My Super Fabulous Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday. It turned out to be one of the best birthdays I’ve had.

When I woke up and came down for breakfast this is what I found at my place:

My son and his GF who now live with me bought me the roses and a beautiful card. It put a smile on my face all morning long!

The night before my daughter had dinner for the family, She made Chicken Riggies. Yumm!

My DIL has the same birthday as mine so she was celebrated too! It looks like the whole cake was on fire but it wasn’t.

So yesterday I had a free entry coupon from Applebees and I asked my son and DGF to go with me there. I had one of the 550 calorie dinners and it was great!

And then they gave me a free dessert, too! I didn’t know that came with it. It was a small cup of strawberry cheesecake. And it tasted like real cheesecake! Yummy too! Then the server asked me if I wanted them to sing for me. I said, “Sure, bring it on. That’s why I came here.” Then they gave me the dessert with a lit candle in it.

I was so happy! What a wonderful day!

When I got home, my SON had baked me a cake with red raspberry swirled throughout it. That too was delicious.
And best of all, when I got on the scale this morning, I found out that my weight was down from the day before.

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I Had a Dream

dreams and wishes. 62/365 (Photo credit: nicole.pierce.photography ♥)

      The most wonderful thing happened last night in a dream…my husband came to visit me.  

     He was there right next to me and I could see his smiling face, dimples showing. It was so vivid, so real! It felt so good to see him again. And we talked and chatted for a time. I could see right into his blue eyes and every feature of that familiar face so close to mine and then he kissed me. It was just like old times. He was so happy to see me; I could see it in his face. I smiled too and felt magnificent.

     And as we talked he put his arms around me and hugged me tight. I could actually feel the hug. I didn’t want to open my eyes because I knew when I did, he’d be gone. Gone back to his heavenly home where he’s been for three years now.

     This is the first time I dreamt of him so vividly; one other time in another dream I saw only his figure.

     I had been praying for a sign from him that I desperately needed at this time and that surely was one. 

     What a wonderful  dream to have!

Writing By Candlelight Won The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

This blog won this award!

Hello Friends,
Today I am very excited to report that my blog was presented with, The Very Inspiring Blogger Award, by http://beatredundancyblues.wordpress.com/

My mission has been just that. To inspire others through this blog. I sincerely hope I have lived up to that. Thanks very much Sandra Bellamy (quirkybooks) for this nomination. I appreciate it very much.

For the ‘Very Inspiring Blogger Award’ The rules are:

1. I should display the award logo somewhere on my blog. Done.
2. Link back to the blog of the person who nominated me. Done.
3. State 7 things about myself. Done.
4. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award and provide links to their blogs. (Done)
5. Notify those bloggers that they have been nominated and of the award’s requirements. (Will do)

Here are 7 things I would like to share about myself:

1.  I am an Author of Children’s Historical Fiction.
2. I love to read.
3. I was a teacher before I retired.
4. I walk about 2 miles everyday.
5. I love to give presents.
6. I consider myself very spiritual.
7.  I have 8 grown-up children.

Now I need to nominate other blogs for the award. I nominate the following:

 

http://quirkybooks.wordpress.com

http://kissedbyliterature.blogspot.com

http://weaklyshortstories.wordpress.com/

http://menofoneaccord.wordpress.com/about/

http://clumsymusings.wordpress.com

http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/

http://newenglandmuse.wordpress.com/

Use the New Dishes

Last week I was looking in my cupboard at all of my beautiful dishes and it hit me. ..In all the years I’ve had those dishes,  I bet I’ve only used them 3 or 4 times. How sad. My husband who urged me to buy them has passed away, and all of my children no longer live at home.  And the dishes still sit there waiting to be used.

Why do we do this? Save things for some unknown special day.

I say , “Use the good dishes.” Enjoy them. Don’t wait to pass them on to someone after you are gone. Use them until they are all used up.  And if you are not going to use them, give them to someone who will.

And so it is with other things in our lives that we are waiting to do when the time is right.

“Oh we’ll get married when we save enough money.”

“We’ll have kids when we are ready for them…not now.”

“We’ll buy that new house when things are perfect.”

Guess what?

You will never have enough money.                                                                                                                               You will never be ready.                                                                                                                                                      And things will never be perfect.

Just do it! Use the good dishes!

My Interview by Jori

I am re-blogging this from a friends blog:

Kissed by Literature

Novels are my obsession… Let me share with you my thoughts and reviews.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Interview – Dorothy Stacy

In the past, I’ve hosted young adult, fantasy, and mystery authors.  So, I thought I would go in another direction: Middle Grade.  Add to that the stunning factor that this author is local, and I vote we have a winning mix.  I am pleased to introduce Dorothy Stacy!  She is the author of the Erie CanalCousins.

