On the Horizon: U Pick’em

I remember back when I was a kid, my mother would bundle all of us kids up in long sleeve shirts and then spray us all over with bug spray. It was an annual ritual each year right at blackberry picking time. There was a spot near a lake by our house that had wild blackberries and every year we would go pick that dark fruit so mom could make jelly.

Now this wasn’t a ritual I really wanted to do as a kid. It was hot, especially with the long sleeves we had to wear to protect our arms. Bugs would swarm around our heads and it seemed like even though we had bug spray on, they still were biting us (I think the bug spray has gotten stronger since then). But while I may have been miserable and don’t even like blackberries, it was still something I did with my family and we always had a good time.

So this week’s video blog really brings back memories of my childhood picking blackberries with my family.

~Alisa Hines

 

On the Horizon: U Pick’em from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.

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Throwback Thursdays: Our Contributors Write About Health Struggles

Our first Throwback Thursday will involve a few of my favorite essays submitted by our contributors over health issues. Fibromyalgia cannabis treatments have emerged as a promising option for managing chronic pain and other related symptoms. Check out treatments with regenerative potential. If you need additional help with chronic pain, you may buy kratom online. Also, check out twdshop.co for weed delivery products in Toronto for a convenient and accessible option. Just as people seek trusted medical experts like the top eye surgeon in San Ramon, it’s important to explore reputable sources for your wellness and pain management needs.

As mentioned previously, “Throwback Thursdays” are recommendations from our Year-One content that I believe are worth reposting.

The first was called, “A System Worked and a System Failed: How Illness Impacts our Dear Friends…and Us.”  It consists of a health-status journal entry written by a friend, and a post by another friend.  One with a happy ending, and one without.  One story about the “history of hair” from someone who never really had any to begin with, then lost what she had.  The second story is from a medical student who observed a history of her best friend being misdiagnosed, and thinking through her death at a later time.

The second: “A Kairos Moment at Culp’s Hill.”  Contributor Josh Bottomly recounts his struggle of being unable to help the fact that he and his wife could not bear their own children.  During a brief encounter with history on a professional training trip, he finds what he needs in order to turn his perspective from despair to hope.

Bowen’sHeart.Com

My third recommendation was written by our Woman2Woman contributor, Kendy Cox.  She is especially empathetic to various stories of parents with ill children and writes reviews those stories, and highlights the blogs she follows, in “Chicken Soup for the Blogaholic’s Soul.”  The power of an online journal where people can write through their struggles is clear in this post, and I appreciate her sharing the stories of others who want to help their children get better. Continue reading Throwback Thursdays: Our Contributors Write About Health Struggles

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Year One at the Red Dirt Chronicles: Committing a “Take Back” on the Editor’s Choice Essays

This is the office scene of which I am a part most every late night and sometimes early in the morning.  It’s where I do my editing work for the Red Dirt Chronicles.  And, where I write. And where I follow up on work from my days in Stillwater that might not be quite finished.  It’s also where Mick checks out the news headlines when he comes home from work, where Rylee’s boyfriend interfaces with his home computer when he’s visiting and where our family gathers sometimes for impromptu hang-out sessions.  My home office gets lots of miles.  However, it’s gotten more than I’ve wished for since I’ve been on vacation.  Why?  Because I’ve been trying to create a “RDC Year-One Top Essays” list for a solid seven days…on and off.

I hate this job.  Who gave it to me?  Me.  Who’s going to take it away? Yep – me.  Why?  Because I can and I don’t want to do it any more.

For the past four days, all I’ve wanted is a “take back” like Will challenged Skylar about in Good Will Hunting. (about 3:30 on the link; rated R dialogue) Continue reading Year One at the Red Dirt Chronicles: Committing a “Take Back” on the Editor’s Choice Essays

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The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 32

#32 of 52 : VELMA AND PAUL
The 2011 Imaginary Family Project - Week 32

External Photo Clues:
None

Imagine:
   It all started on Thanksgiving Day that winter the lake froze solid.  All the family had gathered, some travelling in from Kansas, others just from the next county.  It was a standard family affair wonderfully complete with too much food and twice as many children as the year before.  The women cooked and giggled, and the men smoked outside and talked about politics, crops, and religion.  Everyone was generally too busy to notice that a romance was budding between two young people.

When she first saw him, he had been looking at her intently, trying to figure out her age.  Some vague impression told him she was about two years his junior.  Even the girls in his class at school were not so grown, not nearly so womanly.  Yet here she stood, wearing perfume and lipstick, chestnut hair let down in smooth curls and parted on the side instead of yanked back in the standard girlish ponytail.  Once he was caught staring, hot color flooded his cheeks. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 32

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You might be new to the game of fatherhood if…

by Michael Mitchell

I’ve noticed A LOT of groups on Facebook popping up lately around the idea of sharing common experiences about the town you grew up in with other people who also grew up there. My favorite is the “You know you’re from Gotebo if…” I don’t know if I’m more impressed that a town of 247 people has a Facebook group with 48 members in it or that a town that is only .77 square miles actually has a population of 247 people.

Anyhow… I digress. Seeing all of these groups and the things people are saying got me thinking about another shared experience that is fresh and new and really close to home for me right now: fatherhood.

You see, there comes a time in every dad’s life when he realizes he’s the not the guy he used to be. He has left behind the trappings of his youthful days and traded them in for an entirely new set of responsibilities… and with them, joy. A trunk that used to hold a set of golf clubs or his favorite rod and reel is now home to a massive collapsible stroller and other random baby accessories that consume every last square inch of his available cargo capacity.

Continue reading You might be new to the game of fatherhood if…

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Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.