February Love Quotes
8
02, 2017
6
02, 2017
Time to Share Some Valentine Love
I’m a romantic at heart and by profession. After all, I do write about romance. February is my favorite time of year.
Saint Valentine, for whom the day is named, was a real priest. He went to prison because he performed Christian marriages when the Roman Empire had outlawed the sacrament. While imprisoned, he cut hearts from parchment and gave them to the soldiers and persecuted Christians to “remind them of God’s love and to encourage them to remain faithful Christians.”
His deed began our custom of sharing cards and gifts of love on February 14.
Unlike Christmas where gifting can become expensive, sending a valentine card can a fun, simple, and inexpensive way to say I love you or I’m thinking about you. You can use your imagination to create cute, adorable, beautiful, special, romantic, charming, or even corny homemade cards.
As we approach this Valentine’s Day, let’s not forget the men and women who serve our country.
The web is loaded with Valentines for Vets classroom projects ideas. I’m not a teacher, but that won’t stop me from sending cards to our local veteran’s center.
Won’t you join me?
Valentines of all shapes, sizes, and colors are welcome. I find greeting-card size valentines are easiest to package and distribute.
Just keep these tips in mind as you create your cards:
- Sign your valentine with your first name only. Do not include your last name, phone number, or address
- Share a little about yourself. Students usually share their age, school, likes, etc.
- Do not include candy or chocolate with the valentines
- Avoid glitter or materials that might easily break off if you send a homemade card
- Don’t date the card with the year
- Most importantly, tell the vet why you appreciate them. Need ideas on what to say? Try this site.
- If you send more than one valentine, don’t seal individual valentines envelopes. Instead, place unsealed cards in one larger sealed envelope to mail or deliver your valentines in.
You can go through national organization websites or simply your drop cards off at a local veteran’s facility. Click here to find a veterans’ center near you.
Let’s share valentine love with a veteran this year.
3
02, 2017
The Return of the Hawk
A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
The latest flock of chicks moved outside a couple of weeks ago. Being small and unaccustomed to the outside world, they were perfect prey for the hawk.
Rachel soon found the hawk in the chick yard helping itself to an unsuspecting chick. She chased it off, but it returned to kill one more chick and carry another away.
This did not set well with Rachel. She set up sentry watch outside for several hours to keep the hawk away. She realized this was not a permanent solution as she was unwilling to sleep out in the yard.
She put the word out on the backyard chicken forum. Crazy chicken ladies tend to stick together. She was soon offered poultry netting which she quickly retrieved and installed. The chicks are now safe. 
Of course filling the feeder and waterer is a little more complicated. Fortunately, the netting is very flexible so I only have to duck a little, but it does mess up my hair.
Yet another reason I get dressed after letting the chickens out.
1
02, 2017
February Love Quotes
Today is February 1st. The month that puts us in the mood for love in a special way. Personally, I think love is meant to be shared year-round, but there is just something about February that causes us to focus our thoughts on LOVE.
That’s why this month Wednesday Words of wisdom will be memes created from quotes about love. Enjoy!
30
01, 2017
Procrastination Can Kill Writing Success
Procrastination means putting off an essential task.
Admit it you procrastinate. All writers do.
Procrastination is a clever enemy often disguised as worthy endeavors such as a writer’s meeting, a writing conference, a computer game to “clear the head”, or a movie for “research.”
Social media, while a critical component for author promotion, can also be a major procrastination culprit. Who doesn’t find Twitter or Facebook or web surfing sucking precious time from writing?
Delaying issues for some writers can be more subtle. Things like spending time reading blogs or books about writing or tidying a work area before beginning. Well-intentioned things to do, however not very productive.
If your time revolves around thinking about writing or learning about writing without actually writing, face it, you’re procrastinating.
So how do we cure the culprit that steals our words from the page?
First, admit you’re procrastinating.
Next, try these five helpful hints to stop.
Divide your project into small chunks
Commit to working an hour on a project by breaking the task into doable pieces. For non-fiction books, this may be creating a chapter outline. For a novel, try breaking the story smaller segments like scenes or start with character development.
Schedule writing time
Too often writers put off writing until everything else is done. The dishes put in the dishwasher, the clothes folded, the dog walked, etc. You get the idea. There is no perfect time to write.
Schedule a one-hour block of time to sit down at your desk and write. Consider it an unbreakable appointment.
Set a timer
Once you have a designated writing time, set your phone timer, a kitchen timer, or an online timer like e.ggtimer.com for 15 – 30 minutes. Forget about whether what you produce is good or bad – keep writing.
