2015-06-19T17:02:49+01:00

https://desiretoexpress.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/freestyle-writing-challenge-logo.jpg?w=440&h=274

Episode 381: Freestyle Writing Challenge #2

June 19, 2015/Judy E Martin/31 Comments

I have been challenged to take part in the Freestyle Writing Challenge by two lovely ladies, one being Ritu and the other Erika.

Here are the rules:

1. Open a blank document.
2. Set a stop watch timer to 5 or 10 minutes, whichever length you prefer.
3. Your topic is at the foot of this post BUT DO NOT SCROLL DOWN TO SEE IT UNTIL YOU ARE READY WITH YOUR TIMER!!!
4. Once you start writing do not stop until the alarm sounds! Do not cheat by going back and correcting spelling and grammar using spell check (it is only meant for you to reflect on your own control of sensible thought flow and for you to reflect on your ability to write with correct spelling and grammar.)
5. You may or may not pay attention to punctuation or capitals
6. At the end of your post write down the number of words to give an idea of how much you can write within the time Frame.
7. Put the whole document onto your post and nominate 5 others and give them a new topic. Remember to copy paste the rules in!

I have gone with the topic that Ritu chose, as I saw her nomination first, however Erika also had a great topic.

What I thought life would be like as an adult when I was a kid.

When I was a kid I thought that life was going to be so much better as an adult. After all, there would not be a load of brothers and sisters around to have to share everything with! I also used to hat eth fact that myself and younger sister had to go to bed at the same time even though I was two years older than her! I thought that it would be great being an adult as I would be able to go to bed at whatever time I wanted!

I envisioned myself with a husband and a few kids loving in my own large house probably somewhere by the sea. I didn’t consider how I would get to wherewithal to pay for all the wonderful things I would have. I knew that I would probably work, but I thought It would be with children as a nanny or something like that.

One thing I did know though was that I did not want to live on my own, ever! Although I am quite happy in my own company, and in fact like being on my own quite a lot, I also like to know that there is someone else in the house so that I am not completely alone.

I thought life as an adult would be doing what I wanted all of the time, without having to consider anyone else’s feelings. I could eat when and what I wanted; watch anything I liked on TV, go anywhere I liked; and that life would be filled with fun with no responsibilities!

264 Words, 10 Mins.

Here are my nominees as I would love to see their responses to this challenge.

weebluebirdie

Hummingbird Redemption

The Offkey of Life

AimerBoyz

Nutsrok

Your topic is

What music gets you up on the dancefloor?

Episode 373: It Runs In The Family!

June 13, 2015/Judy E Martin/34 Comments

One of the things I like about my family is that we all have the same warped sense of humour, even if others don’t quite see the joke!

I remember going to our local cinema (or the ‘fleapit’ as it was unaffectionately known) with my older sister to watch ‘Fright Night’ years ago. It was pretty busy and we settled ourselves in for a good scaring, the only problem was that it was not in the least bit frightening (that is saying something coming from me as I am a huge wimp)! In fact, it was funny. We kept giggling at first, then finding it more and more ridiculous ended up rocking in our seats roaring with laughter, especially as no-one else seemed to be laughing.

Often when we get together, we reminisce about the good old days. Unlike other families though, we like to rake up stories about each other’s misfortunes. Things like my mum falling up the stairs in a furniture store whilst carrying some shopping. The shop assistant was appalled that my sister was creased up laughing instead of helping my poor spread-eagled mum up!

My mum is just as bad though as she was helpless with laughter when my little sister ran straight into a glass door whilst chasing after my niece who had toddled off ahead. Mum took great delight in telling us that my sister’s eyes were rolling around in her head, and that her shoe had come off!

When we were young, my mum and step-dad owned a static caravan near Blackpool and we used to go there a lot for weekends and holidays, as we only lived about an hour away then. As was the design then, the living room area used to have a kind of bench style sofa arrangement which could be transformed into a bed if you inserted a large wooden board. Well one of my brothers went to sit down to eat his meal, but misjudged it as the cushion wasn’t put back properly so it was over-hanging the seat. This meant as soon as my brother lowered himself down there was nothing there to support him, and he did a lovely backwards roll out of the open door behind him landing with a nice thud on the grass. What fantastic entertainment for the family that was. Even more so because he got told off for mucking about as if it were his fault!

Oh yes, you don’t get any sympathy in our family if you hurt yourself; in fact it’s laugh first then check for broken bones. As you can imagine, I have had more than my fair share of teasing from the family!

Episode 367: #BeWoW Post. I am OK With Me!

