Jacki and Christmas by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Christmas is exactly one week away, and this week I’ve been thinking a lot about the kids in the above picture. Mostly about the girl in the bottom left corner. Jacki, better known as Dictionary. I’ve mentioned her before, but what I’ve been remembering about her has something to do with the coming holiday.

I know I’ve told the story of when she taught me to spell brother. That’s one story still talked about in the family all the time, but this one isn’t so funny, just profound.

Jacki taught me how to spell a lot of words actually, but the one that means the most to me is Christmas. I was having as much trouble with that one as I was having with spelling brother then she looked at me and said, “Can you spell Christ?”

I nodded and spelled, “C – H – R – I – S – T.”

“Good. Now spell mass.”

“M – A – S – S.”

“Okay, now drop an ‘S’ and put them together.”

“C – H – R – I – S – T – M – A – S.”

“You just spelled Christmas!”

All this came clearly to my mind on Sunday when one of the speakers at church mentioned that Christmas stands for Christ’s Mass, a time to celebrate and worship Christ in the ancient Catholic church.

In other words, Christmas is all about Christ, which reminds me of another event that happened several years after I learned how to spell Christmas. I was around thirteen or fourteen when I noticed a sign painted in a shop for the holiday season, but it didn’t say, “Merry Christmas!” it said, “Merry X-mas!”

It appalled me. It still does, because it’s taking Christ out of Christmas! This is so wrong. 

The above is just one picture of my living room, its a few years old, but I can tell you it wasn't Christmas when I took it.

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but when I was in that accident a couple years ago, a couple friends came to my place to give me a blessing. One of the two friends had been to my place before, he knew about my collection, the other hadn’t. When he walked into my apartment, he said, “Oh, you’ve already decorated for Christmas!”

It was in early November and my tree wasn’t up yet. My Nativities were all over, as they are year-round, but that’s because I don’t want to worship my Savior just at Christmas or Easter, I want to worship him every day of the week.

Frankly, I never understood why people only display their Nativities at this time of year. Why limit it? Does that mean you only worship him at this time of year, but not the rest of the year?

And then there are all those decorations people put up at Easter. I don’t get those. The only décor I’ve seen at that time of year that actually has to do with Christ is the cross, something we don’t use in our faith, but everything else has to do with the Easter bunny, colored eggs, and candy.

Then again, the majority of the décor for this time of year has to do with snowmen, Santa, reindeer, Christmas stockings, toys, and candy. None of it has anything to do with the original intent of either holiday. They have become commercial opportunities and possibly some time off, but little else.

And what of the rest of the year?

This makes me think of the people who only show up at church at this time of year. Growing up, I always participated in the midnight services at the Lutheran church I grew up attending until I converted, and every year as the children’s choir paraded into the sanctuary, I was always surprised at how full the pews were. Way more people than normally showed up at the regular Sunday Services.

And the thing is I still see it. People who only show up at church for special occasions. I admit, in my church, it is often because all the extras are family who are visiting for the holiday or a special family event, but there are still a few who should attend our “congregation” every week, and don’t.

Then again, Jesus Christ never said attending church every week makes you righteous, nor did he say decorating our homes for Christmas or Easter makes you a devout member. In fact, its more the opposite. He doesn’t want us to worship him only a few days out of the year. He wants us to worship him twenty-four/seven, 365 days a year.

So, I guess it doesn’t matter if someone spells it X-Mass or Christmas, what matters is if your focus is on the presents under the tree or the babe in a manager.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

And Happy Writing.

Light the World part 2 by Bonnie Le Hamilton

This should be Konnie's turn to post, but she's been busy trying hard to take care of her family's many health issues and just trying to prepare for Christmas among all that chaos. On the other hand, I've been busy with my mission, volunteer work, and playing chauffeur to my cousin and sister-in-law. As such, I didn't even notice that she hadn't yet scheduled a post until late last night, which seems to be hours before she realized it.

I'd have called her then but it was well after 10 her time at that point.

Oh, well.

Happy writing everyone!

And Merry Christmas!

