This months 10 on 10 with Marsha In the Middle calls for us to share 10 things we really like or love but in photo form.
This one will be a hard one for me but only because I would love to share more than ten. So, in the end I actually added 11. Oops.
(All photos by me.)
First, my family – they are crazy!
Silhouetted action photos.
I am late today but I’m going to squeeze in a 10 for 10 with Marsha In The Middle today because it is fun!
2. Would you rather watch a movie in the backyard of a good friend or go to your favorite band’s concert with your worst enemy? I would definitely rather watch a movie in the backyard of a good friend. See, as I mentioned above, I like the outside as long as I am not sleeping in it. As for going to the concert of my favorite band with my worst enemy – no thank you. I’d rather listen to my favorite band and not deal with the crowds and the urge to kill said enemy.
3. Would you rather have chub rub because you forgot your protective gear or a big blister on your heel because you’re wearing cute but new shoes? I had to look up the term “chub rub” as I had never heard it before but after looking it up and finding out it is essentially chaffing of body parts, I decided I’d rather have the blister. I could move my foot around or slide the shoes off the heel and still manage to wear them but with the chaffing, there isn’t much you can do until you can get some cream or ointment on it.
4. Would you rather meet your great-great-grandparent or your great-great-grandchild? If I can live longer and meet my great-great-grandchild then I would go with that answer but I truly would like to meet my great-great-grandfather, especially on my dad’s side because I need him to tell me who his dad was and which part of Scotland he came from so I can finally make that connection in our family tree on Ancestry.com
5. Would you rather be hot and sweaty in the humid outdoors or cold and shivering in an overly air-conditioned room? Definitely cold and shivering. I hate being hot and sweaty or hot at all. I would rather be cold and since this question doesn’t say whether we can have a blanket or not I am going to say I’d rather have a blanket in the room with the AC on full blast! Being all chilly makes me feel like it is autumn which is my favorite time of the year because it is perfect for curling up under a blanket with a good book.
6. Would you rather eat a melted candy bar or a piece of cold pizza? I don’t mind cold pizza at all and sometimes I find it tastes quite good if the sauce is good but I’d probably choose the melted candy bar as long as it was pure chocolate. I don’t care if chocolate is all melted and gooey, I’ll eat it anyhow.
7. Would you rather go for a day without access to any social media or emails or would you have to remain on social media all day long? Oh I would rather go for a day without access to social media and email for sure. I’ve mentioned on here before how much social media stresses me out. I use it to promote my books and connect with other writers and some friends and family but a day without it? Bring it on. I know my anxiety level reduces immensely when I am off social media, even if I normally post positive and fun things.
8. Would you rather dress like a person from the 1950s or the 2050s? Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. What were you smoking when you created these questions? *wink* Seriously, 1950s because I have a feeling that outfits in the 2050s are going to get super, super weird.
9. Would you rather eat ice cream covered in pizza sauce or a pizza covered in chocolate sauce? Both of these sound so gross but I am going with number two because Marsha didn’t say the pizza had to be a savory/traditional pizza. Hee. Hee. I’ll make one with chocolate chip cookie dough covered with chocolate sauce.
10. Would you rather fly like Superman or swim like Aquaman?
I would rather fly like Superman because there are all kinds of dangers underwater – sharks and Man O’ War jellyfish (or whatever they are called) and gross seaweed and oil spills. I could get hit with a plane while flying like Superman but I’ll take that chance. I was watching the first Superman movie from the 1970s with Christoper Reeve the other week with The Husband and thinking about what a huge crush I had on Christopher when I was a kid. I would have loved to have flown with him if he had really been Superman – and he kind of was one in many ways.
Today I am taking part in the 10 on 10 with Marsha In the Middle as host.
Here are the questions we are supposed to answer and the answers are below the graphic:
2, I would definitely prefer to recite an original poem to my husband than sing anywhere, let alone in front of a bunch of people. I don’t write poetry but I come from a family of poets so I think I could pull that off. I could not pull of singing or singing in front of a bunch of people. I’d probably giggle while reciting the poem and my husband would probably make funny faces to make me laugh, but it would be a lot better than doing anything in front of a bunch of people.
3. Oh gosh – this one was a little hard. I think both of these singers would be interesting to have dinner with but I guess I would choose Dolly because I want to see how old she really looks close up. I mean, the woman is 78 but has so much makeup and plastic surgery done, she’s got to really look old close up right? I just can’t imagine a human’s skin can stretch that much through plastic surgery and not rip somewhere. I’ve got to see for myself how wrinkled she really is. Plus I think she’s hilarious and I’d crack up at her jokes while she’d probably crack up if I told her I want to see how old she looks close up.
