Can You Guess the Mystery Photo?

My plan was to post this early, but best laid plans. Sigh. I just have to admit it. I'm a burn the midnight oil writer. But tonight I have excuses. Really!! First we had a fellowship supper at church. I had to cook something. You can't go to a potluck supper with an empty dish, now can you? I took my zucchini mess. Doesn't that sound delicious? Actually it is pretty good and easy to make and uses up some of those plentiful zucchinis. I also made bread sticks, but somebody else brought yummy garlic Texas toast, so my bread sticks mostly went begging. That's the thing about potlucks. You never what kind of luck you're going to have, but at our church our pots are usually pretty lucky. Then I took some green beans fresh from the garden. 

That's the other reason I'm late tonight. I had to can the rest of those green beans when I got home from church. My canner holds seven quart jars. I had enough beans for six quart jars. I didn't want to do a less than full canning, so even though it was almost dark I hurried out to the garden to see if I could find one more quart of beans. While I was out there a neighbor came over to ask me something about my mom. Her mother is going to be moving into the room that my mother was in at The Lantern. What are the odds of that? Two women who were neighbors for over sixty years ending up living in the same room of a memory care facility. She said her mother is settling in well. So that was good news. But that slowed down the bean picking. Her grandsons were with her and they each had a baby rabbit. Talk about temptation! That got Oscar's nose twitching. He had just chased a rabbit out of the backyard and then these kids bring a couple over. I warned them not to drop those babies! Oscar's a good dog, but he is a dog.

Then my ancient canner leaked steam and I had to start over. Have I whined enough? LOL. But the beans are processed. The new mystery photo is posted up top. 

I hope this one isn't as easy as some of you found the last one. You can't imagine how tickled I was when one of you finally made a wrong guess. It's not as much fun when you all know the answer. And I really thought that picture would be hard. But obviously, quite a few of you have been to the zoo. No fooling you. It is a polar bear under water. But it could have been a white dog underwater the way a few of you guessed. Except I don't have an underwater camera and have a thing about keeping my head above the water. Here's the rest of the photo. The mystery photo was the bear's nose breathing out bubbles. I took the picture last year after the St. Jude Walk at the Louisville Zoo and see, Peggy, there is a grandkid. :) 

So now you can guess on the new picture. Remember, it's more fun if you guess first and then look at what everybody else has already guessed. They could be wrong, you know. They weren't last time, but they could be this time! Maybe I'm just not mysterious enough. 

But if you guess again (remember you don't have to have a right guess to be entered, just a guess), you'll get a new entry into the giveaway for Karen Kingsbury's autographed The Chance and the winner's choice of one of my books. The contest is open to U.S.A. or Canada and you must be 18 to enter. I'll draw for the winner Sunday, so get your guesses in. And thanks for taking part in my mystery photo fun. I'll try not to be a poor sport if you all guess this one right. LOL.

And the Winners Are

Aack! It's not Sunday. I'm late! A person should not put the end of her giveaway contest on the same day she has a deadline for her current work in progress and on a day when she has to sit with her mother!! I made those mistakes and then the kids came out and picked blackberries. Now, you have to help the grandkids pick blackberries. Life's too short to pass up those kind of fun times. 

At any rate, the hours yesterday slid away from me. I missed my deadline for the book submission by a couple of hours, but I figured my editor wouldn't notice until the sun came up this morning. I burned a bunch of midnight oil and probably slept through trying to edit the last three chapters, but I read through them - I think. Thank goodness, Mom slept well last night, but then this morning we had all the Monday chores. Baths and hair fixing and laundry. She's feeling rotten now and is lying down. 

So now that I've made a few thousand excuses (not quite, but I probably could keep going if you want to hear them!), I picked the numbers by Random.org. Each of the e-mails and comment entries that came in to my Small Town Girl Celebration contest are numbered and put in a special folder. Then after I get the random number from a random number generator, I find the saved entry and send out an e-mail to the winners. Those e-mails have already gone out, so if you didn't get one, maybe next time! Drum roll please. 

Dorothy B is the 1st prize winner. As soon as I hear from her and find out where to send those two dozen roses and one of my books, she'll get her prize. Pam K is the 2nd prize winner. She gets her choice of one of my books plus 3 grab bag titles from my Christian fiction collection. And Brandy B from Texas can't say she never wins anymore. She wins the wind chimes and her choice of one of my books. Then I nearly always pick an extra winner "just because." This time I picked Theresa H. Her e-mail so touched my heart when she told me about her son sending her flowers for her anniversary after her husband died and then how she lost him too after already losing another son. I shared her story on one of the flower story blogs. 

I have a few more flower stories to share and still plan to let you enjoy those with me. But today I'm just going to share one. This story touched my heart too. Well, to be honest, a lot of your flower stories had me blinking away tears or smiling. I thank you so much for sharing slices of your lives with me. I do so appreciate all of you and the fun we can have with stories.

The story today comes from Judy. 

"After my husband passed away from a brain tumor I told God that I would never marry again.  We had just celebrated our 8 year anniversary two days before he died.  I could never live through caring for and watching another husband die.  Bob was only 44 when he passed away.

Little did I know that God had other plans for me.  When John, my adult Sunday school teacher, asked me if I would like to see a movie with him, I told him that I would go under one condition that we'd only be friends.  I wanted a big brother type person and nothing else.  He quickly agreed.  A couple of days after we saw a movie I came home to find a bouquet of flowers in a beautiful vase sitting on my front porch.  The card was signed, from your big Brother! 