Light the World by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Yesterday morning, as I was doing my good deed of the day by giving my cousin a ride, someone else did me a good deed. I was singling to turn out of the parking lot at his apartment when the nearby light turned red, and traffic was starting to back up. I figured we’d be stuck there until the light changed, right up until one fellow in a white pickup stopped well short of that driveway, allowing me to enter the flow of traffic as soon as the light turned green!

What a nice change of pace. I just wish I could give this stranger a shout out by name. I also wish people would do good deeds all year round, not just at Christmas time.

I for one try to help when I can. Ergo giving my cousin that ride. I’m not doing it because it’s December, I’m not doing it for #Lighttheworld, I’m doing it because he’s family and he needs rides. This isn’t a December thing and I won’t stop once December is over.

I’ll keep giving him and my sister-in-law rides year-round. Just like I offer the local sister missionaries rides. Giving people rides is something I can do, and I will do it no matter what time of year it is.

Like back in January or February when I was leaving my friend’s house as a woman walking past and she asked me if there was a bus stop along that road.

“Um, not that I know of, but I don’t live on this street.”

She thanked me and kept walking, as I got in my car all I could think about was the Winco bags she had, and the fact she couldn’t be all that close to home if she was asking about the bus, and about how cold it was. I got in my car, caught up with her, and offered her a ride.

Turns out she was clear across town from where she lived. It would have taken her hours to walk that far. I’m glad I offered her a ride.

On the converse, I’m appreciative of all the people who were so willing to give me rides when I was without a car for two years. The list is so long I’m sure I couldn’t name them all, but I’m going to try.

We can start with Dan Clark who dropped everything to come pick up me and my sister-in-law the night of the accident, and Jessica Baxter who hurried over to watch his boys so he could do so! And of course, to Jessica again for all the rides she willingly gave me over the time I was without a car, thanks so much.

Others who gave me rides were Sister Moore, Danie Renee Corral, several members of the Burgoyne family, the Bishop, Brother and Sister Henry, Brother and Sister Wardrip, and Sister Buckley, and then some, but that doesn’t cover all the people who gave me rides years ago when Tom had the car or that one time when our car was in the shop.

So, I have to give shout-outs to the likes of Sister Harmon, Ann Loveland, and several other sisters from my old ward (congregation) who gave me lifts when I needed them. Most importantly, I want to acknowledge Ann Loveland, who out of the blue called me saying she got to thinking about me stuck at home all day without a car (knowing that unlike her and her husband, we only had one vehicle) and offered to give me rides to town, since she went into town every Monday thru Friday afternoon.

She had no way of knowing our car had just gone into the shop, and while Tom had a ride to and from work, we had no way to get to the store, or that I had been praying for a way to get to the store. Her offer was a Godsend and an answer to my prayers.

But I know other people who are so in tune with the Holy Spirit that they are just there when you need them most.

Julia Rasmussen is another one. She seems to always be the first to know when someone needs help and she’s there to offer whatever service she can. She’s more than a friend, she’s a true servant of the Lord. I’m thankful for all these people in my life, and so many more, I know I haven’t named them all. I doubt I could remember all the names of people who have given me rides over the years.

Then again, I don’t even know the names of some of the people I’ve given rides to over the years. It wasn’t important.

What is important is sharing that light.

Happy writing everyone. And Merry Christmas!

Random Acts and Other Nice Things by Konnie Enos

I’m sure, like me, you’ve heard of “paying it forward” or “random acts of kindness”. I had wanted to get involved in these actions somehow but beyond offering strangers a ride, I was at a loss. I actually prayed to be able to see such a random, kind act.

Then this past September while visiting Bonnie, we went to her local warehouse store together. She’d forgotten to pick up fresh spinach on her last trip and I wanted to get me some Greek yogurt. Something I eat nearly every day and my sister doesn’t buy.

We both took out one of those scooters for handicapped customers. (Bonnie is under doctor’s orders and I have arthritis in my back.) She led the way through the store, with me following. Neither one of us got much.

When we got in line at the cash register, the cashier was ringing up one customer and another was patiently awaiting her turn. When the cashier got to the patient customer, I could see the two of them talking but couldn’t hear them. I don’t think Bonnie was even paying attention to them.

