Once Again

Mario, has been getting after me to apply for disability again. My social security benefits were denied the first one. One of the worst things the first time was a lack of a paper trail I got my paper trail and accurate dating by looking through all the packets from H&R Block. Year by year receipt by receipt there can be a paper trail. I now feel that I can actually do this. I have been putting everything off because I simply didn’t know the dates and I was afraid I would be caught in a lie when I am simply guessing. I may not have a paper trail on my own but we have carefully kept medical receipts for taxes. There may be hope this time around.

Another place I need a paper trail is my writing. I need to get busy on my book again. I lost my focus when the only person in the critique group I didn’t like was the only one critiquing my work. There was nothing like enough to be a book. I needed more but that will require getting back to it and doing more work. I am planing to do the journaling book on the laptop. It will give me a clear place for the entire work.

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~
http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/
http://sites.google.com/a/wildblue.net/my-corner-of-the-world/home
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/
http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

Even though this was answering one of the questions on one of my writing groups it feels worth posting here. I did put a lot of thought in it.

Tell me about your first ever piece you sent out?

What was your first piece you sent out to be published? My first published piece was a poem called “Goldfinch” if you like you can find a copy in the “Archives” section of my webpage

Do you remember what motivated you to write it? I had an appointment to get my car inspected, it was Jerry’s first appointment of the day and he was running late. I had my tape player and my favorite tape, “Bach By The Beach” and of course my journal.  I was in a parking space near the retaining wall holding back the strip of weeds between the factory and his car lot. Right in front of my car less than a car length away I got a close look of a goldfinch demolishing a thistle. I was less than a car length in front of me and obviously not concerned about the music or the company.

What kind of piece was it in–what area? Back then I was only writing poems, I hardly ever write a poem anymore.

Did it take you long to do it? How long? The appointment was at 9 AM Jerry was about 30 min late. The inspection took about 20 min and the poem was basically done then. That was two or three revisions before the edition posted.

Was it rejected or published? The newspaper did publish it with an honorable mention. I did not win the contest. I expected everything I sent out after that to be published, I know better now.

How did you make that first piece a priority? The bird was there and he really did need to be written about. I did not expect to submit the poem or even show it to anyone.

Did God tell you to write it? Probably, but not to the extent he would do it today.

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~   http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://sites.google.com/a/wildblue.net/my-corner-of-the-world/home and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

I am posting some of my older poems and articles on my website. Today I posted an article about Vladimir the translator from the mission trip I went on. Vladimir was an interesting person in his own right, especially with the Chernobyl connection. He was forced into that nuclear nightmare to help clean up, “against his will” as he put it. We just don’t understand the ways of another country. And there is a lot of our country that they don’t understand.

I had a lot of nice things to talk about when I was interacting with a lot of people every day. ever since I married Mario seven years ago I have been out in the country with no one around to talk to, I never got connected to anyone the church was to big and to far away to really get to know anybody. In seven years there have only met three people I really became friends with and never got really close to any of them. I was actually getting close to one person but she moved away. I lost all my friends of years ago when I moved. The problem is in times past people would live in the same area for years they would meet others early and would grow knowing all about them, becoming friends or perhaps not. They were never dropped in a strange place alone to make friends from thin air. If I had been working outside the home or going to some kind of school I might have made friends. Now I did work in the schools for a while but there was no teacher’s lounge for like minded teachers to have a place to talk. There was nothing but the teacher’s lunch table in the middle of hundreds of kids talking at a level that is uncomfortable to me.

It was not a good thing for me to be so alone. I always thought with time to myself I would get a lot of writing done. Well I have proved that wrong. The time was there to write but not the drive to write. I need to have the self discipline to get something completed. Before the stroke I did a lot if crafts. They allowed me to see things completed. It allowed me to make things of beauty and feel good about my handiwork. I would not only make designs from books and magazines or quite often made my own designs. After the strokes I have not even been able to make the simplest thing. I tried to teach my niece to make a simple Christmas decoration last year and I wasn’t able to show her what her hands needed to do. Not being able to do what I always took such comfort in doing is demoralizing. I feel more crippled in my creativity than I do in my walk.

I am getting better slowly but, at present, I am very frustrated. I need to take down the Christmas tree but could not even put it up by myself. I had made all those Christmas ornaments they are like old friends to me. Each stands for hours of time I had invested in making a thing of beauty. When I did craft shows I made good money for making things of beauty. that made me feel good about myself. Where can I get that feeling when one hand is meanly a useless claw.

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~ http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://sites.google.com/a/wildblue.net/my-corner-of-the-world/home and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

I missed yesterday blogging. Yesterday was nothing to write home about as the saying goes. I spent a lot of time clearing out my e-mail and trying to get something done I could have been reading the book I Gave my husband for Christmas. “The fall of Lucifer” the first book in the Chronicles of Brothers series by Wendy Alac. I was able to get my darling husband the first two books in the series for Christmas. Mario is not much of a reader, the Bible each morning and books he is studying for the next level of his ministers degree. I never knew it was a four step process now he is just certified, three more classes he gets licensed. certified can run out in two years a license is a longer term affair. These two books are the only thing I’ve ever seen him read outside of the Bible or textbooks. He tore through them like Sherman through Georgia. I have them now to read but I don’t those two books to consider, I was already reading six books, not to mention working on writing one. Even at that I am on chapter three of the first book in the series. I guess I am in no hurry to read them no matter how good it is because there are supposed to be seven books and only these two we have now have been written yet. Book three is due out around the end of the year. I just don’t want to be waiting as long as I will have to for the next book. If I finish a few of the others on the way to waiting for book three to come out it will not seem like it’s taking so long. I remember a friend who was waiting between book 2 and 3 of the fellowship of the Ring leaving Frodo at the top of the mountain stung by the spider guarding the back entrance to Mourdor. Talk about a cliffhanger… I don’t look forward to waiting most of the year for the other shoe to drop.

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~   http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://sites.google.com/a/wildblue.net/my-corner-of-the-world/home and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

I needed to get some prompts posted on j4cw2j and had not gotten the blog registered for another month of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) I guess I was never fully registered before. It is a complicated list to jump through and I’m not sure I made it all the way. I feel kind of a relief to not have to get something posted every day. Especially since I finally have a website. What stopped me from getting a website for so long and I could have made one at any time. I always thought it was expensive to have a site. Free web-hosting was offered by Faithwriters500 and I almost stayed with them so I could get a sight.

I was a chump to even join them although it was good till all the editors were fired leaving one woman making all the decisions about what was published and what was not. I realize different editors have different tastes but I didn’t have a chance. I was blessed by the posts while I was reading them and commenting on them then that also changed. come to think of it the Faithwriters500 editor was at the center of that change as well. There should be checks and balances in the editors of magazines as well as in government.

We are getting rid of the interim pastor we got when pastor Mike left. I never had use for him from the get go. He is leaving thank goodness. I can only hope we get someone who is as good as pastor Mike.

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~ http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://sites.google.com/a/wildblue.net/my-corner-of-the-world/home and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

I have had bad luck with the bloger blogs so I got on freeblogit and have had no problems. My husband is going to help me set up my own website. I have wanted a website for a long time. Blogs make it easier in theory. I have had several blogs but got locked out of them no matter how carefully I kept track of the passwords I would suddenly mot be able to get back into them. I have several blogs which I lost it hurts me I can’t get back to my own blogs. This one I have preserved my password differently, not in my notebook with all the other passwords. I literally type it in by hand each time I enter the blog. NO MORE letting the computer remember the password.

For a website I have to have a title. And a purpose and some kind of direction for the sight. I will probably let this blog fall by the wayside in favor of a websight. I wish I had people to ask questions other than my husband. He doesn’t really write that much and frankly doesn’t understand why I want to. Well tomorrow is an early day. Goodnight all.

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~ http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

KJV Issue Revisited Comparative Study
I know you are reading Critical commentaries have you ever compared verse to verse translation by translation (NJ, NIV, NKJV, KJV, NASV, AMP, CJB, and JB). I did a comparative study of Psalm 119 last year. That psalm was a teaching Psalm each verse from a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet in eight verse increments. In that study each verse group teaches a topic like blessings, cleansing power, enlightenment, etc.

The word enlightenment sums up what doing such a study brought. The AMP Bible basically is the KJV with added words to clarify the words to make them more understandable. I was amazed how close the NIV is to the AMP. I was partial to the NASV for years till I did the comparison. After looking at all the translations verse by verse it gave me a real respect for the similaries and differences of the many Bibles available out there now.

