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Creative Writing – Wrapping It Up

Part 6 of The Creative Writing Crash Course.

If you are just joining us, you can read the introduction to our little Creative Writing Crash Course and then start with Part 1 of the series.

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This is the final post in this series.  No assignments.  Just encouragement…
Put together everything you’ve learned here.  Work on writing those posts we talked about in Part 1.  Reread what you write for flow and grammar and spelling errors.  But, most of all…
Enjoy Yourself!
Creative writing shouldn’t be drudgery.  It’s supposed to be fun!

So, that said, I thank all of you who have participated in this Creative Writing Crash Course.  I’ve enjoyed reading what you’ve written, I’ve enjoyed reading your comments here, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know you a bit better too!

The last MckLinky for this series will be for you to link up any blog posts you’ve done since following these lessons that you feel really show off what you’ve learned.  I’m looking forward to hearing from you and reading more great blog posts!


Links to other posts in this series:
THIS POST IS PART 6 – WRAPPING IT UP

Family Pictures

“Stop making that face, Lia!”

“Keian sit still!”

“Everyone smile! No, not like THAT!”

These were phrases heard repeatedly during our photo session at the Kraft’s house on Wednesday.

Family pictures for a large family can easily reach nightmare proportions. You have no idea how thankful I am Lynnette has a large family and isn’t easily irritated by the antics of 5 children.

Lynnette is editing frantically and sending them as she does. It is so fun to open each email from her! They are all so fun and beautiful! (However, I do think I might ask her to “edit” about 20 pounds off of me! lol)

I wanted to share with all of you some of the photos I received last night…




More to come!

The Annual Pumpkin Patch Trek

WARNING: MY CHILDREN ARE ADORABLE SO THIS POST IS PICTURE HEAVY!

Several years ago, some friends of ours began an endeavor known as Harvest Farms. They were just plain ole farmers with a vision…a vision to keep the farm afloat with pumpkins…lots and lots of pumpkins!

We visited the farm the first year they were up and running. A few months later, we moved away and had not been back until this year.

Let me just say WOW!

The business has grown tremendously and we were thrilled to see the fruits of their labors. Our friends told us that the week prior to our visit they had sold 19,000 lbs of pumpkins and seen 2200 people come through the doors. For a tiny town in the middle of nowhere that is utterly amazing!

Here are a few of the “attractions” we enjoyed at the Farms…

The Hayloft Slide
The Tractor Derby

The coolest bike ever!

A horse just the right speed for Keian.

Later, we headed out to the pumpkin patch to choose our pumpkins. Megan found this “little” number.

At $.25 a pound with 5 children buying pumpkins, you have to do some weight guess-timation and some mental math along the way. Ty asked me if I thought it weighed about 8#. I tugged at it and said, no, probably more like 10#. AHEM….it was

26.4 POUNDS!

Word to the wise…pumpkins weigh more than they look!

Following Megan’s lead, Keian was off to find his perfect pumpkin…


Ever hear of “Sour Pumpkins?” lol

But, all was well, and everyone found their perfect pumpkin, including little Micah.


And thus ended another pumpkin patch trip! What a blast!

Smelly Stuff

Happy 2nd day of Autumn/Fall to ya! (lol…couldn’t resist!)


I got to thinking about a comment Georgiann left on the PREVIOUS POST about “smelling” versus “feeling” crispness. I am almost positive I “smell” crispness, yet, she is absolutely right that I should probably “feel” it instead…hmmm…..

That’s when I realized I “smell”.

(ha! I had a moment where I thought, “I should just end the post right there and come back in a few days to 0 subscribers and 0 followers!” lol! Reign her back in, Amy!)

Not too long ago, I handed my 3 year old son a pair of fresh unnies for the day and before putting them on, he proceeded to smell them! I about laughed myself silly before realizing he just did EXACTLY what I do whenever I am trying to decide if something is clean or dirty.

Years ago, my oldest daughter came sniffing her way into the kitchen asking, “Who just opened a can of soda?” I was shocked until I realized it is not uncommon for me to sniff my way through the house (especially when pregnant!) trying to find something I am smelling, be it good or bad.

In fact, most of my memories have smells attached to them.

Everything from a certain lotion that reminds me of morning sickness to the hot tar and concession food smells that remind me of the State Fair to the smell of cool, crisp Friday night football games that bring me back to my high school years…EVERYTHING has a smell associated with it.

Even though some smells bring back painful or just icky memories (I have actually gotten up and moved away from a place where I could smell that morning sickness…I mean that lotion I’m not particularly fond of), I kind of like the fact that my life is smelly!

So, Georgiann, you are right…I don’t actually “smell” crispness, but what I do smell reminds me of the “feel” of crispness. It really is a beautiful thing how our senses work together to create an entire mental picture and invoke such strong emotions!