Sleep is for the Weak « Sleep is for the Weak

Writing Workshop #11 – Voices in your head & false assumptions

Welcome to Monday’s Writing Workshop prompts! There’s going to be a slightly different format this week as I’ve decided to give you all an extra day to respond to the prompts. Our workshop will now be held on a THURSDAY so I, umm, I mean you all have a bit of extra time to write. What do you reckon? Good idea?

For any newbies (and it’s never to late to join in), here’s how it works… I’m going to give you 5 writing/blogging prompts. Pick one, pick two, or do them all if you’re really keen – it’s up to you. How you respond is your choice. You could share a real-life story, or make one up. You could write a poem or just free-write without thinking too hard and see what happens. It can be funny; it can be serious; it can be emotional. It can be whatever you want it to be. The only rule is to have fun with it!

Prompts each week will take their inspiration from blogs, current affairs, daily life, or just whatever everyone happened to be talking about that week. If you’d like to suggest a prompt then send me an email or catch me on Twitter – I would love to hear your ideas.

So here they are:

1. Tell me about a time where you refused to compromise. What was it about? Do you regret your decision?
- Inspired by Jo at Slummy Single Mummy and her post: ‘The sacrifices you make as a parent – and the ones you won’t…’

2. What do people always wrongly assume about you? Time to set the record straight people!!!
- Inspired by Bare-Naked Mummy’s fab post on why, unequivocally, DEFINITELY Welsh people are NOT posh!

3. What have the voices in your head been saying lately? Write a conversation with yourself.
- Inspired by Manic Mummy’s blog post: ‘Is it me, or…’

4. Your prompt is ‘Together’. Share a scene or write something that encapsulates this feeling for you.
- Inspired by Noble Savage’s beautiful post: ‘Sunday Mothering’

5. What exciting job would you like to do for a day?
- Inspired by my poetical musings this week.

Now here’s what you have to do. Write your post and publish it on your blog between now and THURSDAY. On Thursday come back and use the widget that will be up to paste in the URL of your post to share. Then take some time to read some of the other entries and leave some comment love! We’re not here to critique – just to have fun and support each other in our writing experiments. So be kind please.

Anyone who would like to submit something via email, or even anonymously will be more than welcome to do so. I’ll post them on the site here and include the link in Thursday’s round-up.

Feel free to use the Workshop badge on your blog or as part of your post if you like. Code is here:

Note: I’m told Blogger does something a bit funny with the code so you’ll need to copy and paste it and then retype the quotation marks (“) as Blogger changes them for some reason.

See you Thursday then!

P.S. And if you fancy plugging this workshop on the social network of your choice? Then that would be fan-frigging-tastic.

——————————————————–

This Writing Workshop is brought to you in association with Mama Kat’s Losin’ It – who’s lovely author came up with the concept and runs her own workshop over in the U.S.

Growing Up – a shiny happy people post

Last week the very lovely pink coiffured Rosie Scribble tagged me in a meme thingy that she started to inject a bit of happiness across the bloggosphere.

There’s been quite a lot of negative stuff happening in this lovely bloggy community of mine lately, and, as I tend to with this sort of thing, I take it all very personally and get far more upset about it all than I should do. So it was nice to do this tonight, to lay aside all the crappy stuff and focus on things that are lovely and good and positive.

The rules of Rosie’s Shiny Happy People meme are thus:

Name a song that makes you happy - a song you would listen to if you needed a sudden injection of happiness.

Post an image that makes you smile, it can be anything – a silly photo, an image taken from the internet, anything at all that puts a smile on your face (and isn’t too rude!)

So. First a little intro. As most of you know it’s been a bit of a tough journey for me at times. Motherhood hasn’t been easy, in fact, in some respects, its something I struggle with more and more. But I do love it. I love the person that it’s making me, the way that it’s challenging me, forcing me to evolve and change and adapt. It’s teaching me new things about myself every day and although I still battle with a lot of inner demons and feel I have a long way to go, I really believe it’s taking me somewhere good and exciting and fulfilling.

I feel like I’m finally growing up. Feel like I’m finally BECOMING someone. And I love that.

