My Scribbler’s Heart

Top 10 Tuesday: 10 Pitfalls To Avoid In Your Relationship With Your Spouse

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My husband and I will celebrate eighteen years of marriage this month. As a result, I’ve been reflecting on the ways our relationship has grown and the challenges we’ve faced.

Like every couple, my husband and I have had our ups and downs. We’re still working on becoming better spouses, better lovers, better friends. Here are some of the lessons we’ve learned about fairly universal traps that can trip up even the most committed and loving couples.

  1. Fail to communicate. I know, I know. You’ve heard this a million times, but that’s because it’s true. If you want to start an argument, expect your spouse to be a mind reader. When your spouse fails to intuit your needs, stew for an unspecified period of time, then pitch a fit. Remedy: Speak up early and often.wedding bands

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Stay With Me: The Settings – Shenandoah National Park and Gettysburg

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In each of the six months leading up to the release of Stay With Me on October 1, I’ll be blogging about an aspect of the book. Today’s post is dedicated to settings. The bulk of the novel takes place in and around the Gettysburg and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania areas with several forays to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

Shenandoah National Park

When Chris invites Rebecca to visit the park with him, he tells her, “It’s my favorite place in the world, and I want to take you there.”

When they arrive at the park, Rebecca takes in the natural beauty. “Two white-tailed deer, a doe and a fawn, ambled from the campsite on her right toward the road. A pair of robins chased each other across the grass, calling to one another. Peaceful. She loved the park immediately.”

My husband and I have had plenty of adventures at Shenandoah National Park, and it’s one of my favorite places to visit. We camp in a tent and typically choose walk-in sites that require a short trek from the parking area but are nestled in the woods rather than alongside the road.

Walk-in Site at Big Meadows Campground, Shenandoah National Park

Our tent and hammock at our wooded campsite.

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Bonnets, Baskets, and Bunnies: An Easter Linkup

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Bonnets, Baskets & Bunnies

Resurrexit Sicut Dixet, Alleluia! Alleluia!

To celebrate Easter, let’s share our Easter-ly things. Post some pics of your family surrounded by Easter flowers on the church altar, cute kiddies in their Easter outfits, what the Easter Bunny used to fill your baskets, or bunnies – of the chocolate or live variety. Let’s share them here and celebrate the end of what was for many a very long winter, and best of all – our risen Lord!

Don’t have a blog? That’s okay. Let’s hear about your Easter in ten words. [Use the comment box.] (For example, Jelly bean overload, Easter grass in hair, too much chocolate. Or, Mass at dawn, decorated eggs, live chicks, Alleluia! He’s risen!)

Easter blessings to you and yours!

Easter Sunday, 2015

After twice being woken by our oldest daughter wondering if it was time to get up, we let the kids loose to find their baskets.

The three youngest with their baskets.

The three youngest with their baskets.

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Seven Quick Takes Friday

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Seven Quick Takes Friday

Signs of Spring

My two pregnancies characterized by round-the-clock severe nausea coincided with spring. For several years after the second of those pregnancies, the dawn of spring itself nauseated me. Associations are tricky things. Thankfully, those seasons have past, and I can appreciate the beauty and wonder of spring again.

Being that last week’s egg hunt and baseball practice were canceled due to snow, I’d started to wonder if spring would actually show its face in 2015. It may be a little late this year, but all the signs are there.

–1–
hyacinth

Our hyacinths are poking their way up through last year’s leaves.

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Should Cursive Go the Way of the Dinosaur?

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Cursive Writing

Photo by JPPI on morguefile.com.

Since Common Core Standards require the teaching of legible writing in only kindergarten and first grade, the possibility of cursive writing becoming extinct has spawned discussion about its value.

As a child, I remember the eager anticipation of learning cursive. It was as if I were being introduced to a secret language, one known only to adults and older children. In my mind, it was second only to using invisible ink. Continue reading →

You’re Invited to an Easter Blog Party!

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Bonnets, Baskets & Bunnies

It’s been a long winter for many of us. Extreme cold. Loads of snow. Lots of sickness. Let’s celebrate Our Risen Lord and the return of spring by sharing our Easter celebrations!

Let’s see the carpet covered in Easter grass. Remnants of half-eaten marshmallow Peeps. Fistfuls of jelly beans and chocolate rabbits with their ears gnawed off. Does your family take a picture of everyone in their Easter finery in front of the beautifully-decorated altar on Easter morning? Or maybe your crocuses, hyacinths, and daffodils are in full bloom.

Just come back to this site on Easter Sunday and link-up your blog.Don’t have a blog? That’s okay. Let’s hear about your Easter in ten words. [Use the comment box.] (For example, Jelly bean overload, Easter grass in hair, too much chocolate. Or, Mass at dawn, decorated eggs, live chicks, Alleluia! He’s risen!)

The party starts on Easter Sunday and runs through the following Sunday, April 12.

A Little Photo Fiction

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Two-hundred words based on this photo prompt at Sunday Photo Fiction:Skeletal Couple

Tabitha steadied the gun and took aim. A red line marked her target, wiggling as her wrist quavered. She pulled the trigger.

“There.” She foisted the gun on Stephen, then returned the flatware to its shelf. “What’s next?”

Stephen sighed and studied the papers he held. “Uh, twelve chargers?” He glanced around the housewares section, empty save for another browbeaten guy and overeager woman. “Wouldn’t that be in electronics?”

She giggled. “No, silly. It’s a decorative base for the plate.” Continue reading →

Five Favorites: Lenten Check-in, Check-up

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Five Favorites

Prayer Edition

LentI missed the Lenten midway checkpoint. Maybe on purpose. I haven’t exactly done a bang-up job with Lent this year. I can’ t say I mustered any great ambition to kick off the annual forty days of preparation for Easter. I share a bathroom with five other people, have no automatic dishwasher or microwave, and no hot water in the bathroom sink. Don’t I sacrifice enough every day?

Uh, no. Not really. Not that those couldn’t be legitimate sacrifices, but it would require performing them with the right intention. Which I haven’t.
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