National Blog Writing Month? Hello?

I gave a holler down the hallway at the NaBloWriMo page, and just heard my own voice echoing back.  Is anyone participating this year?

I, for one, would like to get my writing game back on; however, I have a new blog page I'm trying out where this year's posts will appear.  Currently, my "Life's Too Short To Fold Underwear" blog comes up on the blog roll over on the NaBloWriMo page, and with no one manning the ship, I'm not sure how to get my new blog page on the list.

So for anyone interested, the new blog is Casual Day Images.

See you there :)

Life is short...

• ...live it
• love is rare...grab it
• anger is bad...dump it
• fear is awful...face it
• memories are sweet...cherish it

Life's Too Short to Have Only One Blog!

The more blogs, the better...right?

Here are the links to my other blogs:

Drawing from my own experience and imagination as a mother of two children, I turned a stressful bedtime ritual into an easy solution as well as a self-published children's book.  Learn more about this.

In my spare time, I enjoy creating jewelry from my own inspiration of using recycled denim jeans to make the beads in my designs.  Check it out!

Highlighting several of our family's activities in 2008, I devoted a whole page to share with family and friends in the form of an online Christmas letter.

Vacations are brief periods in life that I feel need to be recorded so details will not be forgotten.  I have created separate trip journals  for 2009, 2010, and 2013 just for the purpose of memorializing those excursions.

And, finally, my latest creation is a page showcasing my photography and my various views on life through the images I capture.

In the past, I have used this blog as well as my jewelry blog to participate in both NaBloWriMo and NaNoWriMo occurring in October and November, respectively.  There is no doubt in my mind that I will enjoy those activities again in the future.  

I once asked a psychic if I would ever be a published author, and her response was that I needed to write everyday.  With these blogs, that's exactly what I intend to do.

New Inspiration About a Story to go with the Letters

I just finished reading Sue Monk Kidd's latest book, "The Invention of Wings."

Before reading this book, I had been all set to just publish the Grandma and Grandpa letters as is with no story.

But after reading the Author's Notes in the back of Kidd's book and learning that the story is based on real events that occurred, I am re-thinking writing my own story to go with the letters.

I need to be okay with allowing myself the artistic license to distort some of the facts and come up with a story based on the letters even though I know all the facts and how their story ended.

New inspiration can be very energizing! :)

Following in Grandma's Footsteps

The tax season is winding down, and that is good news for me. I have been doing data input for a local tax attorney since the first week in February to earn a little extra money. Probably only a couple more weeks of that, and then I can get back to my IMPORTANT, not-for-pay projects, like making jewelry in my new studio, finishing the rug I started hooking in December, cleaning out the daughter's old closet and organizing my craft studio...oh, yeah...and getting back to editing and publishing the Grandma & Grandpa letters!!

It occurred to me at some point that my part-time job with the tax attorney is quite similar to the temp typing job Grandma did with the Donnelly Corporation just before and just after she and Grandpa eloped.  I know they had their share of hardships, but if my life can be as full and rewarding as Grandma's was, I will count myself richly blessed.

The Hardest Blog Post to Write

It is with bittersweet emotion that I write this post.  I have obviously been avoiding this one, as it has been three days since my last blog entry.

Why?

Because, about three days ago, I folded up the card table I have been using to sit at and type letters.  I moved it out of the furnace room and back to its spot behind the door in the laundry room.

Yes, I regret to have to write that I have transcribed the last letter found between my grandma and grandpa.  They both wrote letters to one another on 3/13/31...the last letters in the shoe box.

Grandma's work at the Donnelley Corporation in Nevada, Ia. was to only last the first three months of 1931. She then quit and went back to live and work on the farm in Marshalltown with Grandpa...so the letters back and forth, of course, ceased.

However, my journey with these letters is not complete.  I now have before me the task of editing and writing in some back story from what my mother remembers as well as adding in information about some of the relatives mentioned in the correspondence.

When I began the project, I gave each character a voice by changing the font of each letter depending on who was writing.  As the letters became more intense, I stopped taking time to change the font, and just vigorously typed listening to their voices in my head.  So, one of my arduous activities will be going back through all the letters and making sure they have the correct font.  And while all the letters have been transcribed, I absolutely must include samples of their handwriting throughout, so will need to scan several letters to intersperse in the compilation.

My job will not end there.  Finding an appropriate way to publish the compilation and making copies for the family members will be the last step.

I want to thank everyone for following along here with this letter project, and I hope you will check back in now and then to see how the final step of the project is progressing.  It is the most beautiful love story I have ever read.

The Letterhead Stationery Said it All

To earn some extra cash in January of 1931, Grandma went back to work for The Reuben H. Donnelley Corporation in Nevada, Iowa.  By this time, Grandma and Grandpa had been married for just over a year, and Grandpa still had dreams of making farming their livelihood.  The cash to fund his dream was not coming easy, so Grandma did the only thing she knew could earn some money--type.

Making seven cents a page and typing 65 pages a day, grandma contributed what she could so they could buy cows, pigs, and chickens to raise.  Meanwhile, Grandpa tended to the livestock chores and gardening while working at the Skelly Oil Company in Marshalltown.

Grandma would get a ride home or take the bus on Saturdays and Grandpa would drive her back to Nevada on Sunday nights.  The bus ticket cost Grandma $1.10, and she agonized over the fact that the round trip ticket would not cover two trips from Nevada to Marshalltown, but was only good for a Nevada-to-Marshalltown-and-back-to-Nevada trip.

The letters from Grandpa showed his exhaustion and frustration.  They were not the relaxed, poetic works of heart he had written to Grandma from California.  They were short, sloppy, and contained numerous spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

"Recieved you letter yestidy.  I was ver much astonish.  Howsomever you mad 1 mistak.  I worka from middy Sat. to sun by Sun.  I will brung the whash in Sat. Mourn.  Well this will be all fer awhile."

During the week, Grandma and a couple other girls working at Donnelley's stayed with a widow lady in Nevada--a Mrs. McCullom.  Apparently Mrs. McCullom was a lonely woman and loved the company of the young girls...

"...she wants to play cards or something every night.  Monday night when we came home from supper she had popped corn and had apples; Tuesday, gum, apples and candy kisses; tonight apples and popcorn.  Something every evening.  She serves real good breakfasts.  Have just been eating an apple at noon but tomorrow will have to get something else or will be appled to death."