given her something good to aim for. I have no idea what brought everything together so nicely but it is such amazing timing.

Life will keep knocking you down it seems, but every now and then the stars align....someone smiles down on you and things work out to give you a little miracle just when it is most needed.

So keep on getting up, keep on moving forward and don't miss the miracles!!

For now I'll leave you with Munchkin 1's favourite song and look forward to her first concert experience this evening.

Have you ever experienced one of those well timed little miracles before? Where all the stars seem to align just when you needed them to the most.

Day 29 NaBloPoMo - Random Thursday

I am this excited!!! I am going back to work :-D

Am I better??

Is this on or off the record?

On the record!

Well yes of course I am *looks around sheepishly*

Off the record??

As long as this stays between me and you!! Not 100%! Can I stay in this house any longer? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In all seriousness I am much better than I was, I'm just not pain free. Just hoping that I can make it through the day!!

Other Randomness of a Sleepy nature:

I am dithering again on a couple of things, all writing related so I figured I might just put my ditherings out there and leave myself wide open to a kick in the ass to get me moving in some sort of direction.

1. My 99 word story yesterday seems to have worked, yet I am still pondering whether or not to try and enter the competition that 99fiction are running. The deadline is looming and all I need to do is find a topic to write about if I am to enter. Ideas in the comments please my head is befuddled, leading me nicely to.....

2. Faith and Dan have featured on here a few times over the last few months, they are characters my mind created for a purpose that was as far from books and publishing as you can get! But they won't shut up, their story keeps twittering, whispering in the corners of my mind all the freaking time (please don't call the men in white coats, they aren't asking me to murder anyone...yet).

So I am faced with a number of options; Ignore them and try to plan the book I intended to write, give in and write their story as a novel (or maybe novella??) as a side note I am positive no one would want to publish it and I wouldn't even choose to read this style of story!! Or I could go with a suggestion from a friend; I could set up a blog dedicated to them and their story, a platform for their story to be told. - So what do you think? Again answers in the comments please ;-)

3. I have recently discovered The UK Poetry Library, they accept submissions from amateurs of the poetry persuasion. I have been faffing for weeks over what to try and submit, if at all. I really want to do this so I am going to set myself a rather long deadline of New Years Eve to have submitted something. Please feel free to pester, prod, poke and generally kick my ass until I confirm completion. I figure by making this public I will feel a compelling urge to follow through (in a strictly writerly and non-bodily fluid kind of way) instead of dithering infinitum!

I hope you all don't mind lending a helping shoe and getting me moving!

Now finally a certain little mischief maker, who is known for random acts of cheeriness, has had a really shitty day. So I think it is about time someone else did the cheering ;-)

So this is probably the millionth of watching this but I can reliably bet on you smiling whilst watching - enjoy Loki-Lou

 

 

Motivation: Day 21 Unlock their potential

As promised, my competition entry. Hope your fingers are still crossed ;-)

I encourage my children to read because

It opens their minds perchance to dream

It opens their eyes to that which is unseen

It allows their inspiration to soar

It encourages them to create more.

I encourage my children to read because

I want them to be all they can be

I want them to see all they can see

I want to give them passion for life

Even in times of trouble and strife.

I encourage my children to read because

I don’t want them to realise in later life

There’s more to see and read but no time

Words are our past, our present and our future

With them we can live a thousand lives and more



Motivation: Day 20 Baby Steps

There are things in this life that scare me senseless, many things in fact.

Roughly around 8 years ago I came to the realisation that I could not show these fears to my children, to do so would surely inflict the debilitating reactions I had onto them. I had no choice but to face my fears and under no circumstances show my fears in front of my girls.

Most things, like my fear of creepy crawlies and flying insects, have been relatively easy to face. A few deep breaths, grit my teeth and ignore them (most of the time). My fear of heights, focus on something else.

Sorry to fellow aracnophobes

However, my fear of putting myself out there, letting people see the me inside, this is proving a little harder to get over. I have a deep seated doubt in myself and the things I create, I never think they are good enough, I never think I am good enough.

I started this blog almost as a whimps way to face my fear, I mean seriously no one would be interested enough to read my blog would they. But at least I could post what I have written and hide behind my laptop screen, the thought of someone reading what I had written and finding it wanton makes me feel ill.

This last week, however I entered a competition. Only a small competition, to win a children's book a week for a year. All I had to do was write 100 words starting, 'I encourage my child to read because...' I started writing and ended up with a poem, which I dutifully entered onto the competition page before I changed my mind. Fingers crossed and we will see what happens!

Before I let you in on what I wrote, answer the question for me, why do you love to read and why do you / would you encourage your children to read. Oh and you don't have to write 100 words if you don't want to, a few words will do just fine, sometimes less is more!

I hope your projects are coming along nicely, keep writing, keep living!