Tag: Natural Home and Garden; blog; plants

Alone!!!

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

With my daughter living with us, I rarely get time alone in the house.  Now don’t get me wrong she doesn’t intrude but the time I get completely alone is rare.  I like my alone time.  She is off today volunteering at the library and having lunch with a friend.  This leaves me completely alone in my house (well except for the stalker cat Sasha). 

What to do with my alone time?  There are certainly a ton of options but I will be responsible.  I have transcribing to do and then after that I think I’ll work on editing stories.  I have to edit the two stories I turned in to my Fiction Writing class.  The one is nearly done and the other is a long way from being done. 

This week has been good so far for getting things done.  I have finished more than half the transcribing and will hopefully get that done this morning.  I also finished one of my going away gifts.  My to do list definitely has things crossed off.  After I answer emails this morning I’ll wade back into the list and see what other things I can get finished off. 

The weather here has gone from too warm to normal.  This means yesterday when the temp in the house dipped to below 65 we actually turned the heat back on.  You have to love weather in Wisconsin in March – erratic is the best way to describe it. 

I do have another entry in the Curse of the Black Thumb blog.  Go check it out:  http://www.naturalhomeandgarden.com/green-gardening/gardening-with-a-black-thumb-joys-of-an-early-spring.aspx

Also I’ll be having two more guest bloggers this week.  Kelley Harrell.  She is a wonderful author.  Here is her bio:

Kelley holds a Bachelor of Arts in English, and is pursuing a Masters of Divinity. She lives in North Carolina with a wonderful lover and a couple of energetic Twinkies. Her open dialogue with souls is recorded at Intentional Insights. She writes for The Huffington Post and in a mezzo experience of herself, Kelley is a prolific fiction writer. Her shamanic practice is Soul Intent Arts, LLC. She walks the path of the modern Druid and is a proud founder of the nonprofit organization The Saferoom Project

Elizabeth Hazel is the other author.  She has a weekly horoscope column and is a published author.  Here is her bio:

Elizabeth Hazel is the author of “Tarot Decoded” (Weiser) and writes the weekly Third Rock Almanac Horoscopes posted every Sunday at Kozmic Kitchen on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kozmic-Kitchen. Liz is the editor of the American Tarot Association Quarterly Journal, and the author/artist of “The Whispering Tarot” deck and book. Her book “Chiron and the Lady Asteroids: A New Perspective” will be released in 2012. Articles on a variety of topics can be seen at her site: www.kozmic-kitchen.com
Watch tomorrow for Kelley’s posting!!!

Good Things!

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized
The transcription job went well and I’ve been asked to do more.  This is wonderful.  I also got a new inquiry for what sounds like a very interesting job.  I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get that job as well.  It might be longer term and a good bit of money. 
I did have one concern because it is for the university I work for.  I asked my boss about it but she said it isn’t in my job description to do what they are asking so I can do it as a consulting job with no qualms about crossing any lines.
In other news – (that sounds so official) I got two of the required classes waived.  After talking to one of my professors, I realized two of my classes I’d already done the work for them in my work, education, and writing life.  I sent along a professional, detailed letter to the chair of our department.  I got notified today that she will be waiving the two classes I wanted waived!  This means I can either finish a semester earlier or I can take two additional classes that might get me further in my goals.
My new blog got published today again.  Check it out.  There are some great pictures there.  I’m really proud of this blog and the pictures.  Okay I know they aren’t professional looking pictures but I took them and for the most part they look really good.  http://www.naturalhomeandgarden.com/green-gardening/gardening-with-a-black-thumb-how-to-arrange-silk-flowers.aspx
It has been a bonus day!
Shout out to all my international readers – Germany beat out even my US readers so guten Abend and danke (that is probably the most I remember from my failed attempt at learning German – i.e. 1 semester of college German)  

Good Day!!!

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized
It was Ken’s birthday today.  We don’t really do a lot for birthdays but he got a cake and lots of well wishes.  It was also a beautiful day today which means work was less stressful on him. 
I also got home last night to a package from Pillhill Press.  I’d ordered copies of the book where my short stories are published.  They arrived yesterday!!  Here is a picture of the cover.
Photo snapped on my cell phone…
Also my second posting on my new blog came out today.  The web address for it is here:  http://www.naturalhomeandgarden.com/green-gardening/gardening-with-a-black-thumb-landscaping-tips.aspx  The pictures in there turned out really good so go check it out.  There is a bit of advice and a bit of humor for my black thumb state.
My Fiction Writing class is going to be interesting next week.  I’m going to have my short story critiqued.  I can’t say anything.  I just have to sit there and take notes.  This should be interesting.  I don’t know if they are going to like the story as when we talk in class these people (yes I’m making a concerted effort to not call them kids) seem very idealistic and high brow.
We were having a discussion on happiness and whether you can successfully write about happiness.  The article we had to read was quite scathing and condescending.  I disagreed with him.  I think in poetry particularly you can write about happiness.  The professor said we can only see the happy moments in hind sight.  I was appalled at that – how can you not be aware enough to recognize those moments.  I raised my hand (sometimes I wish I had someone to restrain me in class and my damn hand going up) and disagreed with her.  She told me that perhaps being older makes it easier for me to recognize those moments. 
Now I’m not touching about my age.  I’ll soon be 48 and am quite proud of that.  But in this instance I wanted to say it has nothing to do with age but with an awareness of how rare and fragile happiness is.  I mean really can you name a lot of truly completely happy moments in your life?  If you are lucky you are nodding and saying hell yes! 
I think happiness is the carrot and life is the stick.  The problem is life is happiness if you let it be but people don’t recognize that even when you are fighting or struggling or just having a bad hair day – you can still find happy moments in your day.  It is the little things – really as much of a cliché as that is – that matter the most.  (This from the wise old age of 48!!!)
Anyways – I’m enjoying my classes and feel challenged by them.  This is a good thing in the second week of classes.  My professors are miles and miles better than the two I had last semester. 

Next week I’ll find out if I can reach the audience of college students with my short story.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

New Blog

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized
When visiting with Laura and Karen recently, I told them about this new blog I was writing a blog about growing things.  They were appalled.  Now don’t be down on them their reaction was priceless and absolutely correct.  I cannot grow anything.  For me to write about plants seems ridiculous.  I have the blackest thumb in the universe. 
I love plants.  I love flowers and they bring me such peace and pleasure.  It makes me sad that I cannot grow anything.  Having a black thumb is going to be my focus.  I’m going to try to talk about ways to overcome this black thumb curse.  To that end – please come visit my new blog at:

For those of you who are good with plants and such you might want to check out the rest of the web site.  It has some really good stuff…