This song really captures that feeling for me. The feeling of growing into myself. And it never, ever fails to lift my spirits.

(Apologies for the weird large box – clueless how to make this smaller!)

Next some photos. I never thought I’d be the sort of mother that endlessly bores people with pictures of my children, but sorry, I really really am. Here’s a few funny and sweet ones from Kai’s very early months that never fail to make me smile and show me just how far we’ve come. Hope you enjoy…

Make a Smilebox slideshow

So, tag time. I tag:

The Life of Wendy Wife

P.S. I’ve had a few memes lately and to be honest I’m starting to forget who tagged me in what so my apologies if I’ve not responded right away but thank you and I’ll be working round to as many as I can! I don’t want to give you meme overload. Just that word is weird. meeee meeee. Ok I’ll stop now…

19 Jan 2010, 3:56pm
Uncategorized: Day Off exciting jobs humour job for the day Motherhood mum's day off Mummy Blogs Parenting Blogs poetry Sleep is for the Weak
by Josie

32 comments

Day Off

Can I not be a mum today?
I fear it’s not my calling.
The hours are crap for starters
And the job description’s boring.

I’d rather be an astronaut.
At least it’s quiet up there.
My wobbly bits would suit no-grav,
Suspended in the air.

Or I could try out espionage.
I’d be great at fearless guile:
“Yes sweetheart this is REALLY fun!”
I’d lie through sugared smile.

I could train wild animals,
Poo wouldn’t make me queasy.
I’ve braved a toddler cutting canines
So a lion would be easy.

I hear Human Research pays well,
Volunteering’s all the rage.
And you get to lie down everyday
In an aesthetic haze.

Even prison inmate
Seems more attractive by the hour.
At least I’d get my meals served
And time to take a shower.

Can I not be a mum today?
One day, that’s all I ask!
I promise then I won’t resent
My normal humdrum tasks.

One day of something different
To be adventurous, inspiring.
After all, I’m over qualified:
Is anybody hiring?!

17 Jan 2010, 9:50pm
Uncategorized: bloggers for haiti girl with the pink ribbons haiti hiati earthquake poetry Sleep is for the Weak
by Josie

14 comments

Bloggers for Haiti – Pink Ribbons in the Dawn

I have been unborn into an under place

Shaken from my play to be buried deep.

Bright candles slowly snuffed out, crushed out.

Till all is dark and still.

There is a monster here

That growls with my stomach’s empty growl.

Its breath is hot upon my face, loud in this space.

It smells of dirt and death.

The ground still moves and trembles in my insides,

Tongue rasps on crackled lips as I call to empty air.

I search and find a hand to hold. Unfriendly, cold.

I sleep and drift away.

I dream I hear my father’s voice above

Shouts low and deep, the world shifts and moves.

Arms reach through mud and stone, they find my home.

An eye opens, all is white.

At last I am reborn, borne up and out

Delivered to my mother’s waiting breast.

Eyes burning, dust is in the air, my hair.

Pink ribbons in the dawn.

_______________________________________

I am so upset tonight. Tonight I sat and made myself look at some of the images from the Haiti earthquake. I read accounts of conditions there. I read of people’s terrible, unimaginable loss. I read of the injured and dying. The homeless, the displaced. Little or no food or water or medicine.

It is so easy to turn our backs on the horror. To figure that the tragedy has already happened and that we no longer need to think about it. It is so easy to be consumed by so much sadness and helplessness that we do nothing.

I have realised you have to look for hope. Tiny glimmers of light in so much darkness. Like a two year old girl, Mia Charlotte, pulled from the wreckage of her kindergraten virtually unscathed after being trapped for 72 hours and for whom I wrote my poem.

Hope frees us from inaction and paralysis. So many lives have been lost, but so many lives could still be saved if we act now. We can be these people’s hope if only we get off our asses and do something. NOW.

I have little money, but what I have I have given. I give my words too, and my thoughts and my prayers for what they are worth.

Give. It doesn’t need to be much, it just needs to be something.

Please.

