The Sunflower House

Every year my mom planted a sunflower for us girls when we were growing up. Yes, it really is a playhouse grown from flowers! We would sit between the thick green stalks with the sun over our heads giggling and drinking "tea" from our cups filled with water and mud.

This summer I decided to pass on the tradition with my own girls. Not only is it a cheap and easy summer project, but it gives me time with my girls, and will hopefully fill their summer with memories of tea parties and fairy games in the sunflower house.

Prepare the ground to plant! We made a rectangle, but you can make your house any shape that you want!

Plant a sunflower seed along with a morning glory (or other vine-type flower) next to each other around the edge of your sunflower house. The sunflower stalks will be the walls and the morning glories will eventually make up the roof. Don't forget to leave a space for your door!

This is a sunflower and a nasturtium. (We ran out of morning glories)



This is a sunflower and a morning glory.

The walls of our sunflower house are beginning to grow!



The girls helped plant the seeds and they help me water and weed the house. The had a blast when the seeds first sprouted, investigating the ground for each new sprout! Lately, we have had to just be patient and wait for the flowers to grow. It seems to take forever, but patience is a virtue and we've had a lot of fun working together in the process. Part two to come soon!

The Imperfect Writer- Backpack Brain

           People who are creative tend to use the right side of their brain, that’s the part that can think outside the box and dream up an entire novel after seeing a tattered purse lying near the neighbor’s yard. It also happens to be the side of the brain that is disheveled, tousled, and unkempt. It’s like a backpack on the last day of school, stuffed to the brim with twisted and wrinkled papers, old nametags that have fuzz stuck to the once before sticky part, broken pieces of crayon and pencil, candy from the holiday party several months ago, and many other surprising, yet treasured items that haven’t been seen for months.

                Imagine all that helter-skelter in your head, and then trying to get in out on paper, or if you’re at work, a random sticky note or the back of your hand. Or if you’re at a restaurant, your napkin, your friend’s napkin, and then napkin of the unobservant man at the next table (possible future blog post- how to secretly slip napkins off tables when you’re desperate for paper for your  fantastic idea).

                Writers have all sorts of ideas and we tend to lose them due to the overflowing backpack that spills from our brains, to our hands, to anywhere we can jot a quick note. Then that note gets lost, or when we look at it again it suddenly makes no sense what-so-ever. I have a note to self about my novel that says, “In case of emergency, read, wipe, and burn.” To this day, I don’t know where it came from, and where I was going with it. It’s truly devastating because I’m convinced that there was a brilliant idea there that would change the world as we know it, and now it is lost for forever. Oh well.

                In all seriousness, I’m not sure if all writers are really this bad, but if you are a writer, chances are you have lost a notebook or an important sticky note with a great idea, and somehow it feels like you will never recreate it the same way ever again. I’ve lost a few very important notebooks to me, in fact cried over said notebooks, because they were filled with stories I liked, years of research, and little notes about everything you could imagine. At first it feels like a tragedy, but then you find a way to rewrite, rebuild, and keep on going.

                 There are a few things that help me stay a little more organized as a writer, so I can at least attempt to keep track of my ideas.

1)      Have a designated place for all writing material. For me it’s a shelf holding all of my notebooks, some boxes to throw notes in, and a basket filled with pens, sticky notes, and more note cards filled with ideas. True to my right brain, it is disorderly with notebooks strewn here and there and papers falling on the floor, but it keeps everything mostly together, and I try to clean it once every few years.

2)      The envelope file system. This may not work for everyone, but it has sure helped me to collect my ideas. I put the working title of my novel idea on the front of an envelope, and then anytime I get an idea for it, whether it be a description, a name for something, or a character’s line, I write it on whatever I have available and then shove it in the envelope when I get home. Whenever I’m ready to start that novel, I pull out the envelope, flip through the ideas, and start building my outline.

                                    

3)      Idea Log- this was recently sent to me from my nanowrimo writing friend and I am in love with it! It is a notebook that is small and light enough to fit into my purse or go bag for the day, it has a place for a pen, and plenty of pages for lots of ideas!

 

                                    

I really loved the intro in the log book. How true! Hopefully if you're as scatterbrained as I am these ideas help you out!

