I have a new home!

As I mentioned a couple of months ago, a new site has been in the works and I've finally moved!  Whee!  The magnificent people at Waxcreative Design built me a beautiful site, so please jump over and leave a comment.


The site is designed to consolidate all the social media.  You can read the blog there, and connect to me on Twitter and Facebook. As far as this blog, I'm closing down the comments, however please feel free to leave a comment on the new page.


The address is www.jeanniemoon.com.  I hope to see you there.


Jeannie

New site

A couple of months ago, I mentioned I was having a new website designed.  Well, after questionnaires, color choices, design decisions and content delivery, the new www.jeanniemoon.com will be going live by the end of the month.

If you check the site right now all you'll find is a placeholder, but never fear, the team at WaxCreative is doing their special magic and a new and pretty site will be there soon.

Hope everyone visits when I move into my new cyberhome.

Love,

Jeannie

Changing It Up

The blog is going dark for a while.  I've been trying to manage too many social media outlets and I finally decided I needed professional help to pull it together. So, look for a change of venue and a major redesign in a few months.

Until then keep looking for me on Facebook and Twitter. I'll be there when I need a break from the writing.
xoxo
Jeannie

Pay It Forward II

Allyson Peterson, also known as Crazy Writer Girl gave me the "Stylish Blogger Award."  It's lovely of her to do and it gives me the opportunity to pay it forward and draw your attention to some wonderful bloggers.  Follow these people. Read them.  They are funny, wise and have provided me with a tremendous amount of support on this writing journey.  My online friends travel the road with me and I appreciate every one of them.


First, I have to tell you some things about me.

  1        I know the difference between boarding, roughing and cross-checking.

2.        I got a tattoo when I turned forty. It’s awesome, but I wouldn’t do it again.

3.        Sleeping annoys me. I fight it and do it as little as possible.

4.        My favorite guilty pleasure is Nutella right from the jar.

5.        I’m a bag whore.  I love totes, purses, clutches.  You name it; I love bags.

6.        I really like ABBA.

7.        I’ve been in more than one professional sports locker room.

Now for the bloggers.  I'm supposed to list fifteen...I'll do my best.

Patty Blount

Charissa Weaks

Linda Grimes

Helen Sayers

Julie Musil

Michele Shaw

Sierra Godfrey

Sandra Cormier

Tawna Fenske

Jessica Lemmon

Abby Mumford

Kelly Breakey

Muffintopmommy

Rebecca Lynn

Elizabeth Flora Ross

Whew!  Made it! (There are actually sixteen blogs)  Truly, if you need to add some interesting, clever reads to your day stop by these blogs.  They are, indeed, stylish!  Hopefully those bloggers I've mentioned will bring your attention to someone else by paying it forward.

New year...new commitment.

Hey, everyone.  I've emerged from my cave and I've decided the blog gets one last shot at life.  I will do this by posting once a week.  I'm thinking Sunday mornings, since I'm usually up at the crack of dawn while the rest of the house snoozes. And if I have to set reminders on my calendar to make sure the post gets done, that's what I'll do.

If this is going to be successful, it's going to be because of a routine.  You'll notice I didn't say anything about not having enough time.  I have time.  What I don't have right now is structure.

Routines helped me survive the years when my children were small and I was teaching full time.  By getting into a routine, the kids knew what to expect, and even better, my husband and I knew that week to week, we had things under control.

From doing grocery shopping on Friday nights to knowing Monday night we were having pizza for dinner, the predictability made our busy lives easier.  I do believe I need to get back to routines even though I don't have the little kids anymore.  When I slip into schedule chaos, I get nothing done.  I get frustrated and stressed, and right now, since there's a lot going on (family, work, school play, local RWA stuff, writing...) I need predictability.

So tonight we're having a sit down and we're going to figure out how to make life more manageable.  It can be done.  If I could do it when I had three children under the age of five, a full time job and a demanding graduate school program, I can certainly do it now.