4. This one was easy – I would love to have only one red rose. I love red roses the most and I’m also not a huge flower person. I like them but I can take them or leave them. If my husband came home with one rose and said “We’re going to sit tonight and watch a mystery together tonight” that would be a better gift than a dozen roses and chocolate. I kid you not. I’m very, simple like that. If he threw a book I wanted in the midst of all that I’d be even more over the moon. Not that I’m hinting because he does a fine job with gifts for birthdays, holidays, and Valentine’s Day, etc.
5. I’m going to pick the pink with purple hearts because those are my favorite colors. As long as the hearts aren’t too big and I don’t look like a clown. Hopefully, it can be a comfy cotton dress that I can just lounge around the house in. *wink*
6. Uh, can I have both? I mean, both sound cool. This is “would you rather” though so I will go with the carriage ride in the Scottish Highlands because my ancestors are from Scotland and I absolutely want to visit there one day. On the list is Grant Castle because my family members were Grants (hello…why do you think the main character in my book series is Gladwynn Grant. One, it was my grandmother’s name, but two, to keep the Grant name alive in my family.).
7. This one was easy. The Rock, but not for the reason you think. I don’t agree with him politically and I want to give him a piece of my mind. Ha! That and I think we probably agree on more things than I think and I’d like to ask him some questions about WWE and if he thinks Vince McMahon did all those things he is being accused of.
8. I think Satin sheets are pretty slippery so I’d go with the flannel sheets with Teddy bears on them. This question doesn’t tell us what season we would have these sheets in, but I think even in the summer I’d rather have the flannel sheets. I’d simply not have a top blanket and put the fan on me so I wouldn’t get too hot. Yes, I thought of this way too long. I may have issues.
9. I will go with the box of chocolates with my least favorite fillings. I have dealt with some pretty bad allergies before and they affected my breathing so I’d rather not like chocolates than not be able to breathe!
10. Oh dear, my husband might read this and I don’t want to offend him but he likes surprise dates and I don’t. I mean, I’ve always enjoyed the surprise places he’s taken me but I like knowing where I’m going and what we’re going to be doing. I have anxiety and if I can plan for contingencies like how I’m going to be able to escape if I feel anxious or if I’m going to get carsick or not because it is a long drive, then I prefer to know ahead of time. If I planned the date then I’d know everything that was going to happen and that would help my control freak tendencies and my highly-prone-to-anxiety brain.
I’m so glad I was able to remember to do the 10 on 10 this month. I usually forget about it until I see Marsha post about it but this time, I remembered the day before. I simply didn’t write about it until after I saw Marsha post about it. *snort*
If you want to read more responses to these questions, visit Marsha’s blog here: https://marshainthemiddle.com/10-on-the-10th-february-3/
I am finally joining up with Marsha in the Middle’s 10 on 10 today. I have forgotten to do it every other month, but here I am to talk about ten things I want to accomplish, learn, master, or create this year or in the future. I don’t know if it has to be this year but, in the future, at least.
So here we go:
1. I want to learn more about taking photos with film and developing it myself.
I have taken photographs for years, starting out in film when I was in high school. I didn’t know enough about film back then to know what I was doing. I simply took the photographs and then took them to be developed at a drug store like Rite Aid or CVS. When I worked in newspapers in college, we had a staff photographer who would develop all the film and refused to teach me how to do it when I asked.
All I knew was there was a rotating door that spun him into some dark room and he developed film until one day he didn’t anymore because we either took the photographs to Rite Aid or we started using digital cameras.
To this day, he is one of the best photographers I have ever seen, but back then he could be a real jerk to the newbies. I still wish he’d slowed down and taught me more about film photography.
2. I want to learn to cook better.
I can cook fine to make dinner for The Husband and kids, but I really want to learn more about how to cook different dishes and how to bake. Our oven has been broken for a couple of years now but we hope to have it fixed soon so that will help some of my efforts to become a better cook. I have learned more about cooking in an electric frying pan, an air fryer, and an Instapot without the oven, though.
3. I want to create a book of my dad’s writings and my grandfather’s poems and I hope to do that this year.
I already have the poems and all I have to do is typeset (old newspaper word) them into the computer and get them ready for publication. Wish me luck. My grandfather wrote poems about anything and everything. My dad writes little pieces of prose and I’d love to put them in the book as well and give it to my dad for Father’s Day.
My maternal grandmother was also a writer and poet so her work will be next on my list.
4. I want to be able to finish this book I am writing now.
I am really struggling with my latest manuscript and it is one hundred percent my fault. I agreed to join a multi-author project where there were all these rules about what I could write and how for the book I am contributing. In my own defense, there weren’t that many rules when I agreed to do it. All I knew was the book had to be written in the 1990s and it had to be a certain word length and there would be a cookbook involved that would tie all the books in the series together.
Once I signed on even more rules were thrown in and I was stuck because pulling out of the project meant leaving the other authors hanging. So I am plodding forward and asking God for help because this is not how I usually write my novels. I have my own ideas of how I want the story to go, who I want the characters to be and what the plot will be. The story is my own. In this instance, it does not feel like it is my own. Pray for me.
