D is for Drop it, Drop it like it's hot

Drop it like it's hot. Today's topic of the day is Drop it.  The A to Z writing challenge throws my hidden blog out there to do a little dance in front of writers of all levels of professionalism. I've been reading wonderful posts, informative posts - stuff people would search for and be interested in. Mine is a bit irreverent, a little silly and all me. When this commercial first came on my son shouted, "Whoa, that's mom!" he seems to think this chick is just like "mom."  er, me. Ha ha. Okay, sure.

Do a little dance if you please. Yes, I mean right now.  okay, done?

On a more serious note, drop it is also part of my life philosophy. Forgive, forget, move on. Life is full of too many good things to hang on to the bad stuff.  

Drop it baby, drop it like it's hot. 

brought to you by the letter D

and the A to Z blogging challenge 

C is for Celebrate!

The A to Z blogging challenge letter of the day is C and my word of choice is Celebrate!  I am fool for birthday celebrations. My family has a host of slightly ridiculous traditions....most notable are the pink bunny ears for the birthday baby...as shown on my adult son :)  These were recently joined by a pair of silly spectacles to help complete the required birthday attire.  We believe in the magic of birthday dust. Truly, madly deeply believe. Special things happen on birthdays. 

"Celebrate what you want to see more of" ~Thomas Peters 

( Personally, I want to see A LOT more birthdays! )

You do not have to wait for a birthday to celebrate though. Make your life a celebration. Leave the blase' unresponsive behavior at the door thank you very much.

CELEBRATE LIFE! 

1. Laugh a lot. Listen to other people laugh.....can you believe how many different laughter there is in the world?  Stop taking everything so seriously.

2. Sing!  Don't worry about your voice. If it is as horrible as mine...see tip #1 and laugh it off. 

3. Say something nice. If you have nothing nice to say, then shut your mouth and seal it with a smile!

4. Spend time with people. People are more important than things. 

5. Create something. Anything. Paint, draw, make a cootie catcher. (directions on my Always Learning blog) 

6. Start your own traditions. Something as simple and ridiculous as my family's, not so secret, ritual of dancing when the elevator door closes works.

7. Make your own fun. Bored? What!? Plan a impromptu party, try a new recipe, hula hoop, ride a bike... 

8. Try something new, something you are bad at, like #2 singing...or ice skating....or whatever I am doing in this picture....  : )

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out."
Ray Bradbury

CELEBRATE LIFE

B is for Behind

 

Like my son pictured here I am BURIED in work....Behind is an understatement....but I didn't like using buried as the "word of the day"  So I chose behind.  

This past week I had been waiting for an answer on some applications...which had me stewing and checking and rechecking emails throughout the day. 

Plus, it was spring break... and there is spring cleaning to do

and gardening

..........................................

and

...........................................

one more reason to choose Behind as the word of the day

......................................................................

Because, I have chosen freelance writing as a career

.....................................................................................................

my behind is bigger than before

B is for Big Butt

There 

I said it

Boo-ya! time to get my butt in gear

baby steps baby

bye bye

 

A is for Adventure

On the first day of the A to Z blogging challenge, my word is Adventure. 

I am an Adrenaline-Adventure junkie. Some of my adventures are fairly tame in comparison to, say, moving half way across the world, or riding a bike from coast to coast as some of my friends have done. But, for a quiet late bloomer, my Achievements are satisfying, to me....

When I am too long between adventures, I get antsy.There needs to be something big to plan for, some big goal to achieve.

For 26 days in April (minus Sundays) I will be posting a blog for each letter of the alphabet.
                                 "Sylvie's letter of the day"
I am all for challenges, so when this was dangled in front of me in my writers group, I grabbed it.

Hundreds of people signed up, literally 1037 people. Go ahead, Sign up here, if you dare.

This mini adventure is fairly mundane, but with 1000+ bloggers jumping in, stalking each other, chatting away everyday, something good is bound to happen.

History of the writing Adventure
Writing is an adventure for me. I like privacy. In fact, I really am anti-social at heart. Writing had always been extremely private....
....until I began testing the waters in a Myspace blog.
Immediate reactions, instant gratifications; I quickly succumbed to the lure of throwing my heart into cyberspace.

