A Tribute to my Mom on Mother’s Day

Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible. – Marion C. Garretty

So, it’s Mother’s Day! Yes, brilliant day that is! A day where we celebrate all the mothers in the world! Moms are brilliant. I mean, they care for us. They raise us. They help us become what we grow up to be when we’re older (oops, that was sort of redundant…). I love my mama.

For those of you who don’t know, my mom simply adores Willow Trees. We have a whole box of them, and they all go on our entertainment center. This Mother’s Day, we got my mom a Willow Tree called, “Courage,” and there’s a little card that goes with it, and it says, “Bringing a triumphant spirit, inspiration and courage.” This is what the figure looks like:

My mom has this disease called fibromyalgia, which cause severe pain throughout her all her body, all the time. She wakes up each day with this excruciating pain all throughout. She relies on my dad and I to take care of her. She has to rest up for days before we can go out somewhere for a few hours. On top of the fibromyalgia, she also has many other medical problems. And on top of all the medical problems, our family has suffered three miscarriages (Jordan Taylor, Micah Jayden, and Noah Avery) and some failed adoptions – including one that was very hard and difficult (Kerioth Cherie). These losses has probably been the most difficult for our family

Now, you’re probably wondering, “How can someone live with all this?” To be honest, I’m not really quite sure how my mom does it. All that I know is that she doesn’t do it alone. No one can live with all this alone. My mom does depend on my dad and me, but she doesn’t just depend on us. She depends on Jesus to help her the most. She depends on Him to help her stretch out her arms to the sky like that figure and be courageous. And she is. My mom is the most courageous person I’ve ever known.

Happy Mother’s Day to you, Mama. I love you!

insane Doctor’s insane Doctor

So my mom did a post like this for the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge. It was so funny that I decided to do one for myself. I made a few edits though, because the grammar was awful. I did it here.

Awkwardly I have never run, clumsily beyond
any Rose, your fez have their mad:
In your most quirky Luna Lovegood are the things which fall me,
or which I cannot kick because they are too eager.

Your loud look swiftly will un-eat me
though I have typed myself as a Nargle,
you always think Ravenclaw by Ravenclaw myself as Lucy Pevensie deduces
(waiting always, intelligently) her lonely Martha.

Or if your house be to forget me, I and
my Aslan will love very loudly, loyally,
as when the Amy of this Rose cries,
Rory is cleverly everywhere writing;

Nothing which we are to read in this Donna walks
the book of your geeky computer: whose telly
talks to me with the yarn of its TARDIS,
knitting bow ties and Moms with each hug.

(I do not laugh about what it is about you that sings
and grins; only something in me travels
the Dad of your fez is smarter than all of Lucy Pevensie.)
Sherlock, not even the deerstalker, has such bookish Narnia.

– Damaris (Based on somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond… by e.e. cummings)

31 Days to Become a Better Writer – Day 29

Day 29

Today’s challenge:

If you don’t have a notebook or a place to jot down your ideas, go get one!  Or at least tape a piece of paper to the fridge and keep a running list of ideas.  Then head on over to Lisa-Jo’s and join in for Five Minute Friday.

———–

Good-bye, should be sayin’ that to you, now shouldn’t I…

I’ve always hated good-byes. They just…ugh. Gut wrenching emotions are in good-byes. Like when the Doctor was on Dalig Ulv Straden with Rose, I was in tears. When the Doctor had to erase Donna’s memories, tears. When I read the ending of The Last Battle, tears! I hate good-byes! Which is bad because Moffat probably has a heart-wrenching good-bye in store for the Ponds. I also hate real life goodbyes. Good-byes are just nyeah.

Overall, I just hate good-byes.

31 Days to Become a Better Writer – Day 28

Day 28

Today’s challenge:

 I want to know about the girl in the picture.  In the last line or so of the excerpt you can actually tell me where she is, but lead up to it with the rest of your writing.  For example, if it is January in Alaska, words like cold, shiver, sweaters, etc. could be used.  Hopefully that makes sense.

Sorry if this is a bit crappy. I thought the post was going to be about the girl in the description of the post (see above), put it was about the girl in the picture. Sorry!

———–

I looked around. I felt very out of place. The Doctor told me to stay put, and when he tells you to stay put, you stay put. I looked out the window. There were trees, and they looked like regular trees. Regular plants, regular everything. Everyone here looked human, but that didn’t mean they were. Well, they looked human aside from some slight differences. But nothing too large.

People kept staring at me because of my long, ginger hair. It was like I was an alien.

But I wasn’t an alien.

None of us were aliens.

We were in an alternate universe, after all. They were all humans, right?

31 Days to Become a Better Writer – Day 27

Day 27

Today’s challenge:

Write that post.  You know which one I’m talking about.  Write it and don’t worry about who reads it.  And you, my friends who hem and haw and don’t know about that blog, start it.  Push the publish button.