Then Bonnie got to the cashier. Before Bonnie could attempt to pay, the cashier swung the card reader around so Bonnie could not access it. She then pulled a twenty out of her hand and opened the till, using the twenty to pay for Bonnies stuff, and getting the change. Bonnie’s confused about what is going on as she accepts her receipt.

Without turning the card reader back, the cashier rang me up, paid with the money still in her hand, then handed me my receipt with the remaining change. She told me the lady in front of us had given the cashier money to cover our purchases and the change was ours.

So now I’ve not only seen such a random act of kindness, I’ve been the recipient of one. I assumed this was the answer to my prayers.

Then this past Monday I realized I needed to get more dog food and I was already so low on funds I was counting pennies, plus I hadn’t gotten everything we needed for our Thanksgiving dinner yet. Before I had the opportunity to check how much I had left, my daughter pointed out we were also low on laundry soap. I personally checked the soap hoping we had enough to muddle it until payday. (Mind you, payday is this Friday.)

We had less laundry soap than we did dog food and the dog food was not waiting that long.

I was on Facebook so before I got off I posted something about being at the tail end of our money and needing both laundry soap and dog food, which wasn’t going to wait until Friday.

At which point I got off Facebook, checked for exactly how much money I had left, and then went to get both items from the store along with what we needed for Thanksgiving, praying what I did have would cover everything. It did.

I then proceeded to relax and didn’t return to Facebook or even remember what I’d posted though not long after I returned home my husband came in with two store grocery bags. One had laundry soap in it and the other a small bag of dog food. (We buy fifty-pound bags because we have six dogs so the no more than ten-pound bag wasn’t much in comparison.)

We spent some time trying to figure out why someone would leave that on our porch and wondering if they dropped it at the wrong house.

Then Jerry got on Facebook. Eventually, he asked me if I remembered what I’d posted that morning. I had not, but I quickly got back online and checked. The two people who’d commented on my post could not have dropped off the packages. One lives in Idaho and the other doesn’t have a car or any idea where I live, exactly. I’m assuming one of my local Facebook friends, who does have a car and knows where I live, dropped them off, but didn’t comment on my post. So second act of kindness.

In the spirit of kindness and with December upon us, I’d like to invite all our readers to join in with our churches Light the World campaign again this year. Find a way to do random acts of kindness throughout the season.

May you have lots to be thankful for and have a peaceful holiday season. Remember the reason for the season. And Ben, have a happy birthday.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Save the Cat and other issues by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Okay, NaNo isn’t going so well for me. My story stalled out. And I'm debating how to fix it.

In other news, I just spent an entire week on my duff, thanks to my cat, and I still didn’t manage to do things that I could have done while sitting there, like write or even crafts, and I have some friends who are expecting. I’ve been trying to knit a baby blanket and one whole week of no knitting isn’t helping just as much as one whole week of no writing.

As for why I was laid up, well, see, Patches, my dang cat, likes to run through and around my feet while I’m trying to walk. Folks, I can’t see my feet! Not when I’m standing, ergo, I can’t see Patches when he does that. I tripped over him and injured the ligament in my knee.

Since then, instead of trying to miss him (which is how I injured my knee) I step on him. Hopefully, eventually, he’ll learn to steer clear of my moving feet. Though so far, I’ve stepped on him several times and he’s still scampering around my feet. 

Now to the problems with my story.

I think I’ve started in the wrong place. Then again, I’m not sure what I should do after a certain point in the story that is in my head, but not on my computer screen yet, which is the major problem, what happens next?

At this rate my story will fall into my pile of my “started but not finished” stories. I already have too many of those. Some could get somewhere, if I would just work on them, others stalled out because it just wasn’t working,

This one could work if I could figure out how to finagle it. Or at least I think it will work.

Then again, most of my stories that fizzled out unfinished, did so because it was starting to sound like a soap opera to me. And that isn’t a good thing in my opinion. I consider it sounding like a soap opera when it becomes too contrived or forced, or far-fetched.

You know, like a soap opera.

Can you tell I don’t watch those things?

I used to, many eons ago, until I realized their storylines were contrived, forced, or so way out there they were ridiculous. And I really want to avoid that with my writing. Such writing is a copout. It’s lazy.

