Day 10 NaBloPoMo - Birthday Sing along

I am of to a birthday party tonight. For real, in person and everything! I have know this intelligent young man for the last ten years. I have watched him grow, and yes it makes me feel ancient because yesterday he became a man, he turned 18. So today we celebrate.

Not only is he intelligent and talented he has been a very mature God Father to my youngest munchkin for the better part of five years. Check out his website Liam Dargan or the you tube clip below and sit there in awe, as I have for most of the time I have known him!

He is destined for greatness, of this I have no doubt (as is his brother - talented family what can I say), he even teaches this old dog a trick or two every now and then ;-) Like who Mumford & Sons are!!

So, sing along Saturday is dedicated to Liam. Happy 18th, go be great!

Finally the last Wonderful Team Member Readership Award shout out goes to Lo at Lo Johnston Writing. She is full of useful hints, tips and reviews and is just an all round lovely person, so go check out her blog!

Day 9 NaBloPoMo - Fairy Tale Friday

This year sees the 200 year anniversary of the publication of the Grimm Fairy Tales and to celebrate this Philip Pullman has published the Grimm Tales (which is most certainly on my Christmas list Santa!!). To celebrate this and also resurrect a much missed regular spot at Kicking Corners I am going to be dedicating Fridays to the ancient art of story telling and fairy tales.

To kick things off I have fairy taled me, I hope you like it.

"Once upon a time there was a young girl, called Aquine, whose purpose was to travel everyday to get water for her family. The road she travelled was long and ever changing, such was the nature of the land in which she lived. Most days she enjoyed the walk, although there were many occasions when the path became unexpectedly treacherous; the forest path would become dark and scary, the desert path would be intimidating, with packs of laughing hyenas flanking the path.

Often Aquine was blessed to have companions along the way; an angel provided to lift her over the troubled times, a jester to cheer her along on the days she found the travel hard, a fairy to reminder of the magic all around, the wise magus who was there to teach her in that moment or even just the fellow traveller in need of companionship too. Though there were many moments on these journeys when Aquine felt she had lost her way she never failed to deliver water back to her family. Aquine was pure of heart and kind of spirit and always welcomed her companions into her heart, accepting their companionship and teachings readily, offering what she could in return.

Mostly her companions became friends; some remained just for that journey, others she met time and time again. She came to realise each and every person she met was there for a reason and each and every twist in the path lead her to where she needed to be; be it a source of fresh water, a source of healing water or simply the road home. However, from time to time Aquine’s travelling companions turned out to be something different. Some would blatantly steal the water from her after having been seemingly so kind. Others would ask Aquine to carry their wares, along with her own load, for most of the journey, leaving her alone to struggle on when the additional weight left her lying by the road too tired to continue one. Occasionally a cunning fox would cross her path and lead her down the wrong path to suit his own needs. Each and every deception tore a little from her heart.

Being resourceful in nature she found a way to plug the holes in her heart with the left over’s from the evening candle, sealing the hole with melted wax enabling her to function the following day for the sake of her family. Pretty soon Aquine’s now adult heart was becoming more wax than heart and her husband and children begged her to ignore any travellers on her trip, telling her that she was more than capable of facing the challenges of the journey herself, reminding her, ‘we always walk in your heart where ever you go, we are all you need to see you safe! Please keep yourself to yourself.’

Aquine tried to do as her family wished however on her next journey she met a traveller she had never before seen. He was compelling and they walked and talked for the entire journey making shapes from the clouds as they went. They met many more times, almost every journey in fact; opening their hearts to each other as they walked life was grand. Aquine even began to miss him when he was not waiting for her on the path; she had always been so content to walk alone.  He opened her eyes to what she was capable of, showing her how to unlock hidden skills inside herself. Instead of wandering until she discovered a source of water she found she could predict its location, on occasion finding sources of water buried to the naked eye. However on one stormy journey, when they met, Aquine was scared for she had never seen the sky look in such turmoil. He offered to walk with her and see her safely across the mountain path on which they were travelling. Soon the path became more dangerous and began to crumble at the edge. She became stranded on a thin ledge with her friend already safely on the other side. He picked this moment to show his true colours and left her there alone. In that moment she became paralysed, holding the cargo of precious water. She heard her families voice ‘we are all you need’ with this she steeled herself against the driving wind and edged safely to the other side. But this deception was more than her heart could bear, the hole he made tore open old wounds too. Every time Aquine thought the hole was sealed with wax something on her next journey would be a reminder of her time with the stranger, instantly melting the wax tearing open the wound in her heart. She despaired thinking her heart would never be whole again, becoming more and more miserable, her journeys seeming longer and harder than ever before with nothing beautiful or joyous to distract her.