———–

THE POST WONDERING WHY EVERYTHING IS SO FRUSTRATING (aka, I’ve wanted to do this for a loooooong time)

So we go to the store to get haircuts and other things. I sit down in the chair and the lady starts to comb my hair.

I see her look of confusion in the mirror. She gets my mom to come over and she tells my mom that she thinks that I have nits in my hair. She tells my mom how to treat it while my mom has this peeved look on her face because my mom thinks it’s dandruff. I shiver a little because I hate the idea of live creatures on my head.

We buy the treatment thingy and go home. We take everything off the beds (sheets, pillows, stuffed animals) and take it downstairs to be washed in hot water in the uber teeny washer. My mom then proceeds to work on my hair.

She puts the stuff in my hair and goes through my endless mass of hair with the comb. Turns out, the “nits” were just dandruff.

Just. Flipping. Dandruff.

My mom has fibromyalgia. It causes severe pain in her entire body. Thank you, lady, for making my mom hunch over me with that comb for forty minutes and increase that pain even more.

WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE SO FRUSTRATING WE JUST WANTED TO GET HAIRCUTS AND STUFF AND NOT BE FRUSTRATED ARGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

I get easily frustrated. Very easily. And when I get frustrated, other people get frustrated and it’s not pretty. I’ve wanted to post about how I wish things weren’t so frustrating, but I was afraid that people who came across this blog would be like, “We don’t care. You’re a horrible blogger. We don’t care.”

You know what? If you don’t care, I don’t care that you don’t care. I have people that care and I care about them.

31 Days to Become a Better Writer – Day 26

Day 26

Today’s challenge:

Write about the picture above.  I don’t need to remind you to be creative; y’all do that wonderfully on your own.

———–

“No, no, don’t pull those out,” the mother said. “Those aren’t weeds, these are weeds.”

“Oh, okay!”

Mother and son were working on a vegetable garden, one they had been working on for a long time. The son eagerly pulled out the weeds in the beautiful multi-colored garden. Unlike most children, he loved veg. He would get extremely upset whenever they ran out of carrots or tomatoes. He loved to tend to the vegetable garden.

Occasionally, he would take food from the garden when he wasn’t supposed to and eat it.

“Jim…,” his mother would say. “Did you take veg from the garden again?”

“Maybe…”

His mother would just roll her eyes and smile. You can’t argue when your child loves vegetables.

Jim and his mother sat back to admire their work on the garden. The multi-colored vegetable garden.

31 Days to Become a Better Writer – Day 25

Day 25

Today’s challenge:

Write an excerpt about what you did this weekend.  Then try to look at it from a different angle and write another excerpt about a specific part of the weekend and why it sticks out to you.

———–

Saturday: Slept in late. And for me, late is 9:30. I did a language arts and a math lesson in school so I will finish school sometime around the beginning of June. I did a blog post that I didn’t do the day before because I was really stressed out (and it was past my bedtime…). I hung out in my room and knitted. I watched Star Trek: Voyager most of the afternoon and night with my mom. It stormed. Hard.

Sunday: I got a Whovian Institute Crest shirt on it. I love it! I wore it to church along with a pair of jeans. I felt underdressed because one of the boys was wearing a dress shirt and a tie and the girls were wearing dresses. I knitted during the church service. When we got home, we watched Psych while we ate. After my mom fell asleep, my dad and I watched two TV stories of Classic Doctor Who (he fell asleep while we were watching them). When we were about to eat dinner, I tried to convince them to watch Sherlock, but I failed.

Specific: You remember the Whovian Institute Crest shirt I was telling you about? It was on TeeFury, which is one of the sites where the shirt is only on there one day, then it’s gone. I sent it to my mom because I wanted it. I guess she and my dad talked about it and bought the shirt. It was back in the beginning of March when I sent it to her. She bought the shirt and hid it from me until yesterday. I wore the shirt all day yesterday. I love my parents for getting me that shirt. 🙂

31 Days to Become a Better Writer – Day 24

Day 24

Today’s challenge:

I’d love to hear how you started blogging and what your dream for your writing is.  No dream is too big or small.  None of this, “I started blogging because I was bored.  The end.”  No, craft a story.  Make it interesting.  Make me understand why you worry yourself silly about things like SEO, grammar, and why we all just don’t give up?

———–

My mom started a blog for me when I was 5 apparently. She updated it occasionally with my grades or silly stuff I said. And I guess in about 2007, I started blogging about stuff I read (and by blogging, I mean writing four sentences on each chapter of the book I was reading. I’m serious). In 2008, my mom moved my blog to WordPress. I did the four-sentences-on-each-chapter-thing here. Then my blog sort of went on hiatus. Occasionally I updated, but not that often. Then at the beginning of this year, my mom and her friend Jamee were going to do this 30 Day Blog Challenge thing. I thought that that would be a good way to get me blogging again, so I did it.

