Ramblings-n-Writings

Archive for November, 2008

Our housewarming party on Saturday was tons of fun. Some really great friends and neighbors stopped by. And you know what, I totally forgot to take pictures! Ack!!!

Right now, we’re waiting for my parents to arrive for the week. My brother and his family will be here on Wednesday. I’m soooooo excited!!! (This is the 4th Thanksgiving in 15 years that I’ll spend with my brother, and the first Thanksgiving my husband will spend with my family. Yay!)

I’m not sure how much I’ll be here this week. I have some ideas for great posts, but I need to find the time to write them.

One of the topics that I’m planning on writing about soon is living on one income. I get a lot of Google hits for some posts I wrote awhile back on that topic. I want to expand on those ideas and also relate to those who are finding themselves on one income because of the current economy.

I know there is a very popular blog out there that talks about surviving on one income, and frequently praises the idea as being easy. It’s not. However, based on details that the writer scatters in various posts, I’m guessing their family income is $50K or more per year. To me and a lot of people, that would be luxury. My focus will be on those of us who have a limited income to the point that you’re not sure if you’ll survive the month.

So, as I have time to put the words on paper screen, I’ll start my series on surviving on a low income.

Are you familiar with the Anglo-Saxon epic tale of Beowulf? Do I hear some of you shouting with joy? Oh wait, that’s moaning. I think Beowulf is every high schooler’s English class nightmare.

I first remember studying it in high school, but not really understanding a lot of it. (I later had the privilege of teaching it to my high schoolers – thankfully I understood it by that time!) Then in college, I had the horror privilege of studying it again.

Have you ever heard the story told in the Old English? One of my college literature professors, Dr. Dan Hurst, spoke Old English fluently (maybe?) and would entertain us with parts of the story. Even though we couldn’t understand a word he said, the cadence and inflections helped paint the story in a way that the modern English translation doesn’t even touch.

This video featuring Benjamin Bagby comes close…

If you go to YouTube, you can see additional clips of other scenes.

The forecast said less than an inch of accumulation. At 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, we woke to this…

I undertook a monumental task last week. *drum roll, please* I built a website!

At the end of May, I purchased a domain for my business. (For all the non-techies, the domain is kind of another name for the website address. Not that simple, but good enough. ) For awhile, I had a generic design that really didn’t reflect me or my business. In other words, I wasn’t happy with it but didn’t know what to do.

In July, my brother, having complete faith in his sister’s abilities (or lack thereof), bought me a belated birthday present of two HTML books. (Again, non-techies, HTML is what websites are made of. It’s a programming language.) I looked at them a couple of times, but never made the commitment to studying them. Besides, it looked HARD!

Last week, I finally committed myself to sitting down and making some sense of it all. Tuesday evening I skimmed through the 500+ page tutorial book taking mental notes of things I needed to know.

Wednesday afternoon, I sat down with my template, modified it, and started building the site. Talk about EASY! Once I understood the concepts of how HTML and CSS worked together, things flowed.

So, why am I bragging? Um, well… because I can? Actually, not really, although that sounds good.

The company that hosts my site (non-techies: that means the place that has the computers where my website is stored and operates from) has different offers as part of the hosting deal. One of the offers was for crawling and search engine optimization. Okay, explanation – when you use Google, the sites that are crawled the most and have SEO show up at the top of the list. I submitted my newly re-designed site.

On Monday, I got a phone call from the crawling/SEO company. They do some of the things for free, but they also have packages that you can purchase. The sales guy was nice – I could tell he was genuine and that he understood what he was talking about (no reading scripts for him – a huge plus in my book! Oh, and he spoke English.).

What? You want to know why I’m bragging? Oh yeah. Well, this nice sales guy who spends all day looking at websites commented that the site looked great. He asked who built the site, and I humbly responded, “Me.”

He asked if I had made other sites, and again, I humbly told him that this was the first one. To say he was impressed was an understatement. I did confess that I started with a template, but he said that with the time that it took me to do it and with everything working nicely, it was amazingly good. *patting self on back*

So without further ado, click here to visit Skala Creative LLC. The site is fully functional – including that awesome “Contact Us” page with the annoying-to-design form. However, the portfolio is empty since I still have to figure out the best way to upload and lay out the page.

When the portfolio is finished, I’m planning a giveaway, so stay tuned!

Today Christian Fiction Blog Alliance presents White Christmas Pie by Wanda Brunstetter – Barbour Publishing (September 1, 2008).

About the book:

Step into Amish country for this bittersweet holiday romance. Here you’ll meet Will Henderson, a young man tortured by his past, and Karen Yoder, a young woman looking for answers. Add a desperate father searching for his son, and you have all the ingredients for a first-class romance that will inspire and enthrall.

Abandoned by his father, Will Henderson was raised by an Amish couple. Now he’s about to marry Karen Yoder but is having second thoughts. Can Will overcome the bitterness of his past in order to secure his future? Karen cannot break through the barrier her fiance has suddenly constructed around his heart. When she seeks the advice of an old boyfriend, Will begins to see green. Has he already lost his chance for happiness?

When an accident threatens Will’s life, the strength of blood ties is tested. Will a recipe for White Christmas pie contain the ingredients for a happily-ever-after?

My review:

I’m going to be brutally honest – I did not like this book. I began the book with anticipation because I’d never read anything written by Wanda Brunstetter and had heard good things about her Amish books.

However, I felt like this book was lacking substance. In my opinion, it just isn’t on par with a lot of today’s Christian fiction. It did a lot of “telling,” not “showing,” of what was happening. And the characters were cookie-cutter characters all from the same mold. They spoke the same, acted the same.

As far as the Amish setting, I really didn’t learn a lot about the Amish that I didn’t already know. In reality, if the Amish references were removed, the story wouldn’t change at all.

On the other hand, the story line and themes were really good. A father, who deserted his son years before, goes on a quest to find his son and ask for forgiveness while the son struggles with being abandoned and eventually with forgiving his father. The son’s emotions from being abandoned also jeopardize his relationship with his future wife.

While forgiveness is central to the story line, I liked how the theme of healing was woven into the story.

Overall, I would recommend this book if you are looking for something simple to read, something that doesn’t require a lot of concentration on details.

If you would like to read the first chapter of White Christmas Pie, go HERE

Watch the book trailer: