One Woman’s World

You might hear:

“Emergency Dispatch. What is your address please?”

And you might say, if you were unfamiliar with the whole process of how seriously they take this whole supposed gas-leak business:

“Uh, er. It’s really not an emergency. It’s like 11:00 am, and I am not even very sure I can smell gas. I’m sure it’s nothing. I’d feel really dumb if you sent anyone.”

And the rest of the conversation might go something like:

them: If you smell gas, it is always considered an emergency.

you: but it just seems really weird for you to come out this late at night if I’m not even sure that’s what I smell.

them: we recommend sending someone out.

you (beginning to feel really stupid): but it hardly seems like it’s that urgent. I’ve been thinking I smell a little gas off and on for three years. I just wanted to know if you could tell me who to call.

them: We’re who you call.

you: How much does it cost to have you visit?”

them: it’s free.

me: you’re serious? Wow. So how long would it take the technicians to arrive?

And in about 45 minutes you’d have technicians striding through your front door with little ticking gas-readers and an efficient manner while they check everywhere gas has ever connected or might ever connect in your condo.

And, incidentally, you might say to the gas man:

“Can you smell anything?”

And he might say:

“Not natural gas” (with a somewhat snooty air–What else was he implying that he smelled in my lovely house, I ask you?

RIGHT BEFORE THE GAS READER THING STARTS BEEPING ITS HEAD OFF.

Turns out we had a very minor slow leak on the water heater pilot connection.

And today, no smell whatsoever in our furnace closet.

Just thought you might want to learn from my oddly humiliating experience.

And that, folks, is that.

Except for the Thursday Getting To Know You segment. Today, tell me in comments or on your blog: What household chore do you most despise, and what are your sneaky or not-so-sneaky methods of avoidance?

Mine is the laundry. Washing it is no problem. Folding it would be no problem if I folded as I wash, but I hate it. I put it off. Sometimes I put it off until there are 6 loads of clean laundry mounded up waiting to be folded and getting wrinklier by the minute. (Yes you CAN say wrinklier, dang it!) For this reason, my husband has to intervene and help out with / do the laundry most of the time.

So, what’s your evil task?

Please only auto-link to yourself if you have posted on this subject. Otherwise, just leave your answer in the comments.

What does it say about blogging that in the past 5 days when I’ve really taken control of a lot of things I’ve been letting slide in my life that I have blogged hardly a teeny little bit? Does this bode well for the peaceful coexistence of more productivity and my lovely blogging habit?

Anyway, today while I upload a bridal album I just finished putting together for a client and before I rush to put the “Canadian” ethnic food I am in charge of for International Cuisine night in our Young Women’s group in the oven, I’ll write a post. Whew!

Yesterday I finished cleaning up the house from vacation, and unpacking. Cody walked in the door and said that he felt 10 times happier when he walked in our house than he had felt unlocking the door. “And I wasn’t down in the dumps to begin with,” said my sweet man. I also made a crock pot dinner and banana bread and visited with friends who needed it. And I exercised.

I have started teaching every morning for an hour plus the commute time, and I’ve just finished editing a wedding I did last Friday.

And every morning since I blogged about it, I have been able to start with personal and family prayer and scripture study. Just a little, short chapter from the Bible with Cody at the beginning of the day.

I know this seems like another thing in the list of what I’ve been accomplishing, but it hasn’t been. It’s been the catalyst. Just making sure to remember to pray to start my day has made it seem like there are more hours in the day. It’s made me feel like being more patient and spending more quality time with my family. It’s made me a more focused friend.

It isn’t revolutionary, and it certainly should have always been my habit, but I’d gotten in a rut… and pulling out just feels oh so good.

I’ll bet in this whole post, the only thing you’re wondering is what constitutes “Canadian” ethnic food.

But if you thought you’d get the answer in this post, you were wrong. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

And since we’re switching to a new day, I’ll announce this Thursday’s Getting To Know You segment is the same as last week’s segment. Sorry it took me so long. For Thursday, tell me what household chore you most despise.

That would be all folks, I must run and feed the International Young Women.

Saw a viciously good performance of Hamlet last night at the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City. Can I just tell you how much I revel in the fact that I married a man who loves the power of a perfectly spoken line of Shakespeare. He sat beside me just giddy at the performances, and even giddier at the beauty of the language. It is amazing to me.

Brian Vaughn as Hamlet…

!!!

My husband sitting next to me while we watch Brian Vaughn as Hamlet…

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning was my first day back from a week-long vacation in Yellowstone. I woke up knowing there was a lot to do today. I woke up knowing I had goals to set and mountains to climb. Spiritual mountains today, as opposed to physical mountains for the last week and a half. I didn’t want to get out of bed. I lay in bed thinking gloom-and-doomy thoughts until I just didn’t want to lay in bed anymore. And then I did a wonderful thing.

I rolled out of bed onto my knees. And I prayed, really, earnestly prayed for the strength to get up and do the things I’ve got in front of me today. Then I called Cody, and we prayed together. Then he read to me from the Old Testament while I cleaned up the bedroom and made the bed.

Then I scrubbed bathrooms. Now it’s 9:30 am, and the bathrooms are both sparkly. My prayer to God was to let him know my intentions for this day, and that I would account to Him at the end of it. Now I know someone is watching me.

So I’m off to get dressed and unpack a weeks worth of mess from Yellowstone, and make my home a bit of heaven on earth today. We’ll see what my home is like in a month, a week, or even a day… but today I feel armed with powers from outside me to do what needs doing. And I wanted to share the feeling, in case your day started off on the wrong foot, too… and in case you–like me–needed a reminder.

I so wish I could feel like this every day of my life. I’m filled with love, purpose, power, and peace. And my hands smell like Tilex.

