Excerpts from Posts I Will Never Write

The truth is, I try hard to keep myself positive and to avoid posting things that tell any of my so-called negative opinions. Words are powerful things and using them is a real responsibility. In my life and in my writing I make it a priority to write as precisely as possible. Sure, yes, make misteaks, lol, but I do make the effort.

I have a serious reason for this. With kids, I'm super aware of offering my opinion on things because when I express them, BOOM, suddenly my kids either share my opinion exactly or choose to hold opinions exactly opposite from mine. lol  In other words, I keep my opinions to myself because it allows others more freedom to have their own opinions. 

HOWEVER, I have written a few blog posts that I chose to never post. Let's call this blog post: Three Truths and a Lie

You decide which of these excerpts are truly from my fifty-odd unpublished posts, never to be published! and which are just silly stuff I'm putting here to trip you up.  lol

1. From a post called Working Title:

...I like people... and I want them to know me before they judge me on my religion.

When you can't take a joke about religion, I'm disgusted. When someone takes their religion so seriously it makes me annoyed. I don't want to hear about your religious mass or anything.
It disgusts me.
I hate feeling like that but it horrifies me that someone could think so mindlessly. I find it hard to be friends with someone like that. 

I feel bad because people aren't judging me for atheist, but I'm judging them. People respect my atheism and I find it really hard to respect their religion. ...I roll my eyes.

I have lost friends before when I told people I was an atheist and these two girls in my class stopped talking to me. That couldn't stand that I was pro-choice and not a Republican.

2. From a post called I Don't Want to Know

I don't want to know! Whatever evidence you bring, I will never stop believing.

I don't go looking for these conversations; they find me. Recently I was lassoed into a conversation about being an atheist and the other person told me I don't want to know! 
Whatever evidence you bring, I will never stop believing. They actually said that and I didn't know how to respond to it. A statement like that is, effectively, a conversation stopper.

But even more, it's a thought stopper. The decision to always believe, in spite of evidence, is easier for some, I guess.

3. And from a post called You Deserved It

...It's about rudeness.And kindness.
But I didn't tell her and she taught that lesson with that thing hanging out of her nose.
I didn't even tell her later.
And I'm not sorry.

I'm generally the person who tells you that you have spinach on your teeth or smooshed lipstick. I think that I'd like it if you told me, right? But last night I let this woman teach with a hanger.

4. And from Rainbow Brainwash:

...Hate is taught!! It's not something you are born with. My kids don't look at the world through a filter of judgment and it's not because I've brainwashed them with the rainbow (someone actually said that to me this week). It's because the hearts they were born with have been protected. They were born into this world loving unconditionally and have been allowed to continue that way. Guard all the love that your children came here to share. Don't let this fucked up world take it from them.

OK, so that's the challenge.
In the comments, you make a guess about which of the above non-published blog posts is the lie, I never wrote it. Totally fake.
And, for the others, I hope you will forgive me. 


*  Be back in a week with the answer.
      No guesses?
      Oh well, the answer was #3, the only truth.  😊

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The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson

I just finished a book that was so surprising that I had to run over here to write about it immediately! I have to begin by saying something about Joshilyn Jackson, the author of The Almost Sisters. Namely, how did Jackson escape me all of these years? Her writing is fresh and fun and dark and bright and nuanced and insightful and, as it happens, quite popular and well-selling. Again, how did I miss her?

It turns out Joshilyn Jackson has at least twelve titles out there with quite a following. Who knew?

Somehow, on my ereader, I randomly bought the book The Almost Sisters, and I can honestly say that from here on out I will completely trust my instincts when purchasing an ebook, even without ever picking up the real book and sniffing the pages. Now, on to the book.

The Almost Sisters is a story told from the perspective of Leia Birch Briggs, a comic book writer and illustrator, yes, you read that right. Leia is a bit wayward, a bit lonely, a bit lost, and a bit pregnant when she gets the family trumpet call to head down to Alabama to step up to help her very beloved grandmother who is beginning to exhibit some serious dementia.

