Because I love my husband soooo much...

20 years of pure bliss!

Megan Elizabeth

Sufficiently recovered...

I just received an email from Blue Mountain Arts asking for more poems for their greeting cards... They probably send these to everyone who's ever submitted to them, but I was tickled anyway. I'm going to write a few poems today and send them off. They snatched the first one I wrote right away for a test market, so maybe I stand a fighting chance of getting another one accepted!

And Mudskippers, I will get those critiques to you as soon as I can!

: )

Megan

Oy!

There comes a time in every woman's life when she's forced to face the inevitable fact that she's growing older. Every day. It happens to the best of us, and it's something we simply can't escape. We can approach it grudgingly and with massive amounts of glycolic acid or we can approach it with a lacksadaisical attitude -- laissez-faire and aloof and unshakeable. I am of the glycolic variety. I prefer to color my hair obsessively, tear off the outer layer of my face with Retin-A compounds, and apply massive amounts of creams and lotions and, after that, makeup, until I resemble a still somewhat wrinkled circus clown. Or maybe a cross between Phyllis Diller (definitely showing my age now) and Tammy Faye Baker.

Why am I telling you about this now?

I went to the grocery store the other day and as I was checking out, the clerk -- a young girl of about TWELVE -- asked if I qualified for the senior citizen discount.

I know.

You're stunned.

How could this have happened? I am only a mere 45 years old! I feel wiser than those young thirtysomethings. (and I remember the television show, Thirtysomething, too!) I wasn't wearing makeup and had been sorting through stuff for Goodwill so I must have looked a bit tired and grungy, but that's no excuse. I am affronted, first of all, that the store required her to ask people if they're old. And I'm doubly affronted that she thought she had to ask ME!

I went home and immediately colored my hair, put on makeup, and went out to a cookout with my husband, convinced no one there would want to talk to me, an elderly woman in a vast sea of youngsters. I ended up having a great conversation with someone who looked like she was about as used up by her kids as I am. None of the twentysomethings -- or even the thirtysomethings -- said a word to me, but that's okay. They'll BE me one day. And when that day comes, I will be there to reassure them that life does, indeed, continue. At least I hope I will be. Better go apply more creams and lotions and take some vitamins just in case!

: )

Megan Elizabeth

This is how obsessive I am...

As I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep last night, I kept thinking about the tense change in my post two blog entries down -- the one about the symphony. I knew about the tense shift as I was writing it, but I was in a hurry and didn't want to take the time to fix it. Plus, I thought the shift to present tense gave the story immediacy. But it began in past tense. So what was I thinking?

And the bigger question here is why do I have nothing better to do at night than ponder whether my friends are thinking poor tense thoughts about me as THEY fall asleep in their comfy, cozy beds? Now that's obsessive!

: )

Megan Elizabeth, who is soooooooooooo tense!

Dan Fogelberg on Regis and Kathy Lee

Never a Dull Moment

Last night, we went to Symphony in the Park for a lovely evening picnic on a hill, followed by the music of the Charlotte Symphony. We were particularly excited because it was going to be an evening of Broadway show tunes which we all love.

Despite the cloudy, overcast sky, we threw down our sleeping bags and ate our dinner in relative peace. We found ourselves seated beside a friend from my husband's job, which was delightful, and we were all set for a night to remember.

That's what it was, all right.

The thunderstorm started some time around the second song. But, undaunted, the symphony took cover and attempted to wait out the storm. Meanwhile, we opened our umbrella and began singing. Singing in the Rain, of course. My kids all know the song because it's from my favorite movie -- I'm a huge Gene Kelly fan. So, we sang it through once. Then our friends joined us. Then the tuba and trombone players joined in with the mezzo soprano who was supposed to sing later in the program.

So we're singing and swaying amid the darkening drizzle when all of a sudden my son Drew grabs the umbrella from my hand and walks out to the front sidewalk and begins to dance. Now remember, he has seen Singing in the Rain about seventy times in his short 14 years. He's not just dancing, he's twirling around like Gene Kelly. I have never seen this kid leap out of his shell like this, so I'm standing there in shocked disbelief when the song finishes and to our surprise, the entire crowd begins applauding him!

The symphony only managed one more song before a loud crack of thunder ended the concert, but we all were still so glad we came. It was definitely a night to remember!

Yours -- with all the dramatic flair of a childhood well-lived!

Megan Elizabeth

I feel the need for a Dan Fogelberg song...

It's Maine, and it's Autumn, the birches have just begun turning
It's life and it's dying
The lobstermen's boats come returning with the catch of the day in their holds
And the young boy is cold and complaining
The fog meets the beaches and out on the Reach it is raining.

It's father and son, it's the way it's been done since the old days
It's hauling by hand ten miles out from the land where their chow waits
And the days are all lonely and long, and the seas grow so stormy and strong but...
The Reach will sing welcome as homeward they hurry along.

(Chorus)
And the morning will blow away as the waves crash and fall
And the Reach like a siren sings as she beckons and calls
As the coastline recedes from view and the seas swell and roll
I will take from the Reach all that she has to teach to the depths of my soul.

The wind brings a chill, there's a frost on the sill in the morning
It creeps through the door
On the edge of the shore ice is forming
Soon the northers will bluster and blow
And the woods will be whitened with snowfall
And the Reach will lie frozen for the lost and unchosen to row.

(from The Innocent Age)

Sigh. All better now...

Megan Elizabeth

Facebook is my friend...

Okay, I know I've crossed the midline of life now, but I am enjoying Facebook immensely. I have found old friends and reconnected with people I haven't seen or spoken to in a while. It's great. And Donna, guess who friended me today? Angie, from the old Creativepowerhouse! Yea!

All writers should have a Facebook page, a website, and a blog. I'm convinced. And this was not a paid endorsement.

: )

Megan Elizabeth, frazzled and worn-to-a-crisp but hey, people like things crispy sometimes... There's Lay's potato chips, Chicken in a Biskit crackers, Orville Redenbacher popcorn, sweet tarts, jawbreakers, grape nuts cereal... Endless possibilities of fragile female crispyness!

Links for a Charlotte Mason Education

For the sake of storage, I am placing links here that I have found useful and that today are helping me shape my children's education into something of an exotic, unforgettable journey which is exactly what I believe education should be...

Grammar

http://wonder.riverwillow.com.au/books/meiklejohn/meiklejohn_contents.htm

A Narrative explanation of what life was like in a PNEU school, written by a former student, Christine Verspaandonk:

http://wonder.riverwillow.com.au/home_education/PNEU_Education.htm

Read and enjoy...

Poised and ready...

Today, I created a writing schedule for myself, worked out the second chapter of The Fairy Harp, wrote several poems to get the creative juices flowing, and went to church. Probably the most helpful thing I did was go to church. It was a new church -- new to me, anyway. City Church in Charlotte. We loved it. The people were friendly, kind, and understood when two of my children fell asleep during the service! We will definitely visit again, and hopefully I am now inspired enough to leave this blog and write, write, write!!!

Megan Elizabeth, the magnificent (procrastinator)