Writing should be fresh and exciting.

Right now, I need help with that.

And I need to start with where I start this story.

I want to start it at the inciting moment, but the “Save the Cat” method says to start with their normal life before the inciting moment. Dang, I don’t want to start there!

Maybe that’s my problem, I do not want to start before they meet, I want to start where they get thrown together!

Maybe that’s my problem. I had said I was going to try the “Save the Cat” method, but I generally start at the inciting moment rather than introduce the main characters in their normal life before going into the inciting moment.

Off the top of my head I can think of like two stories I have where I show the “normal” life of my main characters before I have them meet or the inciting moment. Most of my stories start at the inciting moment. I mean really, start where the action is!

As far as I’m concerned anything before the inciting moment is backstory, very rarely do I consider any part before that point as a necessary detail of the story. I make all that backstory.

So maybe my problem right now is that the method I wanted to try and use this time around wants me to do something I don’t want to do.

I think I should start again, and begin with the inciting moment.

I’ve had good luck that.

Konnie’s favorite opening line is one I wrote (yeah, I haven’t finished that story; it kind of went off the rails – as in too long) but it starts at the inciting moment. She was talking about her favorite opening line to someone at the writer’s conference we attended. When she mentioned my story, I had to point out it wasn’t even finished yet, let alone published.

Most people pick an opening line from something published, but no, Konnie had to pick one of my stories!

Anyway, I’m going to try writing from the inciting moment forward, and see how that goes for me.

Happy writing everyone!

PS. Happy birthday next week, Ben. 

Sleep-Deprived, Again by Konnie Enos

So much for the best-laid plans.

Monday, being a holiday, my plans were to run just two needed errands and spend the rest of the day doing things like finances (I had to make sure we still had grocery money).

First issue. As I was getting dressed Sunday morning, I realized I no longer had any clean pants. I realize our weather here isn’t nail-biting, but when the sun is down the temps have been dipping into the 40’s. I haven’t been wearing my shorts or sandals to avoid being cold. So having no clean pants meant I needed to do laundry. I saw no reason to do said laundry on Sunday, as I wouldn’t be needing pants until sometime Monday.

This led to the second issue. I kid you not; every single one of my family members except my youngest son was desperate to get laundry done on Monday. Our washer was full from at least 8 a.m. until well, Tuesday. The only time it wasn’t running was when we were waiting for the dryer to finish so we could empty it. In order of desperation, my clothes didn’t even get into the washer until about 10 p.m. and it was after 11:30 before they got out of the dryer.

Of course, this means I can’t get dressed which means I can’t run any errands. Which I really had no issue with. We could manage one more day without going to the store. The problem was my son needed something bought for him BEFORE 5 a.m. Tuesday. This was extremely important. Needless to say, I had to get dressed and dash to the store in the middle of the night.

Problem. Our local Wal-Mart is no longer open 24/7. By the time I got to the store, they weren’t admitting any new customers because they would be closing in a minute. This required me to go home and get back on my computer long enough to find the location of the nearest Wal-Mart that was open 24/7. Oh, joy! In this large metropolitan area there are exactly two Wal-Marts open. Do you want to know where they are? Both of them at opposite ends of the same road clear at the south end of town, at least a 20 to 30-minute drive without traffic. The only good part was there was no traffic at one in the morning.

So I drive to the one I actually know where it’s at and quickly locate the one item I needed. I took the time to search for two other things I could use; finding only one of them (they were out of the other) then went in search of a line.

Mind you, I have exactly two items.

This Wal-Mart appears to have only a few cash registers. Then I realize that only three or four of them aren’t the self-scan ones and they have only one cashier working. It is, of course, an express lane.

No problem, I only have two items.

Problem.

The gentlemen already at the register have about THREE cartfuls of groceries. Obviously too much to take through self-scan and this is the only cashier working. Wonderful. I guess I’m waiting and waiting. I was in line longer at least twice as long as it took me to find my items. Which is actually par for the course for Wal-Mart.

By now, it is after 2 a.m. and I still need to get home. Fortunately, still no traffic. I was home by 3 a.m. but it took me a while to wind down enough to actually sleep, and I had an 8 a.m. appointment. Yeah, I spent most of yesterday in a stupor with a sleep-deprived headache or actually crashed out.