June 10, 2015/Judy E Martin/43 Comments

For our BeWoW post this week, Ronovan has suggested that we could write about being ok with ourselves.

This last year in particular, I have not been ok with myself at all. I have been knocked sideways with depression a couple of times, which meant time off work,frustration and anger at myself for not being able to cope, and lots of time spent wrapping myself up in a cocoon, shying away from being with others.

However, I have managed to break free of it (with the help of my doctor) in the last month and am feeling so much better. I am very lucky that I have such a great bunch of colleagues and an understanding boss, so going back to work was not as difficult as it could have been.

Work has been going really well, and there are a couple of exciting things on the horizon for me hopefully. This is particularly good news, as at one time, I was in a position where I didn’t know if I was ever going to get back to work, whether or not I even wanted to, or if I might lose my job anyway due to the time off. I realise how much I do love my job and that I am even quite good at it!

The fact that I have the daughter I always wanted, and a loving husband that knows me so well, and is so supportive makes life so much easier, as does having such a large family who I can rely on when I need to. This all contributes to making me feel more ok with myself as I know that I am loved, despite feeling to the contrary when I am in that awful slump.

I realise that there are still parts of me that I am not ok with, but that is the physical me, the outside which I am working on. The inner me is not that bad after all and I am finally OK with that!

Episode 352: Cute Cousins!

May 30, 2015/Judy E Martin/29 Comments

Miss Hap is very close to some of her cousins and in this photo she is with my youngest sister’s daughter.

It’s quite funny really, because when she was very young, my niece was always mistaken for my child, to the point where people often commented how much she was the spitting image of me. I never really minded though as I saw it as a compliment, although she has a very different personality to me,being much more outgoing and friendly!

Miss Hap and I look nothing alike, even though when she was younger I would sometimes dress her in a kind of junior version of what I was wearing (poor child)! She has though inherited the ‘clumsy’ gene, tripping over her own feet, and knocking stuff over. Of course, when this happens with family around, she then gets told that she is ‘just like her mother,’ which is very unfortunate for her.

The pair of them, despite being so different in looks, are very similar in personality. They can both be pretty feisty, but are very affectionate and loving as well when they want to be. Despite the 16 year age gap between them, they get on really well together, and although Miss Hap started out grumpy when this photo was taken, her cousin soon got her into a good mood!

Episode 346: #BeWoW – How I Keep Positive.

May 26, 2015/Judy E Martin/7 Comments

This is my BeWoW post as inspired by Ronovan

Keeping positive is something that I am constantly striving to achieve, seeing as I have always tended to look on the negative side of things!

I think as I have got older I have become much more determined, and actually that does help me to focus on the positive, or at least to have a little more self-belief. Workwise, I still have ambition, and want to try to move up another rung on the ladder,and being negative and doubting my ability will not help me get to where I want to be.

Suffering with depression as well, it can very often be difficult to keep positive, as I get times when I feel pretty useless, and rubbish at everything. This drags me down until I turn inwards, and just want to stay in and see nobody (except my husband and daughter). I realise that it is not healthy and am trying to combat this.

Enough of the doom and gloom now, and back to being positive. I think sometimes just reflecting on the things that I have in my life, that I am so thankful for helps too. For example, I have a beautiful daughter, wonderful husband and family as well as a job that I enjoy.

The warmer weather always improves my mood as well. Seeing the sunshine seems to lift my spirits and I realise that there is lots to look forward to; family BBQs, days at the beach, swimming in the sea. all the little pleasures that make life so enjoyable. These are all positive events.

I am also blessed that I have wonderful friends, work colleagues and of course, the blogging community. Interaction with other people for me is very important. Despite my being reclusive at times, I still like to interact with others, and being able to do so online is great for me when I am in hermit mode!

So staying positive is, for me, all about being grateful for what I have, having goals and achieving them, and being surrounded by wonderful and supportive family and friends.

Episode 344: Here Comes Summer!

May 26, 2015/Judy E Martin/28 Comments

What a pleasant day it turned out to be today. As we have just had a Bank Holiday, and the kids are off on half-term, the weather forecast had been rather gloomy for this week (typical), so to see the sun shining this morning was a bonus.

Yesterday my younger sister had given me some cucumber and tomato seedlings, 2 sunflower seedlings and some sweet peas to put in my garden as Mr Grump has not planted anything this year. Luckily, the rosemary, chives and rhubarb we had previously as well as my roses, are doing pretty well, so our garden will not be too sparse this year after all!

Anyway, Miss Hap was out with her friend for the day so I got on with a bit of housework, but had a nice unexpected visit from my sister-in-law. We then went off to pick up my little sister from work and went back to her house to sit out in the garden for while.