Sometime later, noticing the change in her, Aquine’s friends and family combined their efforts to fashion a new bandage for her heart and act as a permanent barrier to the troubles she would face. The angel plucked a feather from her wing to remind Aquine she too could fly, the jester donated a bell to remind her always of the sound of laughter, each traveller and friend provided something and the magus, using some fairy dust and the love of her family bound the items around her heart, binding it forever in happiness and love, protecting it from further damaged.

Aquine’s heart overflowed with joy as she was constantly reminded of the love bestowed upon her by her friends and family. Even though she always met fellow travellers with an open spirit and kindness whenever they left her alone she continued on with the confidence only the love of those close can give you. And they all lived happily ever after."

 

So what is your favourite fairy tale? You never know it might get featured in this spot ;-)

 

Today's shout out goes to Masked Mum, she is a talented mum and hard worker who insists on never growing up, a lady after my own heart!!

Day 8 NaBloPoMo - Random Thursday Tidbit Party

So it's Thursday and I am off to a party at Larissa's hence this is a pretty quick post.

Random thoughts and what has this week has brought? As I am posting daily you know most of what is happening in the Sleepy household! Today has brought enough to talk about anyway though....

Technically yesterday's post ended up being today's, but as it was only a few minutes late we will conveniently ignore that fact. This delay was caused by a spot of late night bathroom cleaning courtesy of a tummy bug getting hold of munchkin number 1.

After a somewhat disturbed nights sleep a pyjama day was needed. A day watching films under the duvet and eating chicken soup was just what the doctor ordered.

I had to giggle though at bed time with the following interaction:

Daddy: 'ok time for bed, cuddles for big sis, make her feel better?'
Munchkin 2: 'No I don't want to catch her'

You can't fault the self preservation.



 

So we are onto the next in the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award and today the shout out goes to Tara at Faith in Ambiguity. She is talented, thoughtful, articulate and she home schools with fantastic projects, go over and check out her blog you won't be disappointed.

Day 7 of NaBloPoMo - Me, Myself and I

So NaBloPoMo's Wednesday contributions will see me return to posting some of my original writing. Today however I think I have been hanging with Loki-Lou too much (if that is even possible she is hilarious). This combined with my current musical obsession - the Lostprohets has resulted in a very surreal story that turned into an internal conversation with inner voices. I promise I have only taken paracetamol with some Pepsi!!

99% of the lyrics are from the Lostprophets, I hope they don't read this and come after me with some random sharp implement for sodomising their songs :-/ However there are three lines attributed to other artists, prize for anyone who can spot all three (and by prize I mean a very big virtual pat on the back - I am a writer/librarian I can't afford outlandish prizes. I sit here typing with my gloves on to stop my fingers freezing)

So with out further ado (ok maybe a little, the 'you's' in italics means she is talking to the boy, the normal 'you's' mean she is talking to herself)

Me, Myself and I

Girl (G) - ‘You’re here by my side in my summer’

‘Don’t you wake me up, I don’t want this dream to end’

Inner voice 1(I1) - ‘Some days these dreams just ain’t enough’

G - ‘But when you’re here with me that’s all I need’

I1 - You’re ‘lost in fiction’

Inner voice 2 (I2) - ‘So can you feel your heartbeat racing? Can you feel the tension rise?’

I1 - It’s ‘Always the wrong place at the wrong time’ this is ‘No good for me, no good for you’

G - ‘I’m sick of holding it in’

I2 - ‘Stop dreaming, start something’

G - ‘Are we lost or do we know which direction we should go? Sit around and wait for someone to take our hands and lead the way’

I2 - ‘Wake up, yeah I’m so sick of waiting for us to make a move.’ ‘It’s time to make a move’

G - ‘I don’t know how to change from being me, I don’t know what to say, maybe another day’

I1 - ‘If only you tried you could move on.’

G - ‘Another day, in another hand, things could be so different’

I1 - ‘You’re wasting your time’

I2 - ‘For all this to mean so much to me, for all this you make a move’ ‘Win or lose it’s time to choose’

G - ‘Every word I say would come out wrong and make you look the other way’

‘Her eyes are open like a book’

G - ‘I’ll be there cos I can see in your smile time stood still for me when you call’ ‘Answer me this’ ‘ How you feel , when you’re lying next to me’ ‘Could you be the one?’

