Welcome to my weekly Randomly Thinking post where I share random thoughts that pop into my head throughout the week. Enter at your own risk. There is a lot of saracasm, teasing and jokes and a little bit of seriousness.
I need to stop getting so emotionally invested in TV shows. I remind myself everytime I start to get upset over how a particular plot line is going, “This is fiction. This is just a TV show. These are not real people. You do not need to feel anxiety about what does or does not happen in the next hour or hour and a half.” I find the fact I have to do this, sad, quite frankly, but I am sure I am not alone.
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I have assigned Lord of the Flies to my 14-year old son for English class. We have assignments that go along with the reading as well. I haven’t read Lord of the Flies since 9th or 10th grade so I am reading it again with him and I’m going to be honest — this feels like high school again.
I don’t want to read Lord of the Flies.
I’m not really interested in it, the same as I wasn’t interested in it in high school. I feel like a teenager again when I realize I haven’t read the assigned chapters. I look at the book, tip my head back and do a little bit of flouncing and then go “Fiiiiiiine. I’ll read it! Stop bugging me.” When no is bugging me to do it, except myself. I was similar when I read Silas Marner with him but I ended up really liking that book.
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While I’ve ditched most of my social media accounts, I can’t quit Instagram just yet, mainly because I can’t quit Grant Gosch who shares an Instagram live ever Saturday night from Ocean Creek, Oregon where he shares stories he’s written, or reads stories he hasn’t written. He talks a lot about whiskey and I don’t drink whiskey but I do like watching him talk about whiskey. I call him the “Bradley Cooper look alike writer of Instagram.”
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On Tuesday, when other homeschooling mothers were probably cooking dinners from scratch all while teaching their children two languages, every subject, and making oragami swans, I made a Play-Doh bunny with my daughter.
That’s right. I’m nailing the homeschooling Mom thing over here. I did teach her some other things, of course, later, but the Play-Doh bunny was the highlight of our day. We made puppies and bunnies after we created atoms and molecules out of Play-Doh
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I’ve been fighting with the woodstove this week and I’ve won twice. I seem to have the hardest time getting the fire to light, but we’ve needed it throughout the days due to some kind of crazy Polar Vortex moving through, dropping temperatures into the teens. I have been getting the wood from the woodpile behind our garage myself on some days and asking our son to get them on others.
I’m always worried about a spider living in the woodpile and that fear was somewhat recognized this week when I pulled out a log with a dead spider in a web. Or at least I think it was dead. It wasn’t moving and I didn’t stick around to see if it was going to. I flung the piece of wood to the back of the storage area with a quick scream. While I’m worried about the spiders, my husband worries about snakes. Luckily we mainly have non-venamous snakes here and he’d probably only encounter a garter snake, but it would be fun to hear him scream like a — well, like me.
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Standing in the snow, in our quiet backyard one night this week, I looked around at the woods behind our house, at the peaceful town below the hill we live on, at the church on the hill on the other side of town, and I realized what a blessing it is that we were able to move here from our previous house. I love it here. I love the fact we have a little bit of country and a little bit of town around us. I love going outside to gather wood from the wood pile for our woodstove. I love that we wake up many mornings, look out and see deer in our backyard.
(I love that it is winter and the bear are hibernating too).
Our neighbors’ homes are close to us on the sides, but behind us and in front of us and a little bit down the road, and really all around us, there is plenty of country scenery to take in. Moving here really has been one of the best things we ever did for our family.
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We played Yahtzee with our neighbor last week, as I mentioned in last weeks “Random Thoughts.” It further proved I am horrible at math.
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In writing news, I figured out how to set up pre-orders from The Farmer’s Daughter and you can do that here, for Amazon, and here, for Barnes and Noble. I will also be offering a free ebook of the book to my blog readers via Bookfunnel as a thank you for all the support while I was writing it and sharing it here. I’ll provide an update on that when I get closer to the February 23 release date.
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Speaking of books, I am looking forward to the release of the second novel by Robin W. Pearson, ‘Til I Want No More, which releases February 2 and is available for pre-order anywhere you buy books.
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My husband was in a super good mood after work yesterday. It was a shame because I hadn’t had a lot of sleep the night before so he was firing 100 percent and I was batting zero. Or, was he batting 100 and I was firing zero? Well, you get my drift.
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My son stayed with his friend at our house the other day and I told them, “no playing with guns and no lighting anything on fire.” When I got back home, they told me they’d played video games, ate snacks, and laughed for 15 minutes at a funny sounding fart. Apparently, I had given them way too much credit. Two days after the friend left, he texted my son to tell him he had corona symptoms. We’ll see how that turns out. I’ll keep you all updated.
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We subscribed to a weekly trial of Broadway HD last week so we could watch Peter Pan Goes Wrong, a production by the Mischief Theatre Company. The concept behind the “goes wrong” plays are that there is a fictional theater group who presents plays during which everything, yes “goes wrong.” Enjoy this clip from YouTube and if you want to watch more you can either see their show on Amazon or you can subscribe to Broadway HD and cancel the subscription like we did because no one really watches Broadway shows on TV, right? Or, obviously, you can find clips on Youtube.
