Category: momentous events

Categories
momentous events random scribblings Scribblings Writing

Writing Flash Fiction

Task: Write a story.

Limitations: Use 100 words (or fewer). Include the words: may, play, whee, brie, and quick. Submit within 48 hours.

My take on the task:

Daddy, quick – watch me slide! Whee!
Sally, four. All giggles, sloppy ice-cream kisses.

Daddy, please may I have Jaimee over to play?
My daughter, nine. Nudges and whispered secrets.

Daddy, I love you. Father’s Day, thirteen. No more under-the-table cubby-houses…

My own car? Thank you, Daddy! Squeals; hugs of gratitude.

An aisle; a walk; a bride on my arm. Tears, threatening, choked back. My heart too big for my chest.

These memories should be treasured forever.

But they’re ones I’ll never have.

The tiny limp body in my arms? My Sally?
Stillborn.

I curse the day brie was created.

 

Response by Flash Fiction contest judge and Queen of the Known Universe: Shortlisted!!! WOOT!!!!!

 

Happy writing, everyone 🙂

Categories
#AtoZchallenge momentous events my novel-in-progress Scribblings Writing

Writing up a storm…

Well, a sequel, actually. And that heading’s a little misleading, because there’s no storm in the book. So far, anyway.

But this blogpost is late (read, 11 hours later than I’d wanted) and that’s solely due to Mother’s Day. As in, the day last year when I finished JUSTINE BROWNING AND THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT. So half way through last month’s #AtoZchallenge, I decided I was going to finish JUSTINE BROWNING AND THE FAERIE DILEMMA  by Mother’s Day 2016.

Considering I had just 4 chapters done, because I’d inadvertently deleted 6 others, this was probably pushing it.

And Mother’s Day 2016 came and went, with nary a ‘The End’ in sight. It was close though, and getting closer.

But I was a little disappointed, because I was *really* hoping to get it finished within the year anniversary.

Enter a google search, just completed, prior to starting this blog post. Mother’s Day, 2015, was celebrated on May 10th here in Australia.

Today, the day after Mother’s Day 2016, is the 9th!!!

So I have just under 28 hours to complete this thing, and still ‘make it’ within the year. WOOT!!!!!

I’m heading off to type some more now. Wish me luck!!!

And have a great day, dear reader!
— KRidwyn

Categories
#AtoZchallenge Blogging challenges Christianity family anecdotes momentous events More about me

26 lessons from God’s metaphors: #8

In each post in this #AtoZchallenge, I’m highlighting one facet that God has revealed about Himself in the Bible. Most are metaphors (I am the Bread of Life; I am the Good Shepherd etc.) but they aren’t always.

This one isn’t.

FullSizeRender (4)In the book of Psalms, Chapter 103 verse 3, the Bible says, “[the LORD] forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…”

God is a healer. The cross-stitch sampler to the left shows a man leaping for joy, no longer needing a walking stick; he’s been healed of his physical illness. Stories abound throughout the Bible wherein people are healed physically; and also emotionally and spiritually, when their sins were forgiven.

It’s taken me a while to decide what ‘life example’ *I* could give here, to illustrate my point. I mean, I’ve never really suffered any physical aliment from which I needed healing. Nor, to my knowledge, have any close friends or family, so I can’t relate their story here either.

Emotional healing I’ve had a little more experience with though, and long-time readers of this blog might remember the roller-coaster ride that was the time when my youngest was diagnosed with autism.

But the biggie was probably when God healed my marriage.

Screen Shot 2016-04-05 at 10.10.01 amI posted this photo on Facebook earlier in the week. Hubby and I were out, and I managed to snap a selfie of the two of us – where he was SMILING! This would be the first ever smiling selfie, in over 20 years of marriage.

And I’m sharing that piece of information so you can see how completely He healed us.

You see, we broke up after just 18 months of marriage.

It was pretty bad. And I was the cause… well, to be specific, it was my experiences with a cult a few years prior, which had screwed me up BIGTIME, that had driven us apart.

Anyway, SUPERlong story short, we patched things up and got back together again.

This was only possible because of God. No, really.

The story is too long to tell here – you’ll need to read the longer post here instead – but suffice it to say, God healed us. And look, twenty years later, we’re still together. And I’m proud of that.