‘For all these times that we walked away’ ‘Give me something to believe in, give me someone to believe in’

Boy (B) - ‘My soldiers march tonight, in the city of your dreams. This beautiful army are tearing at your seams’

G - But ‘the stars, they shine for you’ ‘I will not let this part of me be apart from you’

B - ‘Hey now dry your eyes, you will recover’ ‘I’m not what you want me to be’ ‘and if we did we won’t be friends’

G - ‘I would stop time to stay with you’ ‘I would stop time to keep you here’

B - ‘Tonight I feel stronger, Goodbye’

I1 - ‘Love, like waves always crashing down around us’

G - ‘I can see into this abyss, there is no stopping me from feeling this’ ‘There’s no hope for me’ ‘I’m slowly taking apart my broken sanity’

I2 - ‘And there’s a lot you can’t undo’

I1 - ‘I’ve never been the one to turn my back or let you fall through those cracks under your feet’ ‘some days are good, some days are tough’

G - ‘I know this feeling I keep buried inside won’t retreat or delete. It ends tonight, the dull pain that remains isn’t pretty’

I2 - ‘So how’s it gonna feel when I leave this town, broke and burning, with memories that we once found’

I1 - ‘Hold on, where we belong’

G - ‘And I seem to think you were once here with me, maybe I was wrong’ ‘And I sit and wonder, falling under’ ‘All these memories pull me down like lead’

Thoughts come my way....but it was nothing at all’ ‘I get the feeling that it’s gone and it’s the reason that I feel so dark now’

I1 - ‘If it wasn’t for love we’d have faded away’

G - ‘You took apart my soul’ ‘You put me on my knees and cut my throat’ ‘See you at the bitter end’

 

 

 

 

G - ‘To all the fights I’ve conquered and beyond’ ‘Love was once a part but now it’s disappeared’ ‘But I still feel lost without you’

‘Yesterday I lost my closest friend, yesterday I wanted time to end. I wonder if my heart will ever mend, I just let you slip away’

‘Maybe I’ll never see you smile again, maybe you thought it was all pretend. All these words that I could never say, I just let them slip away’

‘Maybe one day when I can move along. Maybe someday when you can hear this song. You won’t let this slip away.’ ‘I wonder if you’re listening, picking up on the signals’

‘And I wait here on my own, and I wait to see’

‘Pick myself up off the ground’ ‘And put the pieces back as one’

I1 - ‘Times like these won’t last forever’ ‘Burn, burn the life you can’t choose’

 

G - ‘We’re giving up, we’re moving on’

 

 

B - ‘Hello again, it seems so long since we last met’ ‘Just say hello again, say hello again’ ’Remember what it was like to enjoy our time’

I2 - ‘It’s not the end if you just say hello again’

I1 - ‘But tonight you’ll get it right’

G - ‘I have no regrets’ ‘The memories I hope will never fade’

 ‘Tonight I feel stronger, Goodbye’

 I hope you liked it and you don't now send the men in white coats after me ;-)


The fourth day of shout outs for the Wonderful Team Readership Award goes to Michelle over at Buttered Toast Rocks because it soooo does!! And if the title isn't enough for you visit her because she is an uber talented writer and faces zombies head on in the wee hours of the morning ;-)

Day 4 NaBloPoMo - Small Stone Sunday

 

'Phil's dead!' He's still and cold

Let's wear black while we dig the hole

We've drawn him pictures, he was very old.

 

Today the house is in mourning. Today I will don my boots, grab my shovel and bury another member of the family under the patio (ok maybe that would be a little drastic, under ther cherry blossom in the border will do).

 

I thought I would expand today's small stone post to explain our hamster was old, but he lived a full life. Even on the way home from the pet store he explored his cage well, earning him the name Phileas Fogg (he must have done the cicuit around those tubes at least 80 times!) He explored the back of the book shelves and under the floor. He loved a spot of cheese and could escape his excercise ball in the blink of an eye. We will miss him, but I won't miss kneeling with my ass in the air trying to coax him back to his cage!

 

Today we will wear black, why is that?? If anyone wears black to my funeral I will haunt them forever, but that is a whole other morbid post!

 

On a happier note on to the first of my shout outs for the Wonderful Team Membership Award. This goes to Deb at Kicking Corners, she was my first blog crush and has become my 'best friend that I have never met'. I have recently been spending a lot of time catching up with things I missed on her blog before I discovered her, click here to catch up on her journey so far and can't wait until she is published so I can jump into a longer instalment of her amazing writing. Over to you Deb ;-)

Happy Birthday to Me

In my rush to gush over last nights adventures I have completely forgotten to wish my self a Happy Birthday!! So here is an extra dose of me to celebrate :-)

One year ago today I took the biggest personal leap ever that started an amazing year of discovery, you can relive that post here. I have met some fabulous people, made some great friends, discovered some ace films and better bands but above all else I have put myself out there and people haven't run screaming for the trees! Not only that, I am slowly starting to consider myself a writer instead of random rambler.

