NPI: FAIL plus Life, Death and NaNoWriMo Part 2

October has now come by and went so fast. I signed up for the NPI (novel push initiative) but FAILed out after only 14 days. Honestly, I can't pinpoint one apparent reason I just crumbled. Since then I've kept up with my writing through poetry and plotting my next course for NaNoWriMo in November and a new editing job that I'll be starting too. Emotionally, listening to music has been my complete solace at this point. I'm so glad for that as it has been so helpful to me.
My mother-in-law passed away on Oct. 9th. She found out that she had leukemia on Sept. 27th. It infested her and her death came quickly for those of us that weren't by her side to help with her hospice care. I'm very grateful that I was able to attend her funeral. I appreciate the efforts of many who were able to help me be able to go. I will not forget their kindness. I still can't believe that Clara's gone some days but I am so grateful that I knew her in my life. I know I'll find this out even stronger in the months to come. Time, in its existence and as a healer is such a unique notion when it comes to death. For the first four years of my marriage, I felt close to certain aspects of Jared's family as I lived near my mother and father-in-law at the time and then our family was whisked away to TX where we've started again here. Clara always called to express her love to us and to remind us to write and share an experience with the family in the "Carter Chronicle." I hate to admit now that I wasn't always happy or excited about doing this. Now, I've come to understand how valuable the written word really is and that is it all we have left of our legacy when we die. As a busy young mother, writing these little stories are the only journal I kept during this time. Now, I'm franctically trying to find copies of these letters to piece this time of my life together for my own reasons and life history. This is what I remember most of my mother-in-law, her devotion to her faith and her family, her love and insistence that we stay in touch as a family. I hope we always will.


Clara holding my daughter Grace on her birthday in 2005.

Please forgive my possibly infrequent posts during Nov. since I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo and also starting to edit a huge document that I've undertaken and plan to do my very best job. I'll be around eventually. In the meantime, look up some of my poetry under the Pocket page and hopefully you'll enjoy it. I'll add more poetry as soon as I can since that is one thing I'm very consistent in writing.