That’s not to say we haven’t fought in the meantime. I’m a stubborn thing, and a control freak, neither of which do me any favours. We’ve had some doozies of arguments. But we’re in this for the long haul, and are both committed to that. No matter what. God healed us, and for that I’m eternally grateful.

So that’s my lesson for Day 8. God Heals. He’s healed others, and He’s healed Hubby and I. I can take comfort in the fact that He’ll heal again, whenever and wherever is needed.

That’s pretty awesome 🙂

Have a great day, dear reader!

— KRidwyn

Categories
#blogjune Life momentous events teaching Work

Hat-less

A few months ago, I shaved my head for #ShaveForACure. I raised quite a bit of money… but more than that, I raised awareness of blood-related cancers in the hundreds of kids I teach on a weekly basis.

Today, for the first time since I had my head shaved in front of them all, I’m hat-less.

Here goes!


Have a great day, dear reader!

–KRidwyn

Categories
#blogjune momentous events

Conversations with my younger children…

Yesterday, we went out for breakfast. Mooloolaba Surf Club – breakfast overlooking the water. All you can eat. And the food is always yummier if you’re the one not preparing it or washing up, don’t you find?

Miss7 decided to serve herself fruit salad. She ate some rockmelon, gushing, “This is my favourite fruit of all time! I love rockmelon just sooooooooo much!”

I looked at her. (We rarely have rockmelon in the house, because I’m the only one who eats it.) “Really?” I asked “Since when?”

She paused in her munching, and thought about it for a few moments. Then she turned to me, all seriousness, and said “Since I was six.”

It was hard to keep a straight face, but I managed. I think.

Mr6’s conversation, immediately after breakfast, left a different kind of feeling. He took my hand, looked into my eyes, and said, “Mummy?”

“Yes, my sweet?”

“I’m autistic.”

“Yes,” I said, my eyes tearing up. “Yes, my sweet. You are.”

It was a bittersweet meal.

 

Categories
momentous events my novel-in-progress

Smiling – while sick

Hip hip hooray, it’s my birthday today!

It’s 4.30am. The house is dark and quiet and I’m sitting at the dining table at my computer. I am happy.

I am also sick. I’m guessing that, by the way my body feels, I have a case of pretty much full-blown flu. The tissues keep being moved from their original box on my right, to the bin on my left, getting soggy on the way and making my nose red and more sore in the journey (Note to self: Hubby needs to buy a couple of boxes of Aloe Vera ones today. Maybe a couple of hundred boxes.) My throat is sore, and I think I’m coughing at a rate of twice per minute. Less now that I’m sitting upright, and closer to our very-warm fireplace. But my back and the muscles in my diaphragm are aching in sympathy with each cough. And don’t get me started on the head uncomfy-ness!

But I am happy. Because I set myself a deadline, and today was it. Today, I turn 41. And I desperately wanted to be able to say “I finished my first book at the age of 40”. Finishing it today, or at any other point in the future, would have been too late. Because I can no longer say “I am 40”.

But that’s okay. I made my deadline – weeks ago, actually! In fact, I’m most-of-the-way through editing it, as well! Stoked!!!

So, on a practical note, I’ve updated my ‘About’ page. I’ve also added another short story to my ‘Short stories’ page, for anyone who’s interested.

And have a happy day, dear reader – I know that I’m planning to!

— KRidwyn

Categories
Life momentous events University studies

Ask me why I’m happy…

You may or may not know that I graduated with my Masters at the end of last year. I’d started studying in July of 2010, took a year’s absence in 2013 due to starting a second job, and finally finished the 12th course, and the 100 hours prac requirement, in November. And was pretty stoked about that!

But I don’t think that I’ve ever blogged about my husband’s studies. He’s also been studying part time, since January of 2011. It was a requirement of his position, that he study for, and receive, his CPA qualification.

So, this morning at 6.05am when he checked his latest result online? His results said, “Course completed”!

Ask me again, why am I happy?

I’ve got my husband back!!!

Categories
momentous events

June 6. That’s my deadline.

Hello again, dear readers!

People who know me IRL or who follow the inane stuff I post onFacebook or on twitter would probably have noticed that I’m writing at the moment. As in, yes, I am typing at this exact point in time, but that’s not what I mean. I mean #writing. As in books. Novel series, to be exact. Numbers of. Yes, that’s probably dumb. But good friends know quite well that that’s just how my brain works. It jumps. Rapidly. And that’s okay with me. I can work on more than one novel at a time, can’t I? That’s what *real* writers do, isn’t it?!

