Icons for email

I thought I would find an easy way to include social media icons in my emails.  However, I'm finding it challenging!  See, you have to paste the image url, not the image itself.  The icon I want, I can only download the image, not copy the url.

So, I thought if I paste the image to a blog post, maybe I would then be able to copy the url.  I'll let you know if it works!

           

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!"  Thomas Palmer

PiBoIdMo and WNFIN

Today is day four of Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo) and Write Nonfiction Now (WNFIN).

I think I am up to 11 ideas and 2 titles for PiBoIdMo, but I haven't decided which PB to focus on for WNFIN.  I don't want to get behind, so I better decide today!

Many of the trees around the pond have lost their leaves and it's overcast today, but there's something about the pond that helps me write.  It's probably the calming effect of the birds, water, play of light, pretty foliage, etc. (The clouds were nice enough to part when I took this picture...)

It's also fun to watch the sheep...

Psalm 50:9-11  I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.

PiBoIdMo 2013

I think I've signed up for PiBoIdMo 2013. This is where I commit to coming up with an idea for a picture book each day in the month of November.

Here's the link for more information:  taralazar.com

Let the ideas roll.....

Proverbs 16:3 "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established."

After a year-and-one-half, I decided it was time to start blogging again.  Much has happened in that time, but I'll probably start with the most recent events and go backwards as I see fit.

When I was between 8-10, my mother (who was an excellent seamstress - but who didn't have the patience to teach) had my sister and I get sewing lessons.  Over the years, I've made clothes for myself and many craft projects.  I decided it was time to start my 8 y.o. on a sewing project.  Yesterday, we made a pair of "lounge pants." They were too big, but they are comfy for her... and it was a good beginning project.

Lots of hidden schooling was part of the lesson... reading (directions), math (measurements), listening (to instructions), patience, and satisfaction (in a job well done)!

This morning, before school started, we made a skirt...

Proverbs 31:13 "She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands."

Hiatus

Since my last post was in October of 2011, you can see that I've been on a bit of a hiatus blogging-wise.  And it looks like that will continue for the near future.

Writing:  I am trying to finish revisions on a magazine article.  The holidays and some family challenges had brought this to a temporary halt.  Hoping to finish revisions this week so I can send it to get an expert review.  After that, I am taking an online picture book course - and I have revisions for 3 or 4 book manuscripts to work on. I hope to go to a writing conference in April in Iowa, but that's up in the air right now.

Ranching / Farming: Calving will start in about one month.  Until then, our 6 y.o. gets up around 6:30 so she can help Daddy with the chores before school.  I bought a bunch of heirloom seeds for our garden.  They'll get started in a few weeks. I'm not much of a gardener, so I'll leave that to our youngest and my husband!

Family:  Other than the above-mentioned family challenges, we've had some praises, our 6 y.o. has accepted Jesus as her Savior and will be talking to our pastor about getting baptized!

Faith:  Since November I keep getting reminded of Psalm 139. So, I'll post part of that here:

Psalm 139: 23-24 "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Work in progress

As I was rereading a comment from a previous post, I realized I had promised to take a picture of the plaque in my writing cabin, but had never done it.  It is about 12 inches square and hangs over one window. The verse is from 1 Corinthians 10:31. Here it is...

While the sky is overcast, the pond is still pretty with  some fall leaves still clinging to the trees. With colder temperatures expected this week, they may all be gone by the end of the week.

In the past month, I've been able to submit a children's magazine article, submit a biography for critique at a November SCBWI conference in Pennsylvania, and now I've been revising an historical picture book. Here's what my workspace looks like. (Caveat: the pictures in this blog are copyrighted by me and may not be copied, saved, or used without my written permission.)

I cut the manuscript into what I think are the page turns. It is helping me to see where there's too much going on  for one page, not enough (for illustrations) on others, and where it just plain needs to be changed.

Overall, it's been a good writing month. Writing has been squeezed in between homeschooling, harvesting, and other obligations, but "where there's a will, there's a way."

1 Cor 10:31 "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

A Time of Rest

This past summer was not a productive one for me writing-wise.  It culminated with my having surgery a month ago.  I thought I could work on several projects while recuperating, but didn't have the energy for it.

I really like the home-school program we purchased for our 6 y.o. daughter.  It is A Beka Academy's 1st grade program.  Our 6 y.o. watches a teacher and participates with her classroom online and then has lots of workbook pages to complete each day.  My daughter is writing in cursive and reading two-vowel words.  Quite an accomplishment this young.  (Perhaps "normal" for this day and age, but above normal compared to when I was in 1st grade many moons ago!)

In the last few days, I was able to revise a children's nonfiction magazine article that had gotten rejected back in June. My critique group tore it apart and I've incorporated the suggested changes.  Today I need to print off the manuscript and bibliography and then label the photographs that go with it.

After I've mailed off that submission, I can get started on revisions for an historic picture book I wrote at the beginning of the year. I have done a lot of research in order to make it historically accurate and plausible.

On the farm-front, harvest has started. We are praying for a better harvest than this year's weather conditions warrant.

Hopefully this period of enforced rest will result not only in a healthy body, but renewed writing projects.

Psalm 34:8 "O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him."