Summer Reading Program

One of the summer activities that our family has been looking forward to for months in the summer reading program! This is the second week and we are having a ball!

Magician C.R. Ryan kicked the program off with a fantastic magic show!





The girls petting the rabbit that magically appeared!



My summer reading so far- The Secret Garden, Leota's Garden, and The Humming Room! The Humming Room was inspired by the Secret Garden and it is one of my favorites that I've read this past year.

One of my favorite places to read and write during the summer.

We made a tent using the laundry line and a few sheets for the kids to read in. Along with favorite books and snacks, they spent the afternoon curled up and reading.

The Cancer Files of C.E. Austin- Relay For Life 2013

          This past weekend our family went to the Relay For Life in our community. Not only did we have a wonderful time, but all of the money earned went to the American Cancer Society for cancer research. It was  incredible to see so many people come together to raise money for this great cause and support the survivors in our area.

  


Way better than a hospital bracelet!

 I walked the survivor lap with Denny. He's such an inspiration to me!

The kids' favorite part was the jump house!







Goodie bag for survivors.

I'm geeked for days whenever I receive a pen- there were ten in my goodie bag! 



They had a dinner beforehand for survivors and their families. These flower arrangements were on each table.

 

This is a strip you can plant in your garden with flowers in it. I love gardens that tell a story and can't wait to plant these flowers and remember this day.

Hope lights the darkness.

Grandpa’s Blackberries

            Summers with my grandparents meant swimming at the local pool and getting in trouble for running through Grandpa’s garden. He always smelled the tomatoes on us the moment we walked through the door. He loved gardening and all of us enjoyed the benefits of it. Grandma always served fresh sliced tomatoes, green beans, and my favorite- homemade blackberry jam.

Grandpa tended his blackberry patch throughout the summer, and we were lucky if we were visiting when it was time to pick them. Grandma would send us out with a dish and we would walk to the small patch. We wrestled through the tangle of scratchy stems and picked the plumpest berries. We seemed to always come back to the house with purple tainted hands and mouths. Grandma would work her magic and jars of dark jam would line her table. Family and friends who sat around their table, which was always a happy place, would eat the jam from Grandpa’s garden smothered on fresh rolls or over buttered toast in the mornings.

                Grandpa was an American hero. He flew fighter planes in World War II and wrote love letters home to my Grandma. She still has a box of his letters addressed to his “little wife” and a few times she let my sisters and I dig through and read them. After the war, he raised a wonderful family, was a firefighter, and gave back to the community through his work at church and through the boy scouts.

                He died some years ago, but I’m reminded of him often. A few years ago, my dad gave me cuttings from Grandpa’s blackberry bushes. They were tiny little things, but get bigger and healthier every year. This summer we will have berries. I’ll take my own little girls out to the patch, give them dishes to fill, and tell them stories of their great grandpa as we eat berries from his bushes. Someday I hope the taste of blackberries will remind them of the hero who fought for his country, loved his community, and tended his family and garden with love.

One of our cuttings almost ready to blossom

A Very Special Thanks

              Whenever you read a book there is normally a place at the end for acknowledgements. The author normally says something about how this book would never come together without all the help of all these people, and then goes on to list at least a page worth of them, if not more.

                I’m not familiar with the process of actually getting the book to the book shelf yet, but it has always surprised me how many people make the acknowledgements list. Coming up with ideas and writing seem like such solitary things, right?

Over the last couple of months, I’ve begun to understand the need for an acknowledgements section. Back in March, I had a group of sixth graders volunteer to read and review my children’s novel Flame. They were incredible.

They slogged through thirty-three chapters of not so perfect writing. I was running out of time to edit and still give them enough time before the end of school to read it, so there were still mistakes and an ending that wasn’t very stellar. It takes a long time to read someone else’s work, think about how it could be better, and then write it all down, and they did it.

They wrote me all kinds of comments and thoughts that encouraged me, made me laugh, and helped me to make the story stronger.  

I really appreciated their honesty and enthusiasm. Actually, I cannot say how much their honesty helped.  One student mentioned a part being “stupid”, and although it may seem harsh, it was actually good for me to go back and go through that part. The boys said they liked it, but they needed more blood and guts to make it exciting, so yes, more battle scenes have been added! Of course, several of them mentioned that I may want to work on the ending too!

