DAY ONE!! 30 Poems in 30 Days!!! “Pensee Poem”

Ok, friends, are you ready? In honor of "National Poetry Month" for 2014, we are going to write a different style poem every day. Oh, yeah, there are LOTS more than 30 types of poems out there. 

PLEASE join in as OFTEN as you can but if you miss a day, hey, you miss a day. No reason to give up. Life is BUSY!! We all can relate!

So, for our FIRST poem, let’s start out with one that is really quite simple and can be lots of fun. This was a favorite form that I used when I taught school. It was amazing to me what the students came up with.

This form is called a “Pensee Poem” – it is a five-line, structured poem that does not rhyme. Each line has a specific number of syllables. 

The thing to watch out for is to follow the pattern, including WHAT should be expressed on each line, using a SPECIFIC number of syllables ~                                      

Line	Pattern	Example
Line 1	Subject (2 syllables)	Newborn
Line 2	Description (4 syllables)	Precious and sweet
Line 3	Action (7 syllables)	Sleeps peacefully in my arms
Line 4	Setting (8 syllables)	How do you like the world so far?
Line 5	Final thought (6 syllables)	I wish you could tell me

                                                
Newborn
Precious and sweet
Sleeps peacefully in my arms
How do you like the world so far?
I wish you could tell me.

          Stephanie Abney ~   © 2014 

Well, this is just my example, but you get the idea. So, go ahead and try several ~ perhaps one about an animal, another about your favorite foods, or time of year (holiday/season), an event, an emotion, something in nature. What comes to mind?

Feel free to post your poem in the comments – or if you’d rather not – at least make a comment and let us know that you did try this type of poem and how it went for you. Cheers!!!

So, here's another one:

Freedom

Our liberties

Granted unto us by God

Outlined in our Constitution

Thank-you Founding Fathers

          

      © 2014 ~ Stephanie Abney

Check in tomorrow for a different style of poem.

April's National Poetry Month Challenge Begins tomorrow, April 1st

Well, I really MEANT to post more often on here, but I got sucked into the FB and Twitter world which allows for such quick and easy posting. Sigh...

I started this blog in 2008 and posted 24 times, in 2009 I posted 20 times, in 2010 only 5 times but in 2011 there are 43 posts (30 were the result of my 30-day poetry challenge), 2012 offers 14 posts (and 7 were poetry posts during April) and in 2013 I only posted 3 times. Sad. And for 2014? Well, THIS is my first post. Oh my. I plan to do better!!! I always think I have to play "catch up" before I can start up again and then that's so overwhelming I don't do either. So, no "catch up" - just moving forward.

To this day I get lots of hits about my poetry posts that I shared 3 years ago and I have had several requests to do it again. So . . . that's the plan. We will write 30 poems in 30 days!! Fun stuff!

                                    

Watch for the first post tomorrow -

To learn more about National Poetry Month, I refer you to the "National Poetry Month Q&A" page at poets.org, hosted by the Academy of American Poets. "National Poetry Month Q&A"

National Poetry Month is a month-long, national celebration of poetry established by the Academy of American Poets. It has been celebrated during the entire month of April ever since 1996.

So, check back on April 1st for your first challenge - it's bound to be fun!! A DIFFERENT poetry form will be offered each day with an explanation and example of that form and a challenge for you to create a poem of that type. Cool beans. See ya' tomorrow!!

Contest for a FREE audio version of new romance, "A Change of Plans"

Hey, mainly just want to direct you to my other blog where you can quickly enter a contest and listen to the beginning of a new clean romance, full of excitement and surprises ~

Here is the link:
Stephanie's Book Reviews & Author Interviews 

Forty-three years and COUNTING!! Happy Anniversary to US!!

Today is Aug. 5th ~ 

43 years ago, at the tender age of 19 (I know, I look about 14 in my wedding pictures), with only a year and half of college under my belt, I made the most important decision of my life – I married James Alex Abney on August 5, 1970 in the Los Angeles LDS Temple for “Time and All Eternity.” The rest . . . as they say . . .  is history!

We met in a college (BYU) snowball fight in November of 1969, started dating the end of January, 1970, got engaged, April 20^th and married August 5^th (all accomplished in less than a year). Were we crazy or what? Luckily, things have turned out well. Not that it’s been all sugar and spice. It’s been darn hard, but for where we are today, so worth it.

Thought I would share the story of the bright flowered bridesmaid dresses; a story I don’t think many of my family members have heard over and over, if at all. 