When did I remember that today was Wednesday and I had a post to get up?

I’m actually not sure. I do know it was sometime after everyone in the house had gone to bed and I had in fact been in bed and asleep for a while. I roused enough to think, “Wait a minute, I have a post to write. Too tired.” Then I promptly went back to sleep.

I also know I woke up to use the bathroom about 3:30 but was still too tired to keep my eyes open or otherwise think.

Thankfully, by the time my alarm went off this morning, I was cognizant enough to open word and start typing. I am totally too old for this staying up all night and still functioning the next day.

How is everyone else doing? For those Nano writers, are you meeting your goals?

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

National Novel Writer's by Bonnie Le Hamilton

November is here and all around the world writers everywhere are participating in the challenge to write 50,000 words this month. I have been doing this challenge since 2003, and I usually win, but now I have a few other responsibilities taking up some of my time, so we’ll see how well I do this year.

So far, I have just barely over 5,000 words. (My sister-in-law ended up in the hospital early Saturday morning.) How are you doing? What is your Nano sign-in? Let me know, I’ll friend you. My sign-in is FaithfullSpirit2 (and yes that is how it is spelled).

I’m an old pro at this, so I’d like to give you some simple advice for the month.

First, pay attention to your sleep schedule. You can’t write when you are yawning. And dozing off is even worse for writing. (Think falling asleep on the keyboard – the keys will move, but it won’t make any sense!)

Second, don’t skip meals. They say kids need a good breakfast because they can’t learn if they’re hungry, well, a writer can’t think with a growling stomach. So, remember to eat. This is why I’m glad all our local write-ins include at least snacks.

Third, don’t tie yourself down to an outline, maybe your muse wants to go another way. Let it. You never know, it might be a better choice, and you won’t know until you write it. Another thing is if you stick with the outline against your muse, you are letting your inner editor out. Just go with the flow, you can fix it later. This challenge is more like a month-long stream of thought. Besides, you can’t fix a blank page. 😊

Four, make sure your family knows what you are trying to do. Advertise this to everyone who may or may not interrupt you during the month, and lay down the law, “No interruptions while I’m writing!”
Though I do know some people can’t say that, while others wouldn’t understand. Children being chief among them. I don’t have that problem, but Konnie still does, even though all her children are all now legally adults, only one of them is actually out of the house.

As Konnie has often mentioned, she has a hard time doing anything on her computer because of interruptions from her family. I didn’t have much of a problem when my husband was alive. He only interrupted when I needed to be going somewhere or it was time to eat. Something I miss a lot, especially when he used to get my attention that it was time to eat by placing food between me and my computer. A whole lot easier than having to drag myself away from my computer long enough to make something to eat.

And I’ve heard of a writer who changed his voicemail message to say something on the lines of, “I’m writing right now, but leave a message at the tone and I will get back to you as soon as I take a break.”

Which might be a good idea for anyone who gets a lot of calls. Also, turn your ringer off while you’re at the computer. Again, that is something I don’t have to do, I don’t get that many calls, as in hardly ever. Even less since I discovered I can block calls from unknown numbers. Now I’m not getting any robocalls.

Fifth, remember first drafts are awful. They usually stink. But as I said before, you can’t fix a blank page. That is what this challenge is all about, filling the page so you can later go back and fix it. There is a time and place for editing, and a time and place to just write. November is when we just write, don’t worry about the mistakes, just write.

Though I know that last one is easier said than done. I find myself rereading what I wrote the day before, and end up having to add and delete words, correct spelling, and fix unclear sentences. Most of that is grammar, which I wasn’t paying attention to the day before. But that also means I do let my inner editor out for a few minutes every day. I’ve tried not to, but I can’t help it.

I make mistakes all the time, and when I see them, I can’t go on until they are fixed. Don’t know why; that is just how I am.

Sixth, don’t ever accept what others say is the way to write as law. No two people are alike, no two people have the same style. Go ahead and try it, if you wish, but in the end, it’s your choice as to whether it works or not.

Happy writing, everyone!