I don’t feel old in my middle age and when my friends talk about age, I see that my point of view concerning it may or may not be unique. Inside I feel like the same girl that I’ve always been, but when I look in the mirror, I see small bags under my eyes and I think, “Wow, not a young girl anymore after all…….” 

When I was in my early 20s I wanted to get married and have children and I wanted to do it right now. Right. Now. So, I married a man that I did not know and while that marriage did not work out, it did lead me to the children that I do believe I am meant to live my life with. The thing is, those kids are growing up. My son will always be with me, he’s disabled and unable to live on his own, but my girls, they will move on. Bay is 17. Sarah is 11. How did the time go by so fast?  Should I have accomplished more with them?  Is there still time to get it done?

When I was young, I thought that getting married, that was the end - the Happy Ending. By the time I got to my early 30s, I realized that there is not Happy Ending, that the whole thing – meaning Life – is a continuous journey and the best that I can do it to pick an interesting direction to travel in. I learned to embrace the ideas of flexibility and perspective. If I try to make something happen, if I hold my ground too hard, then I’ll get knocked down. If I’m flexible, if I bend, then I can ride it out.

When I find other people who appear to share this point of view, it’s very exciting to me. I feel that maybe my ideas are not so crazy and if someone else agrees, then perhaps I’m on the right track. Maybe I’m not crazy at all.

Catherine Larose explains it like this…

For me life is like a book. It’s one continuous narrative and the best and only thing you can do is to be the author of your own adventures or misadventures, such as the case maybe.   Write your own script, don’t let someone else write it for you, make a decision (any decision), if it’s the wrong one, you’ll fix it.  Give yourself permission – and don’t let analysis/paralysis rule your life.  Fonce*, as my French friends would say.

Image credit: Bailey Smith

Post from: Blisstree

Write Your Own Story

Tiffanie Wong is a newlywed who writes a blog called My Husband Is Annoying. Within the blog she shares her experiences with husband, Mark Joyella.

Some of his annoying traits appear to be his tendency to continually wear a particular green sweater, his over-use of a fake (bad) Irish accent, his love of fart jokes, basically the usual annoying man stuff. 

Sometimes she gets negative feedback from readers who don’t understand why she’s not writing about newlywed-ed bliss, but Wong prefers to keep things realistic. The entries are not attacks. They are light-hearted and I get the feeling that if something was really bothering her, she’d talk to him about it and not the blog.

Annoying or not, Wong loves Joyella and that should be obvious to anyone who reads the blog, because it’s about all about him. I think a sign of trouble would be if, her blog was called something like, My Hot Doorman Is Annoying. Mark is a fan of the blog and apparently has veto power on both posts and photos.

Tiffanie Wong had this to say in an interview with Lemondrop;

“I love him because of his wacky, offbeat sense of humor; because he’s one of the smartest people I know and also one of best people I know.

“But mostly I love him because he totally gets me, loves me for exactly who I am and no matter how annoying I may be, he’d never write a blog about it!”

We had to check in with Mark on that one, and he agrees: “The cool thing about our relationship is we enjoy each other’s dorky quirks and laugh together about them. That’s why I like the blog.”

I think My Husband Is Annoying is a celebration of those quirks. I know that in my relationship, the things that I treasure the most about my boyfriend are the goofy parts of his personality. Our quirks and goofy habits are the things that make us unique. They are what make a person an individual.

Image credit: Michelle Smith

Post from: Blisstree

Her Husband Is Annoying

Every year, there are tons of folks blogging for animal and pet charities. In the past I’ve blogged for Best Friends Animal Sanctuary as well as a local no-kill shelter, and though I’m not able to participate this year (I get to admin instead!) I wanted to spotlight a bunch of bloggers who could really use some support and encouragement for their pet-related charitable endeavors!

The charity links go to the bloggers’ individual pledge pages. Sponsors need to create an account so that the reminder emails can be mailed out after the event.

~ Samantha’s Metaphysical Musings is blogging for the ASPCA

~ Just Throw Words at the Page is blogging for The Nature Conservancy

~ The Lush Life is also blogging for the ASPCA

~ kOph is blogging for Rabbit Rescue

~ Hip to Be Mom is also blogging for the ASPCA

~ There’s More to the Story is blogging for Helping Hands Humane Society

~ The Love Blog is blogging for The Richmond Animal Protection Society

~ Fandom Me is blogging for Saving Furry Friends

~ WorldWideWaterCooler is blogging for BC SPCA

~ Cynthia Wakefield’s Livejournal is blogging for Sea Shepherd

~ Effortless Effervescence is blogging for Virginia Beach SPCA

~ Spuddy Buddies is blogging for Best Friends Animal Society

~ Blogging for Tigers is blogging for EFBC’s Feline Conservation Center

~ Stupid Evil Bastard is blogging for Humane Society of Huron Valley

~ FraserValleyPulse.com is blogging for Langley Animal Protection Society

~ Delete the Adjectives is blogging for Best Friends

Even if you don’t have a few dollars to spare (though reminder emails aren’t sent out until after the event, and no money ever goes to the Blogathon, but directly to the charity’s donation page), make sure you stop by the bloggers’ sites and cheer them on next week!