Back in 1970 the style was for bridesmaids to all wear the same pastel color, floor-length empire style dress, usually made with flowing sheer rayon voile fabric. Nope. That would never work for me. I LOVE color – I mean I REALLY love lots of BRIGHT vibrant colors – just go to my Pinterest Board (Color Splash – I LOVE Color) and see what I mean.

My mom and I decided to go to the fabric district in L.A. so we could have a large selection. Holy Cow! Too many stores with rows and rows of fabric. It was dizzying. I told my mom that I at least wanted to find a floral voile fabric. She had her doubts but we began to search the shelves of material.

And then, it happened. My mom didn’t MEAN for it to happen. She was trying to make a joke. She saw a bolt of the brightest yellow fabric with crazy colored daisies (one of my favorite flowers) on it. Mom picked up the bolt, showed it to me and said, “Here you go. This one has flowers on it.”

My eyes lit up and I reached for the flowered material as my mother tried to snatch it back out of my grasp. “This is perfect, Mom! I LOVE it!!”

“Yes, but I was only kidding.”

“I’m not. Let’s buy the bolt.”

And THAT is how we got my very BRIGHT bridesmaid dresses. I think my sister was always secretly glad that she was the maid of honor, and as such, her dress was solid yellow (her favorite color) with only a band of the floral print. (And the band for the bridesmaids was solid yellow).

People went through our receiving line with their eyes WIDE open!! It was such fun!! I LOVE these dresses.

Fun dresses at the wedding are no guarantee, that’s for sure. We’ve had plenty of struggles, financially and otherwise. We buried our youngest son nearly 13 years ago when he was just 16. We’ve each buried both of our parents. In fact, for Jim – his dad, Kenneth Abney, died in a plane crash when he was only 9. Then his step-dad who had been part of his family since Jim was 11 died in 2000; same year as my dad, his mom and our son (my mom passed away at Christmas time in 1998). Those were all some challenging times. And there have been other things that might surprise someone looking in from their vantage point, but that’s just life. We’ve weathered lots of things but where we are today, is a very wonderful place to be. Many wonderful experiences as well to round out the edges of our life together. So, here’s to many more years with Jim. Cheers!!

What is a meme? Thought I knew, but then ... maybe not.

You probably see them everywhere ~ MEMES ~ but what, exactly, are they?

I did a Google search for the word "meme" and got lots of different answers. According to "Media Mom" ~ "There are all kinds of techie and academic definitions of the term “meme”, but most of them don’t get it quite right. Or they get it right, but in such dry, scholarly language that you’d never know they’re talking about Grumpy Cat or Fist Pump Baby (also known as “Success Kid”). Regardless of what the official definitions may be, when most people are talking about internet memes, they’re talking about pictures that various people add funny captions to and then share with everyone they know. Most often, on Facebook."

So, until I read this, I thought I had come up with a meme. Apparently not. What I created was more of a "Quotable Quote." Either way, here it is. Guess you can tell I'm pretty pleased with myself. I've watched my grandkids create all kinds of things with the "Paint" feature on my computer but today was the first time I have tried my hand at it. I drew this little yellow daisy and then typed in a phrase I came up with years ago. I really struggle with A.D.D. so getting new habits up and running is quite the challenge for me. Hence, my quote, "Few things are as fragile as a new habit in its infancy."

Hope others enjoy it. That's all for today. See you ... sometime. (I'm kind of lacking in the HABIT of blogging regularly).

Knowledge Quest - maps & timelines for history - offers free Christmas cookbook and goes about doing good deeds. Read on . . .

OK, so as a teacher, I really like "Knowledge Quest Maps" ~ bringing history alive with maps and timelines. But you don't have to be a teacher to find cool things there. And right now, they are offering a fun Christmas cookbook for their subscribers. If you are already one, you should have received an email about it BUT if you aren't, it's easy to become one and get your free cookbook. 

PLUS, they are doing some cool things to make life easier for our brothers and sisters in Asia. Here's how (taken from their website):

A Gift for You... A Gift for Them!
Also, this December, we'll be giving gifts to the needy in Asia through the Gospel for Asia Christmas Gift Catalog 


When we reach 32,000 subscribers to the Knowledge Quest newsletter (we have 31,500 now), we'll give a family a pair of goats which will provide "milk, meat and a message of HOPE" to a family in Asia. 
 
When we reach 34,000 subscribers, we'll give a family a water buffalo! 
 
When we reach 35,000 subscribers, we'll give a whole barn full of animals - 3 pairs of chickens, a pair of goats, one lamb, one cow and a pair of pigs! 
 
When we reach 40,000 subscribers, we'll provide a water well for a community! 
 