So what about you?  How do you find time to write amid all the other things life throws at you?

Hiatus

I've suffered some personal losses over the past month and things have pitched out of control at work, so I'm going to focus, for the next few weeks, on my family.  


If I've learned nothing else, I know what's important--the people we love and those who love us.  So as we look back on this year, rather than focusing on things that have given us fits and sorrow, we should double our efforts to appreciate the gifts we've been given.  I know I will be doing just that.


I hope you all have a Joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year.  


Jeannie

Counting Your Blessings

Every once in a while, life hands you a personal epiphany.  You know what that is, right?  It’s a moment when you’re able to get your head around something you’ve been struggling with, or you understand something clearly.  There are epiphanies that come on gradually and the realization is like an alarm going off in your head.  It’s the “ah-ha” moment.  There’s another type, though.  The type you don’t see coming and the clarity hits you like a Louisville Slugger to the gut. 

This is not a gentle “ah-ha.”  This is a full-fledged assault on your current reality.

I had an epiphany last night.  And it wasn’t the gentle kind.

I've been in education for twenty-five years.  I'm proud of being a teacher even though, for the time being, we're perceived as a scourge on society.  I do good work, and my students are important to me.  Before I was a librarian, I taught English for ten years and the last four of those years I spent at St. Dominic High School on Long Island.  I taught seniors almost exclusively and developed some wonderful relationships with many of the students.  My last class graduated fifteen years ago in 1996.  They were a remarkable bunch--becoming lawyers, artists, social workers, Marines, teachers, moms and dads, executives, business owners, college professors...you get the idea.  They are successful people who are contributing to society and I'm very proud of them.

However, one of them just died.  She was thirty-three.  

I probably wouldn't have known if it hadn't been for the marvel that is social networking.  Because in reality, I lost touch with my students.   It happens, but Facebook has brought a number of them back into my life.  A year ago, Jennifer friended me on Facebook.  I remembered her well. She was a quiet young lady who was as gentle as a breeze.  She had good friends, a kind heart and a unspoken passion for everything she did.      

She had this passion, I believe, because she knew time was precious.  Jenn had Cystic Fibrosis.

It was a quiet battle.  She'd miss school, but she never complained.  She moved through her life finding a way to complete her education, making a large network of friends, loving her family and suffering the loss of her sister from the same disease.

I didn't have a lot of contact with her over the past year, but it was hard to avoid seeing all she'd accomplished.  I learned she'd had a double lung transplant which offered hope and trials at the same time. She worked for others with CF and always carried herself with a mantle of hope. Two days before her death, she posted a status on Facebook that thanked her father for his military service and thanked the family of her lung donor for the gift she'd received.

And then the people who loved her, lost her.

I cried when I saw the post on her wall, made by one of her friends, saying good-bye.  I cried and then I had my epiphany. It happened as I was about to whine to someone about my rejected manuscript.  As I was about to complain about having too few bathrooms in my house.  As I was about to work myself into a frenzy about some petty little thing.

Yeah.  I felt really stupid and this is where counting my blessings comes in.  This loss has has put things in perspective, and I hate that it often takes something tragic for people, like me, to have a wake-up call.

So here goes...My children are healthy and successful.  My husband is a kind and gentle man who adores me, although sometimes I don't know why.  I have a career that allows me to make a real difference in the lives of children and I have some wonderful friends.  My novels may never be published, but because of my writing, I've come in contact with talented and generous people and I've challenged myself in ways I never thought possible.  I have a lot to be thankful for and very little to complain about and Jennifer reminded me of this fact.

Jennifer was one soul who touched many lives.  I can't say I knew her the way others did, but she was courageous and she will be missed.  She is also just one of a handful of my former students who left this world too soon.  All left behind people who loved them and lives full of potential.  

I thank God I knew them, just as I thank all of the kids who've crossed my path for the things they've taught me.

With luck, we'll all keep learning from each other.