Writing Workshop: Mama

Welcome back to the Wednesday Writing Workshop link-up! At the bottom of this post you’ll find the widget to post the link to your workshop posts. I have a feeling it’s going to be a quieter one this week after all of last week’s enthusiasm, but that’s ok – we’re all allowed to wax and wane a little.

First of all though, it’s my turn of course. I’ve chosen prompt #4 and tried to put myself in the mind-set of the person that I understand both most and least. Sometimes I feel so connected to this person it as if I can quite literally read his thoughts. At other times though I find him completely unfathomable, infuriatingly confusing and impossible to gauge correctly. It is my boy of course, my monster, my ratbag, my heart and soul. I hope you enjoy it.

____________________________________

Hello mama. I am going to tell you some of the things I like. Ok?

I like it when my face is fitted tight into the space your neck makes.

My arm must be tightly wound so you cannot get away and my fingers must feel the shape of your face. It is like a book and I want to read it over and over. I feel the softness of your skin, you hair and it makes me happy. I breathe and the smell of you is my breath and fills me up warm and safe like my milk which is my favourite thing. I need you mummy.

I like to press my forehead against your own, noses squashed. I hear your thoughts and they are noisy.

I like it best when you talk to me with words I know. I make my mouth make the sounds of talking, I tell you so many things. The best is when you understand and if you get it right I will tell you so yeah yeah. And nod and smile. I like YES! I like it when you tell me what we are doing next and then we do it. I’m not so keen on surprises mummy. Especially if they involve medicine or brushing my teeth.

I like it when we give names to things. You show me and I bury it deep in my brain. I like the sounds they make. There are so many sounds. I wish I could make my mouth make the right sounds but it doesn’t sound the same when I try. I like to play the ‘where is the’ game. I can tell you where everything is, especially if it is on me or one of my favourite things. I like the animals that we see. They move and they do funny things. I like Grandma’s dog the best when I feed him biscuits, but also the birds mummy when they go up so high I can’t see.

I like outside. I will fetch you my shoes and coat if it helps but we must go now because the wind and the sun and the puddles and pigeons are telling me to hurry. I like to move like you on my legs. I can make them go fast mummy. Outside is big but I want to see it all and I want to choose the way. You must come with me but do not pull me or make me go there because I want to be here and go this way. That is where my feet are going so it is tough luck. I shall tell you when I see a bus or the bin men with my excited voice – they are special mummy.

I like my toys. My cars are favourite. I like to make their sound pap pap brrmm brrmm and push them and make them go and go. Blocks go on top of more blocks and make tall towers to crash and smash. I like to make my crayons make a mark that is brand new and wasn’t there before on the white. I like the TV on please mummy, especially if there is singing so we can dance and you can sing the words. And I like splashing with water, and drinking it too, lots and lots. More water please. Yum yum delicious.

I like it when you read my books with me and we point at everything there is to see. I want this one again, and then you must read it again. And do the voices mummy because it makes me laugh. I like laughing. It bubbles out because you tickle it out of me and do funny things.

Sometimes though I do NOT like. And when I do NOT like I will tell you with all of my body and all of my sound so that you will listen.

I do not like it when I am tired. You tell me I must go to sleep but sometimes I cannot. My brain is full of things, big things and sometimes they move very fast and are scary. Sometimes I am just not ready to do sleeping. I try though mummy, I really try. Don’t be mad with me.

I do not like it when I feel not-good. I do not know what it means but it hurts in my mouth and my teeth and my tummy and makes me cry because I am frightened and I want to sleep but it makes me awake.

I do not like it when you make me be separate when what I need is to be in the same space as you are. My body feels lonely and needs to not be separate for a while. I promise I will be separate another day but not today.

I do not like it when you don’t understand. I am telling you what I want but you have got it wrong and I am angry because I tried very hard. You must listen mummy and do what I say so I can feel happy again. And it must be now because waiting is no good at all. If you don’t I will tell you NO NO NO and shake my head and arch and wriggle because I MUST NOT. It is very important.

Let’s get the duvet and make a den. You must lie down and I will put my head on your chest and we can be very still and together.

And make Night Garden come on mummy because it has that funny train on and you are very good at the singing bits.

Thank you.

I love you.