And yes, this is doable! We did it last year and gave a rickshaw to a hard-working family man in India! How? Because everyone who subscribes to our newsletter gets the free recipe book above. So that means a gift for us and a gift for them. It's a win-win-win 
Christmas stocking full of joy!
 
Join us by spreading the word about Knowledge Quest to your friends this Christmas season. Folks can sign up for the newsletter and get their recipe book... And may God bless you for your kindness and generous spirit.

http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/Figgy-Pudding.html

And the winner is . . .

Okay, folks ~

We have a winner of the new Christmas anthology, "Checkin' it Twice & Other Heartwarming Tales" 

~ Shaunna S. Gonzales is the winner of a FREE digital copy of "Checkin' it Twice" 

You still have a chance to win a copy - I will be posting my review on my "book review" blog, "Stephanie's Book Reviews and Author Interviews" tomorrow and the contest will run until next Monday morning so be sure to check over there tomorrow!

Stephanie's Book Reviews & Author Interviews 

Both of these blogs have suffered from some neglect but I hope to rectify that so be sure to follow them!! Take care. Cheers!!

And congratulations, Shaunna ~ be sure to message me about your prize. Thanks!!

New Chrsitmas book & Give-A-Way: "Checkin' It Twice" is sure to delight with new Christmas stories!

Anyone who knows me is well aware that I am a push-over for a good Christmas story and/or movie. So I was thrilled to find this little book full of stories by various authors. An anthology is so nice during this time of year because you can finish a story in one reading and pick the book up the following day and enjoy an entirely different story.

"Checkin' it Twice & Other Heartwarming Holiday Tales" has 16 award-winning stories just in time for the Christmas holidays. The stories are the outcome of LDS Publisher's 2010 and 2011 Christmas Story Contest (and yes, there is a contest this year - you can get details below).

Follow Savanna, a young mother, whose children help her find a merry Christmas despite the financial difficulties her family is experiencing in "Christmas Gifts from Jesus" by Kasey Eyre.

"Broken Things" by Angie Lofthouse reminds us that forgiveness is the greatest gift of all. It gave me chills as I read the last few lines.

And in "With Wondering Awe" by Jennifer Carson Shelton we watch the transformation of a distraught young teen who finds healing through service to honor her younger sister who passed away.

And that's just three examples - get the book to read them all!! Enjoy!!!

You can find out about the book, about the authors and this year's contest at the blog: "Checkin' it Twice" - blog
Plus you can even read short samples of the stories!!

"Like" this book on FB to stay on top of any news about it: FaceBook page

Purchase the paperback copy here: Amazon - Paperback of Checkin' it Twice
If you want a Kindle copy, go here: Amazon - Kindle of Checkin' it Twice

And if you a writer (newbie or seasoned) and you want to contribute a story for this year's contest ~ YOU ONLY HAVE A COUPLE OF DAYS!! Contest ends on Nov. 30th ~ Go here:  2012 Story Contest - ends FRI, NOV 30th

AND ... AND .... if you buy the PRINT copy BEFORE Dec. 15th, there are some cool bonuses in store for you. Check that out here: Print copy bonuses - ends Dec. 15, 2012

One more thing - If you want to enter to get a free e-book copy of the book - just comment on this blog AND become a follower to this blog (if you aren't already). Then, on Monday, Dec. 3, at 8am random drawing will reveal a lucky winner from among those who qualify. Cheers!!!

Time Out for Women Comes Full Circle

Early in November I attended the Phoenix "Time Out for Women" hosted by Deseret Book. I was also there on assignment and wrote an article about it for the Deseret News, which AP (Associated Press) picked up and from there KTAR (a local Phoenix station) picked it up and posted it on their website because it was a local event. Pretty cool!!!

Here are the links to my article: Time Out for Women comes full circle ending its 2012 tour in Phoenix where it began 10 years-ago ~ Deseret News, posted Tuesday, Nov. 6th and also in their print edition of the paper on Thursday, Nov 8th, 2012, Section C, Page 5 

And here is KTAR's website link to my article ~ I had a blast!! Fun assignment. Here are some of the pics - there are 11 photos on the Deseret News site, mostly of presenters (and I'm in a few).

    Friday evening Heidi Swinton spoke on "Seeking the Savior." 
     She is an author and screenwriter whose works include the PBS
  documentaries "American Prophet," "Sacred Stone," 
"Sweetwater Rescue,"Trail of Hope" and "America’s Choir." 
          She wrote President Thomas S. Monson's biography, "To the Rescue."

Chris Williams spoke on the power of
forgiveness. He is the author of  "Let it Go." 