This is how my blog name came to be:

So, let’s see. My first blog was on Xanga and it was called…well, it didn’t have a name. I googled “damaris’ blog xanga” and I found it! But I’ll go hide now because the header is Hannah Montana. (insert loud high-pitched scream here)

Then I moved to WordPress. For the longest time it was just “Damaris’ Blog.” Nothing catchy, nothing that stood out, nothing that screamed “AN AWESOME PERSON BLOGS HERE!“. Then I thought, “Come on! I need a better blog name than that!”

So before you know how my blog name came to be, you should know some (dun dun duuuunn) background information! In TCON, there is a wardrobe that they use (only once, mind you) to get to Narnia. In DW, when new companions walk into the TARDIS of awesomeness, they always say, “It’s bigger on the inside!”, because, well, it is!

I went to Mom and said, “I need a new blog name.” She told me to wait and she’d think of something. Awhile later she asked me, “What do they always say about the TARDIS?” “Um, it’s bigger on the inside?” “Yes, it could be called ‘The Wardrobe is Bigger on the Inside.”

I think I was a bit hyper when I wrote that.

I don’t really blog for any certain purpose, I just do it to get my thoughts out. Some of my internet friends occasionally vlog, so it’s fun to see them talking, then I want to do a vlog too. So basically, I blog because I want to blog. I want others to hear my voice.

31 Days to Become a Better Writer – Day 23

Day 23

Today’s challenge:

I want you to write three excerpts of dialogue.  They don’t need to be lengthy.  The focus is the exchange of words even if it is just back and forth a few times.  So, first identify which register it should be written in and then write a few lines of text back and forth between the parties.

1.)  A boyfriend and girlfriend saying goodbye as he is deployed for the next year.

2.) A professor giving a lecture on the importance of attending class regularly.

3.)  A discussion between women at a local Mom’s group regarding pre-schools.

———–

1. She held back tears. “I’m going to miss you. Every day I’m going to miss you.”

He held her tight as she buried her face into his shoulder. “I know, I know you will. I’ll be back, soon.”

She looked at him. “Swear you’ll come back to me. Swear on something important.”

He managed a small smile and tapped her on the nose. “Fish fingers and custard.”

She gave a little smile. “I love you.”

“I love you too…”

2. I sat down in a seat in the classroom. I looked up from my books and looked at the professor. Short, curly black hair. High cheekbones. He looked like he knew everything. Everyone said he was a psychopath. And he talked very fast.

“Welcome to The History of Great Britain. If this is not listed on your schedule, you are not supposed to be here. I would advise that you go and find your correct class, Mr. Jones.”

A boy in the back of the class looked confused. “I-what?”

“You are not supposed to be here, Mr. Jones. Go find your correct class.”

The boy picked up his books and ran out of the class.

“Lovely. Now, this is The History of Great Britain. We meet on Wednesdays and Fridays. We start at 11:00 AM, not five minutes earlier or five minutes later. E-lev-en o-clock A-M. If you miss three of my classes, you will fail. Does anyone have any questions?”

Someone raised their hand straight up and said, “Sir, everyone says you’re a psychopath.”

The professor smiled. “Well, Mr. Anderson, you tell them that I am not a psychopath. I am a high-functioning sociopath. Let’s continue.”

I smiled. I liked this professor.

3. “No,” Annie said. “They can’t be old enough for preschool. They were just born yesterday. I’m terrified.”

“Well,” Irene replied. “Most of us don’t do regular preschool. We homeschool.”

“We looked at homeschooling, but I don’t know…,” Annie said.

“It’s quite nice,” replied Maria. “They’re in no rush to get done and they can work at their own pace.”

“Yeah, it’s wonderful,” Irene said.

“Well, when I was in regular school, it was a bit of a rush to get work done. We’ll look into it.” Annie smiled.

~

Yes, the inspiration for the professor was Steven Moffat’s version Sherlock Holmes. I watched A Study in Pink right before I started working on this, what can I say?

31 Days to Become a Better Writer – Day 22

Day 22

Today’s challenge:

 Let’s keep carving away at our dialogue and tweaking it.  Today, write the dialogue between the two men in the above picture.  Be creative!

———–

He was flipping through his papers until he looked up and ran into a jogger with an orange jacket.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” the jogger said apologetically.

“Oh no, it’s alright,” the man reassured him, pickup the notebooks and book he dropped. He looked up at the jogger. “Hey, don’t I know you?” he asked curiously.

The jogger took off his sunglasses. “Yeah, I think I know you too. I teach at the university.”

The man smiled. “So do I!”

The jogger looked at his watch as if he was in a hurry. “I’m sorry, I have to go, but I’ll see you at the university.” He smiled.

The man smiled and waved as the jogger went off.