____________________________________

So now it’s your turn! What prompt did you choose?

1. What are you addicted to?
- Inspired by Kat at Slugs on the Refrigerator and her yarnaholism.

2. Tell me of your proudest moment.
- Inspired by Tara at Sticky Finger’s beautiful post ‘Jumpers for Goalposts’

3. “Have you ever had an epiphany, when you realized that something you’d long believed wasn’t really true?”
- Inspired by Amber Strocel’s recent post that asked this question and made me think.

4. Put yourself in the mindset of someone else and write about the world from their perspective.
- Inspired by Heather from Notes from Lapland’s moving piece of writing based on her empathy for the victims of the Cumbrian Floods.

5. Have a good rant. Go on! You know you want to…
- Inspired by ME! and my Christmas rant this week.

Leave your name and the URL to your post in the MckLinky below (the URL should be to your post not just to your blog) andleave me a comment to let me know you’ve taken part. If you have the time it would be great if you could try and read and comment on at least two other entries. And be kind! It’s supposed to be a bit of fun – we’re not looking for the next Booker Prize winner here!

If you haven’t had chance to respond yet, then you’ve still got today! Or just wait till next week, when there’ll be five brand new prompts to get you thinking.

This Writing Workshop is brought to you in association with Mama Kat’s Losin’ It – who’s lovely author came up with the concept and runs her own workshop over in the U.S.

Writing Workshop #8 – Addictions and Epiphanies

Morning all. First of all, I need to say a huge thank you to everyone that took part last week. I was overwhelmed with how many of you took part and so touched and humbled by the beautiful letters that so many of you wrote. Thank you for sharing such personal and moving moments with me – I feel honoured to have shared them with you, and your bravery in facing difficult memories gave me the strength to revisit a few myself.

So, it’s a new week, and one that I hope will be just as creatively inspiring and challenging.

For all your newbies (and it’s never to late to join in), here’s how it works… I’m going to give you 5 writing/blogging prompts. Pick one, pick two, or do them all if you’re really keen – it’s up to you. How you respond is your choice. You could share a real-life story, or make one up. You could write a poem or just free-write without thinking too hard and see what happens. It can be funny; it can be serious; it can be emotional. It can be whatever you want it to be. The only rule is to have fun with it!

Prompts each week will take their inspiration from blogs, current affairs, daily life, or just whatever everyone happened to be talking about that week. If you’d like to suggest a prompt then send me an email or catch me on Twitter – I would love to hear your ideas.

So here they are:

1. What are you addicted to?
- Inspired by Kat at Slugs on the Refrigerator and her yarnaholism.

2. Tell me of your proudest moment.
- Inspired by Tara at Sticky Finger’s beautiful post ‘Jumpers for Goalposts’

3. “Have you ever had an epiphany, when you realized that something you’d long believed wasn’t really true?”
- Inspired by Amber Strocel’s recent post that asked this question and made me think.

4. Put yourself in the mindset of someone else, someone you see on the news, or read about in a book, or see a photo of in a magazine, or pass in the street. Perhaps even someone you know. Write about the world from their perspective, imagine how they must feel.
- Inspired by Heather from Notes from Lapland’s moving piece of writing based on her empathy for the victims of the Cumbrian Floods.

5. Have a good rant. Go on! You know you want to… get whatever has been bugging you off your chest. But you must be honest and not afraid to go against the grain!
- Inspired by ME! and my Christmas rant this week.

Now here’s what you have to do. Write your post and publish it on your blog between now and Wednesday. On Wednesday come back and use the widget that will be up to paste in the URL of your post to share. Then take some time to read some of the other entries and leave some comment love! We’re not here to critique – just to have fun and support each other in our writing experiments. So be kind please.

Anyone who would like to submit something via email, or even anonymously will be more than welcome to do so. I’ll post them on the site here and include the link in Wednesday’s round-up.

Feel free to use the Workshop badge on your blog or as part of your post if you like. Code is here:

Note: I’m told Blogger does something a bit funny with the code so you’ll need to copy and paste it and then retype the quotation marks (“) as Blogger changes them for some reason.

