TJ Hirst

Try-It With-Me Tuesday, an interactive weekly time and place to foster connections that challenge and encourage the process to become a well-rounded person.

The first Try-It-With-Me Tuesday Book Club discussion happens next Tuesday, October 28th right here at tjhirst.com. We’re reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

I hope I don’t discourage you from trying it with me, but I am still trying to finish it in time. It’s harder than I thought it would be. My goal stretches me to settle down my busy schedule and make time to read it. Finding time to sit and read a book about a man who simplifies is ironic, isn’t it?

My copy is just about 300 pages, which isn’t that long, but modern writing conditions me to expect a fast-paced story and easy language that moves it along. Reading an older piece like this is causing me to slow down and think, which is difficult to do, but a worthwhile process I want to learn.

So far, I value what I’ve read and the questions I’m considering regarding how I live in our modern culture and material lifestyle. I’ll tell you all about it when I publish my review next week.

Are you trying it with me? If so, how are you doing? Anyone is welcome to read with us this week or discuss next Tuesday. Please come back and comment if you’ve ever read the book before; I’ll need to bounce some ideas around once I finish.

If you want to write a post, I want to publish your link so we can visit your website and see what you have to say. Please email me your permalink to tj (at) tjhirst (dot) com no later than Monday, October 27 at 12 a.m. (Central Time). If you don’t make that deadline, just leave the link in your comments on the Tuesday post.

Join by trying the challenges with me, commenting, linking, or suggesting a challenge. If you want to write a post on your blog about what happened when you took the challenge, I will publish your link. Just link to my website in your post and send me your link. Feel free to use the TIWMT image in your post.

Try-It With-Me Tuesday, an interactive weekly time and place to foster connections that challenge and encourage the process to become a well-rounded person.

I’m transitioning from stay-at-home-mom to create-at-home-mom. In yesterday’s post, I figuratively opened my windows on my creative writing space to call out to other creative individuals to make more connections in the online community. I need those links to other writers and readers, editors and thinkers, virtually and in real life, to teach me, inspire me, stretch me, and guide me.

I’m searching for links to not only other writers or editors but creative people whose work is inspiring and who talk about their creative process. I’m still too new in the blogging world to know what creative groups exist in writing and artistic communities online, and I need help.

The aim of my existing blogroll and the blogs in my Google Reader is to compile links to writers and other creative individuals. Most of these individuals are strangers, but every one has inspired me in simple but important ways. Thanks to you for what you create.

4 Reluctant Entertainers is a wonderful example of letting go of perfectionism so REAL hospitality and creativity can shine. Through her, I just discovered, Today’s Creative Blog.

I am Thrilled by the Thought that even though there is much art, literature, music that I haven’t discovered yet, I know Rebecca will connect me to something I wish I could have already appreciated.

Robin at Around the Island sends her beautiful experimentation with photography and writing from her “Island” in Tel Aviv.

Annie at Basic Joy created the Letters to a Parent project which motivates me as a mom and a writer.

Allysha at Bells on Their Toes sees and writes the cleverest vignettes on the everyday things and keeps me from getting too stodgy in my writing. Plus, she’s established what I think is an ideal connective place for creative thinking and writing at Just an Orange.

Sarah at Genesis Moments shares wonderful pieces of her writing, places she’s writing and thoughts from her writer’s journey. But most of all, she leaves the most heartfelt comments whenever she visits.

Minna is my favorite photographer. Miriam Lovell Photography is my favorite creative hangout from which I’d like to view the world.

Lei at My Many Colored Days combines photography and mothering into her beautiful setting.

Scattered Jules is the blog of author Julie Wright, and it always nice to see a published author going through that process.

If you can tell from a banner the depth of creativity in an individual, it is An Ordinary Mom’s banner that lets me into her creative mind to see how she loves, raises, cares for, trains, teaches, and inspires her children in a creative home.

I first found C Jane from Segullah, and loved her wit, but I have quietly stayed to read the wisdom that has flowed while she blogs for donations on behalf of her sister, Nie Nie, who is recovering from severe burns suffered in a plane crash.

Daring Young Mom dares me to think about why I write and my most important priorities at home.

Holly at Marathon Bird is the fastest reader I know, and she introduced me to what is now one of my favorite books, Watership Down.

Julie at Mental Tesserae writes like I want to. Her honest personal essays identify the why and how of what we do in our culture and make me think it through all over again.

Michelle at Scribbit is a writer who can express her opinion without getting too one-sided, sappy or preachy. She is constant and reminds me to keep plugging away at my goals. I’ve participated in her writing contest almost every month since January because it pushes me to think on different topics and stretch my writing skills. I also discover talented other writers who participate.

I have never, ever left a comment at Design Mom, but with a designer for a husband I can’t keep my eyes off her discoveries.

Donetta’s thoughts in  My Quiet Corner encourage me to keep connecting my spirituality with my own creative writing. Spiritual truths are a fountain for creation.

Karen at Organzability writes down-to-earth practical stuff, but that’s the other side of me, too. Who would have thought you can be organized and creative?

Sarah at Scribbulous is an author making progress on her story, and I’m very inspired to start mine because of that.

I just recently started reading Laurel’s personal expressions at Just Around This Corner,  which sound like she’s just sharing with her girlfriends. I cannot, however, seem to get that same feel to my writing, and its something I want to work on. I have this card on my desk, under my computer screen that says, write like you are writing to Michelle, my close friend who moved to Oregon. Hi Michelle!

But I am making other friend connections, like Rachel at Idaho Cheneys who promised to read great books with me every month.

I just discovered  Chrysalis, which is a weblog fro thinking Christian moms, and I say, “Yes.Yes. Yes. I need a connection like that.”