Kissed by Literature: Would you mind telling us about your book series?

Dorothy Stacy: Erie Canal Cousins is the story of a 13-year old girl, Rose Stewart, traveling down the Erie Canal on a line boat in 1840 with a bunch of boisterous cousins she has never met before. She is traveling to Utica, NY to help out her aunt who has just has her 4^th child in 6 years. It is a time when the Erie Canal is alive with lights, colorful canal boats, booming businesses, and interesting sights. It is where locks, low bridges, mules, and towlines are a part of everyday life. (Integrates a lot of canal history into the story)

Three Weeks in Utica- Book 2 talks about her adventures in Utica, which was a very prosperous town at that time. (contains a lot of Utica history)

Albany Homecoming-Book 3 Rose returns to her home in Albany via the Canal (Albany history and one-room school house history)

Canal Town Christmas-Book 4 tells how Thanksgiving and Christmas were celebrated and became holidays in the US. (holiday history)

Stars Over Buffalo-Book 5 is about the other end of the canal from Utica to Buffalo. The group travels through Rome, Syracuse, Montezuma Swamp, Rochester, Lockport, Niagara Falls, and Buffalo.

All of the books are full of family life, humor, adventure, and growing friendships for ages 9 through Adult. Yes, even adults like the books.

KBL: Some readers who aren’t from this area (Upstate New York) might not be familiar with the Erie Canal.  Would you mind giving us a quick history lesson?

DS: The Erie Canal is a 363 mile man-made waterway across New York State between  Buffalo and Albany to provide for easier transportation across the state. It was 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep when first built and later was expanded. It consisted of many locks to get from one level to another and bridges for farmers to get from one side of their property if the canal went through it. The canal took 8 years to build and cost over 7 million dollars. It was all dug by hand with no modern tools to use.

Interest in it began in the early 1800s, digging started in Rome, NY in 1817, and it was finished in 1825. A Wedding of the Waters Ceremony took place upon its completion. Then people and goods were able to get from Albany to Buffalo in 10 days whereas the land route took 2 to 3 weeks.

KBL: How long have you been writing?

DS: I have been writing ever since I could hold a pencil. When I was around 7 or 8, I would write a story called, “The Adventures of Rosemary.” It was written in a 3” x 5” notebook with chapters 3 pages long. This was patterned on my life events. If I went to visit my grandparents across town, Rosemary went to see her grandparents.

When I was in grade school in a class of 54, I sat in the last double seat in a row with a good friend of mine who also liked to write. We received this honor because we were quiet and did not cause commotion. We each had a special notebook that we would write SOAP OPERAS in.  After we each wrote a chapter, we would exchange notebooks on the space between us on the seat and read each other’s stories. And…we never got caught.  It was such fun.

When I was married I wrote some and sent magazine articles out to different companies. I often received great comments on the work but was not able to get them published.  However I did write 2 articles for a religious magazine, which were purchased and paid for but never appeared in print because the magazine ceased to exist before they were published. That was very discouraging but I kept on writing because I loved it. I also took a few courses on writing in the meantime.

KBL: Do you have any tips for aspiring authors?

DS: 1. If you love to write, NEVER GIVE UP! Keep on trying. It is much easier to get books published these days and Indy Authors are gaining more and more respect and acceptability. If you have a really great book and it keeps getting rejected, you can open your own publishing company and do it yourself with a great printing place. For example I did it and used Morris Publishing Co. They are wonderful to work with.

2. Keep on writing even if it is just keeping a journal or writing short stories. These actually are the first novels I have ever written.

3. You’ll need a day job until the bucks come rolling in from your writing.  LOL . A teaching career is good preparation for writing. And you can try out your books on the children.

4. Read lots of books, especially in the genre you want to write in.

KBL: What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned from writing the Erie Canal Cousins series?

DS: Not to let people push me around. I had my first book with a publisher for a year and a half who kept telling me they were going to publish it and it was just waiting for a final okay. I kept waiting and waiting , sending e-mails back and forth,  getting what I thought was positive feedback, only to have the manuscript sent back after that. I would never tolerate anything like that again. However at the time I was scared to death to try to  publish it myself. Now I am so happy that I did and would not go the other route again.

Also Book Series are great because if people like the first book, they will usually buy the rest of it.

KBL: Do you have any ideas for future projects?

DS: Yes, I am researching and writing another historical fiction series about the girl in the first series’ children which will be located in the Sauquoit area in 1857. It will be called, The Town of Paris Twins. The first book will take place on Paris Hill which was called Paris, New York in those days. The twins Annie and Charlie, age 11, will go to the Doolittle School (now an operating one-room schoolhouse museum) where their father will be the schoolmaster, etc. But wait…I don’t want to give too much away. I hope I can get it out in 2013 for the 20^th anniversary of the reconstruction of the schoolhouse. This will probably be a 3 book series or possibly more.

