Leaping From The Box

Moved!

2007-12-10T19:02:00.000-05:00

The Leaping From The Box Blog has moved to http://blog.leapingfromthebox.com. If you using a reader you may find the new feed here.

"Frame It" Challenge

2007-12-06T19:49:00.000-05:00

I discovered a photo challenge with a chance to win a new Kodak All In One Printer. The challenge is to take find a creative way to frame the subject in a picture using surroundings, objects, etc.

This photo was taken from our hotel balcony in Fort Lauderdale last month. The palm trees in front of the balcony frame the sailboat.

To check out more “Frame It” Photos, visit Life on the Road. They are hosting the 13th Challenge issued by Two Moms In A Blog.

"Paying it Forward … "

2007-12-05T15:08:00.000-05:00

Molly posted this over at Dark Oak Woman. I was the first to leave a comment with her, so I am looking forward to something hand made by Molly in the near future. Here's how you play:

"I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog."

So, just leave a comment with your e-mail address and if you are one of the first three to leave a comment, I will send you something hand made. Right now I am making doilies and other Christmas goodies, so you will have to wait until after Christmas to receive your giftie. There is no telling what I might make for you, but it will be crocheted, that I can promise.

If you play, put this on your own blog and pay it forward by sending handmade items to the first three people who leave comments! If you do not have a blog, I guess you can not play. Awww … quick, go set up a blog!!

Tis Cold!

2007-12-04T10:39:00.000-05:00

Brrr! I had to dig out my winter coat this morning to walk Penny. It was 41 with a cold wind blowing. I wish I had had some mittens to wear. And this is the morning that Charles got up early and went out to throw some hoops! He is crazy! But he wants me to take him job hunting today, so maybe crazy is a good thing! First on the agenda, though, is a hair cut. Maybe I should take a picture of how long his hair has gotten in case he ever thinks about growing it long again. He has not had a hair cut in over a year!

I came across this fun vocabulary site today. Free Rice. "For each word you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger." That is a quote from the site. I do not see advertising on it, but the site states that is how they pay for the rice. The vocabulary words are quite challenging and adjust to your level, up or down, as needed. I spent a few minutes on it this morning and found many words that I could make educated guesses on and some that completely stumped me. There is a setting you can make on the site so that it will keep track of your vocabulary level and the amount of rice you have "donated" from visit to visit. Right now my vocab level is at 41, with my best being 46, and I have donated 1180 grains of rice. Try it out!

Is anyone watching the Sci-Fi miniseries Tin Man this week? Way cool! I always loved The Wizard of Oz but this is a much more grown up adaptation of Frank L. Baum's novels. I really should put them on my "to read" list.

I guess I had best get working on my Christmas cards, since it appears that I will be on the road some today. And no, I have not forgotten that I had promised to write some pithier posts here this month. I am mulling over a couple of different ones concerning unschooling, and also an addendum to my Joy post earlier this month, so stay tuned.

Happy Birthday to my step-father George in sunny south Arizona. Hope you have a great day, George!

I've Been Tagged

2007-12-03T11:03:00.000-05:00

It's a Meme, an online game of tag. Answer the questions, tag someone else, that is how the game is played. LivingbyLearning was kind enough to tag me, so here goes.

Here are the questions and they pertain to the past week:

1. What did you accomplish?
2. Did anything not go as expected?
3. What was the highlight of your week?
4. Did anything exciting happen you did not expect?

1. What did you accomplish?

I accomplished NaNo, National Novel Writing Month. Wrote 50+K words. Major accomplishment!

2. Did anything not go as expected?

My van is STILL not running right. I took it back to the shop again this morning after picking it up Saturday afternoon. Check engine light keeps coming on, even when the shop says they have "repaired" the problem. First time they repaired a vacuum hose. Second time they replaced a sensor of some sort. Let's see what they come up with for the third time around!

3. What was the highlight of your week?

Completing NaNo! Definitely the highlight.

4. Did anything exciting happen you did not expect?

My daughter told me about their plans for the coming year. That was exciting and totally unexpected. I am not sure that her plans are quite set yet, so I will not post them here yet.

I am tagging:

1. Molly at Dark Oak Woman
2. Amy at Living, Learn, Knit
3. Teri at Martinis, Motherhood and Mayhem
4. Sam at Bunchberry Cottage
5. Diane at Popcorn and Sushi

Joy

2007-12-02T17:48:00.000-05:00

I recently read a topic on Amy's Live, Learn, Knit blog titled What Brings You Joy? In her post Amy mentioned a book she had read, Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer, which I have added to my "must read" list. During this past week's marathon NaNo writing, I found myself often distracted from my story and thinking about joy. I began to wonder what the difference was between joy and pleasure, since I could easily think of many things that brought pleasure to my world, but not so many things that seemed to bring joy. So today I looked up the words "pleasure" and "joy" online and found an explanation that suited me at Dictonary.com.

Pleasure, enjoyment, delight, joy refer to the feeling of being pleased and happy. Pleasure is the general term: to take pleasure in beautiful scenery. Enjoyment is a quiet sense of well-being and pleasurable satisfaction: enjoyment at sitting in the shade on a warm day. Delight is a high degree of pleasure, usually leading to active expression of it: delight at receiving a hoped-for letter. Joy is a feeling of delight so deep and so lasting that one radiates happiness and expresses it spontaneously: joy at unexpected good news.

So what does bring me joy?

My first thought was writing, but writing is not always joyful or even pleasurable. It can be difficult, painful and emotionally revealing, none of which brings me joy. Writing is something that I have to do, like breathing and eating. It is a rare day that I do not write something, whether a blog post, an email or a letter to a friend (sometimes those are even handwritten!). It does not matter to me whether anyone reads what I write or not. The possibility of an audience is not why I choose write.

Reading also comes to mind, but again, it is more of a need I have, like an addiction to caffeine or nicotine. A day is not complete if I have not had my daily fix of word input and output, reading and writing.

Crocheting gives me pleasure and satisfaction. I find it relaxing, soothing. But crocheting does not give me joy. The act of giving a crocheted item away, knowing that it will be used and appreciated by the recipient, that gives me joy. I never really understood why we needed to save an item that someone had made, pass it down from generation to generation, never to be used. To me, the value of the item is in knowing the person who created that item. If I did not personally know great-grandma Tilly, I am not going to value something made by her nearly as much as I am going to value something made by my Grammy. And so it brings me joy to know that items I have made and given to others are actually being used. That was the reason I made them in the first place!

Here is a picture of the baby afghan I made for my niece's new baby boy:

Knowing that Aiden's older brother loved his afghan and carried it around with him for several years gave me great joy. I hope Aiden enjoys his half as much.

Here is another thing that gives me joy:

Copper has taken to sleeping on laptops and computers. When it was ninety degrees and better outside, she preferred sleeping out on our balcony all day long. But when cooler temperatures came in September, she ceased wanting to go out on the balcony and now sleeps away the day on top of laptops or any other computer she can find that is running and warm. Anyway, just seeing a cat gives me pleasure, but having one (or more) of my own that I can interact with gives me joy.

Photography brings me joy. Amy mentioned photography and art in her post, too. Unlike Amy, I have never been interested in the darkroom and developing of pictures. What I love is the hunt for a good subject, the art of framing the subject and the sense of accomplishment I feel when I capture a moment in time. That gives me joy, knowing that I have saved some essence of "now" that can easily be recaptured in the future simply be looking at the picture.

My children, of course, bring me moments of joy. Their individual births were three such moments. Add to that my granddaughter, Miss Munchkin; I was lucky enough to be present at her birth and one of the very first to hold her. Miss Munchkin brings me joy almost every time I see her. There is just something about a toddler who is happy and curious and loving that is joyful, especially when she is related to you.