My sister (Masterchef) likes to makes an occasion our of everything, we sat outside drinking Earl Grey tea from pretty china cups (she kept glancing over at me as I am usually not to be trusted with anything delicate due to my clumsiness) and tucking into a huge platter of cheese, gammon, feta cheese and biscuits.

It was so lovely sitting there chatting, as we rarely get to spend time with each other. The garden looked beautiful with the flowers and plants just coming to life, the sun was shining,and we all were laughing. It was such a simple pleasure, but gave me a much-needed boost to my mood!

Oh and when I got home I got sunburnt – but of course being me, it is only on the one arm! Classy! 🙂

Episode 336: #BeWoW Post. How I Connect.

May 20, 2015/Judy E Martin/20 Comments

This Post is inspired by Ronovan’s Writes Be Wonderful on Wednesday.

As I was thinking about what to write here, I came to the conclusion that actually, I am not really great at connecting, at least not in most situations.

The fact that I have a blog and belong to an online community means that I do connect with others on a daily basis, sending comments back and forth, and getting into interesting conversations, and finding the funny side of things. This seems to be where I am most comfortable!

I am very shy and can sometimes come across as aloof in person, despite that being far from the truth. It just seems that I am so much better at expressing myself with the written word rather than the spoken one! This does not bode well in social situations though. Funnily enough, although I hate job interviews, I have always been quite lucky in that I have overcome the fear and secured the job, on many occasions. That was probably due to the fact that I knew I had to do it, or I would be jobless and penniless!

As far as my family and close friends are concerned, I am much better at making connections. It has always taken me a little while to get to know people to the point where I can just be myself with them. Last year for example, we had a family friend come over to visit us from Sweden where he now lives. He has known me since I was 9 years old, and we were in my mum’s back garden with other members of my family. He couldn’t get over how much I was joining in, laughing and making jokes. That is the real me, but not that many people get to see it because of my inability to connect well with others I do not know.

One of the other ways I connect with people is again through the written word but this time, a poem which is nearly always a funny little ditty. Whenever there is a family wedding, special celebration or even sad event I have always written a poem for that person. It is just my way of letting them know that I care for them, even though I am not good at saying it face to face.

We are not a ‘lovey-dovey’ type of family, Well, at least we were not brought up like that, My parents did not ever tell any of us that they loved us, as that is just the way it was then. However. all of us constantly tell our kids that we love them as it is important to have that security and knowledge to know you are loved. Love is certainly the strongest of connections, and I do have that bond with my daughter.

Mainly,in one way or another, whether written or spoken, I connect with people through humour. I think it is so much easier to make a connection with people if you are all laughing together!

Episode 309: What Family Is To Me

April 29, 2015/Judy E Martin/17 Comments

This post is inspired by Ronovanswrtites BeWoW.

I come from quite a large family, having three older brothers and two sisters, one older and one younger; that makes me number five of six children, It’s quite funny how things worked out as my eldest brother and sister were born on the same day exactly a year apart, and myself and my younger sister were also born on the same day as each other but I am two years older.

Growing up, there was always someone around so there was not a lot of peace and quiet, nor was there any chance of being lonely. Of course sharing a birthday with my sister was quite nice as well. When we were younger we always got dressed the same and I think were treated as almost one entity of ‘the two girls.’ Mind you, for ages we fought like hell, pinching and scratching as well as pulling each other’s hair!

Now we all have children of our own, I remember how proud I was when I first became an aunty at 15. I now have a total of 10 nephews and nieces, two of those are also married. I also have my own daughter and was the last one out of the six to have children. Luckily I got in a fair bit of practice having all those nephews and nieces!

I think for me family is definitely about learning to share, but also keeping your wits about you. In our house if you weren’t looking, someone would nick a roast potato off your plate! However, there was always at least one person to play Monopoly or Mousetrap with (even if a fight did normally ensue)!

Family teaches you about relationships as well which applies to all sorts of other situations. You get to know your place in the hierarchy, which being fifth and extremely shy was pretty low down to start with! Respect is a large part of family life; I certainly had to respect my elders and of course my parents. When there are so many of you who have different personalities, you have to learn to try to respect each other’s differences.

Most importantly, family is love. Yes, we all have our fallings out, sometimes quite serious ones, but know that we will still be there for each other should anything happen, Forgiveness is also part of being a family. I know sometimes we all might have acted out of turn, but are usually forgiven!

Family is also about laughter. Sharing those hilarious moments with each other; reminiscing about the good times, or the bad; accepting each other, having someone to confide in; it is extremely important to me.