Although adults may like a book, kids really get into it. They were really excited about the characters and all had different favorites. One student “looooved” one of the male characters (this cracked me up). Another student liked the dynamics of the family because it reminded her of her own. Two of them loved one of my minor characters so much, that I’m going back through to give her some bigger moments. One student wanted me to write about a handsome funny character who just so happened to have his name (oh so funny)! Another student told me I couldn’t give away free copies, because if I did I wouldn’t make money, and if I didn’t make enough money I wouldn’t be able to keep writing stories for them to read (that student received a hug)!

I have also spent the last few months being badgered for the next story in the series and about whether or not I’m published yet. All of the badgering has pushed me to keep at the next one and get the first one out to agents!

I write children’s stories because I hope to get kids excited about reading and delight them with a story, but I never considered that the kids would give that back to me. It has been nothing but a joy and delight to work with all of them! My acknowledgements section starts here- this book would not be possible without the help of Miss Halle Frodge, Mr. Jaedan Laswell, Miss Kylie McFatridge, Miss Scout Puterbaugh, Mr. Wyatt Reyburn, and Mr. Noah Stamm.



Showing off their silly sides at our pizza party!



I also need to give a special thanks to their teacher Mrs. Richardson who made this possible! She allowed the students to read during school hours, read the book herself, and let me take up precious time in her classroom to do things like give instructions and chat with the students.

Thank you to all of you for your help!

The Imperfect Writer- Reworking the Clay

I think being a mom has trained me to not worry if everything isn’t put together. Sometimes I get so busy in the evenings that I forget to wash off my make-up, then I wake up and still forget to wash it off, and then I run around all day looking overly tired when really it’s just my mascara caked beneath my eyes. On those days, I just have to shrug and keep going. Sometimes I forget to brush my teeth, run late even if I'm up early, and I have nothing planned for dinner which results in a cereal or eggs and toast night.

So, when I am writing and it isn’t coming out right, or I can’t think of anything to say, I just make a note, brush past it, and keep going.

It amazes me how many writers think they have to have every single little word or sentence perfect before they can move on. Many of them get so hung up on perfection that their writing is left stranded. A strong wind picks up, blows the ideas away, and they will never have the chance to be captured and enjoyed.

Today my imperfect writing advice it to just write it down. That is why nanowrimo is great. It is about quantity over quality, and for writers, that can be a good thing. When you write a novel you can always go back and edit it, but if you have nothing to work with, well, then you have nothing to work with.  

Writing a novel is like working with clay. To make something beautiful, you have to start with an unattractive lump of mud. Your first manuscript may be ugly, but if you at least have something to work with, then you can spend hours molding and sculpting it into something incredible.

I write all kinds of horrendous things down, and have decided to be brave and share them with you.

In my novel Unprepped I wrote-

“My rich grandpa has a really nice house (make sure it is really nice)”

You really can’t beat that imagery. Here’s another-

(In case of emergency, read a page, wipe, and burn)

I’ve been wondering how this came to be. Unfortunately the context clues are not helpful either.

I know you are all dying to read my novel now, but I saved the best (worst?) for last-

“I laid my head bck down and tried to go babk to sleep, but thoughts kept pooping in my head and interrupting.”

First off, I use the words head and back twice in the same sentence (yes, the word I can’t seem to spell is supposed to be back). There aren’t really words for the rest of it, but I truly believe with all my heart that it was supposed to say popping…

Now that I have convinced you never to participate in nano, let me show you what happens when you rewrite/edit your work.

Original first line of Albi Wellins and the Serpent’s Key-

“Twelve-year old Albi Wellins stopped at the edge of the forest and took a deep breath.”

In my notes I wrote, “And now your reader will yawn with boredom.” I edited it one time through in January and now it says-

“Twelve-year old Albi Wellins hid behind the final tree at the edge of the forest clutching the illegal plunder to his chest.”

Okay, that edit made it a lot more interesting for my reader!

Imperfect Writing Tip #2- Keep writing friend and get that lump of clay!

This not only showcases all of my editing, but also my poor photgraphy skills.