Skip to content

Archive for

Sep 11

3 Comments

Kelly: Sleeping Beauty Has Awakened..and She’s a Reader!

Sleeping Beauty

Cathy’s Pleasant Surprises post got me thinking about “being present,” what that means and how it relates to what we are all trying to do here. DH and I had a “moment” the other night with our girls. We were reading their bedtime story and DH didn’t have his glasses on, so he struggled over a few words here and there. It was a fairly involved story, the German fairy tale on which Sleeping Beauty is based, and the reading level was pretty advanced. Definitely not one of those board books with one or two sentences per page, but rather more like middle school reading level. When DH started missing a word here and there, Sarah actually started correcting him. She did this several times, and then DH said, “Well, would you like to read it instead?”, you know, in that “sarcastic Daddy” tone. Then, lo and behold, she did just that. She picked up the story where he left off, word for word, like she was reading it right off the page. We’re talking a story with phrases like “the castle was surrounded with a thorny hedge of briars” and “the soldiers were at their battlements”. “Battlements,” for Pete’s sake! This is a five-year-old! And it’s not a book we read often simply because the stories are rather long and involved! She went on like this for several very long paragraphs while DH and I looked on in awe. The book came with a narrative CD of the stories, and I realized she had actually memorized the story; sometimes the girls listen to the CD while they are going to sleep at night. I have a genius on my hands! (said the proud and over-zealous Mama….)

So back to the “being present” portion of this broadcast. You just blink, and BOOM!, one of your five-year-olds is “reading” at a sixth grade level. An over-exaggeration maybe, but it begs the point: so much happens when we are not paying attention. That’s the interesting thing about having twins. I have been paying attention enough to notice what Sarah’s strengths are and what Livvie’s strengths are, and they are very different. Sarah is very strong in the language area, as evidenced by that moment we had the other night. She also already has my knack for remembering song lyrics. I’ve always chalked mine up to being a musician; I’m a classically trained pianist and I’ve been taking guitar for about seven years now. Hers just seems to come with that strong grasp of words and memory. Livvie thrives in art, music, and motor skills. She doesn’t need much help from me to create some pretty impressive art pieces, and yesterday afternoon I watched as she set up her own little three piece band—of piano, Tupperware container, and piece of paper—and went to patting out a rhythmic pattern even my guitar teacher would be impressed with. The girl’s got chops! Watching this, I realize what will be one of my biggest creative challenges involving my children: how to bring out the best in each when they are the exact same age and nearly inseparable. My challenge will be in guiding them both to thrive in the areas they excel, yet still keep them on target in the areas they don’t…and figure out how to do it all at the same time! Yikes! I’m open to suggestions!

Sep 11

9 Comments

Kristine: The Quest for Balance and Sanity

Greetings! I’m excited and honored to join Creative Construction.

I’ve always been a Type-A personality, which has been a both a blessing and a curse my entire life. On the plus side, I’m extremely organized. On the negative side, I can be a tad neurotic. Okay, REALLY neurotic depending on the day. Just ask my husband.

When I had my first child in December 2007, I thought I could handle it all. I took a week off from work after I gave birth and then was back on the computer editing layouts the next week. (Being self-employed means no paid maternity leave, of course.) And I believed that after a few months of taking care of my baby, life would pretty much go back to normal.

It didn’t take me long to learn that “normal” was a concept that was going to change on a daily basis.

So I’ve changed big time. I’ve learned that if I can get a shower and dressed before lunch, it’s a good day, and if I can accomplish at least half of the things on my to-do list, even better. I’ve also learned that a day spent playing with my daughter and watching her smile is better than anything in the entire world.

I work part-time at home as a freelance technical magazine editor, moonlight as an aspiring novelist, and work full-time as a mommy and wife. There are days when I feel I can juggle it all. Then there are days when brushing my hair is an accomplishment and I question my sanity.

But underneath it all, I’m a writer. That’s the true core of who I am.

I write because it makes me feel alive. I write as a way to capture moments that I know I won’t remember in another year or two. I write as a way to escape reality and enter a world of my own control. I write as a way to reconnect with myself and make a difference. I write because I can’t imagine not doing so.

I leave you all with a quote that sums up the importance of writing in my life, one I heard from a published author during a writing conference I attended a few years ago and which has stuck with me ever since. The subject of the speech was motivation, and when this author was asked why she wrote fiction, she said simply, “I write to entertain, and while I may not be able to change the world, I may be able to change someone’s afternoon.”

It’s a pleasure to be here.