I have a website where anyone can check out the books: www.dorothystscy.com and a Facebook page for myself under: Dorothy Dmochowski Stacy-Author and one for my books at: Erie Canal Cousins Series-The Books. Give us a look!

Now is your chance to join Dorothy Stacy on her trip along the Erie Canal.  She’s offered to send the first Erie Canal Cousins book to one of you lucky blog readers.  To be eligible, all you need to do is leave a comment on Jori’s blog http://kissedbyliterature.blogspot.com/   with your name and email address so I can get in touch with you.  I’ll pick the winner in December, so make sure to comment soon!

Thank you, Dorothy, for a wonderful interview!

Posted by Jori at 7:39 AM

Thank you, Jori, for the opportunity to be interviewed on your blog.

The ABC’s of Me

  THIS IS WHO I AM:                                                                   

     A—-Author—–Appreciative

     B—-Blessed

     C—-Crocheter—-Consider

     D—–Dedicated

     E—–Easy going—-Erie Canal Gal

      F—–Faithful—-Funny—–Facebook addict

      G—-Generous

Dorothy Stacy            H—–Happy—-History lover—Helper

                                         I—–Illustrator

                                         J—–Jesus believer

                                          K—–Knitter

                                    L—–Loyal—-Loving—-Living my Dream

                             M—–Mother—–Marketer

                       N—–Nana

                 O—–Original—– Ocean lover

            P—-Publisher—-Persistent

      Q—–Quilter

R—–Reader—–Responsible

S—–Strong—-Spiritual

T—–Teacher—-Talker—-Trustworthy

U—–Understanding

V—–Vision

W—-Walker—–Writer

X —-Xercizer

Y—–Youthful

Z—–Zealous

Your Religious Freedom is Being Threatened, Folks

Stand Up for Religious Freedom (Photo credit: American Life League)

While eating lunch today, I turned the TV to EWTN and viewed a very interesting program. It was a discussion panel on the HHS Mandate and what its impact would be on us. I never realized the enormity of the consequences for so many people.

This mandate “requires almost all private health plans to cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. The federal government will force religious institutions to fund and facilitate coverage of a drug or procedure contrary to their moral teaching, and try to define which religious institutions are “religious enough” to merit an exemption. This is a matter of whether religious people and institutions can be forced by the government to provide such coverage even when it violates our consciences.” (From:  Intersection, the Church, the state, and me)

Many religious charities will have to cease to exist under the new government mandates in health care. They will be fined if they do not comply…$100. a day for each employee for not complying. If there were 100 employees, that would cost the organization $1,000. a day. Many of these charities that do such good work and help so many people would have to close; they could not afford these fees or TAXES as they are called. This also threatens nurses and doctors jobs, too. If they have to be forced to commit what they feel is a crime, many would chose to leave their jobs instead or be fired. Churches, religious schools, some hospitals would also be affected by this.

A book, Catholics in the Public Square, by Rev. Thomas Olmstead would be good to look into on this matter.

The separation of Church and State was intended to keep government from interfering in faith…not the other way around.

A crisis in faith affects our government  today. God was even omitted from the Democratic Platform, but immediately reinserted when it looked like that would be a problem for them.

This is a crisis folks! People stand up for your Religious Rights! And be informed before you vote in November.

Credit:   EWTN page

Delightful Gathering at the Sea

 

Hampton Beach, New Hampshire

Ah the sea!

This week we are spending time at Hampton Beach in New Hampshire. The ocean is my favorite part of the trip. I just love to walk along the beach, feel the cold water swish over my feet as I get my morning walk in, and collect the rocks along the way that entice me to pick them up. As I drop them into my pocket, the load gets heavier and heavier and I intend to pass them by but  cannot resist adding just one more heart shaped one, one more silver flecked one, and one more black one with a white cross in it. Soon my load becomes too heavy and I must return to my room to sort out my treasures. I wash the rocks and place them on a paper plate to dry. The next day I intend to ignore the stones, but end up doing it all over again.

I also love every kind of seafood there is…lobster being my favorite, scallops next, full belly clams, etc. I also love clam chowder. All so yummy!

And then there is the shopping…outlets in Maine, tax free bargains in NH, the book store…plenty to keep one occupied.

Best of all, a whole lot of my children and grandchildren are here. We each have a condo in the same place, so we can visit each other, have some of our meals together, and gather on the beach together to talk, laugh, relax and have the best time ever.

And we do this every summer.