I feel joy when we hit the road for a road trip, whether it is just a day's jaunt somewhere or a vacation. There is something truly joyous about leaving behind the every day world for a bit and looking forward towards possible great adventures. And I feel joy every time I step onto a beach. Hearing the waves crashing onto shore and the cry of the gulls, feeling the heat of the sun through the sand on your bare feet, the smell of the salt spray, it all fills me with joy. Oh, and the skirl of bagpipes bring me joy. If ever I were to come across bagpipes being played on the beach while I was walking barefoot with my granddaughter, my heart would likely burst from experiencing too much joy all at once.

Amy's post talks a lot about finding joy in your work or rather work that you find joyful. I know this is the goal of many unschoolers, to find a way to turn their passion into a career. That is a great goal, although I know few that have been able to truly realize it. The only possible work-related thing that brings me joy is being able to find answers and resources for others. I love to research; I love to hunt for the perfect gift, for the perfect book, for that needed quote or just the right word that will complete a project. I think that is why I continue with my website, since HTML and web design certainly does not bring me joy. On the contrary, many days it fills me with stress and frustration. But I love to know that a resource I have reviewed or something I have written has provided an answer to someone's quest. That brings me joy.

So, what brings you joy?

Catching Up

2007-12-01T12:20:00.000-05:00

Now that NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) is over and successfully completed, it is time to begin catching up on all that was left hanging during November. For those of you who have asked, this first completed novel is not something that anyone will ever see. A first draft is just that, a first draft, and not meant for anyone but the author's eyes. Whether I retain any of this first effort remains to be seen, but it is doubtful. My basic intent was just to prove to myself that I could do it, that I could actually finish a novel. Too many stories have I begun and set aside when the going got tough or life intruded. But now I know I am capable; I can see a story line through from beginning to end. Not only that, but writing that many words in not an impossibility, as long as you keep writing! That is the key, to keep writing!

I did discover one thing about myself. That email is my main time waster. When I removed myself from the computer that has my email program, I could write for several hours without even thinking about email. I accomplished big things! But sitting at the computer with my email, the temptation is there to check it frequently. This not only takes time away from actual writing but also distracts the mind, causing me to lose the flow of the story and lose my momentum. Better to write one hour uninterrupted than to write three hours with many interruptions. As I was reading my favorite blogs (playing catch up after finishing the story Thursday), I came across a timely post: How to Keep E-Mail from Wasting Your Time. If you have find email to be taking up too much of your daily focus, check out the article. It has some good tips!

So, what do I need to catch up on? Besides the usual laundry, dishes and house cleaning? Numero Uno is my desk! I had done quite a good job of keeping it clean until NaNo hit. Oi! It is going to take all afternoon to find the desktop again.

Second is crocheting. I finished the baby afghan for my niece's new baby boy. I will get a picture taken later today and posted up asap. Thursday, while waiting for my car at the dealership (which I still do not have back!), I began working on a doily for a Christmas present. I need to make two and will not be able to post up pictures of those until after they have been given to their intended recipient. And I have several items to make for Miss Munchkin. First her Christmas stocking and then two hat and mitten ensembles, one for her and one for the dolly that Santa is going to be bringing her. Or for her favorite Miss Kitty stuffed animal or any of her mommy's several teddy bears that are fair game for playing with. She is at the age where she likes dressing up dollies and kitties and bears. Hmm . . . maybe I will need to make more than two.

Third, Christmas cards must go out soon. I did not send out cards last year … last year was the Christmas from Hell and no one felt in the mood to do any celebrating. Plus, with our move, I need to get cards out early so that people have our new address. Luckily, the MC (main character) in my just completed novel wrote her Christmas letter and it looks remarkably like what I need for my letter! So that is done and I just need to get it printed off and mailed out.

And last, but certainly not least, I am sure that my readers here would appreciate something new to read besides NaNo updates for the month of December. So I will strive to provide something that might actually be interesting and/or thought-provoking reading, although maybe not both at the same time!

A Picture Is Worth

2007-11-30T08:51:00.000-05:00

. . . fifty thousand words.

Official NaNoWriMo 2007 Winner

Tut's Message

2007-11-29T13:42:00.000-05:00

How does Tut know the correct message to send me? I received this one Tuesday morning and it pretty aptly summed up how I felt that morning.

