Monday, October 5, 2009

Are you up to the Five Word Challenge?

Hello all!

Our computer still isn't working, but I am borrowing my mom's laptop (thanks, Mom!) so I can keep feeding my addiction.

On my mom's blog, Life Not Wasted Or Lost, she had a post about the five-word challenge. It is a deal where someone in the blogosphere sends you five words and you have to write a little sumthin' sumthin' about each word as it applies to your life. So, I signed up!

But, being that Janie B. is my mother and knows me very well, she gave me five words which have deep significance in my life and it will be very hard for me to keep each word to a paragraph. Again, thanks Mom! But, I am up for the challenge...

1. Motherhood

Yikes. That's a big one. All I ever wanted to be growing up was a mother. No career aspirations outside the realm of domestic goddess. I didn't get to be a wife or a mom until my thirties, therefore my twenties were somewhat torturous as I yearned for a settled life with a family. And having a child wasn't easy for me. We tried for 13 months before I finally went into surgery for three different kinds of endometriosis. My birth experience was brutal and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. And then I settled into post-partum depression for about six months. It was rough and a far, far cry from what I had imagined motherhood would be. Motherhood has been a well worth it challenge that has reduced me to screaming tears sometimes, but I wouldn' t have it any other way. It has left me emotionally raw with searing wounds that may never go away. However, none of this has stopped me from wanting to do it all over again! I can't imagine my life without my son. He is a dream come true.

2. Poetry

I have a love/hate relationship with poetry. In college, one of my bachelor's degrees was English with an emphasis in Creative Writing and Poetry. I wasn't half bad at it. It was also humbling and full of literature-type-I'm-better-than-you- know-it-alls who drove me crazy. I love poetry for its grace and metaphors and genius, and I hate it for the ache it gives me in my gut. Poetry gives me anxiety because people expect me to write it - I was good at it and was accepted into the master's program (although I turned it down). And it gives me anxiety because I wonder, "Should I be writing poetry just because I'm good at it? Even if I'm not drawn to it?" I love to read it, I hate feeling guilty because I'm not writing it. I don't yearn to write poetry. Therefore, I have a love/hate relationship with poetry. As soon as I can rid myself of the guilt of not writing poetry and disappointing everyone, then I can once again enjoy reading it.

3. Music

Love it. I've always been musical - I grew up playing the piano and was in Choir all through junior high and high school. I miss my piano - it is at my mother's house because we don't have room for it. Someday ... someday. I do yearn to play the piano. I was never a prodigy or anything, but I did enjoy playing. I took lessons for 12 years and stopped when I went to college. I'd like to take lessons again someday. For now, I get my music fix by singing to my son and listening to my faves, like the Indigo Girls, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Brandi Carlisle, and Fleetwood Mac. I had my son's birth cards read when he was born by my friend, Marianne, and the cards said he would be musical, as well. Which is already true because he dances and moves his head around at the slightest note! My husband is also obsessed with music and can beat out the rhythm like a drum from almost any song.

4. Christmas

Love it. Obsessed with it. So is my sister. This is probably because our childhood Christmas's were so great. I love everything about it - cookies, carols, Christmas trees, ornaments, house lights, giving gifts, bright wrapping paper and pretty bows, decorations, hot chocolate, and the coziness of the whole month of December! I freak out over hearing Christmas carols when I go into retail stores and I listen to them in my car beginning in November. I also put my tree up the day after Thanksgiving. I would put it up sooner if my husband would let me. The ironic thing is that my sister and I both married men who grew up not celebrating Christmas. It was new to them and not exactly welcomed at first. But, once my husband celebrated his first Christmas with us and he received all those gifts, he started believing that Christmas isn't so bad after all. Bribery. It works every time.

5. Education

Love it. I got two bachelor's degrees in college because I love learning so much, one after highschool, and the other when I turned thirty! I have no doubts that I will probably get another degree at some point in my life, whether it be through correspondence or attending a university. I love to read almost anything and everything, including classic literature, fiction, memoirs, mystery, humorous books, textbooks, but excluding romance novels. Yuck. I would like to work in a school setting someday, although I don't think I want a classroom of my own. My ideal job in an ideal world would be to work in a library. Aaaaahhhh, I'd be in heaven all...day...long.

Well, that's the five word challenge! If you would like to do the five word challenge, just let me know in the comments and I will send you five different words, too! It's fun!

Stay tuned for my next entry which will be an awards ceremony!

