Category Archives: Writing!

Family and Friends, RV Life, The Adventure, Writing!

February Goals

2 Comments

As I finished up my absolutely wonderful, spectacularly memorable and precious beyond words time with my sisters late this past week, I asked the question “How can we pray specifically for each other?” Of course, we’re always praying for each other’s health and family, but I was looking for a something more specific, more personal. Interestingly, we each asked for prayer that we would be more consistent with different forms of writing. Joie and Elna wanted to become more disciplined in writing notes of encouragement to family and friends, and I shared how I wanted to be doing a better job with this blog and with possibly crafting some articles/stories for submissions to different publications.

We’ve all returned home and life has picked up right where we left it! Joie will soon be welcoming a new grand baby and helping out with his/her four siblings.  Elna will be returning to her cancer treatment regimen.  I’ll be back to SOWER work and all that entails.   I’m not sure what my “doing a better job with this blog” will actually look like, but one of my strategies will be to do a post a day for the month of February.   So watch out – and Sisters,  keep praying!

Till tomorrow!
Steph

Email, RSS Follow
Pin It
Writing!

The First Time

6 Comments

I suppose there is a first time for just about everything. Well, yesterday was the first time I submitted a story to a publisher to be included in a book. These books (Chicken Soup for the Soul) get lots of submission, so while I’m hopeful my story will be chose, I’m in no way counting on it. But I have to tell you it felt like a very big step for me to have the confidence (with the expert copy editing from two wonderful friends) to actually hit that “Submit” button. While I don’t think I should share the actual story that I submitted, I can share with you my original blog post that inspired my story. It happened while we were volunteering at Teen Challenge Boys Ranch in May of 2008 –
Continue reading The First Time →

Email, RSS Follow
Pin It
RV Life, The Adventure, Writing!

Trying to process….

Leave a comment

and I need an extension.
One would think, having just completed a WRITERS conference, that one would be able to put a couple of words together to describe the event. You know, like bloggers are supposed to do!

Well, yesterday the 2017 Montrose Christian Writers Conference wrapped up.  I am still in major processing mode about all the information that I learned (actually it’s more like information overload ), the friends that I made (such delight!) and the encouragement I received (oh, my!).   Continue reading Trying to process…. →

Email, RSS Follow
Pin It
RV Life, The Adventure, Writing!

Actually doing the homework!

3 Comments

I guess you can tell that I’ve been trying to do some of my Blogging 101 homework. If you’ve stopped by before you can see that I’ve not only changed my header picture, but I’ve also changed the whole template. It’s similar (I really like being able to easily change that header picture), but different. I’ve been learning about things called widgets and plug-ins and figuring out how to tweak the layout of things. Aside from main template change I’ve also –

  • Updated my “About Us” Page.  Not a big change, just tried to freshen it up a bit. 🙂
  • Added a Flickr widget in the sidebar that scrolls through my last 20 uploaded pictures. If you click on the “big” picture it will take you to all of my pictures over on Flickr, so that’s pretty cool.  And the widget itself is a pretty cool gizmo.  I can also have it just show pictures with a certain “tag” – like the cabin in the spring!
  • Added a page for my Instagram photos too! I don’t know how useful that will be, but it was fun to figure out how to make it work.
  • Re-installed the contact form on the “Contact Us” page. So if you’d like to contact us via email instead of leaving a contact that option is back.
  • Finally got the RV picked up after our unpacking and monthly mail delivery.  OK, so that’s not actually Blogging 101 homework, but it sure is Home Work! And it sure needed to be done!

If you have a moment I’d love to hear how you like the changes. Or how you don’t.  Is something missing that used to be on the page?  I was pretty happy with the previous blog-look and was in no hurry to change, but sometimes it’s fun to shake it up a bit! And I think this old dog even learned a new trick or two in the process!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Email, RSS Follow
Pin It
RV Life, Writing!

Blogging 101

3 Comments

Bet you’re pretty surprised that my first post of 2015 isn’t full of uber-cute grand babies and stories of precious moments spent with family.  Well, I’m pretty surprised too! Here’s the thing – a couple of weeks ago a blogging friend (i.e. someone I wouldn’t have met if I hadn’t been blogging) mentioned that he was taking an online blogging course to help improve his blogging skills. Since I’ve been feeling a bit conflicted about my blogging lately, I thought it might be a good idea to take advantage of the opportunity myself. You know, getting some fresh ideas, improving my writing skills, being better organized, defining my purpose in writing a blog – stuff like that.  Plus, it was free.  Always a good thing.  The course starts today, and I’ll be getting an assignment every day for the next 4 weeks or so. (Yikes!) Since I hate to get behind before I even get started, I figured it would be best to be a good student and get my homework done.

Today’s assignment – write and publish a “who I am, and why I’m here” post.

Oy Vey.

First the facts – I’m a sixty-something early retiree who is living in a 39 ft motor home with her husband of 43 years.  I hesitate to even call ourselves retirees, since what we did was really just quit our jobs and run away from home.  The kids were (mostly) launched, the house was too big, and it seemed like a perfect time to take a little sabbatical to celebrate staying married through kid-raising, old house renovating and small business operating.   So we sold the house, shut down the business and  set off for a one (or maybe two if we were very careful with our finances)year adventure before we settled back down, purchased a small house and found jobs at Home Depot and the local fabric shop.  That was in August of 2004. What began as an adventure has become our life. Our friends have stopped asking when we’ll be back, and our grandkids only know us as the grandparents that come with their own house.

I started this blog in June of 2004 as a way for our friends and family to keep track of us and to help us all stay connected.  It’s been part travelogue, part RV life adventures, part ministry reports (we are currently working with an RVing ministry called SOWERS that does volunteer service work at different Christian camps/group homes/shelters/schools/churches around the country) and part cute grandkids.  Oh, and an occasional quilting show and tell.  1079 entries later it still, I believe, has that potpourri flavor.  I often feel as though I am writing a letter to a dear friend, whether we’ve met or not. I love that part of it.  But these days, since our life, even though it may look a bit different from yours (living in an RV and all) gets pretty regular, I’m trying to figure out just where this blog is headed. And that’s one reason I’m taking this Blogging 101 course. If you’ve been stopping by my little corner of the internet for awhile, I’d love to hear from you about what part of this potpourri you like best.  Or least.  And if you’re just stopping by for the first time, I’d love to hear from you also!

So, I think that takes care of my assignment for tonight! If you’d like a bit more insight about who we are and why we do what we do, check out About Us or Our Story.

(I wonder if I get extra credit for writing most of this while we were driving down I65 through Kentucky?)

 

Email, RSS Follow
Pin It