[image: flickr]

Post from: Blisstree

Blogging for Pet Charities

In writing for both Relationships and Dating Dames, which is what Relationships used to be, I have spoken about various current and past relationships. One particular person that I wrote about was aware that I was writing about him during the course of our relationship (I never used his full name and he has a very common first name).

I told him that I wrote about us and I even sent him links to posts that I wrote. Either he did not read the posts or he is forgetting that this happened.

He and I had a relationship in which the terms were clear – committed, long-term, exclusive.  Things did not work out and eventually the relationship sort of faded away. I later found out from a third party that my ex had been not living up to those terms while we were together. He, the ex, contacted me and apologized. I was hurt, angry, and embarrassed, but I had a new man and I was moving on.

I wrote about it some and another person, someone we grew up with, took offense at me writing about my life and wrote me a lengthy message about doing so.

This weekend, the ex spent time talking to my girl friend. Then, I started getting comments on older Relationship posts from someone using a fake name saying that I knew what was up the whole time, that I was the pursuer, that I was doing something inappropriate by writing about my relationships in my relationship column.

My ex was telling a very different story to this person, although he admitted what went on when he spoke to my girl friend. There was no point in lying to her – she already knew what happened, she was there with me for almost the entire relationship.

My girl friend, the one who spoke to the ex, asked me to please stop talking about my personal experience, that it leaves me open to futher pain. I understand what she is saying, but I want Relationships to be honest and authentic. I don’t plan to talk about my ex anymore, I’ve spoken very, very little about him these past months, but in talking about certain topics, my experience with him might come up. 

I want to focus on the future. People come in and out of your life. Most leave some sort of mark. You either learn how to incorporate the experience into your personality or you fall apart. I don’t want to fall apart. I want to be happy about my new relationship, about my new boyfriend, and the experiences that are ahead of us. I do not want someone from the past to have any further influence on my future. 

Thank you for reading Relationships.

Image credit: Bailey Smith

Post from: Blisstree

I Write From Experience

Image: sxc.hu

 This career began rather unexpectedly after I finished a 2-year correspondence course in journalism (comparable to an online class today).  Many people ask me how they can get started, too.

 Study other columns and write some yourself.

 Take a column writing class.  As mentioned above, I did this via a correspondence course.  I now teach column writing classes online.

 Make sure you’re serious about column writing and have ideas enough to keep going.  Writing a weekly column (I’ve done both weekly and monthly), takes persistence and continual idea gathering.  Some people get started, then after 6 weeks run out of ideas.  An editor is depending on you…and you are if you want to get paid.

 You may have begin writing for very low or no pay for the first few columns to convince the editor it will be a good column for that publication.  (Some writers say this isn’t a good idea, but sometimes you must get started somewhere if you’ve never written a column for publication before.  However, it’s advisable to do it for an agreed upon limited time.)

Be enthusiastic about the material you write.  It will show through in your writing.

From the cooking column, which I still write today, I’ve gone on to write columns about gardening, local history, quiltmaking, arts and crafts, travel, children’s books, and family history.  Today, column writing has evolved into blog writing for many authors.

Post from: Blisstree

Writing a Cooking Column

Blogging also can be an enjoyable experience as you share with others some details of your crafting world.

• A blog is a place to display your work and photos.
• You can call attention to your web site or sales site like Etsy.
• Daily or periodic posts on your blog help your fans keep up with your projects.
• You might describe classes and workshops you teach.
• Host other craftspeople on your blog.  Their followers then will visit your blog to learn more about them.
• Monetize your craft blog so that you can earn an incidental income.  (Visit my Home Biz Notes post, Learn from Lindsay’s Writing for Your Wealth Blog, to discover more about this.)

How has blogging helped you?

(Amazon image )

Post from: Blisstree

Blogging Your Way to Crafting Success

Since I’m a writer by profession, as well as quiltmaker interested in quilt history, it seemed natural to combine these interests.  I first began mentioning quilts, patchwork items, and crafts in my weekly newspaper column, “Country Kitchen.” From there, I decided to find other outlets for my writing about these topics.

Image: sxc.hu

When I was involved in a home-based quiltmaking business, I approached a magazine about writing on the business aspects.  This lasted for eight years until the magazine was discontinued.  Then I wrote a business column for another quilting magazine for two years.

Researching these columns opened up the door for interviewing quiltmakers, attending shows, and writing about them for the magazines.  I often wrote about quilt related topics other than for my columns.

From this evolved my book, The Magic of Patchwork, talks to quilt groups and historical societies, teaching classes, and eventually blogging about quilts and crafts.

Whether you desire to write about quiltmaking or some other craft, start keeping a journal of thoughts and projects that come to mind.  Make notes about topics to include in articles, blogging posts, and columns.

Start your blog about the topic you desire to cover. You never know where this might lead you in the writing field if you stay alert for opportunities.