Remember long, long ago, when you were considering living the "Potential Adventures of Karen Gibson," among an infinite array of other choices, how you suddenly turned to me and asked deadpan, "How much trouble could I get into, anyway?"
Do you?
Do you remember my reply, Karen?
I told you it would depend on a good number of factors, not the least of which would include climate change, geological pressures, celestial weather patterns, the star you're born under, political friction on the street, worthiness, luck, fate, or the mood I'm in.
At which point we both burst out laughing so hard we almost needed stitches.
Like a hyena,
The Universe

From www.tut.com

Day Twelve

2007-11-29T13:35:00.000-05:00

I did not write quite as much yesterday. I only managed 4235 words, which brought my total to 44,934. So I still have a little better than 5K to write sometime today and/or tomorrow. The biggest problem is that my story is done. I wrote the Epilogue. Even wrote The End at the end. I have no more to add to it. Some suggestions given to me by fellow NaNo'ers is to write a prologue, have my character write some emails to her children and include them the story line somewhere, maybe even write my Christmas Letter from the viewpoint of the MC (Main Character). I am not sure what I will write. At this point I am tired of the story, tired of the whole thing. Maybe that is because I still am not feeling 100% healthy. Which leads me to the next paragraph …

This post could have just as easily been titled "It's Your Sinuses, Stupid!" Yeah, I know I said earlier in the week that I did not think my vertigo was related to sinuses, but now I think I was wrong. By yesterday afternoon my head was hurting and there was that telltale pressure behind the eyes. When I finally fell to around five in the afternoon that my head was hurting due to sinuses, I broke down and took a sinus tablet. Today the head is better, although the dizzy still feels there a little bit, mainly when I am sitting motionless. Very odd.

Plus, my eyes are tired from my marathon days on the laptop Monday and Tuesday. And now I am tired from sitting at the car dealership all morning, waiting for them to diagnose why my check engine light is on when they supposedly fixed it last week. It did not take even a day for the light to come back on last week after they "fixed" the problem. After sitting there all morning, they found the problem (under warranty, thank goodness), but it will take most of the afternoon to fix. So they gave me a ride home and when the problem is fixed, they will send their shuttle van back out to pick me up. Ugh. Making chit chat with the van driver all the way back in to the dealership again, oh goody. Have I ever publicly stated here how much I hate making chit chat, social pleasantries, with someone I do not know? Well, I do. Hate it, that is.

So I am home, catching up my blog and trying to figure out what I shall write to use up 5+K more words! Tomorrow is the last possible day to finish. Check back and see if I make it!

Oh! And a shout out to my friend Lisa … hey knitbits! Happy Birthday!!! And yes, she's a knitter. Whatever gave that away?

Day Eleven

2007-11-28T10:37:00.000-05:00

Another excellent day of writing yesterday. I added 8870 words to bring my total word count to 40,699. Just a little more than 9K to go and I will have done it!! Hurray!

The vertigo seems a bit worse today after being better yesterday. Not a lot worse, not like it was on Monday, but enough to notice. If I remember rightly from the last time I had a full-blown case of vertigo, the doctor prescribed some medication, but I think those meds were just designed to make you sleepy so that you would rest. I can do that without meds. If it continues much longer, though, I may decide to make a visit to the chiropractor. Bill has visited our new chiropractor, but no one else in the family has yet.

Day Ten NaNo Count

2007-11-27T09:13:00.000-05:00

I guess vertigo can be a good thing! I managed to write 9,689 words yesterday! That brings my NaNo total to 31,829. Another two days like that and I will actually make the 50K goal.

The vertigo is better today. At least I can walk without playing pinball with the walls on my left side. But when I sit at the computer, I still feel like I am tilting slightly in that direction. And I feel slightly nauseous. Obviously there is still some inner ear something going on. Usually when I feel a little dizzy it is because my sinuses are plugged, but I do not feel like that is the case this time. And I have not had a full-blown case of vertigo in several years, probably since after Charles was born. I remember getting it a few times when the children were very young, which was not handy at all. At least I do not have to worry about taking care of small children this time around.

