PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Take Pride
My full-time job is being a mom. Raising kids is such an honor and most of the time I love it, but sometimes I feel like I’m going CRAZY! It’s hard work (not to mention that you don’t get a lot of credit for being a mom). It’s morning until night, constant, from the first years when you’re nursing and changing diapers until the days when you’re getting ready to send kids off to college.
My kids are both in high school now and my duties today include; packing lunches (I know I don’t HAVE to do this, but I want to. They do get their own breakfasts), doing laundry, ironing my daughter’s dress to wear when she performs in a talent show tonight, walking the dogs (also mom duty), picking up my son’s computer and dropping money off for his summer basketball camp, getting the oil changed in the Jeep, going for a run (probably not gonna happen), picking up a boom stand for the talent show, doing dishes, taking out recycle and cleaning the house for company this weekend, working on my novel and my upcoming speech (definitely not gonna happen), mailing a scholarship application for my daughter, cheering my daughter on at her softball game, figuring out how to get her some dinner as she runs to talent show rehearsal and then figure out dinner for in-laws and my son (most likely gonna order Thai food) and then, go to sleep and start again tomorrow.
That’s being a mom and I wouldn’t change it for the world. But it’s also hard to keep it all together and not totally lose yourself. For me, my kids come first, but sometimes I just want to scream, “What about me?” […]
Monday’s Pen to Paper: Perfect Input
I just sent in ten pages of my Young Adult Novel to my instructor to be critiqued. I’ve been taking a year-long course from her at the Hugo House and I’m looking forward to her critique. My book is slowly coming together and with time it will get there, and I truly respect her input.
Though it’s not alway easy to hear input on your work, it can help to move it forward. And depending on where the input comes from, you may need to just nod and smile and in the end, do your own thing. For me when advice came from my 15-year-old son, I tried not to be defensive (he didn’t give his opinion thoughtfully, he just gave it) but I listened, because he is my audience. “Why wouldn’t the cars work? Wouldn’t they just barricade themselves in the house and live there? That’s what I would do. What about a gun? Why not a bike?” He had a lot of ideas and opinions, both good and bad, and so I did my best to take it all in. In fact, because of his input I now have some new ideas that I think will make the story better.
Be open to input, but in the end go with your gut, to make your story come alive.
WRITING PROMPT: Garth set my first chapter down and laughed out loud…
Monday’s Pen to Paper: New Inspiration
My daughter has been working on writing a novel for a while. I often joke with her that her book will get published before mine. (Though with her work ethic and love of writing it may actually end up being true.) She is a senior in high school and will be graduating soon, so she’s busy with school and sports and activities, which has cut into her writing time, but over Easter weekend my brother was in town and with him he brought inspiration.
Not the Godly kind that one might expect at Easter, but quite the opposite. My brother is a former Army Airborne Ranger and my daughter is working on a young adult dystopian novel, so she was looking for information on guns and knives and warfare. Not only did my brother have plenty of information to give her (and a fully loaded survival pack ready to show her), he has the love of world building and developing ideas.
When my brother and I were kids we never missed an episode of Twilight Zone or Creature Future or any futuristic TV show that we could find on our 3 Channels in Montana and we loved to build forts in the fields near our home and dream up different lives. Yes, he could imagine the world his niece was working to share and the story that went with it. They talked for hours.
The next morning I found my daughter tapping away at her keyboard, scribbled notes by her side.
Share your work with others and you never know what kind of inspiration you may find…
WRITING PROMPT #1: Who might inspire your writing. Why? Take the opportunity to contact them.
WRITING PROMPT #2: Tara and her little brother Wes would survive but it wouldn’t be easy in today’s […]
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Do You Hear Me?
I heard basketballs bouncing outside when I was writing this week. Kids were shooting baskets in our front yard. (Not my kids, but not an uncommon occurrence since we put a basketball hoop in our front yard two years ago). I heard my husband say, “You should be using your left hand on the left side,” before he walked in the house on his way home from work.
I gave him a kiss and then headed to the door. I couldn’t let it go. (No longer a high school coach, but always a coach.) I lined up all three boys on a seam in the concrete. “Ok, pretend you’ve got a string attached from your left knee up to your elbow.” I lifted my arm and brought up my knee. “Like a puppet.” I explained some more. I had them do it with me ten times. They looked at me like I was a crazy, but they obliged me with some puppetry.
“Now let’s try a couple at the basket.” Of course they all ran back about ten yards to get a run at the hoop and I had to corral them in. I would make this a short lesson, I would have plenty more chances to follow-up. “Right here guys. One step from the basket.” I said. “Step with your right, and then go up with your left hand and left knee.” They tried. It was awkward. They missed shots. They didn’t like it.
“That looks great!” I said. Once again they looked at me like I was crazy. “Now every day that you’re on this court I expect you to practice a left-handed lay-in at least ten times. Okay?” I received some hesitant nods and some eye rolling. “I’m not kidding.” I said and then walked […]
Meet Sonya
Meet Sonya
Sonya Elliott’s memoir, Back on the Court: A Young Woman’s Triumphant Return to Life, Love & Basketball, is her story of finding hope in the wake of tragedy after she and her fiancé were hit by a train. She blogs about writing, basketball, and life and is currently working on a Young Adult Novel and a Non-Fiction Coaching book. Stories of her career as a fashion model are woven through her memoir, as both the Soloflex and Easy Spirit Shoes commercials were filmed during that time period, and this unique and intriguing business continues to be a part of her life.
Sonya played basketball at Eastern Washington University and was a starter for the Big Sky Champion team that went to the 1987 NCAA tournament. She coached for almost 25 years and was voted Seattle Times Coach of the Year, Seattle Officials Women’s Basketball Association Coach of the Year, and twice voted Metro League Coach of the Year. She loves the game of basketball and is thankful, not only for her husband and kids but for her ability to continue to get back on the court.
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PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Are Women Coaches Bullied?
photo credit: Paul Moseley
I’ve spent over half of my life coaching and every minute was worth it. Not for the money of course, I volunteered for eighteen of the years that I coached and the others I was paid next to nothing (As you know high school coaches don’t coach for the money). But it was worth it because of the opportunity to work with the players (mostly girls) and teach them about basketball, a sport dear to my heart, and through basketball help them learn about life. How to set goals, work hard, work as a team, win and lose with grace and also how to have some fun in the process.
Over the years, my players inspired me, entertained me, and taught me to be a better coach and a better person. But coaching high school was […]
Monday’s Pen to Paper: Spring has Sprung
The cherry trees are in bloom and I’m sneezing from time to time and every once in a blue moon we have some sunlight, so I’m calling it spring. And my daughter informed me that it was officially spring yesterday, so there you have it, it may not feel like it at times, but it’s official. Spring has sprung!
WRITING PROMPT #1: What does spring mean to you?
WRITING PROMPT #2: Selma couldn’t stop sneezing, she…
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Enjoy The Madness
It’s that time of the year again when everyone works from home so they can sit with their computers in their laps and their eyes on the TV watching college tournament games. And though watching the games is plenty of fun, every year my husband and I ramp up the intensity with a bet. The bracket winner gets an hour massage and more important, bragging rights. (I’m looking forward to ANOTHER massage).
My husband and I are also in a bracket where losers owe winners a drink. My friend and her family fill out their brackets and the winner gets their request granted from the rest of the family. Maybe sister has to play games all day with winning brother, mom cooks favorite dinner and dessert for winning daughter, this fun competition gives another good reason to gather as a family and have […]
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