Turn off your internal editor and self-critic
Simply write like nobody’s watching. After all, no one needs to see your writing until you’re ready.
Get a grip and just do it.
Put your butt in the chair and W-R-I-T-E whether you feel like it or not. No matter how much strategizing, planning, and hypothesizing you do if you don’t take action, nothing happens.
According to Wayne Dyer, “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.”
Don’t let procrastination defeat you. Try these five tips and when you’ve put words on the page,
celebrate.
27
01, 2017
Not on My List
A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
I am a list maker. In fact, I am one of those people who write things I have already done on my list so I can cross them off.
Today’s list included: laundry, Sam’s, take recyclables, meeting at 12:30, meeting at 3:00, change sheets, etc. Most of the time my list is an accurate representation of what happens in my day.
Today, however, was different.
During my normal chicken care routine, which is not on my list but done every day anyway, I noticed that Tina, the female turkey, seemed to have blood on her right side. I tried to catch her to examine further but she was too fast for me.
Rachel, being younger and faster than me, was able to catch Tina. I held the turkey while Rachel checked for wounds.
Sure enough, under her right wing was a significant sore. As with any injury, the first course of action was to clean the wound. This meant bringing Tina inside and giving her a bath.
Then Rachel bandaged the sore.
So today I gave a turkey a bath. That was definitely not on my to do list.
25
01, 2017
23
01, 2017
Are these five POGO traits sabotaging your writing?
A writing career has no policy and procedure manual, no checklist for success. Each day brings uncharted water.
The path to success can be an emotional roller coaster ride. Up one day. Downhill fast the next.
More than any other job, writers are in control of their destiny. At the same time, writers can be their own worst enemy.
Unfamiliar with Pogo?
Pogo and his “swamp critter friends” are the anthropomorphic comic strip animals created by Walt Kelly in 1948. They philosophized and poked at social and political successes and follies in Kelly’s comic strip. Probably the most widely used Pogo quote is the one depicted in this poster from Earth Day in the 70s.
There are five traits, when exhibited, that can make a writer his own worst enemy. That’s why I dubbed them POGO traits.
- Too much time and energy focused on mimicking the writing and style of other authors.
The world already has Janet Evanovich, J.K. Rowling, Steven King, and Nora Roberts. Their success is their success.
You can’t copy and get there! Stop wasting your time.
- Preoccupation with following THE RULES.
Rules are very important. Absolutely.
Writing, on the other hand, is an art form that entails experimentation, innovation, and expansion. Once you have the basics down—things like POV, dialogue, setting, character, plot, theme, it’s time to trust your instincts and what works for your story.
- Buying into every new way to write or plot that’s suggested
Workshops, classes, and webinars are terrific for improving craft skills. BUT writing experts don’t always know what’s right for your writing process. Once you find the process that works best for you and your lifestyle, stick with it.
- An inability to take criticism or believing everything anyone says about your story
Either of these positions can be fatal. Admittedly, surviving a brutal criticism or review isn’t for the fainthearted. As a writer, you need elephant hide and keen discernment to see the opinions expressed for exactly what they’re worth.
It’s strong writers who survive…and often produce better stories from hard critiques or bad reviews.
- Not writing
The procrastination parasite bites us all from time to time. Whether moved by the muse or not, a professional writer goes to the keyboard or grabs a pencil every day.
Promotion, social media, and marketing do cut into writing time. All of that is important for developing reader relationships. Balance is the key because gaining readership (aka success) ultimately comes from writing the next story.
Do you see POGO traits in yourself? I admit I’m guilty of too many, too often.
I become my own worst enemy. Do you?
20
01, 2017
Tom Turkey 1, Chicken Wrangler Sara 1
A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
My love/hate relationship with the turkeys continues.
For a while, Tom was roosting in the chicken coop. Every night for several nights, I moved him to the turkey yard to be with Tina. One night he was particularly aggravated by this and kicked and screamed like a toddler. I wrangled him into the turkey yard with Tina and went inside.
An hour later Rachel looked at me and said, “Mom did you know you have a huge hole in your shirt?”
I looked down and there were actually several holes in my favorite denim shirt.
Fortunately, Tom’s obviously sharp claws had not made contact with my skin. My broken ankle remains the only injury sustained thus far.
Fortunately for him, Tom has become quite handsome so I extend him a great deal of grace – as long as he causes no bodily harm.
18
01, 2017
