Insecure Writer's Support Group January

 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the January 8 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, Beth Camp, Liza @ Middle Passages, and Natalie @ Literary Rambles!

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Remember, the question is optional!

January 8 question - Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up? 

 

I thought for a long time about this question. I had no idea what to put for an answer. As a child, it was easy to look upon a person that had an influence in my life and sort of idolize them. Then as I grew up, I realized that they are just another person. They made mistakes or they weren't worthy of being idolized. 

I think the best answer would be my parents. Ironically, this question came up in high school when they were doing interviews for scholarship money. I said my Mom back then.

As I child and even now, I think the world of them. Do I feel the same way about them now as I did when I was a child? No, I actually admire them more now that I am an adult. I am able to look back and understand why things happened the way they did or why I couldn't get my way. Time is a wonderful lens in which to view the past. 

 

Thank you for stopping by and reading my thoughts.

What about you?

New Year's Reading Goals

 

How are you doing? How was your New Year’s Eve? Did you do anything fun?

Our New Year’s celebration was pretty chill. We took the girls to the local children’s museum where they had a party during the day. It was themed like Times Square. There was a DJ hosting a dance party with bubbles, sock skating in Central Park, a photo booth, a “tattoo” booth, and games. The girls had a great time. Then, we ordered Olive Garden to go, because eating at any restaurant with two little kids isn’t relaxing. Everyone was asleep before midnight. I guess that means we faced the new year refreshed.

Hubby ended up taking Little Bock 1 to the local ice rink to ice skate. It was really cold so Little Bock 2 and I watched for a few minutes before heading into the chalet to warm up. LB1 had a great time on the ice. There were a bunch of other kids skating, too. It seemed that more time was spent falling on the ice than actual ice skating.

Thank you for all the emails. I’ll give you a quick update on everything. My knee is healing well from the surgery. I got released to go to work with no running, jumping, or squatting. That is hard because I have two little active kids. Charlie healed really well. We took his stitches out on Sunday, and the wound has closed nicely.

On the writing front, I am working on Cassandra’s story. I finally am making some headway on it. The problem was that I tried to use a different way to write the story and I got stalled out. So I went back to my normal method and now have written more words. It is coming and I can’t wait to share it with you. It isn’t ready for the newsletter, yet. I don’t write the book in order so I can’t give out the chapters as I go. It is more like a puzzle. I know where they need to go, I know how this is going to work, and I know what happens. It is a matter of putting it all together.

That brings me to the New Year. Did you make any resolutions or goals for your reading? Is there anything you are excited to read? Please comment or email me. I’d love to hear your goals and any books you are excited about!

I made my goal to read 50 fiction books by the end of the year. I don’t have anything pressing to read. I went last week with some paperbacks I wanted to re-home to the local used bookstore. I traded them in for store credit and bought a few that interested me.

That’s all I have for now. I hope you stay warm and dry. Hugs,

Allie

An exciting week in life of a horse owner

 Hi!

How have you been doing? This week is always weird for me. Time seems distorted until after the first of the year.

This week had an unusual amount of excitement in the Bock house. On Thursday morning, the cell phone chimed with an incoming text.

“Charlie!” Little Bock 1 waved the cell phone at me.

My heart dropped when she handed me my phone and a picture of hubby's horse, Charlie, was on the screen. It was a message from the barn manager where we board our horses. 

He had a gash on his head and blood running down the side of his face. His eye was swollen shut. The barn manager said he was acting normal, but she couldn't find where he hurt himself.

We packed up the kids and headed out to the barn. 

We brought both our horses in to the barn. Of course, he wouldn't let me look at it. He's usually good for vet work, but he doesn't like his eyes examined. I gave him some sedation that took the edge off so I could look at the wound. Hubby held Charlie's head while Little Bock 1 held the lead rope. She was worried about him being hurt.

As I cleaned off the blood, we discovered the wound was worse than initially thought. It started above his upper eyelid and wrapped around the eye. Luckily, his eyeball was  not damaged. 

Hubby grimaced and said, “Dude, you need stitches.”  He rubbed Charlie's face as I sutured the laceration closed.

Charlie was given some pain/anti-inflammatory medicine and a long acting antibiotic. Hubby put Charlie's fly mask to prevent him from rubbing, hopefully.

It has been 4 days and he is healing well. Here's a picture of him after all cleaned up. I didn't think you'd want to see him all bloody.

So hopefully everything will continue to heal well. It is the worse when my own horse is hurt.

Have a happy New Year's! Until next time. Hugs,

Allie