On Another Topic My Book
I was going to get someone to read the book I have been working on for so long and I discovered it needs a lot more chapters. So a lot of what I write this month will be to that end. At the moment I am looking at dreams in the Bible. According to my Bible software there are 62 verses about dreams. I plan on naming the chapter, “Behold the Dreamer” which is what Joseph’s brothers said just before they imprisoned him in the pit then sold him into slavery.

Third Topic My New Butler
Someone on my groups sent me something called IncrediMail that has announcer for mail I haven’t had that since the early days of AOL. I started on AOL since then have been on a couple of other servers. I have a stuffy butler walking on screen and telling me I have mail now. I like the humor of that. It would be nice to have a real butler.

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~ http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

Today I had an idea for a story but I wanted the scripture reference before I started writing. I hope to get it done tomorrow. Instead of that I have been working on my manuscript for my Journaling book. It is clear I need a fairly long period of time between initial writing and showing it to others. I have written a lot of things and thought they were brilliant then looked back at them after a long period of time and found they were garbage. I believe that is why I have been a bit reluctant to post something daily on my blog.

I would like to put everything I have written online on the one hand, but hide it away on the other hand. There are negative things about blogs and websights for writers. If you post anything, even on your own sight and later try to get it published some publishers consider it as a republication which pays less. There is also the fact the work can be taken, labeled as an unknown or abandoned work. So a blog leaves you with limited rights to your work, or worse lost rights. My writing may or may not have any value but it is mine.

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~ http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

For once I am trying to get today’s entry done before bed time. Today I had my sister-in-law over for lunch. It’s nice to see her without her daughter. It gets blamed on her late husband doing all the discipline. When he died she needed to step up to the plate and be the parent, sitting limits providing guidance, and sometimes discipline.  She has been trying to be the child’s best buddy ever since her husband died. The child has been running the show since she was three. The only way Gianina could come here today was slipping over during school, sort of behind the child’s back.

I have been running late on things lately because so much has demanded my attention right now. As bad an attitude as I have been getting about Christmas this year all the prompts are about Christmas. I know, I wrote them for the group I’m in. Today’s prompt was: “Christmas past, Mother as a child wrote about her Christmas presents, have you ever written about one of your Christmases?”

My mother to my knowledge only kept a diary a few months when she was a child. I have that diary. When she wrote about Christmas in that little notebook. There were eight kids and very little money for a farm family. She told of an orange, a dime, a few pencils, and other very small gifts. The orange sounded like the biggest deal. My parents always tried to get gifts we would like. My two brothers were a lot older than I was so I never saw them get a toy. I had inherited some of their old toys as they grew up and moved away.

The Christmas I remember best was my second year of collage. My roommate had a small collection of Raggety Anne dolls. Did you know they have a date on their labels her oldest one was from the 1940’s. My time living with her the Raggety Anne dolls were 48 years old. She convinced me I should get one, she convinced me to want one. That year the younger of my two brothers spent Christmas with us with all his family. His first born was about four and sitting on the floor by the tree with me. Helping hand out the presents. Mother had asked me what I wanted so she got her twenty year old girl the Raggety Anne doll she wanted. My niece then four took one look at the doll and screamed, Mine!” I had to convince her that was my doll, hers was in the next box. It was not a Raggety Anne and I don’t believe Alisa was ever satisfied with it but I was going to keep my doll. Remember I was much younger then…

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~ http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/

I don’t know if it was in Alice in Wonderland or the sequel Through the Looking Glass but in one of then the Red Queen tells Alice “Sometimes you have to run as fast as you can just to stay in one place.” That’s how I have felt the last couple of days.

I am in several e-mail groups and a few days ago I wasn’t feeling well a few days ago ago and left about half of it unprocessed. Which would mean unopened, much less unread. Yesterday I was out shopping most of the day so I got further behind. I’m still not caught up.

It is shocking how much of what comes in the inbox that I never get around to reading. I save a lot of it and out it aside with the best of intentions some I have lost through computer disasters. I lost a lot through computer disasters viruses, my husband’s upgrades (sorry sweetheart), or simply bad moves on my part.

I wish I were a speed reader so I could get through all the things set before me to read. Actually I tried to teach myself to speed read. Some of the things I was able to pick up, other things were just unnatural.  But then when I get to reading I get to writing either notes, or comments, or original writings sparked by that inspiration.

Well, since I missed a day of blogging in the daily blog challenge I posted two entries today.

Annette
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery- from The Little Prince.~ http://onceagain.freeblogit.com/ and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/just4christianwomen2journal/ and http://annette-agnello.livejournal.com/