A Roundup of Sorts – Earth, Birthdays & Gratitude – A Place to Flop

~ floppywriter ~ 1 Comment

Hey there folks,

How are you people doing? It’s the 4th of July as I write this post and my-oh-my, you sure have come a long way America, but I must say, you certainly have a lot more work to do. I’ve thought a lot lately, much about things to blog about, but I haven’t been able to sit down a get it out. I’ve started to keep a little notebook with ideas so that I can revisit things later when I have time to sit > think > type. However, sometimes that backfires and I literally forget to write down my little idea. BUMMER.

It’s all a work in progress though and I carry some hope around that I can do things regularly, especially writing and yoga.

Not only is it America’s birthday today, but my birthday was just a few days ago on the 1st. Yay, another rotation around the sun for me! That will certainly give you some motivation to do some more shit, for sure. When you know your “good” years are dwindling, you realize there is no time to waste. My birthday was pleasant. We had dinner (just the two of us “adults”) at a place called Bent Mountain Bistro. It’s outside of Floyd, VA. Their menu is basically all organic and/or locally sourced foods which is definitely my style. I had the best tender steak I’ve ever eaten in my life and my salad was off the chain. I also opted to try a heavy seas tropicana IPA and I do not recommend that, unless you like tropical punch hoppy beer, if you do then you will love it.

A few years ago, when I decided to get my Yoga Teacher Certification, I was very good at practicing being mindful and staying ‘in the moment’ as well as appreciating all the moments. Lately, I have lost living in the moment and I am a little less mindful than I have been accustomed to. I’ve really got to get back into my practice which includes practicing my asanas!  I think I must be writing this random thought so I can hold myself accountable to whoever reads this mess. Yeah, so hopefully by my next post I will have visited at least one yoga class, thought about teaching again, and maybe even did some self-loving and went out for a pedicure. *fingers crossed*

For the main purpose of this post, I wanted to share some things I’ve read or learned of on the interwebs, so here we go:

One time, in college, Al Gore came to visit our Mass Communication seminar. I got to meet him and we watched his An Inconvenient Truth presentation. Well, guess what?! He’s back again with an An Inconvenient Truth Sequel. It shows in a couple cities at the end of July, but for the rest of us who may or may not live in remote areas, it will be out August 4th.

I’m really into saving the Earth. Actually, I use to be so super into it that I exhausted myself somewhat because I honestly felt like I was fighting a losing battle. I tend to get overwhelmed with things. I know, at this point, that I just need to play my part the best that I can.

I think these organizations or worth keeping up with: Sierra Club, Moms Clean Air Force, NRDC, and The Ocean Project.

Do you know of any other environmentally friendly organizations or do you know of anything good or bad about the ones I’ve mentioned? I’d love to hear about it!

I found this short audio interview and article about incorporating sustainability and climate change into English class: Check it here. 

Do you know of any books or authors that may mention effects of climate change in their writing? Or maybe an author that appreciates nature, like Thoreau and Emerson? 

I thought this piece from The Atlantic was very enlightening. I enjoy reading anything that has to do with the South:  The American South Will Bear the Worst of Climate Change’s Cost.

Good news: India Just Planted 66 Million Trees in 12 Hours from IFLS

Bad News: The Black Plague showed up in New Mexico. Weird.

And lastly, but not leastly (not a word, I know) I recently followed this woman on Twitter and have been consistently retweeting her. She just tweets wisdom and gratitude posts all day long. Gordana Biernat apparently does some SuperSoul work for Oprah. I don’t know much about that but Biernat does have a new book coming out that I plan on pre-ordering because I will take all the positivity I can get.

Hope you and yours have a great 4th of July. Catch ya on the flip side.

Ps. Here’s a really cool photo from a fellow Twitter-er: @babowling12

It’s hard to start a blog

~ floppywriter ~ 1 Comment

“..But, just start writing,” I say, pretty much always to myself because who else hears me talk but this high-strung toddler and the non-stop smiling infant. It’s been hard to come up with that very first blog post. I mean, I can come up with about 1 million ideas a day and about 968,354 of those said ideas are GREAT ideas, but I have allowed ZERO time for getting them on paper, or this blog. Don’t worry, most of that great idea talk is sarcasm.

But today is different. Today is the day. Recently, someone who I see on the daily ( this person is special, and I’ll have to give some details on him later on) said to me “Sarah, tomorrow is a new day” as I was sweeping the floor for the 9th time that day, all I could think was “well, hell yeah it is.” Today, I decided that with this very minute (MI-NOOT) amount of time I will have for myself because everyone is out of the house and the baby is sleeping, that I will not check emails and sign all of those health care, mental health, and save the environment petitions, I will not take a shower, I may not eat lunch (but I will probably sneak that last donut,) I will not sweep again or clean anything for that matter, I will not do the crossword puzzle (to keep my mind active,) .. Nope.. I’m going to start that damn blog.

And here I am. It’s nice to finally meet you.

I’ve wanted to start this blog for quite a while, so long in fact, that I can’t actually tell you when I first started this account. I’ve had blogs in the past and I’ve written real articles that have been published in local newspapers, entertainment mags, and various places on the web. By the way, the baby is awake now so I’m juggling him and this typing thing. HAHA.

However, life gets in the way sometimes and you do different things and try new things and sometimes the things you want to do, you may (or may not) want/have/need to take a break from.  Luckily, even though I haven’t written, published, or had a blog in recent years, I have gained a plethora of knowledge on random topics that will give me an endless amount of material to write about. So, I guess it all works out.

The hardest part of all of this is probably balancing family life and all those responsibilities with, for lack of a better descriptive set of words, my own life. Because when you have family, their lives become your life and my life just revolves around everyone else’s. Which is alright, it kind of comes with the “having kids” territory, I suppose. Personally, I have a hard time letting myself do any kind of “my life” stuff anyways. Let me explain what I mean; “my life” things are like self-care, teaching or taking yoga, writing this blog post and future posts, writing at all (journaling, poetry, writing for business etc.,) watching a movie I’d enjoy, reading a book, taking photographs, baking cupcakes, getting a pedicure, starting my writing business, going back to school or simply taking a solo walk outside. It’s some sort of extreme mom guilt combined with some weird subconscious affliction that makes me believe that I don’t deserve to do these things for myself. It’s weird, I know. But that’s a major contribution to why I haven’t started a blog. And, I’m a procrastinator too.

I’m also afflicted by habitually worrying. Gosh, I worry so much, it’s crazy. If I spent the same amount of energy on something productive or something that I liked as I do on worrying about stuff, man, I’d probably be incredibly accomplished. Maybe.

So, how’s that for a first blog post?! My very first real blog post is a post about all the reasons why I haven’t been able to write a blog post. A giant excuse post. Well, at least it feels good. Like I said, I guess it all balances out.

Until next time!

SC.

The featured image is our raised bed garden. 🙂

Inaugural HillFest 2016 to feature Hackensaw Boys, Annabelle’s Curse, The Church Sisters over Labor Day weekend in Hillsville, Va.

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The inaugural HillFest 2016 is set for Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 2-4, in Hillsville, Virginia. Among the 30-plus acts in the lineup are Hackensaw Boys, Fake Flowers Real Dirt, Annabelle’s Curs…

Source: Inaugural HillFest 2016 to feature Hackensaw Boys, Annabelle’s Curse, The Church Sisters over Labor Day weekend in Hillsville, Va.