Family is being loved for yourself, and loving others for who they are, despite them driving us bloody crazy at times!

Episode 281: Horsing Around!

April 11, 2015/Judy E Martin/7 Comments

After the beautiful weather yesterday we had decided that we would have a BBQ today and invite the family over. We had tidied up the garden in preparation and were going out today to get the necessary supplies needed to feed a family of ‘good eaters!’

This morning I actually got up late for me and still felt tired. Mr Grump had already been out to walk the dog and I hadn’t even heard him get up. I went downstairs and looked out to see it was raining, and cold, and according to Mr Grump windy as well, Now I know this is typical British BBQ weather, but we decided that we would cancel it for another day.

Shopping still had to be done, so we finally got around to doing that after we had put our bets on for the ‘Grand National!’ Now we never usually do any betting here except for this one-off occasion. Usually some of the family like to gather together to watch it as we all have a go, and cheer on our horses.

My younger sister was going to come up and watch it with us, so we decided to put some bits on the BBQ anyway as her husband would come after work. Of course, because we had cancelled it the weather perked up a bit, but it was too late by then to get everyone to come.

Between us all we had a good few horses in the race to cheer on, but there were 20 fallers this year which is pretty awful really. Anyway, as our horses went one by one, out of the race, near the end the 2 of the ones Miss Hap picked were still in, one of mine and one of my sister’s. Needless to say mine so close to winning suddenly came 5th, my sister’s 4th and Miss Hap’s 3rd. She always picks the best horses every year.

Next year I will choose the same horses as her, as my technique of choosing horses with catchy names or pretty coloured jackets isn’t cutting it!

The Daydreamer Challenge: Day 2

April 7, 2015/Judy E Martin/12 Comments

I am excited to be taking part in the lovely Caitlin’s Daydreamer Challenge and we are now on day two. Please check out Caitlin’s excellent blog The Teen Daydreamer if you haven’t already done so as it is filled with all sorts of delights from insightful posts to making cakes!

For today, Caitlin wants us to know all about us. we have the choice of writing all about a photograph that says something about us or is a good representation of who we are or we can use a word that describes us, plus make a new one up for good measure! As I think I have adequately described myself here I am going with the photo that is about who I am.

Actually, it is not easy trying to find a photo that represents me! I could choose one of me with family, as that is very important to me, or perhaps a beach (particularly Weymouth) as I do so love the seaside, maybe even my lovely (if not annoying) yellow car! No, the photo I have chosen is one of my graduation from University last year.

The reason I chose this as it represents a few things about me. Firstly, my constant quest for knowledge. I love to learn new things, and like to try to keep my mind as active as I can. This also represents my job which I do love. I studied for two years at university so am not a Registered nurse. At 45-year-old (at the time of applying), I didn’t know if I would cope academically with the three-year course, as it had been so long since I had been at school! Confidence has never been my strong point, However, I the passed the course with merit, so needn’t have worried, and met some wonderful people as well. It was a proud day for me but also a sad one as my dad had died at the beginning of my second year so never actually saw me complete the course.

So there you have it, me in a nutshell; I love laughing, learning , nursing, and nurturing. I am clumsy, mumsy, caring and sharing! Oh and an ‘eccentric’ in training!

Rhyme and No Reason!

Blogger, author and rhymester who likes to find the humour in life.

Tag: family

Episode 381: Freestyle Writing Challenge #2

Episode 373: It Runs In The Family!

Episode 367: #BeWoW Post. I am OK With Me!

Episode 352: Cute Cousins!

Episode 346: #BeWoW – How I Keep Positive.

Episode 344: Here Comes Summer!

Episode 309: What Family Is To Me

Episode 281: Horsing Around!

The Daydreamer Challenge: Day 2

Follow Blog via Email

Translate

This is me!

Judy E Martin

Top Posts & Pages

Blogs I Follow

Thanks for visiting

Lates Blog Posts

RSS

Blogger, author and rhymester who likes to find the humour in life.

Please share if you enjoyed this post :-)

Please share if you enjoyed this post :-)

Please share if you enjoyed this post :-)

Please share if you enjoyed this post :-)

Please share if you enjoyed this post :-)

Please share if you enjoyed this post :-)

Please share if you enjoyed this post :-)

Please share if you enjoyed this post :-)

Please share if you enjoyed this post :-)

Please share if you enjoyed this post :-)

Follow Blog via Email

Translate

This is me!

Top Posts & Pages

Blogs I Follow

Thanks for visiting

Lates Blog Posts

RSS