So anyway, yes. I’m writing in earnest. I’ve joined the Beerwah Writers Group that meets every second Friday. Since I discovered the Writing Race hosted by @AWMonline that runs every Wednesday evening, I’ve been ‘racing’. I’m challenging myself with short stories written backwards – as in, write the last sentence. Then write the second last sentence. Then the third last sentence, etc. I’m challenging myself with random tweeted story ideas – just the other week, I caught a tweet “so who’s ever written a story about an Easter egg, really?” (or something along those lines) so I wrote one. I’ve made up Greek Gods and other worlds and old men dying and acid rain puddles. I’ve researched – among other things – Dr. Seuss and butterflies and mustangs (horses, not cars) and Stonehenge and the Himalayas. I’ve found cool thesauri websites. I’ve noticed the HUGE number of tweets about adverbs – both for and against their use. I’m writing, and revising, and editing, and thinking all the time about more and more and more writing.

Which leads me to my deadline. June 6. My plan is to finish Book number 1 by then. It was originally going to be Book number 2, but the original Book number 1 is going to be far more difficult than I had initially thought it would be. so Book number 2 – title withheld on purpose, just in case I jinx it – will be finished by June 6. Of this year. So that I can say,”I finished writing my first book when I was 40.” (That one little day makes all the difference, doesn’t it?!)

So. Just wanted to get that ‘out there’. Confess it; make it a part of the ‘public domain’ knowledge. Just in case anyone cares. And even if they don’t, at least I know that I’ve written it down and hit the ‘Publish’ button on this little website. There’s some accountability. And the more accountability, the better. The more motivated I think I will be. Because right now, April 15, I’m at a little over 8,000 words on this book. And there’s around 30,000 more to go…

Wish me luck, dear readers!

-KRidwyn

 

Categories
momentous events

It’s new kitchen day!

Regular readers of my blog may remember that I wrote a little while back about getting extensions done to my house. Well, that’s still on the cards – but while we’re waiting for plans / architects / builders / quotes / soil test results / council etc etc etc, I’ve made a start (never one to wait – that’s me! Impatience with a capital IM) and decided to make changes to my kitchen.

A good friend, who I thought was a cabinetmaker, actually turned out to be a kitchen installer in the US several years ago, so he’s been building me a new one. And he completely ‘gets’ my ‘limited budget’ attitude, while still finding quality materials and products. Which is AWESOME! Sa far, I’ve had a couple of metres of bench space removed (which sounds crazy, I know, but it was just a dumping ground for ‘stuff’ – and it’s removal has opened up the whole house) and 8 upper cabinets installed, which look fantastic at the moment, and will look incredible when  the doors are added too!

But today is ‘gut the lower cabinets, pop off the old tile splashback, and start installing the lower cabinets day’. Which will be HUGE. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they look like – and to having a kitchen with a working stove/oven again!!! (it’s been weird looking at an empty space where my stand-alone gas stove/oven used to be for the past week! Plus, it’s been even more difficult to get inspired about making the dinner for some strange reason!)

So. Huge day. Here’s hoping that you have a great day too, dear reader!

Categories
family anecdotes momentous events

Highlights…

Wow! It’s been a busy one! Some highlights:

– my little man has now used the toilet for BOTH number 1s and number 2s (yeh, I bet you didn’t *really* want to read about that when you clicked on the link – but as a Mum of an autistic 4 year old, that’s a HUGE highlight for me!!!)

– Miss 8 asked me to start teaching her how to crochet – and she’s pretty good!

– Miss 5 has improved IMMENSELY in castings, and I’m SO proud of her, and

– Mr 4 had his immunisations yesterday (boo hiss) but it went EXTREMELY well! So well, in fact, I thought I’d write you the story:

One of the doctors in the treatment area, who’d heard my explanation that “I haven’t prepared him for this – he’s autistic, so he won’t understand” told the nurse “get another person, and do both arms at the same time then”. So my little man’s GP came back, and that’s what they did – and he screamed for about 20 seconds. TOTAL!!! I could NOT believe it! I mean, yes, he was sore and a little whingy afterwards, but WOW! I wish someone had thought of that with my other children – for every single time that they’d had needles!!! But oh well.

So. Here’s praying that today and over the next few days, are good days at Kindy for him then, while his shoulders are both so sore…!

And here’s wishing you, also, a great day, dear readers! 🙂