See you Wednesday then!

P.S. And if you fancy plugging this workshop on the social network of your choice? Then that would be fan-frigging-tastic.

——————————————————–

This Writing Workshop is brought to you in association with Mama Kat’s Losin’ It – who’s lovely author came up with the concept and runs her own workshop over in the U.S.

Writing Workshop: The Fry that Flew

Welcome back to the Wednesday Writing Workshop link-up! At the bottom of this post you’ll find the widget to post the link to your workshop posts. We’ve got lots of new contributors taking part this week – should be a good one!

But first, I guess it’s my turn.

________________________________________

No time no time no time. Damn me and my inability to say no to any opportunity or switch off to any new idea. I should be starting to write the short story I have due in just after Christmas. But things keep cropping up. Fun things, exciting things, potential filled things. And ooh look I’ve done another 4 hours work today and no story… oops.

So I’m going to be good and keep it brief. And tell you about a dream I had last week. It was one of those dreams you just didn’t want to wake up from, it was THAT good.

You see, I was one half of a elite crime fighting duo, the other half of which was… Stephen Fry. He could fly people, the Fry could FLY! I, on the other hand, seemed to have no such exciting abilities, but my company (in a pink fluffy cat costume) seemed to be the calming influence in his life that he needed to carry out his super hero tasks without mental breakdown.

Most of the dream consisted of me curled up under a chair as Stephen did an interview, and then playing duets with him on the piano in a huge house (which was actually a shopping centre) jam packed full of people. Despite my reluctance to start thinking about Christmas, it WAS Christmas, with a huge 30ft tree in one corner and twinkly lights. We sang carols and all swayed like some kind of ‘It’s A Small World’ diorama. And then Stephen flew away… to save some animals or something I don’t know. I think I shed some tears as I banged out Oh Little Town of Bethlehem. It was all quite moving…

Now. I would like you to analyse. Get your Freudian hats on (or Jungian if that’s more your flavour) and tell me…

What the hell does this MEAN??!!

________________________________________

So now it’s your turn! What prompt did you choose?

1. Write a letter to your 16-year-old self
- Inspired by NotSupermum’s beautiful and touching post this week

2.What’s your guilty pleasure?
- Suggested by Leslieanne at Life with a Little Dude

3. Write about a dream you’ve had recently
- Inspired by Tim at Bringing Up Charlie and his bizarre dream of bloggers invading his living space!

4. I want to know your claim to fame (lame or otherwise)
- Inspired by Brits in Bosnia who is achieving some notoriety in her little town.

5. What do you do or where do you go to escape the stresses of every-day life?
- Inspired by ME! and my urban sanctuary this week.

Leave your name and the URL to your post in the MckLinky below (the URL should be to your post not just to your blog) andleave me a comment to let me know you’ve taken part. If you have the time it would be great if you could try and read and comment on at least two other entries. And be kind! It’s supposed to be a bit of fun – we’re not looking for the next Booker Prize winner here!

If you haven’t had chance to respond yet, then you’ve still got today! Or just wait till next week, when there’ll be five brand new prompts to get you thinking.

This Writing Workshop is brought to you in association with Mama Kat’s Losin’ It – who’s lovely author came up with the concept and runs her own workshop over in the U.S.

Bah Humbug – A Christmas Rant

Gah what is it with all you people and your determination to make Christmas last as long as possible?!

Not only have I had to suffer Christmas hitting our high street before Halloween this year, now December 1st has rolled round I’m suddenly met with endless accounts of people with their tree up, presents bought and wrapped, and Christmas cards written.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas. But I just start to think about it on the 1st, using the whole advent period to gently warm up to the idea. I put up Kai’s advent calendar last night and got my first little Christmas tingle filling it with various disproportionately sized plastic animals for him to find each day. By the weekend I might just start thinking about doing some Christmas shopping. In another couple of week’s we’ll put the tree up and try a think of a way that we can ensure it survives three weeks of toddler attention. I probably won’t even eat a mince pie for at least another fortnight. This way my excitement builds slowly up to an uncontrollable hysteria on Christmas Eve (where my brother will come and we will play board games and eat our body weight in buffet food), a night lying awake wondering if that sound I just heard really was Santa, not daring to move and thinking that all those unbelievers are going to feel such eejits when they don’t get a Canon SLR under their tree, and then be up at the crack of dawn for a few days of festivities and more food and mulled wine than should probably be legal.

