I want to share some exciting things that are happening in my world:
First, I started homeschooling my daughter. Of course, I've created a blog to chronicle this adventure! You'll find it at http://homeschoolerbyaccident.blogspot.com/ It will be a fun ride I think.
SHORT NOTICE ! Sorry for that, but if you can, please tune in to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-walker/2012/01/04/a-cup-of-coffee-and-a-good-book I will be interviewed Wednesday January 4th between 3:30 and 4:00. I'm excited as this is my first live show! Think I'll be too nervous to talk? LOL NAH!
This is also great- Right before Christmas, I found out I'd won first place in class in TAG Publishings Great American Novel Contest. I had entered the first 7,000 words of the sequel to my book "Death Is A Relative Thing" It's tentatively titled "Identity Is A Death Defying Thing" and they have asked to see the entire manuscript for possible publication. Of course, now I have to finish it! I love pressure! http://www.tagpublishers.com/uploads/2011_GAN_Contest_winners.pdf
Additionally, I will be speaking about my book on March 31 at the Riverhead Free Library from 2-4 pm. 330 Court Street Riverhead, NY 11901 You can call 727-3228, Ext 0 to register.
WHEW Enough! How about something fun. Here is a little holiday blast from the past- Something I'm recycling from my old blog. May everyone have love and luck in 2012 and a few lotto winnings wouldn't hurt either !
THE OLDEN DAYS
“Mom?” asked my seven year old daughter from the back seat of the car, “can we talk about the ‘olden days’? I like when you tell me about them.”
“Sure honey, let me just turn up the volume on my hearing aid, ok?” Jeez!
“Ok. Hey mommy, did they have cars like this when you were a kid?”
“No baby, not like this. Have you ever seen “The Flintstones? No I guess not, they aren’t even in reruns. Well we had to stop our cars with our feet, roll down our windows manually and there were no portable DVD players for us. We had to rough it by watching the scenery as it went by.”
“Oh. Booooring!” She sat quietly for a bit.
“Mom?”
“What?”
“Was there TV when you were a kid?”
“Yes honey, but not like you are used to. There was no 24 hour children’s programming. We had only 7 channels and no do-overs. If you missed a show, you were out of luck. If my room was clean, I was allowed a few hours of TV on a Saturday morning. If it wasn’t clean, grandma made me weed the flower beds. We watched black and white ‘follow the bouncing ball’ cartoons, Captain Kangaroo and Lassie. There were no “on screen guitars”, belly buttons or talking back to teachers. Oh! And we had to take turns holding the rabbit ears on top of the TV to keep the picture viewable.”
“Oh” She thought for a moment. “Why did you keep a rabbit on the TV?”
“It was the 60’s version of cable”
“Oh. Mom?”
“What baby?”
Did you have stoves in the olden days?”
“No hon, we rubbed two sticks together and the whole family did a dance while sacrificing small woodland creatures to fire gods. Of COURSE we had stoves! Ask your grandmother about the stick rubbing thing though, she may have some insight for you.”
“Mom? Was I in your belly in the olden days?
Egads! “No hon, not until much much later. After marriage- but we will discuss all of that after you get out of the monastery daddy wants to send you to. And even though mommy looks like she still has you in her belly, we all know that you aren’t there because you sitting right here in the back seat asking me all these wonderful insightful questions!”
“Everything was so different then.” She looked a little sad.
I felt badly. Maybe my answers hadn’t been what she was looking for.
An acute case of ‘Mother guilt’ set in. Because of it, when she asked “Mom, can you help me build a snowman?” I said “Sure”, instead of “Uhhhh, well, I think sticking a fork in my eye would be a preferable activity.”
We got home, and set to work. I made a small snowball and started rolling it around, watching it grow as it collected more snow. Soon it was large enough that we were both pushing it around the front lawn, laughing, huffing and puffing. We made two others and stacked them all up, shoring them with more snow where they met, making them bigger and rounder. My nose was running and we were both red faced and frostbitten.
I sat down in the snow because my legs were killing me. I called out “Hey Marisa, do you know how we built snowmen in the olden days?”
“No”
“Exactly the same way we do it now.”
She looked at me, grinned from ear to ear, ran over and gave me a hug. “I’ll go get a carrot, ok mom?”
“Ok baby, you go get a carrot.”
My butt was frozen to the ground. I laughed and waited for the spring thaw.
***
May the New Year bring you much joy
Here’s to embracing change
And to touching lives around us
Looking ahead to the future
But may we never move forward so fast however,
That we forget from whence we came
Simple pleasures and tradition
Or how to make a snowman with a child.
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