I think that maybe another day of resting in the recliner will be a good thing. Both for my vertigo and for my NaNo writing!

I'm a Great-Aunt, again!

2007-11-26T10:43:00.000-05:00

I just received an email notifying me that I am now a great-aunt, again! My niece, Melanie Gibson Webster, gave birth to a second boy this morning.

Welcome to the world, Aidan Ansley Richard Webster! Mommy (& Daddy) and baby Aiden are doing well.

Ansley is a family name on mommy's side of the family and I assume Richard is a family name on daddy's side.

Now, I am off to do some NaNo writing. I seem to have a case of vertigo this morning, so I believe I am going to take the laptop and plant myself in the recliner and do nothing but type. Even sitting here at the computer I find myself leaning to the left. Hopefully the laptop idea will work. I have a lot of words to write today!

A Haircut!

2007-11-25T17:00:00.001-05:00

Miss Munchkin now has bangs! Kat said she cut them while Miss Munchkin was asleep. And then she had to wait for Miss Munchkin to sleep again so that she could even them up a bit. She looks so much better with bangs! You can see her lovely blue eyes now!

Day Nine NaNo Count

2007-11-25T16:38:00.000-05:00

Slow going, what with Thanksgiving, Miss Munchkin here for an extra day and Bill home for the four-day holiday. I did manage to write 1463 words on Wednesday (my Day 9 of NaNo writing), but I have not gotten back to it since then. That brought my total up to 22,140 words. That leaves me with 5572 words to write each day for the remaining five days of November. Not sure that will be possible, but we'll try!

Day Eight

2007-11-20T12:29:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a much better day for NaNo writing. I managed to type 5200 words, which brings my grand total to 20,677. Phew! So six more days like that and I will make 50K. Of course, with Turkey Day coming up and all that requires, I do not think I will get another 5K-word day until next Monday. That will be cutting it way too close for comfort.

I just spent all morning at the car shop getting my van serviced and a small repair done. So no writing then, although I did get a lot of crocheting accomplished. I am working on an afghan for my niece Melanie, who is due with her second child any day now. So that was not wasted time, really. Just not writing time.

And then this afternoon is a trip to the grocery store. Oh goody. The grocery store two days before Thanksgiving. Brave, aren't I? Or just plain insane!

Ninety Days until the Daytona 500

2007-11-19T10:30:00.000-05:00

February 17, 2008 will be the 50th running of the Daytona 500 and the beginning of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Only 90 days away!

Yesterday's race was just a bit disappointing. Sure, Jimmie Johnson had a great season and probably deserved to win. But as a Jeff Gordon fan, I was just waiting for a wheel to fall off of Johnson's car or some other benign mechanical failure that would cause him to drop low enough in the points to let Gordon win. Didn't happen. What a season Gordon had, though! Makes one anticipate next year all the more!

And poor Little E. Could anything more have gone wrong this season than did? You almost feel he's like Pigpen from the Peanuts cartoons, with his own personal dust cloud following him everywhere.

I saw advertisements yesterday for Daytona 500 tickets. Daytona is an easy drive from Tallahassee. I wonder how much the tickets cost?

Day Seven - NaNo Update

2007-11-16T14:30:00.000-05:00

2614 words written yesterday, for a grand total of 15,475. And I wasted too much time at chat today!!

Finished Flying Crows by Jim Lehrer last night. Interesting read. Odd, but interesting. I'll have to try to get a review up later. And yes, it is the same Lehrer that does the PBS news show. He has written about fourteen fiction books.

Day Six - NaNo Update

2007-11-15T11:21:00.000-05:00

A great day of writing yesterday, 3289 words. Hopefully today will go just as well! I am up to 12861, which is 1/4 done! Of course, the month is 1/2 done as of today, but that just means I need to keep on!

