Where’s my MoJo?

I am finding it seriously difficult to write anything on my blog. I just feel kind of stuck in a morass of indecision, half formed sentences and ideas that refuse to coalesce.

My sense of humour remains hidden along with inspiration and motivation.

This is serious.

I will be forced to take DRASTIC MEASURES to get my Mojo back.

I fear I will have to sign up again to a month of NaBloMo to get back into the swing of things.

I never expected it to be so hard

I mean I have just had a holiday of a lifetime with my family in South Africa; there are loads of tales to tell and anecdotes to share.

Some are truly funny.

But just writing that makes them suddenly seem flat.

Humph.

Maybe its the rain and grey clouds or maybe I just need to stop thinking and write.

How would you get your Mojo back?

I'm back and a lot of things have changed...

Briefly:
It was hot and sunny and now its cold and wet
I was going to plod along blogging ther way I usually do but I have decided to be a little more radical (for me)

• I'm going to have my own web page for blogging
• I am going to say goodbye to statistics and counters....
• I am going to get my head round the new blogger which is quietly freaking me out at present...
• I am crossing my fingers that I find the time to do all this
• I am so looking forward to just getting back to being me!

Taking a break...

I just want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has dropped by and visited me over the years and left wonderful heartfelt comments. Without you this would have never latest as long nor would I as a matter of fact. You've helped me through thick and thin and made me laugh, cry, feel loved and wanted and just been there. It means a lot. More than I could ever really say.
 I have been blogging now for five years and I am going to take a break for three weeks. I may blog during those three weeks I do not know.
The reason for the break is that I am actually going on holiday, a proper one for the first time in ten years with my family to South Africa and I am SO looking forward to it!
The dogs are a bit pissed at me but J will be on duty looking after them, the chickens and of course my bonkers house with all its quirks foibles and things that go bump in the night.
We all need a breather..
Have a wonderful Easter!!!!!

My blogging life so far...

215,545 words give or take a few thousand.

Started on 7 March 2007

Comments I’ve made just shy of a further 200,000 words in that time.

My blogging life so far

But now I have run out of steam.

Come to an impasse so to speak.

Where do I go from here?

Total revamp?

Glitzy! New! Dynamic!

What to do?

Can I sustain a complete volte face?

A turn around?

I know myself too well. I am not brave.

Perhaps a break.

Or not…as the case maybe.

If I take a break will I ever start again?

Should I care?

Does it really matter?

It’s a blog not a opus magnus for fecks’sake?!!!???

So why do I care?

Because…

Because of all the words, all the time

Because just because I am not into it now doesn’t mean that I will not be in a few weeks or days’ time.

There should be no pressure about it.

I blog and That’s it.

I blog because I want to not because I feel I should.

I comment because I want to not because I am obliged to.

I have written so many words in anger, joy, pain and on reflection. Sometimes brilliantly, at least I think so, sometimes in a hurry. Passing thoughts, a turn of phrase and oh the words I have meant to write, the ones I planned to but couldn’t quite manage; the slippery impressions, ghosts of the things I could have written gone in a blink of an eye.

Notes on my life.

How I feel.

Snap shots.

My life. Their life

My blog.

Feelgood Monday - What better way to start the week

Don't get me wrong I love my boys but this had me laughing so much I cried....

Are You Ready for Children?

Mess Test: Smear marmite on the sofa and curtains. Now rub your hands in the wet flowerbed and rub on the walls. Cover the stains with crayons. Place a fishfinger behind the sofa and leave it there all summer.

Toy Test: Obtain a 55-gallon box of Lego. (If Lego is not available, substitute roofing tacks or broken bottles.) Have a friend spread them all over the house. Put on a blindfold. Try to walk to the bathroom or kitchen. Do not scream. (This could wake a child at night.)

Shopping Test: Borrow one or two small animals (goats are best) and take them with you shopping. Always keep them in sight and pay for anything they eat or damage.

Dressing Test: Obtain one large, unhappy, live octopus. Stuff into a small net bag making sure that all arms stay inside.

Feeding Test: Obtain a large plastic milk jug. Fill halfway with water. Suspend from the ceiling with a stout cord. Start the jug swinging. Try to insert spoonfuls of soggy cereal (such as Fruit Loops or Cheerios) into the mouth of the jug, while pretending to be an airplane. Now dump the contents of the jug on the floor.

Night Test: Prepare by obtaining a small cloth bag and fill it with 8 - 12 pounds of sand. Soak it thoroughly in water. At 8:00 PM begin to waltz and hum with the bag until 9:00 PM. Lay down your bag and set your alarm for 10:00 PM. Get up, pick up your bag, and sing every song you have ever heard. Make up about a dozen more and sing these too until 4:00 AM. Set alarm for 5:00 AM. Get up and make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.

Physical Test (Women): Obtain a large beanbag chair and attach it to the front of your clothes. Leave it there for 9 months. Now remove 10 of the beans.

Physical Test (Men): Go to the nearest drug store. Set your wallet on the counter. Ask the clerk to help himself. Now proceed to the nearest food store. Go to the head office and arrange for your paycheck to be directly deposited to the store. Purchase a newspaper. Go home and read it quietly for the last time.

Final Assignment: Find a couple who already has a small child. Lecture them on how they can improve their discipline, patience, tolerance, toilet training, and child's table manners. Suggest many ways they can improve. Emphasize to them that they should never allow their children to run riot. Enjoy this experience. It will be the last time you will have all the answers...

 

Thing's Mum's would never say..

"How on earth can you see the TV sitting so far back?"
"Yeah, I used to skip school a lot, too"
"Just leave all the lights on ... it makes the house look more cheery"
"Let me smell that shirt -- Yeah, it's good for another week"
"Go ahead and keep that stray dog, honey. I'll be glad to feed and walk him every day"
"Well, if Timmy's mom says it's OK, that's good enough for me."
"The curfew is just a general time to shoot for. It's not like I'm running a prison around here."
"I don't have a tissue with me ... just use your sleeve"
"Don't bother wearing a jacket - the wind-chill is bound to improve"

Basking and Droughts

Jack Russel Maud: Basking

We’re all at it.

Basking.

The dogs, the chickens, the pigeons. the moorhen. Not in the same place I hasten to add –that would be a miracle. But we are all enjoying the sunshine and warmth after a few cold grey days.

But I am worried.

I love the sunshine, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that we are in a drought area and while it may be glorious today I am concerned that in a few months’ time it will look more like the Navarro Desert out there.

I am not looking forward to it. It was bad enough last year with me spending up to 3 hours a night watering the newly planted hedges and trying to keep the vegetable plot alive.

This year we already know that we have a hosepipe ban starting on April 5^th – just in time for Easter.

So I am strategically planning and I can add another 10 water butts to the 8 we already have round the barn. I dread to think of the capital outlay but in order to keep my precious plants alive I think it will be worth the investment. It is going to be a lot of hard work fitting everything and then praying for a little rain.

If we don’t get the rain then I’ll just fill the butts up with water from the condenser in my drying machine the washing up bowls and of course the bath. I had better change my cleaning liquids to organic ones so my plants don’t die when I use the water.

I am trying to think ahead.

While trying to remember the Drought of 1976.

I am that old.

I do remember it being very hot. Hot all day and hot all night.

I remember having to share baths and having a plumb line which we couldn’t go over.

I remember going to the seaside.

I remember the great big cracks in the ground and everything drooping and being brown.

The ponds and rivers drying up and the dead fish.

As I said I am not looking forward to it….but damn me I am going to be prepared!