Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind (via first-lines) (via libraryland)

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Life List #69:

Take my son to a fly-in.

Here my husband and son are at Antique Airfield Association’s Annual Fly-in.  The AAA was created by my grandfather and though I don’t know a lot about planes, it was really fun to take my husband and son to their first fly-in.

pujolsmolinafan:

Keep booing, Rangers fans. This BAMF will be an awesome 5th starter for the Cardinals next season :P

PLEASE!

(via messagewithabottle)

I honestly kind of forgot that one of the things on my life list was to take my son to the zoo.  Turned out, that’s stupid.

Okay, not actually stupid.  It’s just he’s only 7 months old.  And we’ve been twice.  And really?  He doesn’t care about the animals, just wants to nap in his stroller.

He did seem to enjoy the penguins and the prairie dogs though.  I guess maybe I am just not a fan of the zoo.  Maybe it’ll be a bit more fun when he’s old enough to walk and talk.

I have just ticked off another item on my life list.  It’s funny, I wrote this modified list back at the beginning of the year, and already there are things I would change on it.

Still, anything writing related is a keeper.  I have written 6 complete novels, the first 5 all written and finished prior to my teaching career.  So, I wanted to know that I still had it in me to write and finish one.

And I did.

It looks like I’ll be knocking a few more off in the next month.  Woohoo!

I hope this interest in laundry continues.  I pretty much suck at laundry.

J. hasn’t slept past 6:30 AM probably ever.  Maybe once?  And really, 6:30 is a rare occurrence.

But, the thing about babies is, once they finally let you sleep in until say 7:15, and you wake up and realize that they’re still asleep, instead of enjoying it you start to freak out wondering why they’re still asleep.  (Even though they cried at 5am and 6am, but had the decency to go back to sleep before you got to their room).

While you’re desperately trying to go back to sleep, at least in my warped world, you can’t help but start to imagine all the horrible calamities that could have befallen the baby.

So, if you’re anything like me, you go upstairs 2-3 times to check on them.  And then when you try to go back to sleep, you can’t.  And then finally you accept that you’re up and they’re asleep and you get your breakfast ALL ready and…

The baby wakes up.

That is the epitome of life with a baby.

awritersruminations:

deadwriters:

On this day in 2001, 6-time winner of the O. Henry Award for Short Stories, National Medal for Literature and A1969 Pulitzer Prize winner Eudora Welty died in her Mississippi home at the age of 92.

              

Welty is often called the First Lady of Southern Literature and it’s not hard to see why. Though she only wrote 5 novels and numerous volumes of short stories, with Welty it is purely a matter of quality vs. quantity. Like Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner, her work reflects the seedy underbelly of small town America and uses deeply flawed and grotesque characters to strengthen her often bizarre plots. Welty is certainly one of the strongest voices in Southern Gothic lit.

Our favorite works include her 1984 memoir “One Writer’s Beginnings”, “The Optimist’s Daughter” and her first collection of short stories “A Curtain of Green”  which was published in 1941.

If you are interested in Eudora Welty’s full biography and works, we recommend a visit to  the Eudora Welty Foundation, our resource for all things Eudora!

Today, we encourage our readers to reflect on why they love to read and/or write. What first drew your attention to the words on the pages in front you… Ms. Welty often reflected on things like this and drew on her personal experiences to craft her marvelous stories. So… write about your origins as a writer!

Write on in peace, Ms. Welty!

 I love this woman so much! She was a genius and one of the greatest who ever lived. I have her collected short stories coming in the mail and can’t wait until it gets here!

One Writer’s Beginnings was one of those books that deeply touched me.  I can remember reading it for the first time as a senior in high school and just nodding along as I read.

Fingerpainting!