5. Start a clean fiction book club either online or in person
I would really love to start a book club for clean fiction either in person or online. We’d choose one book, read it for the month, and then discuss it at the end of the month. This would be easy to do, I just don’t seem to be able to slow down and do it.
6. To move forward and not hold on to the hurts of my past.
This one will not be easy for me. I have a lot of hurts from the past that I am holding on to. Almost all of them were betrayals and abandonment by people who were close to me at one time (not my parents so, no, this isn’t a therapy session. Ha!). I want to let all of that go and hold on to my word for the year – onward.
By onward I mean I want to go, “yes, I was hurt, but no I won’t react like I usually do and retreat away from that person or life. I won’t purposely ignore a person if they reach out, even if they hurt me. That doesn’t, however, mean I will fully trust them or open myself up to a friendship or relationship with them but I want to say, “That happened. They hurt me. Move on and let them live their life without me sitting and seething inside about how they hurt me.”
It will be hard for me because I put up walls very fast and behind those walls I ruminate about the hurt I’ve been inflicted. For years and years. I hope to let that go this year and in future years – or at least keep working on doing so.
7. Start a podcast with Erin and not be afraid of public speaking.
So this is actually two but they go hand in hand. Erin and I from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs want to start a podcast and ramble about whatever we ramble about. We are both trying to be brave and not only offer ourselves and others an escape from the stresses of life but maybe find ways to earn extra income for our families. How will we do that through a podcast? I have no idea. Maybe we can tell people about my books and Erin’s journals and books and who knows. The avenues to reach our goals are wide open, we just have to take them.
8. Reading more of the Bible and recording the verses I read.
I have started a yearly Bible verse reading project and I really hope to stick with it throughout the year. I want to get up in the mornings and read my verse and write it down in my journal to work on memorizing scripture and taking in what the verses really mean. How to apply them to my life, in other words.
Right now I am using a list I found on Instagram, which Erin shared with me and hopefully, I can use a list from the same account throughout the year. So far, I only have January’s list.
9. Master how to write a novel quickly.
This goes along with my other writing goals but I really do want to learn how to quickly write a novel and plot better. Right now I write most of my novels by the seat of my pants and in the writing world that is known as “pantsing.” I really hope to be able to plot a bit better in the future and bring the stories together a little faster so I can hit the deadlines I set for myself. As an indie author, I set my own deadlines for most of my books (except the book I mentioned above where deadlines were set for me.)
10. Travel more and have more experiences outside my house.
I suffer from some chronic health issues and sometimes crippling anxiety so I really would love to travel more and have some more experiences outside of my house and immediate area at some point in my life. Erin and I have discussed meeting each other halfway so we can actually meet each other in person so that is a goal for me. I also want to get over my fear of having a “spell” in public because that is one thing (along with time and money) that holds me back.
I do have vertigo and weakness spells a lot and that seems to go with whatever autoimmune issues I have (doctors haven’t really diagnosed me with anything because they just think I’m crazy and pretty much tell me so and offer me antidepressants.). I want to be able to manage them and the crazy anxiety symptoms that come as well, so I can travel further and just live a little more.
So this was my 10 on the 10th for the month. How about you? Do you have accomplishments you want to reach? Things you want to master or conquer? Let me know in the comments and if you want to join in on Marsha’s 10 on 10, find her link up here: https://marshainthemiddle.com/10-on-the-10th-january-2024/
Cold, clouds and more cold and clouds. That was what our January in Pennsylvania was all about and that meant we spent most of it inside, wishing it was sunny and warm and we were outside. We did break out of the house a couple of times, bundled up, to try our best to be lovers of all things cold. We usually lasted about twenty minutes each excursion before we were back inside, huddled under blankets, sipping tea, reading books and watching our new addiction, the Canadian sitcom “Corner Gas”, which we found on Amazon. During the week-long artic freeze we didn’t leave the house at all, other than my husband who had to go to work, which luckily isn’t too far from our house.
Our cabin fever was so bad I was a little concerned my daughter might never change out of the footed pajamas her grandparents gave her for Christmas.
Our cold adventures included playing outside (20 minutes at a time), attending science classes for the local homeschooling group (learning about trees), a trip to Ithaca, NY, (cold, so not much exploring, I’m afraid) and a hike with my dad to his pond to see if it was frozen enough for us to walk on it (spoiler alert: it wasn’t).
How about you? What did you do in January and so far in February? Let me know in the comments or link to your post where you shared.
If you want to see the rest of the blogs in this 10 on 10 blog circle, find the link at the conclusion of this post.
Follow our circle around by clicking over to Anna Hurley’s blog.
