Tag Archives: challenges

This Isn’t Goodbye… It’s Follow Me On Medium! I'm closing up shop, and moving my musings to Medium.com!

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A “Medium” Move (In The Right Direction)

This will be my last post on Rock Momma Reviews by Jill V.

Huh?

What?

Am I quitting the writing biz? No way!

What I am doing is moving my musings to Medium! Why? Because it’s easier. Also, right now in my life, it is best that I publish on an established platform, rather than continuing to run this blog all by myself.

Cheaper, too. #realtalk

WordPress can be overwhelming for a novice webmaster, and honestly, my half-ass attempts at coding and dealing with plug-ins and all that is HARD. It also takes up a lot of time that could better be spent on writing.

Yeah, I’d rather just WRITE. Fo’ realz. And Medium allows me to do just that!

I invite you to continue to follow me, but now on Medium at https://medium.com/@doublesmom77. I’ll also keep this site alive and archived (if I am able to- I’m currently trying to learn the process via YouTube tutorials) at https://doublesmom77.github.io. You’ll be able to read my past posts over there, but no new posts will be added. I can also be followed and contacted via twitter at https://twitter.com/DoubleSMom77.

Thanks for reading! I’ve enjoyed the last almost 4 years immensely, and have learned a lot blogging here. I very much look forward to continuing my writing journey on Medium. I hope you’ll join me there!

~Jill V

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30Thoughts, 500Words to Better Writing Habits Day 1: The Why, The What, and The WTF Am I Thinking?

30Thoughts, 500Words: The Why

Around four years ago, on a whim, I intercepted and submitted an application to join a writer’s group I saw shared on some Facebook rando’s timeline. Shortly after applying, I was both surprised and thrilled to discover that I had been accepted to join the group! With no writing experience whatsoever, I was now a member of The Mix, an outside-contributor writer’s program run by Hearst Digital Media.

Every weekday, we Mix contributors would receive an email containing the five essay topics of the day. We had 48 hours from that moment to submit a 600-800 word essay on any or all of the day’s topics. If Hearst liked your essay, your byline would end up in one or more of Hearst’s numerous digital publications.

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Book Review #12: Thomas Wildus and the Book Of Sorrows by J.M. Bergen Nerds can be cool, Knowledge can be power, and Puberty can even be magical.

Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows: An Introduction

Today’s book du jour, Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows by J.M. Bergen.
Above image taken from http://jmbergen.com

Hi, folks! Glad to be back and blogging once again. Indeed, it has been a while! And boy, has my life has been excruciatingly busy as of late. Truly, I feel relieved that it finally seems as if things ova here are calming down. Somewhat.

Today’s post marks my 12th book review thus far to date! In this post, I will be discussing the brand-spanking new, coming-of-age middle-grade fantasy book Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows, written by new-on-the-scene author J.M. Bergen and released just this month! According to Bergen’s website, today’s spotlight read started out as a bedtime story for his oldest son, which eventually turned into a saga with one book eventually becoming a whopping five! 😮😀 The story itself, chock-full of mystery and adventure, is sure to please even the most selective YA fantasy literature connoisseurs!

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Summer in Review #1: Dual Birthday Party Day Success! A Trifecta of Summer Highlights: Part 1 of 3

Oh Summer, How I Will Miss Thee…

This week, the lazy days of my treasured summer vacation came to a close. The first ‘official’ day of school looms ahead next Wednesday for S11, and …for me.

Boo! Hissss…

BUT…

Soon enough, the math teaching madness begins. Numbers!! Holla!!
LadyBB / Pixabay

On the bright side, I’ve had an absolutely amazing summer! And though I’m sad to see it end, all good things… seem to do that. Such is life, amirite?

So today, on this pre-Labor Day Friday, the official last Friday of summer break here in NY (for 3 out of 4 of us here, anyway), I have decided to post an extended recap of my top three favorite summer moments for your reading pleasure. To avoid a ridiculously long, rambling post, however, said recap will consist of three separate posts, starting with this one. Continue reading →

No More Excuses. This Week, I Begin Running. Time to get my sorry a** in shape, yo!

Are You There, Motivation To Exercise? It’s Me, Jill.

That’s it. No more excuses. I have a date ….with a healthier lifestyle. Diet. Exercise. All that crap. Truthfully? I’m not looking forward to it. At all. Therefore, I’m giving myself just 1-2 more days to get used to the idea that my lifestyle and habits revolving around diet and fitness must change, and then I’m going to have to stop musing, and start doing.

Time to get my big ol’ a** in gear, folks.

What he said.

