playing piano

The Nester created the 31 day writing challenge.  I'm looking forward to joining in and pushing to the end of 31 days with a breath of fresh air of creativity. To get my writing flowing, I'm writing 31 Days of Being Me.

I would not be myself without music.  I started playing the piano on my mother's lap when I was tiny.  Granted, the music wasn't cohesive at that time, but it's always been a part of me.  I started official piano lessons when I was 7, since Mom taught me before then.  I accompanied choirs in middle and high school, and played in the jazz band.  I constantly played the piano.  When I wasn't writing in a journal, I was probably playing out my emotions on the piano.  Accompanying for Ballet classes came naturally for me in college, and it is what I did for many years before my children were born.

standing in the waves

The Nester created the 31 day writing challenge.  I'm looking forward to joining in and pushing to the end of 31 days with a breath of fresh air of creativity. To get my writing flowing, I'm writing 31 Days of Being Me.

What's a mom to do when the only dentist appointment for all three kids is at 10:50 am?  With school from 9:15-3:30, it's not exactly early enough to return to school, and if they went to school in the morning, I'd have to get them an hour after I drop them off.  No. No school today. This mama decided to take advantage of the sunshine, and enjoy the day with the little ones!

who am i?

The Nester created the 31 day writing challenge.  I'm looking forward to joining in and pushing to the end of 31 days with a breath of fresh air of creativity. To get my writing flowing, I'm writing 31 Days of Being Me.

who am i?

I started truly loving the art of writing when I was in High School.  My English teacher gave us the assignment of journal writing - using the journal to explore ourselves, and to write.  One of the entries I remember (a good 20 years later ::gasp 20 years!::) is the one that started, who am I?  I am Dorothy, I am a daughter, and a sister.  I'm a student.  Something like that.  Years later, I've written on the same topic, and some of my names are different, but I think I find myself to be the same.  To quote my 7-year old daughter, "I don't think our hearts change."

Hi.  I'm Dorothy.  I love to read; I love to write; I love to make music; I love to learn new things; I love sci-fi.  My life is grounded in God.  Although He is the center of my life, it's hard for me to be freely open about my faith unless I'm in a comfortable setting.  We attend a Messianic Jewish Synagogue, in which we live to the rhythm of the Jewish calendar, follow Jewish traditions, and we also believe that Jesus is the Messiah.  (We use His Hebrew name, Yeshua) 

31 Days of Being Me: day one

31 Days of Being Me.

Yeah.

I really want to try to write something daily, and I really feel that I have things to say to the world.  I felt the drive and need to use the time that I have while my kids are in school to do some writing.  But finding a topic has been a challenge for me.  As I was driving this morning, I was brainstorming topic ideas.  All sorts of things came to mind, but they all seemed pretentious to me.  Not that any of the topics in themselves are pretentious topics, but they didn't fit what I want to say today.  This.  This is where I need to start.  Being me.

My challenge with this idea up front is my fear.  But then I'm talking about myself, won't that be selfish? Who wants to hear about me? But yet, this topic rings true to my soul.  Who else could I be?

A couple of years ago, I had a revelation as mom.  People would ask me, "Dorothy, how are you doing?" And I'd answer.  "We're fine."

31 Days of Being Me: intro

For a couple of years now, I've watched one of my favorite bloggers write for 31 days in a row in October. I found myself longing to join in, but never having the time, or I missed it altogether. This year, I'm going to join in.

The Nester created the 31 day writing challenge.  I'm looking forward to joining in and pushing to the end of 31 days with a breath of fresh air of creativity.

Without any further ado, 31 Days of Being Me.

day one: 31 Days of Being Me: day one
day two: who am i?
day three: standing in the waves
day four: playing piano
day five: Five Minute Friday: write
day six: My friend the uke
day seven:#31days blogs I'm reading
day eight: being me
day nine: Wacky Wednesday: random things, like TV
day ten: my normal
day eleven: Five Minute Friday:: Ordinary
day twelve: On sabbath
day thirteen:
day fourteen:
day fifteen:
day sixteen: FlyLady
day seventeen: Koffee?
day eighteen: Five Minute Friday :: laundry
day nineteen: Shabbat Shalom!
day twenty: Zoo Day
day twenty-one: Memories
day twenty-two: Spelling Words
day twenty-three: Inspired
day twenty-four:
day twenty-five: Five Minute Friday :: Together
day twenty-six: Shalom Y'all
day twenty-seven: When, not if
day twenty-eight: On Waiting
day twenty-nine: Not quite the day I intended
day thirty: Thinking about the day that went wrong
day thirty-one: I did it!

Five Minute Friday - She

I found a quick way to get myself writing - using a prompt from Lisa-Jo Baker.  For five minutes, you write on the prompt, and can link up to all the other writers.  So.  Here's my first shot!

She.

She finds that she wants to write about herself in third person.  She is me.  I am she.  When my brother sent me the photo of myself in the bridesmaid dress, I could see more objectively myself.  The dress didn't look as bad in the photo as I thought it did in person.  Seeing the dress on me in a photo brought some distance between myself and my feelings.  I was able to look at myself as if I were "her"  She looks good in the picture.  Oh.  She is me.

She sends her kids outside to play.  It's warm enough to be outside barefoot and without a sweater, but not for long these days.  They argue with her about playing, and it takes time for them to reacclamate with each other.  Soon they will be playing a great game, and she will have to coax them inside for dinner.  

She enjoys this weather, the time when it gets to be warm for mid-winter, but cold for mid-summer.  The leaves are starting to change color in clumps, a tree here, a tree there.  The year has begun.  Why does the new year not start in September?  So many cycles do start in September, it makes so much more sense than in midwinter.

on The Day Before

Being a mom to a child with special physical needs, I've had to deal with many days before surgery. Having done this for almost TEN years now, my perspective is a little different.

Daniel was born with many medical issues, (more than most, less than some) causing him to have surgery the day he was born, live in NBCSU (New Born Special Care Unit) for 5 weeks, and have heart surgery at 3 months old.  One of his many challenges has been eating enough calories for him to grow at a consistent rate. On top of that, Daniel has horrible acid reflux, because of his anatomy, and has been on Zantac and Prevacid since infancy.  Daniel was born small, but when he was around 4, his weight gain plateaued.  He wasn't eating enough to grow at all. So. We agreed with the doctors that the best way to force feed Daniel was to place a feeding tube into the stomach. 

This helped, but Daniel continued to struggle with serious reflux leading to vomiting, and aspiration pneumonia. For the past few years, Daniel has had a g-j tube, with which the formula gets dumped directly into the intestines, bypassing the stomach, and cutting down on reflux.  This has worked really well, but when the tube needs to be changed, Daniel has to go to the hospital and have it placed with an X-ray. This is a pain, expensive, and exposes Daniel to quite a bit of radiology.  The surgery tomorrow (at 2 pm) is to place a j-tube surgically into the intestines.

So many of our day befores have been full of fear, full of anticipation, being thrust into a new world of the hospital.  So many of our day befores have diapers, strollers, and nursing little siblings. This day before feels different. It's a surgery, for sure, but we're somewhat at home in the hospital. The little ones are safe with Grandma and Grandpa , Daniel is old enough to entertain himself, and even some of the unknowns sound vaguely familiar to me.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers, for tomorrow, and through the past years. We cherish the love you all send! And we'll let you know how it goes.