Friday, February 28, 2014

What a Difference a Year Makes




Dagny had the wonderful opportunity to go to a birthday party with a painting lesson. What a treat to celebrate and paint with friends! You can see how much she has improved. I love having the kids' drawings and paintings up on the wall. Sometimes they don't like seeing something from when they were little because the drawings look "babyish," but I like having a few keepsakes from their younger years.

It is the same with writing. Looking at those old stories once in a while reminds me how far I've come and boy am I glad for those rejections. But other stories need only be revised for publication. But it's reading great books that reminds me how much farther I have yet to go. They push me to keep studying the craft and keep writing.

This morning we polished off the last of these little orange/mango/peach jam muffins!!! Dagny has discovered Pioneer Woman and routinely uses her recipes and is now improvising them. A sign of a true cook! Oh, what a difference a year makes!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Looking back is always profitable, and sometimes a pleasant surprise. It's nice when you find your writing wasn't quite as bad as you remembered! :)

Mirka Breen said...

My wont is to experience old writing with a cringe. The unusual marvelous surprise of re-reading something sounding almost too good to have been written by me is the rarity that makes me realize I am, after all, in the right profession.
A blessing for those of us who create tangible and lasting things. What I would give to taste a cake I made when I was seven… my first. Maybe it’s the way it should be.
Your kids’ art is superb.

Marcia said...

Your kids are just bursting with talents, Vijaya. I agree that reading books I love is the best motivator for writing. And yes -- most rejections are a blessing. That, frankly, is my biggest reservation about SP.

Vijaya said...

Gary, it is nice to find those gems. I wish it'd happen more often. But as Mirka says, even the rare good things make us realize we're doing something right.

Mirka, this is one of the reasons I love taking pictures ... at least for some time I will be able to preserve the memories. I hope you are recording your daughter's playing every so often. I still have a tape of me playing the piano and singing, but what's truly special is that it has my mother's silvery bell laughter on it. I should think about digitizing it because one day I will no longer have a boombox.

Marcia, you echo my own hesitation to self publish. Oh, how I want for my work to be *out* but is it truly ready? Not yet ...

Thank you for the lovely words about my kids' art. I never had these opportunities and truly appreciate my kids having not just the supplies, but the desire.