At the time of writing I have posted 122 times, gained 18 followers on google blogger and clocked up an amazing 2572 page views. For this I cannot thank my readers enough, I only keep posting because you keep reading!

I guess now would be an ideal moment to attend to the award that Loki at The Modfather nominated me for. She is a very talented and funny writer who is just starting out on her blogging journey, take a look!!

 

 

The Rules (always with the rules, Bah)

1. The Nominee of the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award will display the logo on his/her post/page and/or sidebar. Check

2. Over a period of 7 days (1 week), the Nominee shall nominate a number of readers that he or she appreciates – this can be done at any rate during the week. It can be all on one day or a few on one day and a few on another day, as most convenient to the Nominee. Not sure how I will do this yet so stay tuned ;-)

3. The Nominee shall name his or her Wonderful Team Member Readership Award nominees on a post or on posts during the 7 day (1 week) period. As above stay tuned!


Here are the people I nominate for this award:


Deb at Kicking Corners

Tangled Lou at Periphery

a.eye at Shouldn't Life Be More Than This?

Michelle at Buttered Toast Rocks

Tara at Faith in Ambiguity

Masked Mum

Lo at Lo Johnston Writing

Apparently all nominees have to answer the following questions, so here are my answers:

1) Why do you blog?

I started blogging to put my writing out there and see what people thought. Now it is more about self discovery and addiction!!


2) If you were trapped on a desert island, what book, DVD, food, cartoon character, and childhood game would you bring?

Arrggghhhh too hard!! Ok book; Paulo Cohelo Brida (just addicted to it). DVD; Dirty Dancing is my all time favourite film (I once watched it every day, sometimes twice, during my six week summer holiday). Food; Chocolate, don't think I could live without it. Cartoon character; I am so torn but I think Road Runner is one that I have always loved, although Mickey Mouse and his Mouska Tools would come in handy! Childhood game; would love to say Cluedo (because apparently I am really good at it, although am usually the murderer) but who would I play with?? So I think it would have to be Hungry Hippos too Loki, did you ever play it solo and see which hand would win...right v left.

3) Share a funny joke or one-liner (:-O it appears I missed this question when I posted initially)

What is big and green and sits in a corner all day long?
........The Incredible Sulk



4) What is your favourite thing about yourself?

My ability to Love easily and go back and Love those that have hurt me.


5) What one word best describes you?

Young (at heart)


6) If you could have a lifetime supply of any candy/candy bar, what would it be?

Pint pot jelly sweets.....mmmmmm

7) What fictional character do you relate to most?

Brida, for reasons best not explored!!


8) If you were to write the story of your life, what would you call it?

'She came, she danced, she slept' because “Give me music, I will dance!” is taken!

I think I will do a Loki and shout out to each of you for the next seven days and then it is over to you:-)

Tata for now, and thank you!!





Small Stones

So apparently it is Mindful Writing Day today, find out more at Writing Our Way Home. Thanks Lou for pointing me in their direction.

As far as I can gather you simply have to slow down and notice life, then put it into words (put slightly better than my feeble description here)







This is my attempt:

A click, a pull

Warmth rushes to my face.

Black and cracked, ash and glow

Another log, crack and pop

You'll keep us warm a while longer

I'll miss you when we're gone

 In other news on this fine Thursday I have been given another award, this time I get to gush about the people that make blogging worth while....readers!

 

Who thinks I am worthy of such an awar? The Modfather of course and with a name like tthat who am I to argue. My most recent blogging crush, and she is, as she says, a fellow Lancastrian who makes cupcakes and doesn't shave over winter (unless certain celebs come a knocking). Certainly worth a visit!!

 

There are rules, but it is late and I have packing to do so I will revisit this another day this week. Great topic for one of my daily posts...Yep that's right, I was feeling left out, everyone else has signed up to something this month if it wasn't NaNoWriMo (sorry to much of a whimp this year, maybe 2013) it was NaBloPoMo. I don't like not being at the party so in a rash decision I have signed up to the November challenge (sorry Deb no novels this year, the blogging daily challenge)....Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh *runs screaming from the room* Wish me luck!!!!

 

 

 

Speaking of parties, this was all for Larissa's Tit Bit Thursday Link Up Party, visit her at Papa is a Preacher.