From Myspace to this blog, then to teaching creative writing and now to freelance writing full time.
 
Amazing.   

P.S.  Runners up for the letter of the day included the obvious choice-Art, Awesome and Adrenaline.....Adventure won this honorable recognition by looking at me with his wild eyes, I am really am a sucker for adventure. 

Ta Da! Finished Puppet Stage

 Friday was the big reveal. My high school art class presented their puppet stage and handmade sock puppets to the preschool class. We stayed to play with the kids (but basically just stood their while the little ones attacked each other with puppets)
 

 The cardboard I purchased to make this stage was MUCH harder to cut then I had initially thought. In fact, it took me all of 45 minutes to saw through one giraffe face hole and the main puppet area. Next time I will bring some sort of power tool and finish it off!  For now though the kids enjoyed checking themselves out as giraffes.

 Can anyone say, awwww....how cute!  Puppets shown include the popular piggy puppet, alligator, frog, zebra, duck and some sort of furry monster.

 Some of my class watching an original impromptu puppet show. One little boy (in red) was fascinated by Julia : )

 

Sisters.  (and a puppy dog puppet) 

 

The entire puppet stage...some of the preschoolers...and some of the teens that worked on it.... The tree needs more holes cut out, like the giraffe side I will get to this next week!

Blogging Challenge!

Facebook is dangerous for home-based workers....I am easily distracted  ......* SQUIRREL! *..., but facebook is also the home base for a couple of my favorite writing forums. This morning while checking what transpired while I was sleeping (since many of the writers I know, work at all hours of the day and night), I found a link to a writing challenge.

  A to Z Blogging Challenge  is intriguing in it's simplicity. It starts April 1, 2011 and the main idea is to write a blog post everyday of the month ('cept Sunday) corresponding with a letter of the alphabet. 26 days in April minus Sundays = a day for every letter A to Z.


This blog, Secrets about Secrets,  is # 658!  that's a LOT of blog posts going out over the month of April.

My writer friend, Marie Anne, on her blog Marie Anne's Missives   posted her way of dealing with the overwhelming challenge. She signed up her other blogs in order to fulfill the challenge, while spreading the love amongst a variety of subjects.

I am giving that some thought...my other blogs are listed down the side and include, Body Mad, Always Learning and Sylvie a la Mode; dealing with Fitness, Education and Fashion respectively.  I have a few days to decide....I admitted in my previous post how much I crave challenges, and often race in to things that are clearly over my head, so, "true to form" I am actually considering not only signing up my other three blogs, but fulfilling the challenge on all four. hmmmm..... maybe, that is just crazy enough to be something I would do.

Join me in this leap Down the Rabbit hole?  Sign up for the A to Z writing challenge!

Challenge Addiction

I am never bored...if something starts to feel less than challenging, or fun...I move along. There are too many wonderful things to try in the world. I am not one to endlessly prepare, rather, I like to jump right in and give it shot. Most of the time I find myself WAY over my head, but when it is easy...and the tiny hint of boredom starts to creep in, I'm done. 


Yahoo! surprised me. Just a few months ago, I considered leaving due to low pay and lack of challenge  Well, now I have work piled up and it is very challenging.  Two daily sports beats, three fashion beats, a few random targeted assignments and a gadzillion parenting beats, or so it seems. ha.  Parenting was a topic I was a featured contributor in...and it was a topic I was considering dropping. Sure I have four kids, have been a foster mom and have oodles of experience....I just stumbled when coming up with 4 topics each month. Now I have to write up to twelve parenting articles a week. yikes!  Challenging....this is good.

If you ever want to try writing, start here. The link will take you to associated content from Yahoo!  Sign up, and start contributing! 

There are so many areas of my life where I just DID something, thought later. I encourage anyone to just give it a try. Stop second guessing, just get out there and do something ridiculous, scary and challenging. Failure is fine. You may be surprised at how fun it is just to say you tried.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said “Do one thing every day that scares you.”  Love that.  Not every scary thing is big, most days I am scared of the silliest things, but it still counts.
Baby steps, baby.


Read anything by Keri Smith.  Her wacky ideas will have you dancing on top of the box you find yourself in.