The deadline for the next issue of Mosaic Minds is rapidly, I say RAPIDLY, approaching! The theme is Serenity, but your submissions do not necessarily have to reflect the theme. So, if you have something you’ve written that you think is publishable, whether or not it relates to the theme, send it in! I know you people write, I’ve seen you! Here’s where to send it: poetry@mosaicminds.net

Morning Minus: Having to get up and go to work while the rest of my family sleeps in. Waah! Free Fridays, I miss you! Morning Plus: Opening my e-mail to find that some lovely person has gifted me with 6 months of paid LJ account AND a year of extra user pics. I am beyond moved. Thank you. *** Rain is streaking my window, and the flags are blowing to the left today, straight out, ends snapping and frayed. It’s grey and cloudy but the clouds have a high lavender look to them, making me wonder if it might not...

Hibernation sounds like a good idea right about now. The darkness presses close, co-dependent and deadening. Fog winds down and trails about. Everything is dark with wetness, sodden and decomposing. Bare branches leave a tracery against the sky; blink and you see white lightning looming. Everyone is a little grumpy, but when the sun shines, you can feel the electric frenetic fever of desperation hum through everyone you meet. It’s not cold here, not yet, but the moisture in the air is a deep thing. It gets in your bones and your lungs. It makes you cough, sometimes. I think...

My children went to the library with their father this evening, and brought home 5 books. 2 were about monsters and wild things. 3 were about little girls, alphabets and why there are so few Q’s in the Swedish language. I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader as to which child was responsible for which choice. 😀 There is a certain flutter to the stomach when one is preparing a gift for someone else. It’s the same with any gift-giving, really, whether it is handmade or store-bought. If you know the person you are giving to, and think...

Okay, I can’t wait any more either! I hope you like it! The Big Surprise for my LJ Friends!

One thing I learned from my mom a while ago, a bit of healthy eating advice that has stuck with me, is how to tell if you’re making vegetables a focal point of your diet. It has to do with whether the way you prepare them destroys their integrity or not. Steamed vegetables retain their integrity. Green peppers on a pizza with extra cheese have had their integrity destroyed. Ketchup is tomatoes without a shred of integrity. Too much butter even on the steamed veggies is the slippery slope into lost integrity. Where am I going with this? Nowhere. I...

It’s not that often that I feel I have nothing to say, as evidenced by the lonely few blank boxes in the calendar view of my journal. Today is one of those days. Maybe it’s the head cold. (snuck) Maybe it’s the weather. (bleah) Maybe it’s the residual malaise I’m feeling from the weekend. (grumble)** Who knows? Who cares? I feel like I could fill a whole page with rambling babbling nothingness, inserted into which might be a few nuggets of wisdom or humor or feeble attempts at philosophy…a link or two…a cute bon mot uttered by my child.*** How...

My faith in humanity got a dent in it last night. This morning, sick with a head cold, it’s still suffering, but it’s numbed somewhat by the Gods of Tylenol. O Tylenol, how I do worship thee! You may be a false god, but you have my devotion. I’m working on a surprise for all you lovely folks on my friends list. It should be done in a couple of days, although I may wait until the election is over and the results final so that my surprise will receive the attention it deserves. I hope you like it. 🙂...

We just spent the majority of the afternoon and evening at the AWC Halloween Party, getting there early to help decorate and set up, enjoying the party, which was a smash success, but total chaos due to the record turnout of over 130 people (!!) and then staying after to clean up and put the restaurant to rights, at which point we noticed that Karin’s Bionicle pumpkin, which won a prize in the pumpkin contest, was missing. Someone swiped my daughter’s pumpkin. I’m so mad my head is steaming. Who does that?! Who steals a little girl’s pumpkin?! *** Yeah,...

Yesterday I made it to the toy store at lunch, and was lucky enough to find a superhero costume for Karin. Even though Martin and I have been trying to convince her to be one of the 3 bears with us (too bad Goldilocks will be hiking with his buddies this weekend), she had her heart set on being either a skeleton or a superhero after we got a toystore flyer in the mail showing costumes for Spiderman, Superman, and Batman. Liz: Well, Martin, I guess we can’t be the 3 bears…it’s too bad Daddy won’t be there. Karin: I’m...