Prairie Grlz : Looking Back, Looking Ahead, and Looking at Michael Landon

I woke up this morning feeling like a mother, teacher, sister, friend, and...writer. A writer!! Someone who crafts with words as well as paper and Mod Podge. For 34 years I have taught literature and writing, but now I am daring to do what I have preached for years, writing every day--and rewriting, and re-rewriting.

It continues even when I am not staring at that difficult sentence for 20 minutes. Instead of worrying about bills at 2 AM, I have been mulling over post ideas. I have learned how to insert code so that book titles and beauty products link directly to Amazon. I hope you noticed that! I have pulled out my camera, actually purchased an 8 pack of AA's and taken photos. And I have spent a whole lot of time either texting or talking to Eydie on the phone. My daughters will tell you that this is not always my most productive use of my day.

Last Monday, Eydie and I had our first "business lunch" at a favorite haunt, Alchemy on Atwood Street in Madison. She came armed with a flashy notebook, her updated iPhone aps, and a prairie schooner full of ideas. I had to borrow a pencil from a waitperson and write on in the back of an outdated calendar that was residing in the bottom of my purse. Ours is a symbiotic relationship. So what did we do?

I enlarged this picture so that you might make out some of the scribblings. Yes, those are breasts, thus my post of last Wednesday, "Did Ma Wear a Bra?" This, my dear readers, is our business plan. We are doomed...or are we?

In the interest in keeping you interested, I haven't forgotten that it is "Michael Landon Monday." Pardon me while I digress:

Eydie said I needed to throw in some titillating photos. Well, I think I many have exhausted my best resources last week with the washtub photo. I am assuming that this one comes from one of the many steamy "bedroom scenes" on Little House. You know, where Ma (in a flannel nightgown buttoned up to her nose) and Pa (always sans shirt to show off his pecs) cuddle under a quilt on the straw tick mattress and discuss failing crops, broken butter churns, and replacing the siding on the sod house. Just thinking about that straw tick makes me itch. Keep Michael's pecs in mind as you slog through the next paragraph. For our male readers, and we do love you, this one is for you.

Yup, the real Ma Ingalls. I love that
"come hither" look. No wonder Pa
kept leaving the claim looking for work.

Digression done. Back to the "plan" and this blog. I have added some sidebar gadgets so that you can follow us via email. If you add your email address in the window under the "Follow by Email" and click "Submit", you will be notified the minute our pearls of wisdom hit the internet. How freakin' wonderful is that?!!!! The "Subscribe" gadget right below has me a bit stymied. When I tried it, I got a feed of Prairie Grlz activity right on my Yahoo homepage. That thrills me, but I am not sure if it has any use for you.

Finally, for my dear friends around the globe who have popped in for a read , I added a "Translate" gadget. I have no idea what this does to our incredible English prose, but I have a feeling that it may be better than the original. Please let me know how it works. I wonder how "straw tick" translates into Russian?

Oh, I know that several of you are terribly concerned that we are actually working on the "art" end of all of this. Here are a couple of my more recent pieces of collage. The canvas is one of my little 3"x3" pieces. Eydie and I found the chair on a curb waiting for the garbage truck. You could call it "making trash out of trash..."