News – Page 37

February 3 in 30

February 13, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Perhaps you noticed that I missed posting my 3 in 30 post for the first week of February, or that this post actually belongs to Sunday, but I’m not posting it until Monday. Or am I the only one keeping tabs on my procrastination. Actually, it’s not procrastination. I’ve just felt the need to actually relax on the past two weekends because the weekdays have been so very full.

I have set goals, however, even if I didn’t tell the world about them. And for the first week of February, well, let’s just say I haven’t done all that well with them, but I they are things that I am determined to change as the month progresses.

Getting to bed on time. This is something I did not perfect in January, and if anything, February has been worse. For one thing, I need to get my husband on board with this. There are so many distractions late at night, it seems. But I still maintain that it is key for me because it affects how my day begins the next day.
Get up at least an hour (preferrably an hour and a half) earlier than my children, who wake up around 7:00. This gives me time for some critical morning routines and some headspace to start my day with.
Get back to consistent exercise. I care about how I look and how fit I am, but lately, I’ve been sacrificing that for a little extra here, or a few more minutes doing something else. If I care enough, I’ll exercise.

Again, I’m ignoring some larger issues, like the packing and so on, but I know the rest will fall into place when my days begin and end well–kinda getting back to the basics.

Friday Fiction Fix: A Peek Inside

February 10, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

When I wrote After the Snow Falls, a good portion of the people and locations were from my own imagination, but I did take a trip one year around Christmastime to an area in Quebec close to where my husband grew up. It was this place that became the inspiration for the fictional town of Point-du-Fleuve (in the real region of Pontiac) where Celia and her husband Jeff built their dream home, and where part of the story occurs.

I thought it would be fun to share a few photos of that area so you can what’s so inspiring about this beautiful region.

While Jeff and Celia live on a rural property, they live outside a small town much like this one:

Here is the town church, the kind of church where Father LaFontaine was the parish priest:

When Celia and her husband are driving back and forth to Toronto, they would travel in and out of their town on roads like this:

The railroad no longer runs through this area. In fact, in After the Snow Falls, Celia and Sarah ride bikes down the old rail trail. This is a picture from the railroad’s early days when a working station functioned in the town:

Part of the appeal of the area to me is the water, in some places fierce, in others, beautifully calm.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into the inspiration behind my story. Some readers are beginning to leave comments at the website for After the Snow Falls. If you enjoyed the read, don’t forget to leave your comments too. I love to connect with readers.

So much to do…So much grace in the process

February 6, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

{Don’t miss the latest review of After the Snow Falls at Mom Loves 2 Read.}

I am counting my gifts to one thousand along with the folks at Ann Voskamp’s blog (author of One Thousand Gifts). Thanks for joining me.

Forgive me if while I count my blessings this week it looks more like a checked-off to-do list. There is no shortage of things to be done these days and the first gift I am thankful for is:

60. More checkmarks on my to-do list.
61. After unpacking and repacking, I managed to fit quite a few more things in THE BINS for THE MOVE.
62. I was able to restore some level of order with most of the items that need sorting gone through and all of the bins safely tucked away in a closet where people aren’t tripping over them
63. JavaMan (gotta love him) and I finished cleaning the house we just moved out of
64. Everyone is safely ensconced at Grandma’s awaiting THE MOVE
65. We have tentative flight dates! This is one of THE biggest blessings of the week. Can’t express how excited we are. We will be leaving in [sct date=”3/13/2012 20:51″ align=”none” size=”1″]
66. After all the chaos was said and done, I had a chance to really connect with my kids this week in some rewarding family time. We played games together and read together. Reading together is such good therapy! I’m so thankful for good books and times to enjoy them with my children.
67. Speaking of good books I enjoy with my children, I participated in last month’s Books that Made me Love Reading Challenge with Emlyn Chand, and yesterday found out I won the prize basket as a result!
68. It’s a gift how blessed I was feeling even before winning the prize simply as a result of the stroll down memory lane with the books I loved from childhood and the chance to share them with my kids.
69. I had a chance to be alone with my youngest for a couple of hours Sunday afternoon: a rare gift indeed. We had a tea party and played her favorite game.
70. I have a wonderful husband who observes me under stress and knows I need his patience. He is more than gracious.
71. Another unexpected blessing this week: I received an email with comments from a reader–a man–who said my book wasn’t his normal fare, but he was glad he read it. He proceeded to tell me how the book touched him. I was blown away, and so humbled.
72. I received my new Mac, and I’m working my way through updates and software and finding programs similar to what I’ve become accustomed to on the PC and feeling so very blessed and grateful.
73. Received another email from a fellow author that was very encouraging.
74. I took a break from my blogging over the weekend to actually breathe and enjoy life, and felt (almost) no guilt about it.
75. We applied for passports, finally. Our old ones were still valid, but didn’t have enough pages left for all the visas and stamps, and would run out before we plan to come back to Canada (The bonus? My passport picture for the new passport looks A LOT better than the old one.)
76. I’ve been so excited about my new novel projects and the ideas have been flowing. Yay! I love this stage. I love all the stages.
77. Had a wonderful (last) visit with some great friends this week.
78. So grateful for the seasons in our lives. My kids and I sat down a couple of weeks ago to list all the wonderful things we were blessed to experience while we’ve been home in Canada–from riding on a combine in Saskatchewan to a road trip to Texas to living in rural Ontario. We were reluctant to come home in the first place, but it has been a blessing after all.
79. We had the opportunity to see the movie Courageous for the second time over the weekend (made me cry just as much or more than the first time). It made me grateful all over again for the wonderful man I married: a good husband and a good father to his children.

Relinquishing Control

February 4, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

I have a recurring dream. I had it again last night. In this particular version of it, our family was driving north. I looked around and suddenly became aware of the fact that we were headed near my inlaws’ home. I had the sense, somehow, that the family was along for the ride while my husband was doing business in the area.

I suddenly came up with the idea that after we dropped my husband off (where, I don’t know) that we should continue on to my inlaws’ and drop in for a surprise visit. I no sooner had this brainwave than I received a call from my own mother (at whose house we are currently staying) who announced that we should come back to her place to eat because she had prepared fruit for us.

I began to kick myself, “Why on earth didn’t I realize this was where we were headed so I could let my mom know there was no need to prepare a meal?” “How could I gracefully bow out of the fruit meal without upsetting my mother?” (Isn’t it great how logical and rational this all is?)

Suddenly, an even greater concern gripped me. I realized the car had no driver. I was in the back seat, and we were approaching an intersection.

Then I woke up.

The me-in-the-backseat-car-has-no-driver part is the part that recurs for me. Seriously, I have this dream a lot. The best thing I could conclude when I woke up, is I’m probably trying to work out some of the lack of control I have over several major aspects of my life right now.

Up until yesterday, because of some complications with figuring out the correct visas we need to apply for, and some fenagling we had to do to work around a national holiday and higher airfares, we didn’t even have flight dates.

But now we do.

JavaMan plans to go ahead of us to locate a suitable apartment and arrange for our things to be moved. The kids and I will follow three weeks later, in the hopes we have allowed him enough time to work out all the details so we have beds to sleep in and utensils to cook and eat with once we arrive.

This means the kids and I are leaving in: [sct date=”3/13/2012 12:18″ align=”none” size=”1″]

Hurray!!!

- Carey Clark

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