Challenge Crazy Day 3--Day 2 was a work day

wahoo! primer white

So, in case you're wondering, the house is still coming along.  It's been nice enough weather to get some painting done. We're wading through mud to do it, but a little paint and dirt never hurt anyone.
I'm also working on my personal challenge of getting my creative room in order.  Yesterday I cleaned out papers and shredded three bags of it!  The recycle guys were excited as well. It's not all together yet, but it's on the way.  I still have 18 days to do it, but I also have to go to my career that pays the bills and a conference in San Antonio. You remember the Alamo, right?  So, I'll be busy before the April Challenge starts. 

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.--- 
Bertrand Russell

I'm taking a class about writing memoirs.  I'm more of a fiction girl, but since I like the people in the class I thought, hey, that might be fun.  We talked about snapshots the other night.  Not like photos, but in writing small memories, snapshots of our lives. As I've been thinking about this I've learned about myself and what's made me who I am today.  I think of all the things my grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents--all the stories of our family that we've told and how many have been lost.  It's important to write these stories down, or at least tell them to our kids and grandkids (if you're old enough to have those!)  We always are growing and changing, but we can't forget where we came from.  Our family, for good or ill, shapes our lives.  We can change ourselves, overcome bad experiences, but we can't change our history.

Southwest Louisiana at Sunset

In crafting memoirs, we have the same histories as the rest of our families.  As writers, we have to decide what version of the history we tell.  That's the fun part of it all.