While I was there I reconnected with friends I had not seen in awhile. In this case, Linda de Azevedo is someone I had not seen since I left my home ward, Studio City Ward, Burbank Stake (now the North Hollywood California Stake), to go to BYU. She is from Salt Lake City and came to watch her daughter, Julie de Azevedo Hanks, give one of the presentations.

         It's always fun to run into people you 
         know at Time Out for Women - 
         here are two ward member friends, 
         Kelly Merrill and Heather Roche

They brought all of the presenters out on stage the first evening to give a little "blurb" about what they would be speaking and/or singing about. 
        
               (Didn't get a very good pic of it).

Anthony Sweat. Sweat is an author and Church Educational System presenter/educator.

It was a lot of fun and even this ol' brain that's been around for quite awhile got some great ideas to help improve my life. Next year - let's all go... who has a BUS????

I Want to Dance with a Boy!! (redux)

When you come to someone's blog - you never know what you might find. I have a few favorites and since my recent article has caused several new viewers to show up and I thought it would be fun to share a couple of my favorites: Hope you enjoy "I Want to Dance With a Boy" ~ it's cute, fun and has a quite a lesson taught by a 3-year-old girl.

"I Want to Dance with a Boy!"

Our precious and precocious granddaughter, Taylor (Kaci’s daughter), is a constant source of many funny and delightful experiences and comments. At the tender age of 3 (she turned 7 in April) she attended her first “Ball”… it was the “Colonial Ball” held at the school I was teaching at every February. She even wore her “princess dress.” 
  


On the way to the dance, Taylor made it very clear to us that it was her wish to “dance with a boy.” We told her she could dance with grandpa but no, she wanted to “dance with a boy.” Her mind was made up.

Taylor’s eyes lit up with excitement as we entered the school’s multipurpose room that had been transformed for the night. She was impatient about getting her dance so I found a very fine young man, about 14 years old (we were a K-12 campus) and asked him if he would dance with my granddaughter. He was so sweet. He smiled, squatted down to her level, spoke to her for a moment, took her hand and escorted her to the dance floor. Holding both of her hands, they swayed back and forth in some fashion of a two step and then he turned her around a couple of times. Before the song was over, she walked away and came over to where Jim and I were sitting, “Grandma, I need a smaller boy.” 


I found one of my students, a very handsome 7-year-old named William. I introduced him toTaylor, informing him that this was my granddaughter and she wanted to dance. He said, “OK,” and they were off to the dance floor. Taylor smiled from ear to ear as she danced with her “prince.”


Taylor made many friends that night and had a marvelous time. When the Hokey Pokey began, she watched from the sidelines with us. It looked like too much fun to just stand there so she simply joined the others, squeezed into an available spot and began to copy the actions of the other dancers.



Taylor may be young, but she is fearless, determined, and bright and she intends to get what she’s after. She knew exactly what she wanted before she ever entered the dance. When what I offered her was not what she wanted, she clearly made it known what she needed, “a smaller boy.” She’s no wall-flower and I pray her attitude never changes.

There is much we can all learn from Taylor: Know what you want and have a clear mission statement about it: “I want to dance with a boy.” Don’t quit until you get what you want, even if it means making adjustments (“a smaller boy”). Don’t stand on the sidelines of life, walk right over to where the action is … and dance!

Taylor today - age 7

I've Gone Viral ~

So, for the last two and a half years, I've been writing for the Deseret News, Mormon Times, and ksl.com ~ and my articles attract varying amounts of traffic, usually from a few hundred hits to a few thousand hits per article. I know this due to a dandy little counter I have access to at my online "workdesk" for these publications. But I wasn't prepared for what has happened during the last few days!!!!

I was privileged to meet and interview Tom and Maggie Scott. I also read the book he wrote and the I wrote an article about them and submitted it to ksl.com (actually, THEY asked me to write it for them - but that's another story). So, I loved meeting them and hearing Tom speak at a fireside for the Young Single Adult members of our church in my area. I really enjoyed writing (and rewriting) my article. I also included some photos I gathered and then hit went live Thursday morning. I would have expected a few thousand hits as the article would be considered a "hot topic" ~ "Evangelical pastor of 27 years recounts journey to joining LDS church" ~ and the number of people who click on the article link is astonishing to me ~ I plan to come back and update it from time to time, so here is the latest:

56,917 hits ~ SERIOUSLY?

NEARLY 57,000 people have gone to the article and presumably read it!!

I'm so amazed and thrilled!! And then . . . LDS Living Magazine picked it up and added the link to their email newsletter that highlights interesting and timely articles!!!