Starting ….well, whenever my Amazon Prime package gets here (which I assumed would be yesterday, and was somewhat gladly mistaken, I ain’t gon’ lie), I will be heading to my town’s high school track on a daily basis to (gulp) run. Well, more like walk, at least to start. Continue reading →

The book Szen Zone

Book Review #4: Szen Zone by Gary Szenderski Enter Szen's Zone, and be the positive change you seek.

Now and Szen: A Synopsis

Szen Zone, the book.

When I first received the book Szen Zone: Reaching a State of Positive Change by Gary Szenderski, admittedly, I thought it was going to be all about meditation-type yoga stuff. I figured I’d basically be learning how to calm the F down in stressful situations, with the goal of freaking out less, and chillin’ out more. I perhaps expected to learn things like breathing exercises, oohmm-ing correctly, yoga poses, etc., with the end result a happier, healthier, less cray-cray Jill.

S2 and me, the perfect portrait of all things Zen, amirite?

However, to my surprise, that was not what Szen Zone was about, at least directly. Indirectly, reading this book did, in fact, lead me to a place of improved calm and increased happiness. However, the discovery of my own personal “happy place” was not due to any sort of “technique” or “exercise” learned in the book. Instead, as I read Szen Zone,  I found myself developing an increased understanding of how to look within myself, as well as out at the world in order to create the positive changes I desired in my life. Reaching said state of positive change is what would then lead me to become what I described above: a calmer, happier, more pleasant overall Jill! The thought is most definitely appealing. Continue reading →

Book Review #3: Organizing For Your Lifestyle by Jane Stoller Stoller is a true Organization Goddess. Read this book, efficiency shall follow.

What They See….

As an elementary school teacher, I have received a number of flattering compliments regarding my ability to create a visually appealing, organized classroom environment and/or an inviting support services office space each school year. Many times, after bestowing such a compliment, my colleague will then follow up with a variation of the following statement:

“Your house must be impeccably neat and organized, too.”

BWAHAHAHAHA.

Not quite.

Teachers indeed do work for the weekend, yet we also work ON the weekend. And HOLY RED LEATHER PANTS, Batman. Yikes. Continue reading →

MIR: The Good, The WTF, and The Alt-Good. Welcome to Life, 2017-Style. It's Been A While.....Time to Catch Up.

It’s been some time since I’ve blogged. Over a month, actually. Why? You could say that life has gotten in my way. Or, more specifically, work.

So. Much. Work.

Report card time can be stressful when you service, IDK, about 60ish students, I am learning. Also, dedicating a week-plus to writing up a detailed report on every kid’s progress to the detriment of sleep, family time, and at times, my sanity, has, plainly, sucked. Plus, after finishing all 60 reports, I then had to enter another round of student observational data, or risk falling behind on that. Because you know, after writing 60 reports, writing 47 more narratives is exactly the kind of wind-down activity I long for.

Yeah. It’s been a rough life, these last few weeks. Continue reading →

WIR November 8-November 15: Post-Election Suckage Not A Political Post. Well, not completely. Kinda not.

Twas a horrendous week last week, beginning with a traffic-filled, chock-full-o-illness, fear-inducing Election Day last Tuesday, and ending with gray skies and torrential rainfall this past Tuesday. In short, last Tuesday-Tuesday sucked.

Yes, Axl. I do need some time on my own.

Election Day-last Tuesday pretty much consisted of one crappy incident after another. In fact, plucking 3 highlights out of last Tuesday-Tuesday is going to be a definite challenge, because as of right now, I got nothin.’ Lowlights, however, I got plenty! Sigh. Here is to a better week this week. I gotta believe that.

This small town girl will NOT stop believin,’ Steve Perry.

Though I usually start with 3 highlights, I am at a loss for any possibilities in that area at the current moment. Therefore, I’m going with the yucky stuff first. Continue reading →

Happy Transferiversary to the Little Embryo that Could (Survive My Killer Uterus, That Is)

One Little, Two Little Embryos

You know its fiction when a petri dish of embryos is just laying on a table, left alone in a room with a person who isn’t a doctor. Still, I love that Friends took on the surrogacy and infertility topic, and later on the adoption and infertility topic as well!

My life completely changed for the better three years ago yesterday. I will always consider October 24, 2013, to be one of the happiest days of my life, though I didn’t know it 100% at the time. At the moment, 10/24/13 was certainly a day filled with hope. It was also a day where I felt strangely confident, even after 5 straight years of failures. Part of me just knew on that particular day that a long struggle was finally ending, and a joyful journey we had been waiting so long for was about to begin. Continue reading →