If I started with it all too soon, my excitement would have peaked and waned by the time we gotten half way through advent and I’d be bored and disinterested with the whole thing by the time the big day rolled round. Now fair enough if you personally have the energy to maintain your Christmas Spirit for endless weeks at a time, I just don’t have it in me.

And, for me, having Christmas last a whole month, or even longer, kind of throws out my whole rhythm for the year. Christmas is a specific day, or a few days at most, which is proceeded by ADVENT. Which, if you’re of the non-religious persuasion as I am, means a time of getting ready. If you’ve already got ready then what the frick is the point? You’ve lost all the build-up, all the magic – all you’ve got to look forward to is three weeks of novelty chocolates which I swear are made up of the ground up cardboard of last year’s advent calendars.

*sigh*

I’ll stop ranting now. I don’t mean to wee on your Yule log or anything like that.

I’m just saying, let’s all calm down a bit shall we. We’ve got 24 days people, let’s enjoy them.

Just when I thought I was going to lose my mind…

Ten ways in which the Universe was kind to me today:

1. Not only did Kai only wake up ONCE last night, he slept in until, wait for it, 8am!!!!! I got up before him, got dressed, made a cuppa. It was quite possibly the best morning of my life.

2. All that sleep meant Kai was in a KILLER mood. We laughed, we nearly wee’d ourselves with excitement riding the bus, we only had a handful of minor meltdowns at Playgroup and Kai made friends with a small girl with pretty hair. Toast was eaten, toys were shared. It was legendary.

3. When we got home Kai sat happily and drunk half a cup of moo moo milk (as opposed to mama milk). This is only the second time I’ve got him to drink any with out screaming and throwing it at me. If you were in the Midlands area and heard a Ahhhh sound that would have been my boobs sighing with relief. We’re down to two feeds in 24 hours people! TWO!

4. In one of those adorable toddler moments, every sip of Kai’s milk was accompanied by a “mmmm!”, a lip smack and a big grin. I’ve been giving him milk everyday and encouraging him to drink it with lots of “yum yum” and “ooh delicious!” – looks like he’s cottoned on the fact that moo moo milk = gooooood.

5. After drinking said milk we read a story (about diggers obviously), we drew the curtains and Kai lay down in his cot and went to sleep. Just like that. That is the first nap time without tears in about a fortnight.

6. While Kai was asleep I made two cups of tea. I’m not sure who the other one was for but I drank them both. With biscuits. I may make two cups more often.

7. The powers-that-be have decided to dig up a car park in the town centre. That means DIGGERS people. Diggers for probably all this week. This afternoon Kai spent 20 ecstatic minutes watching those diggers, who happened to be driven by friendly digger men who were happy to flash their lights and spin the diggers round and drop things from high up to make a better crash all for my rapt little boy. We will be back.

8. Instead of screaming all the way home, Kai sang. Loudly. It made everyone we walked past smile – not frown and look alarmed at the thrashing hysterical toddler that has been the norm for the last week or two.

9. We got back and Kai SAT. And gave me kisses, and giggled at me talking to him in a funny voice, and played with his cars beautifully till his Dad got home. I remembered how much I love him and decided I might not run way to New Zealand after all.

10. Bed time went without a whimper. Kai chose his fire engine book, we sniggered at the instruction to “feel the Fireman’s hard helmet”, and then we said “Night Night” and he lay down and went to sleep. Again.

Thank you Universe. Now why can’t everyday be like this??!

30 Nov 2009, 8:01am
Writing Writing Workshop: Blogging prompts claim to fame dreams escape guilty pleasures letter to my 16 year old self Sleep is for the Weak Writing writing prompts Writing Workshop
by Josie

8 comments

Writing Workshop #7 – Claims to Fame and Guilty Pleasures

These Monday’s roll round quickly don’t they?! You ready for this week’s prompts?