Storytime

No I'm not talking deadline or death....or debutante or even dodgy. My dreaded D word is discipline. One dictionary (another D word, and this one I do like) gives the definition (another) as_ The practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behaviour, using punishment to correct disobedience.  My thesaurus offers up drill, exercise, method, practice, regimen, regulation, training, control. It also goes on to talk about chastisement, correction and punishment. Frankly I'd rather without the punishment but I'm a great one for putting things off.  Don't feel like doing it today, I'll do it tomorrow. Or next week. Or April. I think lack of discipline goes hand in hand with procrastination. Settle down at the computer, ready to work on that short story when....oh look...shiny thing on the internet. Yes there are ways and means. Turn off the internet. Avoid all emails, internet trawling and the wormhole of Facebook until it is earned. By writ...

Each year I resolve to do many things. Unfortunately, as so many resolutions do, they fall to the wayside. Some resolutions survive the entire year, others make it to about July then wither...and even more (hangs head in shame) barely make it into February. More embarrassingly, or perhaps I am merely human, I do have perennial resolutions. Health ones (move more and eat less). Home ones (get some bloody things done and finished!) And each year I strive .... attempt ...pretend that I can keep my desk tidy. Each year I work at it. I spend hours moving things, putting pieces of paper in the bin, replacing books back in the bookshelf, becoming lost as I reread something I've been working on. At the end of said hours I have something that looks like this. However it doesn't last long. After only a few hours some chaotic whirlwind has deposited an unpaid bill...a reminder of necessary equipment for a children's program.....a phone number on a piece of torn paper...

I have this story, it's a good story and I think it has a chance at publication. A friend of a friend mentions a publication is looking for stories...aha...time for my first submission for the year. First step is to find my story. I had saved it...of course I have saved it. But alas not by title. Ten minutes of searching and mild panic and it is found. Next step...now to the internet to make sure that said publication is still looking for stories. Forty minutes later, and much getting lost down the rabbit hole that is the internet (so many simple clicks can take you to so many places) and I have found that yes they are. So back to story. I check the word limit. Hmmmm...it is over by 85 words. Will they notice? I suppose they will. Time for a bit of tweaking. Subtle moving of words and taking away anything that doesn't work. Seventy five minutes later I have the story just below the word limit. Great. Time to send but wait.... Check that I'm meeting all...

January, to those who work in public libraries, means school holidays. This means lots of people, lots of kids. It means programs and fun activities...it means creative chaos. It also is when we look at the year ahead of us and hmmm and hah over what we want to achieve. To look at what's working, and then what isn't, and try to figure out why. As I said last blog I'm great with coming up with personal goals and ambitions, for myself and my home. Have even completed one goal already....(insert smiley face). The writing goals always take longer to plan. One that I have decided on is to get back to all those works in progress. (Well perhaps not ALL...I mean there is a lot,   hundreds  thousands of them) The garden bed under the Bay tree is one of my many gardening works in progress. I was very hesitant about putting in the bromeliads...but they have thrived. Have flowered each year and born pups. Then I decided to add a succulent. You can see a tiny piece behind ...

So 2016 is done and dusted and we move onto 2017. Surprisingly it feels very much like the previous year. However new year it is and as January pushes forward we all begin to think of resolutions. Or goals...or aims...or what on earth am I going to do this year? For a lot of people there is a path clearly defined. They want to change jobs...move house... change partners. There is a holiday they have saved up and planned for. Perhaps a new home, new baby. Some have renovations planned...new carpet..new paint...new curtains and blinds. (we all know once you start it is a slippery slope of DIY) I find the house and garden plans for the new year easy. I want to paint the small bedside table in son's ex-room and the dresser in the dining room...get some new kitchen chairs....we need blinds for the kitchen so the late summer sun doesn't continue to blind us and turn the room into an oven. There is also some lighting work to happen (would help if you can actually re...

So Christmas has been done and dusted...well except for those we catch up with a day or two, or even a week later. But the main event is over. We breathe a sigh of relief, wear loose fitting clothes from our over indulgence and fill the rubbish bins with wrapping paper and empty bottles.  A lot of people have a few days off to relax, rewind and recover. For me this is a chance to do not much but read. I am heading, as I usually do, to my sister's place in the Tambo valley in East Gippsland. There is a lot of talking, walking, checking out the garden, full on board game marathons with the boys...but I do get to read as well. This year I managed to read 52 books and listened to 12 audio books. I was late coming to the audio books and I must admit I have to find the RIGHT one. I have to enjoy listening to the narrator (and so many of them just don't do it for me) but I find if I'm not totally interested in the story, then I become distracted. Other thoughts and no...

Twas four days before Christmas and all through the house... the cat was attacking the tinsel and knocking baubles off the tree. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St Nicholas soon will be there.. Not hung as such...more like placed on top of fireplace. We do have a fire, (enclosed) and a chimney...but alas no mantlepiece. So dilemma...where to hang them? And of course there is one for George. The decorations have come out of storage, and with Little Miss doing the majority of the work, we are decorated. Her decorating technique was to simply add and add and then add some more. To a seven year old, more is definitely more. I have not changed a thing. The tree is still bottom heavy (as are most of us).  The fact is that we were two shortish people, and the tree is big. Other half did get up a ladder and add some tinsel and decorations..which is good. As George is making a good job of denuding the bottom half...her decoratin...