Now when the Bean wakes up, I’ll help her say her prayers and tidy her room, and then we’ll go down and meet the new day together.

Oh… and my own bed felt OH so good last night. mmmmmmm.

Still on my three-day blog break.
Still taking care of business.
Still happy.
Still gonna be faithful and post the topic for this Friday’s Getting To Know You.
This Friday, tell me what is your least favorite household chore, and why. Bet you can’t wait to find out mine!:)
Who knows, maybe I’m going to leave this blog post just this short and rush off and do it right now.

But if you want to view hilarity and silliness, CLICK HERE.

**Heather is not a trained counselor or emotional wellness professional. Answers represent her personal perspective and are for entertainment purposes only.

One Woman’s Wisdom Banner and disclaimer

Dear Heather at One Woman’s World,

I don’t know how you ever get any housework done with all the blogging you do all the time. Don’t you ever take a break from it all, even just for a day or two to catch up on all the things you’ve got going?

Concerned

Dear Concerned,
Yes, I do.

“My honest conclusion from the [my] experiences is that if somebody walks up to you, stares you in the eye and says, you’re a fat, warty toad, you should assume you heard them wrong or that they were joking or that you misunderstood their intent. Taking offense is a waste of time.” –Cody’s mom

This Friday’s Getting To Know You segment, as announced on Wednesday is to answer the question: Why do you write, and what else do you write? If you have a book in the works, and by “in the works” I mean anything from a wild, momentary idea, to “the book’s in publication, tell us more about it.

For me, I’m only really working hard on one book at the moment. By hard, I guess I should say I mean, thinking a lot about. I haven’t done any really intensive writing since last November’s NaNoWriMo. If you’ve never heard of National Novel Writing Month, go to their site and get set up to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. It’s a great way to get moving. I’m going to do it again this November, and am hoping to build a little support group of writers to buckle down and write this year.

I’m still working on a fantasy novel I began for NaNoWriMo last November. I’ve never actually gotten so much work done on a novel before. Anyway, I love the process of actually seeing my ideas come to life on paper. My fantasy is about a young woman whose family is all killed, and she, as the last surviving member of the royal family, must undertake to rule her country, and to save them from threats they haven’t even imagined. There’s a lot more to it, but it would be pretty tough to go into the whole plot here. Imagining the plot of this story has been a blast for me.

This November, I’m planning on writing a young adult fiction about ummm… young adults. I’ve got more, but really, how many ways can you say that there’s some teenagers going through teenager type challenges, experiencing first love, and learning about their identities. I’m pumped about this one, too. The main character is named Sydney, and she… well, goes through teenager type challenges, experiences first love, and… you get the picture.

So it’s your turn. Either post your answer in the comments section, or put an auto-link up to your post telling me why you write, and what you’re working on now. Please don’t put up an auto-link unless you post on this topic, and link directly to your post, not just to your blog in general. Hope to hear from you.

Actual conversation heard in my car today. Transcribed as faithfully as I can remember it.

Cody: When you married me, you married into a lot more cool music.
Heather: Yup.
Cody: Like this Billy Joel Greatest Hits Part 3 CD. You got this by marrying me.
Heather: Nope, I had this one, too when we got married.
Cody: No, you only had 1 & 2.
Heather: Nope. I had 3, too.
Cody: When you married me, you got so much more great music.
Heather: When I married you, I got so much more fun.
Cody: So much more what?
Heather: Fun.
Cody: Oh. I thought you said phlegm. I was wondering where you were going with that.

We went on vacation last week, Cody and I. That means talking. Lots of talking. Talking, and staring into space watching to make sure that suicidal deer do not jump in front of our car.

Why we don’t vacation close to home or fly, I can’t quite figure out… but the talking is a definite fringe benefit of all the endless driving. Somehow we wax most eloquent and profound in our minds when our bums are that numb.

Anyway, the question he had for me was… Do you like to write?

And it started me down memory lane. Am I a writer? When did I first know that I wanted to write? What is it that keeps me pouring my heart out in words?

I decided in sixth grade when I had to write a short story, and wowed my teacher and my mother. I ate it up. From that moment on I told myself I was a writer.

As a teenager, I spent endless hours lost in my imagination working up scenes for stories. I lay in bed for hours awake every night working on plot points, and character description. For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a novelist.

The genres have shifted and changed over the years: from pioneer stories, to modern Christian fiction, to fantasy.

When I was entering a writing competition in High School, I gave a sample to an adult friend of mine who was a published author. After I was devastated by her “constructive” criticism, I took away with me one piece of advice.

“If you want to be a writer, if you want to be good, write every day.”

The blog gives me that. The blog provides me with a nice mix of pressure and feedback, and pushes me to keep writing.

I rarely do much editing, and I write my blog posts quickly and push publish with my eyes shut and my breath held. But I write. I am a writer.

Do I like to write? I like ideas. I love reading. I love the amazing gift of a well-written thought. I like the thrill that runs through me when that well written thought is the product of my own brain. I like what happens when I write.

Liking the actual act of forcing my brain through hoops and my fingers into typing out the actual words? Not much, no.

But it’s worth it.

And so I write.

And in keeping with my goal of more blogging consistency, It’s Wednesday, and I need to let you know the topic for this Friday’s Getting To Know You segment. Following today’s train of thought: This Friday let me know why you write, and what else you write (or want to write) in addition to your blog. I want you to help validate a theory I’ve got. I’ll bet that almost every blogger out there has a book in the works. By “in the works” I mean anything from a wild, momentary idea, to “the book’s in final editing.” For Friday, tell me why you write and what you’re working on.

Come on back on Friday and let me know in the comments, or post your link to your post.

Blog out.