16 comments:

  1. You did a great job with your five words. I didn't know Janie was your mother, but I see a similarity in your words and outlook. Both of you (I only know you from your blogs) seem like kind, warm people.

    I would also love to work in a library.

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  2. how funny that Janie is your mom! She's doing my Get Active challenge...

    I love christmas so, so so much too! My sister loves it so much she got married at Christmas and gave ornaments out as favors.

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  3. Until this very second, I never really thought about college by correspondence. I'd like to take some more classes. I need to look into that!

    My Christmas tree is up by Thanksgiving too! I usually put it up the week of. I think the earliest I ever put it up was the first week of November. I've calmed down a little bit.

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  4. Wow! I had no idea that Janie was your mom! I'll give the words a whirl...but due to the fact that I'm NOT an english major I probably won't be nearly as articulate and I'm sure it will be shorter! Whatcha got for me, Amo?

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  5. Very good, Babe! I knew you'd like those words. By the way, I follow a guy who posts beautiful poetry. You should read his. Don't worry that you aren't drawn to poetry anymore. My worlds of interest change all the time. You may be drawn to it again someday. Right now, you're busy being a great mommy. Love you!

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  6. Amo, that was wonderful to read! Something stood out to me as I read your five words... I play the piano also, and you say you don't have room for your piano. You MUST get your piano back at your house! Please make room! Maybe a keyboard? It'll be so good for your heart to play your music, and for your son to hear mommy play on a daily basis! I love to surprise my husband with new songs! To play when you're stressed out and to hear your own fingers playing is just so relaxing! A piano is so important, especially when you play! You need that outlet in your life! It's a stress reducer:) and makes home more of a home. Okay I'm off my soap box... err piano bench!

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  7. Love your list - we are very similar -

    Love to you.
    Kelly

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  8. Such a great list and can appreciate all of those..especially Education..and of COURSE Christmas!

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  9. I never knew Janie was your mom! I follow her blog as well, you are both so awesome! I agree with you on the education front. I always said, no matter what happens in your life, you could lose your home, get divorced, etc...the one thing that NOBODY can EVER take away from you is your education.

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  10. That is so great that your mom is a blogger! My mom doesn't even know how to forward an email :-)

    Your mom picked 5 great words! I would have to agree with you on education. I think I will be a student for life. I love to learn! Congrats on your 2 degrees!

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  11. Great post! How fun that your Mom is a blogger. Mine has only seen my blog once I think.

    I also grew up wanting to be a Mom and had a difficult time conceiving. I can totally understand when you say it was a far cry from what you thought it would be.

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  12. That was lovely! Now that you say you were pretty good at poetry once apon a time, I can so see it. Honestly, many of your posts read like poetry. One sentence leading to the next. Always knowing where I'm going. It's just simply, lovely.

    I always loved poetry. Poetry for me was always written for music as I think anything read through music makes it even better. I would sit at my guitar for hours and not stop writing until whatever it was that I needed to say had been said.

    Would love to have a piano as well. Ours too is at Mom's house. Hubby did buy me a fancy keyboard and we were able to find my childhood piano book on Amazon. I think it might be the sweetest gifts he could have given me. It was a book that belonged to my Grandma, given to my Mom. With all the classics.

    I am totally up for the 5 word challenge. Throw them at me when you get a chance!

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  13. 2 funny!!! I loved reading these!
    xoxo
    Priscila
    littlemissheirlooms.blogspot.com

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  14. What a great post... and a great idea. I may have to start one of my own.
    I can see the poetry "thing" for you. Like a previous comment, your writing does read like poetry. You are very gifted.
    Your mom blogs too, how cool is that??

    Thanks for dropping today, and for the follow and comment love!!
    Gonna check out your mom's blog now too!

    Have a great day!
    Michele

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  15. ohhh this is so fun! and what a NEAT idea!i love it! and you're right...your mom picked some toughies! but you did amazing....and a library would be too awesome...quiet and books, its like heaven!

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  16. omg! you are such a nerd! I LOVE IT! I think my ideal job would be in a library too - or maybe curating a really cool old library full of collectibles where only people equally obsessed with books would bother to stop by. There is a scene in Inkheart (my daughter was reading it this summer) with an old lady obsessed with books and book collecting and very strict about who was allowed near her books and I thought "omg - its me!"
    I hoe you are able to get back to enjoying poetry for you and letting go of whatever is blocking you - that is my life long endeavor with paint. I want to paint for me. only me. at the moment even that isn't likely to happen often. sigh.

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I love your lovely thoughts...