Leia, in Alabama, discovers that her grandmother is in a far more serious condition and situation than she could have expected because family secrets are being unearthed all over the place at Grandma Birchie's house; watch OUT for that attic! Leia settles in for a long bout of protecting her grandmother, getting her own personal life into some semblance of order, and helping to solve the family mysteries that she feels all around her. As the reader, I had a mystery of my own to solve, exactly who or what are the almost sisters? I had a number of ideas as I read this one and I was, I'll admit, rather surprised at the revelation.

Enter a hot Batman, a Southern Old Bitty of a neighbor, and a precocious niece, and Leia's humor and wonderful nerdiness prove her to be totally up for the challenge.

I don't want to say more about his book, only that I can highly recommend it if the weather is getting cooler in your neck of the woods and if you're a hot tea drinker...this is the book for that rainy, cold Saturday afternoon. I have to give this surprising find a high rating of 8 stars, see if you aren't as generous with your stars after reading this little gem...now I'm off to read something else by this author!

ME: Across the Years

I've been scrolling through a few old pics tonight and found some that I absolutely have to share. These pics are all from different times in my life, times that bring back such love and warmth into my heart...
Interested in seeing them? I thought I'd just share them here because I haven't been writing here much lately from being so dang busy and these pics are so very special to me, thought I'd write a post with a real bang.  LOL


I decided to stick with pictures this time that I actually appear in simply because I'm feeling a bit reminiscent this evening and it's been making me feel incredibly happy, and isn't that nice?

This first one is a Polaroid pic (of course) that my sister took while I was taking my five month old daughter Elizabeth to meet my dearest great aunt, and Elizabeth's namesake, Aunt Elizabeth Becker. When I look at this picture I immediately get tears in my eyes. Aunt Elizabeth was super special to me. In this picture she was about 100 years old, living at home with her dear son taking care of her. Although this shot didn't catch Aunt Elizabeth smiling, she was usually in such high spirits and incredibly happy whenever family would visit. How much I wish I could visit her just once more...

I visited her at least once a week, more if I was able, and Aunt Elizabeth always loved and kissed on Elizabeth. Sitting here looking at this picture at this very moment...I'm choked up. See the smile on my face? That's because I always felt like I was presenting Aunt Elizabeth my dear baby girl as a gift to her somehow... At this point in life I was working part time, Elizabeth in daycare, still nursing her, and yearning for her so much during the day. I will always remember how loved I felt when Jerry suggested I stay home with her...how much I felt he understood my need to be there with her...

Yeah, this pictures brings me great joy.

This next shot was taking in 1980 when I was a Junior in high school. I remember this exact moment for some reason. Dad had a decent camera back in those days, an Olympus OM10, and he took lots of pics of my sisters and brother and I. He would take those pics to work, to every event he went to, shuffle through them, show us off to everyone. Yeah, Dad always had the camera and a stack of pictures with him all of the time...I remember this particular moment of sitting on that hideous chair in the summer time, feeling happy and in love with my boyfriend. LOL

Dad was teasing me and my sister was mad at me for wearing her shirt. At this point in time I was about, what 16-17 years old, feeling pretty optimistic, generally happy. When I see myself there, I want to tell that girl "Hang on, you're gonna make it!"

This last one was taken in 2017 when my dearest Elizabeth was graduating from community college. She and I were out running around taking pictures of her in her cap and gown...can you see how freaking BLUE her eyes are in this pic? If you've never noticed that before, for some reason this pic comes close to really showing how amazing her eyes are.

I remember this moment specifically because she was SO freaking happy and so in love with me in this moment.  lol We were in a gorgeous garden building here in St. Louis called The Jewel Box all by ourselves, just shooting pic after pic of Elizabeth in her cap and town...feeling so happy, accomplished, pretty ecstatic, actually. lol
I remember this moment because my heart was so full of love and pride for her...


I love pictures. I have often thought that, were my house to burn to the ground, my pictures are the only thing I would miss. I actually miss the days we would take the film, mail it away or drop it off for developing, waiting anywhere from 5-15 day to get them back, pay our $3 per roll, then have a handful of pictures to shuffle through...I loved getting my film developed. Now every single pic I've taken in the past decade or more are stored digitally somewhere and, now that I think of it, that's kind of sad.

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