Great American Word Challenge

2007-11-14T11:14:00.000-05:00

Have you heard about the Great American Word Challenge? It is quick and painless. Here is a bit from the official e-mail invitation:

The Challenge is a fun nationwide contest that pits city against city in a friendly competition of word knowledge. You'll improve your vocabulary, plus your score might even put your hometown on the map! And if your city gets the highest average cumulative score, it will receive a donation to a terrific local literacy charity.
Just for taking the Challenge, you'll also have a chance to win a Nintendo® WiiT and the game "My Word Coach," or even a trip to Washington, DC.
It's quick and fun and all you have to do is visit www.greatamericanwordchallenge.com to play.
Go to www.greatamericanwordchallenge.com to see how your city stacks up against the rest of the country.

And now it is time to quit procrastinating and get writing!

Day Five

2007-11-14T11:08:00.000-05:00

I got in a bit of writing yesterday. 819 words. So a running total of 9572. Not quite where I had hoped to be by now, but I should be able to get some good writing time in the next couple of days.

Home Sweet Home

2007-11-09T18:51:00.000-05:00

Bill and I arrived home last night, road weary and glad to be back. It is an eight hour drive from Tallahassee to Fort Lauderdale and it does not seem to make much difference time-wise which route you take, Interstate or cross country from Tally to Ocala. At least the traffic was much less hectic yesterday than it was going down on Sunday, which was a good thing. I think our supper Wednesday night might have been loaded with MSG or something. I know I did not like my shrimp dinner and did not finish it, which is practically unheard of, me not finishing shrimp! But it just did not taste quite right and Bill said afterwards that his did not either. Whatever the cause, Thursday morning we both woke up with killer headaches and feeling very lethargic, like we were hung over (which we were not!). So that made for a very long drive home.

But the stay there in Fort Lauderdale (actually Pompano Beach) was very nice. I had a nice visit with a UL friend on Tuesday, Carol B. (Auntie Carol, for you ULers), and I took some cute pics of her granddaughter. Carol's whole family was very nice and it was great to be able to put faces to names.

Here are some pics from our hotel balcony:

The beach on Monday morning, around 9 a.m.

A sailboat I watched on Wednesday afternoon when I was taking a break from writing. I am thinking of making a series of several of these sailboat pics framed above our couch.

And does anyone know what these flowers might be? They were blooming in the pool / courtyard area. I think they might be a variety of hibiscus?

Whatever they are, they were very pretty to look at first thing in the morning while eating breakfast!

Day Four

2007-11-09T18:36:00.001-05:00

Day Four of NaNo writing for me was Wednesday, November 7th. I completed another 2108 words, for a grand total of 8753. I am not sure when I will next have a chance to write, possibly not until next Tuesday. But I will be sure to post an update when I can.

Day Three

2007-11-05T17:05:00.000-05:00

I know this is actually Day Five of NaNo, but it is Day Three of actual writing for me. Another 2641 words today. Total of 6645. More than 1/10th of the way there! I might just make it!

Very distracting, writing with the sound of the surf in the background. But a nice way to relax and refocus the eyes every so often after a period of typing, to look out on the horizon, watch the boat traffic, follow the birds in the sky. One could get used to it!

Vacation From Reality

2007-11-05T13:25:00.000-05:00

Pinch me, quick! I must be in heaven! Picture this. No children. No meals to fix. No hubby during the day time. No laundry to wash. No errands to run. Open my door from the bedroom and I step out on to a balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Blue sky. Rolling surf. Palm trees. Warm breeze. And all the time in the world to write!

We are staying at the Beachcomber Resort in Fort Lauderdale. Bill has three days of Citrix training and so the days are mine!

The drive down yesterday was nice, although the traffic once we hit Interstate in Ocala was crazy. Speed limit of 70 mph? Yeah, right!

And what is it with Ocala and horse farms? It felt like we were in Kentucky with all those horses! I will have to remember to Google and find out why Ocala is horse heaven. Sure was pretty, though.

And now, I'm off to write. Maybe I will take the laptop out on the balcony? Or would that be too much of a good thing?