Write Expressions

Quote of the Week

A Lazy Afternoon by Gustave Leonard de Jonghe (1829-1893)

"Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you."

~ Annie Dillard ~

I would like to publicly apologize for my negligence in thanking two lovely bloggers: Alexis and Annette. They each presented me with a Blog Award over the summer and I never acknowledged them! Please forgive me. I am now officially saying “THANK YOU!”

If you’re looking for a great blog covering the topics of writing and parenting, be sure to stop by Alexis’s blog, Bunny Ears & Bat Wings: Read. Write. Love.

And I encourage you all to visit my bloggy buddy from down under, Annette Piper. She shares interesting stories about making jewelry (or as she writes it: “jewellery”) and family life on her Australian ranch in her blog, Under the Loupe.

Now, onto the awards…

I received the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award from Alexis, and the Versatile Blogger Award from Annette. Thank you so much, ladies. I’m honored! These awards came with some rules. Now, I freely confess I don’t always follow the rules (gasp!). I know, I know. But I decided to follow at least some of them in this case. Recipients of these awards are supposed to:

Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
Done!

Recommend a whole bunch of other blogs for your readers.

I personally get overwhelmed when I see big, long lists of blogs. So I’m not going to do that to you. Plus, I like to share a bit about why one might want to visit a specific blog. So I think I’ll just stick with the two recommended blogs above to fulfill this requirement for now.

Contact that whole bunch of blogs to congratulate them.

Skipping this one!

Share seven random facts about yourself.

Okay, I’ll play…

1. 1. I never told my children I couldn’t swim, until AFTER they’d successfully completed swimming lessons. I just wanted to make certain there would be more people around able to save me if I ever fell overboard.

2. 2. I never performed in plays in high school, yet to my great joy I managed to snag the lead in the first play I tried out for in college, an 1880’s melodrama called, The Shame of Tombstone—it was a blast!

3. 3. I have a cockapoo who requires weekly allergy shots from August through December.

4. 4. My racial background is comprised of over 10 different ethnicities and I’ve been mistaken for an Egyptian, Spaniard, South American, Italian and most often, Mexican. (One summer during college, I worked for the W.I.C. program and I would overhear people asking to speak with “that Mexican girl who doesn’t speak Spanish.” And darn it all, I did speak Spanish--just not super well!)

5. 5. I taught my children to make their own lunches starting in first grade because I dreaded making them so much.

6. 6. I made it through high school and college without ever taking Chemistry. (Back in the day, my Photography and Advanced Photography classes counted instead for some reason, which was fine with me!)

7. 7. If my younger sister and I stand far enough apart, we can be mistaken for twins. It’s only up close that the six inches she has on me is startlingly clear.

Tune in next week for my first post on our family adventure in Paris!

Quote of the Week

“Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced—

even a proverb is no proverb to you

until your life has illustrated it.”

~ John Keats ~

I’m baaaaccck!

I apologize for falling off the face of the Blogosphere! I was so busy preparing for our family adventure in France, then playing “catch up” once we returned. And then…well, the sunshine beckoned. The pile of books I’ve been wanting to read beckoned. The limited time I had with my college girl at home beckoned. The yard work and neglected-from-the-school-year housework beckoned. And before I knew it, the end of August had arrived!

We took our girl back up to college a little over a week ago. Her new apartment is adorable and I know she’ll have such a fun time during her sophomore year. It was still tough leaving her, but not nearly as difficult as it was last year. Hopefully, I won’t start breaking down while listening to love songs on the radio like I did last August. (Boy, was I a mess!)

I love the break from our routine that summer brings. But now I’m dusting off my computer keyboard, fixing up my neglected website (www.hollybowne.com), and slowly working myself back into my regular writing schedule.

I would love to know how my website’s links--to writing samples I’ve personally uploaded--get all convoluted and messed up when absolutely nothing’s been changed on my end! Fortunately, my biggest fan (Hi Mom! *wave*) noticed things were amiss and let me know. Hopefully everything is linking smoothly now. I feel about operating my website the same way I feel about driving a car. It’s necessary and I have a basic idea of how it all works, but when something goes wrong, I really don’t have the first clue on how to fix it!

I hope everyone is having a lovely summer! (And yes, it’s still officially summer until September 23rd!)

Image by: adihrespati