John and I have been married 9 1/2 years!  (Never second guess God!)"

What a blessing all your stories have been to me! Stay tuned for at least one more post of flower stories in the next week or so. And thank you for your patience with me. I really didn't intend to be late with the winners. Thanks to all of you who entered. It made the contest fun and made me the biggest winner of all because I got to read all your stories. And for those of you who didn't win this time - maybe next time. I'll be having another celebration for Christmas at Harmony Hill, my Shaker Christmas novella due out in September. Oh, and if you live near me here in Kentucky, I'm having a Hometown Booklaunch this Sunday, July 21, at 2:30 p.m. at the Anderson County Public Library in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Come on down. I'm planning door prizes along with talking about my books! 

Ready, Set, Type!

And so 2013 has begun. Tomorrow starts the first full week. Most everybody has gone back to work and the kids are hitting the books again. Guess it's time for this writer to start making a book again. Time to think about new characters or about how the old characters have changed as the years have passed since I'm going back to Rosey Corner. Time to think about how to make this book better than the books before. How to make it a story readers will not only want to read, but a story they will like so much that they tell their friends to read it too.

Word of mouth is still the very best advertisement a book can get. Haven't you sometimes told someone that they should read this or that book? I certainly have. I've had plenty of people tell me the same. Read this. It's great. That's the kind of book I want to write. That's the kind of book I'm guessing every writer wants to write.

I need to get busy figuring out my new story, or I'll be staring at a deadline and wondering how in the world I let so much time slip past without getting the story going soon enough.

Alas, there are always reasons not to write. At least for me. Some really good reasons. My hours taking care of Mom. The grandkids. They do grow up so fast. Getting the church bulletin ready. Laundry. Cleaning. Cooking. Walking to clear my head and help me think about the new ideas. Taking pictures of the snow and icicles. (I had to get that picture in here somewhere.) Sometimes the reasons not to start typing Chapter 1 are things that need doing writing wise. History books need reading. How can I possibly write anything until I know more about the time period? Maybe I should do some research on the internet. And while I'm signed in, I might as well check Facebook to see if anybody left a comment. Or there might be a new e-mail. From my publisher. They might need something. 

They do! They need me to write a book. I need me to write a book. I want to tell a story - a new story. It won't be easy. It never is. At least not every day. Some days the words will come hard, but they always have eventually come. And if all goes well, if all goes the way it has in the past, I'll get to tell a new story in 2013. That's what I do. So, ready, set, type!

What are you "ready, set, go"for in 2013?

Nancy of FL did finally get in touch and claim her 1st prize - the bookends, the autographed book, The Bridge, by Karen Kingsbury and she picked my book, Orchard of Hope. Thanks again to everyone who entered and joined in my Christmas fun. You're the best. Plus I see I hit 100 in followers. That deserves something special. I'll come up with a new giveway soon. Maybe one especially for you reading friends who take the time to read my on-line journal. Thanks so much.

Lesson of the Garbage Truck

Is it really Friday? What happened to Wednesday? I think I missed it this week. I must have been looking to the right when it slid by on my left. As some people have been known to say, "Bless her heart!" In Southern lingo, that means "Poor thing, she's losing it."

And so Wednesday passed and I forgot my post to my friends here on the great, wide web. I could make up excuses. Let's see. How about I'm trying to get started on a new book and that has my head in another place and time where I think it's Saturday? Certainly not Wednesday. Or how about that I'm back and forth between my house and Mom's so much I don't know what place I'm in, much less what day it is? Or it could be the problem is that I actually did some Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. That has to mean the sun and moon are out of alignment and it's no wonder I can't remember what day it is. Or how about this one? The days whizzed by so fast they made me dizzy. It had to be Wednesday's fault, don't you think?


Whoever or whatever was at fault, I did remember that we had a Wednesday this week. And since it's less than a week before Thanksgiving, I thankful for that Wednesday and every day that gives me more opportunity to enjoy the world, to write my stories, to talk to friends. And to ignore the garbage trucks of the world. Where did that come from, I'm sure you're asking.

So here's a little story I came across as I was looking for something to put in my church bulletin. I can't forget there's a Sunday coming!  The author on the piece is unknown, but it could be any of us learning this lesson of the garbage truck.

     "One day I hopped into a taxi and headed for the airport. We were driving along when a black car pulled out of a parking space directing in front of the taxi. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes and barely managed to miss the other car. The driver of the car looked around and started yelling at the taxi driver, but the driver just smiled and waved in an honestly friendly way.
    So I asked him, "How could you wave so friendly like that? That guy almost hit us." That's when the taxi driver taught me what I now call, "The Lesson of the Garbage Truck."
    He explained that a lot of people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage - frustration, anger, and disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't pick up their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home or on the streets.
    The bottom line is that successful people don't let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so: Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't and love them too. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it! Have a blessed, garbage-free day!"

Hope you don't meet any "garbage trucks" this week and that you will have a sunshine filled and happy day. We can also spread the sunshine to all those we meet. That's why I put the above photo with this. This sunset was lovely, but I almost didn't take the picture. I thought the light lines and traffic lights would spoil the beauty of the scene. But the beautiful sun sinking behind some clouds was still there. I had to choose what I concentrated my gaze on. Isn't that what we do every day? Choose to see the beauty. Work to make our worlds more beautiful.

Thanks for reading. Maybe Sunday won't sneak past me without me noticing.