I’m not going to lie. I’ve barely touched my camera since the weather grew cold and the sun left us for what seems like for good. I am not a fan of dreary winter weather so trying to be creative in the midst of it is a true struggle. When the ladies in my group were talking about sharing 10 on 10 posts for this month I was excited until I realized I have very little to share. The idea is to share ten photos from the same day but I don’t even know if I have taken ten photos from the same day in a couple of months or even longer. So today I thought I’d share ten photos that represented our December. Mainly we prepared for Christmas by preparing my dad’s star to hang up on the hill behind his house, going to cut down a “Charlie Brown Christmas tree” from Dad’s other property (where I grew up), and hiking in the woods behind the home to cut princess pine.
Hopefully the next few months will inspire me to pick my camera up more than the last couple have but since we are in the midst of a very dreary and sunless winter, I am not sure how that will unfold.
Since this is part of a blog circle project, I hope you will continue on to the next blog by finding the link at the bottom of the post and then find another link in that post and so on until you come back to me. Take a journey with our photographers and you might just take a virtual and visual journey around the world.
To continue the circle please visit Penelope’s blog.
The month of September was the proverbial bad word that I won’t say here because I’m a good Christian girl. I tossed a lot of things I usually care about aside simply to survive the month and all the bizarre little things that kept going wrong. One of the things I gave up was worrying about whether or not I could make money with my photography. Another thing I had to let go of was trying to create images that would get me hired in my area. I just want to create images I like and if other people don’t want them hanging on their walls, that’s fine with me. I think sometimes we have to create to set our own souls free and if we set some others free at the same time that’s simply an added bonus.
This post is part of a blog circle where a group of photographers, artists and creators share ten images from the previous month, taken either on one day or throughout the month. You can find the link to the next person in the circle at the end of the post. This month I decided to share some of the images I’ve been creating just for me. I’d love to see the images, art, or words you’ve been creating. Feel free to add a link to them in the comment section even if you’re not part of the 10 on 10 Lifestyle Group (on Facebook)
To continue to find other artists sharing today in the 10 on 10 blog circle, click over to see the beautiful images of Shea Kundler.
To follow my work you can catch me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/lisahoweler or at my photography site at www.lisahowelerphotography.com or on facebook at www.facebook.com/lisahoweler.
My 3-year old daughter is a caretaker.
She takes care of her stuffed animals and our pets and other people’s pets. Sometimes she takes care of me and once in awhile her brother (though she’s usually bossing him around). What she really enjoys taking care of, though, are worms and bugs. I don’t get it, but she likes rolly pollies and worms and wants to put them in containers to keep them safe whenever she finds them. I try to explain that they are safe outside because that’s their home, but it doesn’t always work.
We had filled the pool in our backyard one night this week and for some reason the water on the grass drew a huge worm, one we country folk call a “nightcrawler” right out of the mud. My toddler was delighted. 
She was delighted to show it to her brother and make a video for her dad, who was at work, and she was delighted when I said she could keep the worm in a plastic container from the kitchen if we added some wet soil to it for it to live in for awhile.
She most likely wouldn’t be delighted that yesterday she couldn’t find the worm so I took it all outside to look myself and discovered the worm was indeed gone. My closest guess is that our very large, moody cat ate it.
I think we’ll have to be a little more careful about taking care of our worms in the future.
This post is part of a monthly blog circle that publishes the 10th day of the month and features 10 photos from the previous month on either one day or throughout the month. To continue the circle please click over to Shea Kleundler’s blog
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When I walked out of my room and into my son’s , which has more accessible windows than mine, and saw the snow on the ground I’ll admit I wanted to cry. This year it’s seemed that spring will never come. The days have been cold and gloomy and wet. I honestly thought that by now I’d be writing about bright, sunny, warm days filled with fun with my children. Luckily, despite the lack of warmth and sun, the children and I have been able to squeeze in some fun and even a few beams of sunlight.
Since we started homeschooling my son a couple of weeks ago we’ve had more time for family outings and excursions and have done a couple in between school work. We visited the farm of some friends of mine as part of my farm awareness project and not only did it give us some much needed fresh air, but it also opened our eyes even more to the hard work of local farmers and the current challenges facing them.
The other day we thought we’d venture out to a baseball game, despite cold weather being forecast, and try to catch Tim Tebow who is playing with our local Double AA team, about an hour from our house. It literally snowed during the game. That’s how cold it was. And to top it off, Tebow never even took the field, but I did manage to grab a shot of him “slapping five” or whatever players do at the end of the game.
This week we are supposed to have warmer weather but I will believe it when I feel it.
This post is part of a 10 on 10 blog circle with a group of other photographers. Each month we post 10 photos from our previous month, from either one day, or throughout the month, to share in a blog post on the tenth day of the month. To continue the circle, click on the link at the bottom of this post.
Be sure to continue the blog circle by visiting Erika’s blog.