So, in case YOU missed it ~ here's the link:

Evangelical Pastor 27 years recounts journey to joining LDS church

Just thought you might like to know. Have a great week!! Cheers!

When Life Gets Too Hard to Stand, Just Keep on Rolling

Had a book review posted online at Deseret News. Pretty amazing lady:

Meg Johnson, a Utah transplant from Idaho, is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a sought-after motivational speaker, author and artist. She is also a quadriplegic. Johnson shares her sunny outlook on getting through life’s rough spots in a new book, “When Life Gets Hard …”

You can read the entire book review at this web address: Book Review for "When Life Gets Hard"

Enjoy!!

A Limerick, A Limerick, A Limerick!!

Here's another poetry form for April' "Poetry Month" ~ Have fun!!

A Limerick is a rhymed humorous or nonsense poem of five lines which originated in Limerick, Ireland. The most commonly heard first line of a limerick starts with: "There once was a man from ___________."

Example:

The Man From Aruba
                      
There once was a man from Aruba,
Whose favorite hobby was scuba.
Every day he would wish,
He could spear a big fish.
But settled instead for canned tuna.         
          

                         © 2005 Jim Dupy

The Limerick has a set rhyming scheme of: A-A-B-B-A (meaning lines ENDING in “A” must rhyme with each other and lines ENDING in “B” must rhyme with each other) and with a syllable pattern of: 9-9-6-6-9. OR, perhaps more common is: 8-8-5-5-8. (See details per line below) and some limericks even mix it up a little.

Line 1 – “a” – 8 or 9 syllables

Line 2 – “a” – 8 or 9 syllables

Line 3 – “b” – 5 or 6 syllables

Line 4 – “b” – 5 or 6 syllables

Line 5 – “a” – 8 or 9 syllables

Here is a rather famous limerick with the pattern "sounded out" underneath each line (written in blue) ~ the number of "DUMS" is the important part ~ also notice the rhyming pattern A-A-B-B-A:

There was an old man from Peru, (A)
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS)
who dreamed he was eating his shoe. (A)
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS)
He awoke in the night (B)
da DUM da da DUM (2 DUMS)
with a terrible fright, (B)
da da DUM da da DUM (2 DUMS)
and found out that it was quite true. (A)
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS)

It’s rather “sing-songy” so just play around with it and then check to be sure the correct lines end in rhymes and that you have the correct number of syllables. It’s tricky, but very fun!!

Here you can see me PLOTTING out my new little limerick:

Six-year-old granddaughter, Taylor,

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
Amazing piano player.

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
A song she will hear

da DUM da da DUM                    
Then play it by ear,

da DUM da da DUM
So pretty, I’ll have to pay her!

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM

Here is the finished version: 

The Piano Player 

   

Six-year-old granddaughter, Taylor,

Amazing piano player.

A song she will hear               
Then play it by ear,

So pretty, I’ll have to pay her!

                        © 2012 Stephanie Abney

And,  here’s the one I wrote last year:

The Poetry Fest

        

Stephanie had a poetry fest

Encouraging friends to do their best

“Write a poem each day,

I’ll show you the way.”

“At the end of the month we will rest!

                       © 2011 Stephanie Abney

"All About Me"

Here’s a fun little poem I think you will enjoy – I do believe poetry comes from the heart – but there is more than one way to reach into your heart. Questioning is always helpful in finding things out. Sometimes, when we answer questions, we find things out about ourselves we had not given much thought to before. So, this poem is called "All About Me" ~ just answer the questions and voila’ ~ you've created a poem!! Pretty cool and tonz’ of fun, especially with kids.

The “All About Me” poem can be deep and insightful or fun and silly. You can do it over and over, answering the questions from a different perspective. Enjoy!!

Here is the format:

Line 1: Your first name only __________________

Line 2: Four adjectives that describe you ________

Line 3: Sibling of ___________________________

Line 4: Lover of ____________________________

Line 5: Who fears __________________________

Line 6: Who needs _________________________

Line 7: Who gives __________________________

Line 8: Who would like to see _________________

Line 9: Resident of __________________________

Line 10: Last Name _________________________

Here’s mine:

Stephanie
Happy, curious, loyal, creative
Sibling of Camille
Lover of life, the Lord, Jim, my kids, grandkids, my friends and nature
Who fears not getting the really important things done
Who needs understanding and lots of books
Who gives the best she has to offer
Who would like to see everyone get along
Resident of the universe
Abney

 Okay, now it’s YOUR TURN!! Have fun!