frazzled & frumpy

June made me laugh the moment I met her. She is a strong woman with the survival instinct of a lion. Her blog- Simply June - is one part funny, one part inspirational. (Then there's the reviews of Downton Abby, which I don't watch...yet.) Big thanks to her for sharing some of her wisdom here.  Hi, my name is June. I am a Mother, Wife, Sister, Victim Advocate, Survivor, Friend and a daughter of God who thinks a sense of humor is mandatory when dealing with life. I  share all the things that inspire, inform, support of or simply bring a smile to my  face as well as others.  Sometimes all you can do is laugh through the hard times, so why not practice and be good at it?  Dark Blue fades to Clear The saying goes "God will never give us a trial we can’t handle" and I think that's true but, we don't have to get through our trials alone. Once, during a hot summer in Australia, I was driving to pick up Brian at work and while I waited for him in the ...

"The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. "My mother told me something similar when I was young: you don't get to choose whether you're a writer; your only choice is whether to be a writer who writes or a writer who doesn't. What she didn't tell me then, though I'm certain she knew, is that if you're a writer and you're not writing, you will never quite be happy."--Joan Didion I've been a writer for as long as I can remember.  It started with poetry and then on to stories.  As a teen, I wrote constantly.  I recorded my thoughts and wrote poems about anything.  It truly was a compulsion. Then, I went years without writing.  Years.  I was a young mother, busily nursing, diapering, and running around after my kids.  Occasionally I would toss out a poem, but never much.  A...