What Gives?

I was challenged and I rarely step away from a challenge.

So, I did it. I did the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS, like so many other people have done all over the world. But I can’t stop thinking that it’s just not enough. Getting freezing cold water dumped on your head makes for good video, but how can that possibly be enough? Awareness is great, but ALS needs so much more than attention. ALS needs funds to do research in order to eradicate this horrible disease that is essentially a death sentence. ALS, which is short for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or “Lou Gherig’s”‘ disease is a “progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal chord”.  It’s victims are generally between 40-70, both men and women, with about 30,000 Americans affected at any given time. http://www.alsa.org/

My husband and I often talk about teaching our sons how important it is to appreciate what they have. We don’t want them to feel entitled and to understand how fortunate they are to have their health and to prioritize what is important. While we haven’t personally been touched by ALS, we have been affected by other sickness and disease, and we understand how fortunate we are for the life we get to live. We also realize that everything can change in a split second, with the jerk of a steering wheel, a diagnosis, or a phone call relaying bad news. We know how lucky and blessed we are because we have both lost people way too young or too early, and have seen good people suffer.

After I did the Ice bucket Challenge, I couldn’t stop thinking that I should do more, I need to give more, donate more, give back more. So, I’ve decided that from now until October, I’ll donate half of the profits from my books sales to ALS. Then during the month of October, I’ll donate to Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure.

I have to be clear and forthcoming, here. I’m not a New York Times Bestselling Author or a USA Today Bestselling Author. I only have three published books and I’m not very well known. I haven’t sold millions of books and the only reason I’ve published my books is because it’s been a lifelong dream, and because I love to write. But, I’ll continue to market, and share, and encourage those who would share my work with others to do it especially during the next few months because they’ll also be contributing to finding a cure for ALS and Breast cancer.

Whether I donate five dollars or fifty, it will be more than what I was donating before, from my book sales. Now I can do something I love and also know I’m giving to something far more important than me, even if it’s just a little.

And that is a whole lot warmer than having an ice cold bucket of water dumped on my head!

ALS Bucket Challenge

Today I had the pleasure of being nominated to do the #ALSBucketChallenge.

I knew my time was coming because the challenge was circling around me, but I wasn’t sure when it would hit. And then it hit, today.

After I posted it, I had several people thank me for doing it because they have a loved one, or had a loved one who suffered from the disease. But it was my privilege to get to do the challenge, if it would for one moment, remind people of the Hell of this disease and make us think about those who suffer from it. Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a progressive nuerogenerative disease that effects nerve cells in the brain from the spinal chord to the muscles in the body and ends in total paralysis.

I had to get past the personal embarrassment of posting this less-than-flattering video, by giving myself some “tough love” and remembering that it wasn’t about me. It was about something bigger and way more important. You can find the video posted on my Facebook page, and hopefully it will help just a little bit in this epic battle against this horrible disease that affects about 30,000 people at any given time.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=688043104608607&set=vb.435181503228103&type=2&theater

God Bless those who suffer from ALS, and the ones who love them. Let’s hope this challenge will help raise awareness and funds for research and hopefully a total eradication of ALS!

http://www.alsa.org/

Sorting Socks

I haven’t blogged in, what feels. like. forever.

I find that summer is an extremely difficult time to write. It’s not because the words are not there, but because the time to let them flow, is not. This can certainly make for a frustrated writer.

Between baseball, working, spending time with little boys who are home all summer, and juggling the craziness of plain old life, blogging falls to the bottom of the priority list, with working on my fourth novel not that much higher. I’m not whining… not really. Doesn’t anyone and everyone feel the way I do about things they love? Life just gets in the way which is expected.

But do you want to know what really makes me crazy?? It’s the ONE thing in life I can’t stand or accept no matter how hard I try. It’s the one thing that pulls me from being able to write and makes me insane… sorting socks!

With four people who wear multiple pairs of socks sometimes all in one day even, between washing, sorting, matching, and folding I waste hours of valuable writing time. HOURS! HOURS! If you’re like me, socks are the last thing I deal with when doing laundry. I would rather clean a toilet than sort through a gigantic pile of socks in every imaginable size and shape. It’s a task that feels futile… you know what I mean. Laundry is the one domestic duty I detest because it’s time consuming, annoying, and never ever ending. And honestly, I’d rather be writing. I’d rather be writing than doing many things, but I’m not kidding, I would rather go naked if it was socially acceptable that wash another load of dirty clothes.

An old friend asked me the other day,” How does it feel to be a writer?”

I struggled to answer the question because quite frankly, I don’t often feel like a writer. As much as I want to be, I’m more often other things. Queen Sock Sorter, being one of them. And it’s not a question of not wanting to write more often, it’s just a matter of what is most important in my life, and sometimes, those little pieces of cotton just end up to be priority above sitting at a keyboard and “bleeding” (Ernest Hemingway).

I jest, but seriously. Show me a writer, mother, blogger, full time career woman, SAH (stay at home) Mother, who doesn’t deal with the same issues? How many times do you say “I would work out more” or” eat healthier”, “get my nails done”,  or “take that art class” if only… I didn’t have to (fill in the blank)? So, I’ve decided it’s time to make a stronger effort.

Writing makes me happy.

It calms my nerves, empties my head, and is the one thing I do for ME. I don’t write because I’m expected to or even particularly great at it. If I stopped writing tomorrow the only person who might really miss it, is me, which I accept and am completely fine with. But being a writer helps me reflect so I understand who I am and can make better sense of the world which is why I’ve always done it. Which is why I’ve decided that this Queen Sock Sorter can also be a more prolific writer.

I just have to figure out how.

I’ll keep fighting to blog and to write because sorting socks just depresses me. And hopefully you’ll see more pieces from me in the near future as I practice my writing skills, release the demons, and do something other than practice my powers as a domestic Goddess. 😉 And if anyone wants to come over and sort my socks for me, you can comment below and we can negotiate. 🙂