Leslea Tash's Blog, page 36
July 11, 2013
July 10, 2013
Dark Fantasy Author Red Tash: Dark Fantasy giveaway & more fabulous books!
Have you entered?
Hello, fabulous ones. It’s been a fun summer with lots of reading and writing here at Camp Flying Birdbath and my sunnier outpost, The Fabulousness. I thought I’d celebrate by throwing a follower giveaway for my combined tumblrs!
I think I have a pretty good variety for you here:…
booksdirect:
"Maybe happiness didn’t have to be about the big...
"Maybe happiness didn’t have to be about the big sweeping circumstances, about having everything in your life in place … " - Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares
Livin' the dream
Last week I was sick. I got so sick at one point, and was in so much pain, I was certain that I would awake a zombie. "If I try to eat your flesh, please know now while I am still sentient—I truly do love you, and I am sorry. This is the end of the world."
I’m not usually melodramatic, so my patient husband just assured me I was not dying, and let me sleep. He knew I must have been in hell to say something like that. I slept 24 hours the second time the bug hit me. Yep, I said the second time. I guess that happens sometimes. Kids get sick, Mom gets sick, kids get sick, Mom gets sick again.
Yikes.
Mentally, I demark this week we’re treading water through now as a wholly separate unit. Like, why doesn’t my body know this? Why doesn’t it have the respect to recognize that I mentally flipped the calendar to the next week and it’s time to feel better? Shouldn’t it know that?
I titled this post “Livin’ the dream," because this week while I’ve been working my way back into my previous momentum, I have been doing housewifey stuff and barely “working." Normally I have my day down to a tight balance of tending to kids, housework, and writing. Since I haven’t had the mental reserves to write and I still feel emotionally depleted, I’ve found myself doing things heretofore rarely even considered: I’ve sat on the couch and watched movies.
I mean, I do this from time to time. I get sick and watch movies instead of writing. It’s not unheard of, but I didn’t have it penciled onto this week’s calendar. I was supposed to feel better and be writing.
It keeps occurring to me how many people I know would see this half-spent week as their perfect life. Take the kids to the library, do a little sweeping, watch a movie, make dinner. They’d say “Wow, that is a lot of work!" and pat themselves on the back and enjoy the day.
I feel, instead, like I’m on an unpaid furlough from a job where I really make a difference.
As I type something like that, I wonder if that is the workaholic in me. Do I not make a difference with my kids and family?
Then as I type that, I hear the SuperMom judging me. Why is my work, my art, more important than my kids?
It’s not! Clearly it’s not!
But there is some kind of balance I need between work, family, and marriage and that balance has been thrown off. I’m missing something.
This week I started back into the C25K program because I loathe the fat encasing my once-beautiful body. I desire to see the strength, beauty, and goodness in my body again, and not the horror I regularly register when I see what is going on with me. It’s probably going to take me a few weeks to acclimate to the exercise. I’ve been running M-W-F and doing strength training Tu-Thur. That’s probably got me a little on the tired side.
I’m not sure what the rest of my malaise is about, but there it is. I’m living the dream—somebody’s dream—and not enjoying it.
I ask myself what I would do if I had a breakthrough best-selling book. Would I work less and relax and enjoy my kids more? I’d like to think so. I mean, there are certainly some housework chores I wouldn’t have to do anymore. But I wonder, really, if I would relax more. I don’t think I would.
So it’s possible this “dibble-dabble-do-a-little-housework, watch a movie" lifestyle isn’t my dream at all.
July 9, 2013
July 8, 2013
July 7, 2013
depression screening
I’ve never seen anything like this online. My husband asked me recently if I think I’m depressed and I had to honestly tell him I don’t believe I am. My mother died and I had two miscarriages recently, so yes, there is definitely some grief I’m dealing with, but overall I feel happy, regardless. Interestingly, I did purchase a “sun" light this year to see if it would help any SAD I might have. It did help, tremendously! I use it every overcast day. It’s just become part of my life. On the whole, I am a happy person I feel this quick online screen reflected that, although I was honest about my negative moods and what-not. Check it out, maybe it’ll help you decide whether or not you need to investigate help for yourself!
Disorder: Your Score
Major Depression:Very Slight
Dysthymia:Slight
Bipolar Disorder:Very Slight
Cyclothymia:Very Slight
Seasonal Affective Disorder:Moderate
Postpartum Depression:Slight
Take the Depression Test
July 6, 2013
Fabulous tumblr follower giveaway
Hello, fabulous ones. It’s been a fun summer with lots of reading and writing here at The Fabulousness and Camp Red Tash. I thought I’d celebrate by throwing a follower giveaway for my combined tumblrs!
I think I have a pretty good variety for you here: everything from Richard Scarry to “hella scary!" And by “hella scary" I may or may not mean love poetry written by Mr. Spock. Oh, yeah!
Conditions:
You have to be following me.
One Winner
The Winner shall chose one book from the selection given.
U.S. only. Sorry, international friends. I’ll try to do something for you around the holidays.
You have to be okay with giving me your address if you are picked the winner.
THIS IS A RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY.
5 total entries:
1 for following The Fabulousness (LesleaTash.com)
1 for following Dark Fantasy Author Red Tash (RedTash.com)
1 for reblogging this post
1 extra if you’re friends on Goodreads with Leslea.
1 extra if you’re friends on Goodreads with Red.
The giveaway will close at midnight, August 7, 2013.
The Winner will have 48 hours to respond to my message before an alternate is chosen.
These books are all in various conditions:
Piers Anthony, Out of Phaze (paperback, pretty worn). If you loved the black unicorn in Troll Or Derby, hark! Neysa is the black unicorn on the cover of Anthony’s final Adept novel. I LOVED these books when I was a kid, yo.
Jim Butcher, Summer Knight (paperback, good condition)
Thornton Burgess, The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse (vintage hardcover, aged but gorgeously so)
Juliana Foster, The Girls Book: How to be the Best At Everything (hardcover, like new except for some minor cover staining)
Red Tash, This Brilliant Darkness (paperback, new, signed)
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (hardcover, vintage copy, aged to yellowed perfection)
Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (hardcover with vintage dustjacket, okay condition)
Red Tash, Troll Or Derby (paperback, new, signed)
Leonard Nimoy, A Lifetime of Love (hardcover, near mint condition with dustjacket)
Richard Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever (hardcover, vintage, aged to perfection) I adored this as a child.
It’s a Rafflecopter!
If the Rafflecopter widget does not display, then PLEASE CLICK LINK TO ENTER! THANK YOU.