So those are my random thoughts for the week. What are yours? Let me know in the comments and remember, I have a profanity filter on. *wink*
Boondock Ramblings 
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Luckily I didn’t have to read Lord of the Flies in high school. I did have to read Animal Farm by George Orwell, which I’m pretty sure I never finished because it was so horrible back then. Sometimes I think I should go back and read all those classics we were supposed to read. They might be better now since I don’t have to do a 10-page book report on them. haha!
I hope your son doesn’t get sick and that his friend doesn’t have “the virus”!
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I had to read some classics for AP English but otherwise I didn’t have to. I read Hiroshima, The Awakening, 1984, Lord of the Flies, A Tale of Two Cities and I can’t think what else right now — tough summer that year with all those “happy” books!
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My goodness what a lineup! O_O
I have to admit I liked “A Tale of Two Cities.” One of three books ever to make me cry (the others being my first time through Lord of the Rings and O. Henry’s “The Last Leaf”).
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I never read the Lord of the Rings. Awful I know. My brother read it. My husband read it. My son read The Hobbit. And I’ve never read O. Henry at all. We did read Silas Marner for my son’s economic class and I actually enjoyed that.
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I didn’t read Lord of the Flies in high school (or Catcher in the Rye, or several other books that seemed popular with the local schools) (As another aside, it amuses me greatly now to look back and realize the “big controversy” in our homeschooling group was whether Shakespeare was appropriate high school material…I’d already read most of his plays before high school, so when my mom asked me about it I just laughed and said, “Sorry, you’re too late either way!”). It was only last year I looked into Lord of the Flies, because after hearing references off and on for years it seemed the thing to do. I don’t blame you for not being into it! Not something I would choose to read, no question.
I chuckled at your description of not drinking whiskey but happy to listen to Gosch talk about it. There is a fishing channel on YouTube my husband follows, and while I enjoy fishing I can’t say I’m into the particulars. I don’t make lures, I don’t need to know why the pink bait works better for some fish than the yellow, etc. But I could listen to the guy talk about it for hours!
Ah, spiders. I do not love them, but going back to my teenage self I have studied them. It has come in handy here, because we have several poisonous varieties around and knowing how to deal with the bites if they happen has been a good thing. I still kill any I find in the house though. Spiders in my house = big fat NO.
I enjoy your posts!
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I read quite a bit of Shakespeare in high school and college. I read some classics in high school, a couple more in college, and I also took a Noire Crime Novel course in college. That was interesting.
Grant talks about whiskey some, but he mainly tells interesting stories about a fictional town in Oregon.
I don’t think we have any poisonous spiders in our area — gosh, I hope not. I’ll have to freak out even more!
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Spiders, no! Snakes, definitely no! But they are part of life here too and we don’t even have a woodpile. Every fall, my husband has to spray the perimeter of our house outside because nasty spiders try marching indoors. Yech! I’m okay squashing them but some of them are so darn fast and scurry behind something and that’s when I call for hubby. His nemesis is snakes. He runs like a girl when he sees one. Saying a prayer that the ‘rona doesn’t get you all. Our nurse daughter says she feels like everyone will get it at one point or another. We have several friends who’ve had it but have recovered well from it, so that is “encouraging” I guess?
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Anyone we’ve known who has had it has recovered well, with the exception of one person who it hit hard and I’m not sure why because I don’t know him super well. He is in rehab right now, trying to get his strength back, but he’s alive. Everyone else freaks out that this or that person is going to get it bad but so far it’s been like a cold for all of them so I think people are starting to catch on that this so-called killer virus is not the prolific killer the media has made it out to be. No, it’s not safe for everyone, but the majority are recovering well. Honestly, our family still feels like we had it in October. We didn’t feel great at all but it last a few days and was gone. We didn’t even have time to get a test for it.
So funny that the men in our lives are afraid of the snakes and it’s spiders for us. Cracks me up.
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Oh and I pre-ordered your book!
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Thank you!
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This post cracked me up this morning – the feeling like you are in high school, the homeschool mom thing, because seriously doesn’t it feel like that! I love that you guys had fun, that is the most important thing in homeschooling, the connection. 🙂
But not laughing at the corona thing – I will keep your family and your son’s friend in my prayers that it is just a little winter cold!
And I get extreme anxiety from television watching. I can’t watch the first season of Parks and Rec, the secondhand embarrassment is real even though I love that show. And unfortunately, it seems Wyatt is just as sensitive to television as well.
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Not too worried about the corona thing so far. We had something like it in October. It sucked but it was quick so here is hoping we have some natural immunity to it. Plus, this young man does have some sinus issues other times. He was being kind to let us know just in case and I appreciate that. I know he’ll update us if things get worse or he goes to get a test. He is one of the most mature 15-year-old’s I know. It’s hard to know whether to let my son have him over, but right now he’s his only “in-person” friend so we do it, knowing they both need some human interaction during all this.
Yeah, that TV thing…I have to keep reminding myself: “It’s not real!!” but it feels so real, right?!
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It does feel so real!! LOL.
Ok good! I am sure it is nothing. 🙂 And yes, if you can get your kids some bubble friends that is so good!!! They definitely need it!
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