Tonight we had friends over for a pasta making party. I made the pasta dough in advance so it could “rest” at least 30 minutes before our friends arrive. Plus, I had the marinara sauce, turkey and chicken sausages, broccoli and chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting all ready (our friends were bringing bread and…
Tag: writing time
Flash Essay: A Honey-Sweetened Chocolate Cake with a Secret Ingredient
A chocolate cake I like to make has a secret ingredient: mayonnaise. The recipe comes from the Cake Bible, and I’ve made it several times. It’s delicious. We don’t eat refined sugar, so I substitute one cup of honey for the one cup of sugar. Other than that, it’s the same and makes a very…
Flash Essay: Thunderstorm on a Sunday Afternoon
Thunderstorms. Texas is famous for them. This afternoon the sky grew gray off to the west, and in a short time the wind picked up and the smell of rain was in the air. I barely had time to go across the street and retrieve the dogs from their play date with our neighbors’ beagle…
Flash Essay: No Fun Tonight
Saturday night. Sick. Yuck. Woke up this morning feeling too tired after so many hours of sleep. Then intestinal woes hit me and I’ve been limping ever since. Party tonight and I’m at home with the dogs. I just didn’t feel like going. Think I’ll head back to bed. Just want to rest. My body…
Flash Essay: Lots of Driving and Another Building Project
We are now back in Texas. We left LA at 3 pm on Wednesday, drove to Flagstaff, AZ, arriving at 1:30 am, then left the next morning, arriving in Sherman at 3:30 am. this (Friday) morning. That seems like a long time and a lot of driving. And, of course, it was. We are only…
Flash Essay: Men and Women: Brain Differences
Just this morning my husband Ray said, “I don’t like Mozart. I feel as if he was just writing to get paid.” In contrast, he adores Mahler, who poured his emotions and life into his compositions while Mozart (in the same school with Beethoven) wrote some of his happiest music when he was in the…
Flash Essay: The Fun of Writing Personal Essay
I just completed teaching an online course for Story Circle Network entitled, “Writing the Personal Essay.” The course was five weeks long and each week the students were assigned reading material on a different type of essay, then required to write that type of essay by the end of the week. Just so that we…
Flash Essay: Organizing before School Starts
I have spent my day doing the task I like the least: pulling everything out of my junk drawers and stow-it cabinet in preparation for the upcoming school year. I teach privately at home and I have been using the buffet that’s in the picture for papers, books, receipts, and anything else that needs a…
Flash Essay: A “Dream” in the Making
Today I helped our family friend Alvaro prepare his paperwork for President Obama’s “Deferred Action” for undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children. We sorted through transcripts, pay receipts, school ID cards, plus any other indication that he’d been continuously in the country for the past 5 years, and added these to a stack…
Flash Essay: Us and the Dogs, Who Owns Who?
The dogs are barking. Why? Probably someone is walking down the street, or else William has meowed, sending two sets of canine ears on high alert. Sammie, our little foster dog, has shifted from half-dead to full of life. She is leading the charge this evening, protecting us from the dangers of the neighborhood. Tail…
20 Minutes a Day 