Post from: Blisstree

Writing About Quilts & Quiltmakers

Here’s how it’s going to work –

Attendees of BlogWorld Expo can collect b5 chips throughout the conference in several ways:

Be seen wearing a b5media T-shirt – $1000 chip
Answer b5media trivia – $500 chip
Tell us our secret password – $500 chip
Awesome swag trade – (depends on how good the swag is )
Drop business card in box – $250 chip
Use your chips to play poker and win (or lose) even more!
Beat b5media’s CEO – Jeremy Wright – DOUBLE your chances

Each day, b5 will have an auction in our booth (at 2:30 Thursday and Friday) and attendees can use their chips to bid on the prizes. As noted, we will be doing a secret password. You can find these passwords in various b5media blogs (Psst…see below for the first secret password!). Participants only need to approach someone in the b5media booth with the password and they will get a token.

b5media’s booth number is 309.

So, if you’re going to the Expo – and you’d like to get a $500 chip to start with (so you can bid on our fabulous prizes), the first secret password is: “b5alicious”.

Watch for more secret passwords scattered about b5media. And, don’t forget to let me know if you win any of the b5 prizes – I’d love to hear details since I won’t be able to attend this year.

If you are going, have a safe trip and bring plenty of stories back with you. Not everything that happens in Vegas has to stay in Vegas

Post from: Blisstree

Vegas Anyone?

It all depends on Zack. He’s good during the naps and then maybe an hour-and-a-half after that. Then there is just angry yelling. Not crying. Just yelling. My husband can sleep through the yelling, I can not. I’d rather be driving than being the poor sucker trying to make peek-a-boo fun in the 26th hour.

I suppose there are worse things in life . . . Having to unpack and do laundry when we get home. That could be worse. Getting back on the scale at the gym after eating whatever I want and getting virtually no exercise. That could be worse. Going back to the hot humid summer of East Texas where the air is simply unfit for breathing. That could be worse.

 Ah, but as I tell my daughter, we’ll just be extremely grateful that we got to come at all. We’ll remember the aquarium, natural history museum, Temple Square, the water symphony at the outdoor mall, the professional soccer game and all the great family time we got all the way home.

I’ve been a blog slacker this week, but I’ll get back on track by Tuesdayish.

Post from: Blisstree

Cross-Country With Baby

1. I was raised a Mormon Military Brat. We moved a lot, as a result I could pick up and go at any second. For a job or out of boredom I have sold everything I owed to relocate as an adult four times already. I am only 33-years-old.
2. I am a journalist by profession. I resent my previous employers for not allowing me to work from home when I became a mother. I am a writer and since the invention of e-mail there is really no reason to make me come to the newsroom 40 hrs a week. I think it’s “motherism” as my employer allowed a man to work out of his home but denied my request. I’ve not found my female employers any more supportive of working from home than my male bosses. But, I do resent them more.
3. I got married when I was 17-years-old. That was a stupid thing to do. I totally believe in divorce and thank God every day that by 19 I was smart enough not to make my childish mistake a permanent one. I didn’t marry again until 27.
4. After my child-bride experience I found that I was unwilling to change my name back to my father’s name and unwilling to keep my ex-husband’s name and unwilling to take any future husband’s name. I went to court and dropped all the last names that made my identity relational to the men in my life. I decided to have an identity that did not change with my marital status. My given name at birth was Tracee Sue and I thought Sioux would look better in print – well, I AM a writer so it DOES matter how marketable my name is. I was only 19 when I divorced so it seemed inevitable that I would eventually get married and have kids again. But, it did not seam reasonable at all to change my identity in any way, including my last name. So, I am Tracee Sioux. Legally now and forever. It is not a nom deplum – Sioux is my legal last name and it is who I am.
5. I witnessed 9-11 when I was 8 months pregnant with my first child. I was on my way to work. What strikes me now about the experience is that as a reporter my first instinct was to buy a disposable camera and report on it. I got a shot of the second plane hitting the building. I wasn’t close enough for anyone to buy the shot. The second thing that sticks with me is how worried I was that I was going to be late for work and how my boss might be annoyed with me – as if for the first few hours the shock was so complete that I didn’t understand the magnitude at all and went about my normal business like buying a chocolate donut.
6. I went to Lithuania after college to teach English, I wanted to travel and had been a political science major with an interest in the breakdown of the Soviet Union. Lithuania was a brand new democracy.
7. I’m grateful beyond belief for my current opportunity to work from home blogging. I feel like this is a “calling” for me. I’m pretty intensely spiritual about my So Sioux Me website and my work at b5media writing BlogFabulous to empower people and especially women. It’s my path, my personal legend, my way of being part of the soul of the world, my way to affect the collective consciousness.

So I’m tagging Therapydoc at Everyone Needs Therapy, Steve at Inside Fatherhood, Karen at Thrifty Mommy, Cory and Kerri at Marriage Actually, Kate at Babylune, Karen at Live the Power and Courtney at Courtney Tuttle. Consider yourselves Memed by Tracee Sioux at So Sioux Me and BlogFabulous.

Post from: Blisstree

I’ve Been Memed