Another re-posting from Carol Kinney’s Blog:

Monday, July 23, 2012

   Yesterday, I finally had a chance to sit and relax a bit. Snuggled up in my recliner chair with the Sunday OD on my lap, I flipped to the section that has all of the human interest stories and on the front page was an article about the Erie Canal (http://www.uticaod.com/living/x42014651/10-things-to-know-about-the-Erie-Canal) and as I read the article, I was reminded how blessed we are in our area to have people who appreciate the beauty that our region offers, as part of God’s creation and man-made creation, and who want to share all that they know about our valley with those of us who take the time to listen and read. Dorothy Stacy is one of those people from whom we can learn from about history in our area-and the Erie Canal is her expertise, since she has written five books about life on the Erie Canal!

  All that our Mohawk Valley and state has to offer, is surrounded in such rich history that teaches us about the generations who came before us and how they shaped the region for us today.  Some of it was good, and some of it was not so good, but all of it is alive with colorful stories of men, women and children who shared vision and imagination and put those qualities to task by putting their hearts, souls, strength and sweat into all that they did.  This is what Dorothy Stacy conveys in her life, as well as her books.

    Mrs. Stacy has led a full and interesting life and her passion for history plays a HUGE part of it.  Aside from being the author of the Erie Canal Cousins book series for middle readers, she is a member of the Oneida County Historical Society, Vice President of the Town of Paris Historical Society, and author of the Town of Paris Historical Society’s newsletter.  I cannot do justice to Mrs. Stacy’s long list of accomplishments and interests, so here are links to her website and blog:

http://dorothystacy.com/ (Check out her “about me” page-you’ll be amazed.  A word of caution: after reading all about her, you might feel like you are a slacker-ha, ha!)

http://dorothystacy.wordpress.com/  (a quick check of the blog reveals Mrs. Stacy’s new book series!)

Next time . . . Stories about cousins.

Thank you so much Carol!

Posted by C.A.J. Kinney at 8:12 AM

Busyness

Carol Kinney has given permission to re-post this from her blog, “Friends and Words”

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

     Busy.  Crazy Busy.  Last week I was watching a segment on MSNBC that spoke about how that seems to be everyone’s theme  ”song”-the latest craze if you will, and it seems as if I have joined in reciting this to everyone.

     “How are you?” someone may ask.  ”Busy. Crazy busy” I reply, and receive a nod of agreement from the other party.  I don’t even have to say what we are busy with, because they know, for they are just as busy. We are all busy-crazy busy.  This summer seems to be especially busy for my family.  We were preparing for our daughter’s high school graduation, getting ready for her party later this week, rushing her off to her college orientation, visiting colleges with our son who will be a senior, juggling our schedules with two kids who have also entered the work force, caring for an aging parent, preparing for our son’s performance in Stage Two local theater, etc., etc., etc.  Summer is supposed to be a time for relaxation, spending time with family, soaking up the rays of the sun that is so elusive to us Northeasterners in the winter months, yet our schedules and activities often prevent us from enjoying the simpler pleasures of the long awaited summer.This was not the case in the mid 1800′s.  

“Tuesday, August 11, 1840
Utica, New York

I awoke with a start this morning at the shrill sound of a rooster crowing.  For a moment, I could not remember where I was.  I was not at home in my bed in Albany.  Nor was I still in the cabin of Uncle Dermot’s boat on the Erie Canal.  the smell of freshly cut hay drifted through the open window, and cool air had replaced the stifling heat of the night before.   As I glanced around the room, I finally remembered that I, Rose Stewart, was now in Utica on my Aunt Jenny and Uncle Andrew’s farm.  I will be here for three weeks to help Aunt Jenny with the boys and the new baby.

I am writing about my adventures on this trip . . .”

     This is the opening sentence of Dorothy Stacy’s book Three Weeks in Utica, the second book in her Erie Canal Cousins series.  Mrs. Stacy, a retired elementary school teacher who has spent a lifetime in Utica and Sauquoit, has written this historical fiction series for “middle readers” and bases her main characters after her own grandchildren.  

     The thing that I would like to point out, is Mrs. Stacy is no stranger to crazy busy-ness and has been for quite some time.  It is not a fad or catch phrase to her, but her life!  In the coming days, I will be sharing her story, information about her books, and her pearls of wisdom for aspiring authors.

     I hope that you will take the time to become un-busy and enjoy this adventure back in time, when things were not “crazy busy.”

     Until next time, wishing you the blessings of relaxation with friends.  Take the time to curl up in a hammock and read.  Better yet, read the entire five book Erie Canal Cousins Series with your children!  It’ll be time well spent.

Posted by C.A.J. Kinney at 5:14 AM