And, I share a love of Finland, a truly creative country and people, with Dalene at Compulsive Writer.

Each website is a creative endeavor that builds my creativity. I can only read so much, but I want what I read to uplift and motivate me, and I’m probably missing some key creative connections.

I plan to create a page with an expanded and categorized Creative Blogroll of personal or group blogs that are a good mix of inspiring writing and other forms of creativity. And I would love your insights and suggestions. Will you leave a comment, go to my contact page, or send me an e-mail at tj [at] tjhirst [dot] com with your suggestions for other creative places on the web where you and others congregate, converse and create?

Join in by trying the challenges with me, commenting, linking, or suggesting a challenge. If you want to write a post on your blog about what happened when you took the challenge, I will publish your link. Just link to my website in your post and send me your link. Feel free to use the TIWMT image in your post.

Try-It With-Me Tuesday, an interactive weekly time and place to foster connections that challenge and encourage the process to become a well-rounded person.

“Mom, do you know why Sam in My Side of the Mountain might be like Thoreau?” My fourth-grader questioned me. “If I find out, I can get extra credit.”

“You just learned about Thoreau,” I said. “Remember that talk we heard about Walden Pond? That was about Thoreau.”

She was skeptical. “I don’t think it was the same Thoreau.”

I assured her it was and that we even had his book, Walden, on our bookshelf. “Go get it and get your book, too, so I can see the reference.”

Not many fourth graders would understand that allusion without an explanation, but she got a jump start this week when we heard a leader in our church speak about Thoreau’s experience to separate himself for two years to live a simple life. When she came back, I quizzed her on the four things that he discovered he needed—food, clothing, shelter and fuel. By thinking about those answers, she could see the comparison between Sam and Thoreau.

Since this seems an appropriate time in our society and in my life to consider how Thoreau’s experiences might apply, I’m introducing Walden by Henry David Thoreau as my first selection for the Try-It-With-Me-Tuesday Book Club. By the way, thanks to Holly at Marathon Bird for starting me with Bodacious Bloggity Book Club.

Want to Try It With Me?

First - Find a copy of the book. Thanks to Rachel, who suggested Project Gutenberg would be a great source for books. You can download Walden for free from Project Gutenberg. Or download and listen to the audio book version. Your public library, a friend’s bookshelf or retailers are also a good source if you like to have the book in hand. But hurry . . .

Second - Read it in the next three short weeks, before Tuesday, October 28. Jot down your thoughts and impressions in a journal or on sticky notes on the pages to mark your insights.

Third - Share your impressions in an online discussion here on Tuesday, October, 28. Write a post on your website if you have one. Or just come back and share your thoughts in the comments.

If you do write a post, I want to publish your link so we can visit your website and see what you have to say. Please email your  permalink to tj (at) tjhirst (dot) com no later than Monday, October 27 at 12 a.m. (Central Time). If you don’t make that deadline, just leave the link in your comments on the Tuesday post.

I’m inviting anyone to participate for what I hope will be far from a stuffy discussion to discover what simplicity meant to Thoreau and what it means to us today.

Join in by trying the challenges with me, commenting, linking, or suggesting a challenge. If you want to write a post on your blog about what happened when you took the challenge, I will publish your link. Just link to my website in your post and send me your link. Feel free to use the TIWMT image in your post.

Try-It With-Me Tuesday, an interactive weekly time and place to foster connections that challenge and encourage the process to become a well-rounded person.

I promised to share part or all of my lifetime reading list with you for the September Reading Challenge and challenged you to make a list of five to ten books for your lifetime pursuit reading list and begin reading one this month. My list comes from my high school AP English teacher, Terry Cannon, and I’ve been reading from it for more than 18 years. Today, I share 15 favorites from the list that I’ve already read and those I want to read soon.

15 of My Favorites That I’ve Read From the List:

1. Bible
2. Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice
3. Dumas, Alexandre - The Count of Monte Cristo
4. Dickens, Charles - Great Expectations
5. Hugo, Victor - Les Miserables
6. Hardy, Thomas - The Mayor of Casterbridge
7. Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace
8. Tolstoy, Leo - Anna Karenina
9. Pasternak, Boris - Dr. Zhivago
10. Rand, Ayn - The Fountainhead
11. Cather, Willa - Song of The Lark and O Pioneers! and other books
12. Mitchell, Margaret - Gone With the Wind
13. Wharton, Edith -The Age of Innocence and other books
14. Wilder, Thorton - The Bridge of San Luis Rey
15. Wouk, Herman - The Caine Mutiny

10 Selections from the List That I Want to Read:

1. William Shakespeare - plays and sonnets
2. Cervantes, Saavedra - Don Quixote
3. Forster, E.M. - A Passage to India
4. Golding, William - Lord of the Flies
5. Mann, Thomas - Death in Venice
6. Bradbury, Ray - Fahrenheit 451
7. Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
8. Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac
9. Irving, Washington - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
10. Warren, Robert Penn - All the King’s Men

Here’s two others who took the challenge and made lists of their own. Thanks for participating!

Rebecca at Thrilled by the Thought

Rachel at Idaho Cheneys

For participating, I am sending each of them the entire list by email. Do you want my whole list, too? Write your own post on your website or leave a comment here with the five to ten books on YOUR lifetime pursuit reading list.

I participated in an online book club at Marathon Bird for several months this year.  I loved her selections because they stretched me to discover literature beyond my usual choices. I was sad to see that very few continued to participate, but I know Holly is still reading all the time. I am inspired by a list of her own. My sister was a high school English teacher who also has a list of books to read. She’s just had a new baby—congratulations—and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on that cute new baby boy and her list as soon as they are up and around.

I am considering starting an online book club, myself, with selections from all of these lists. The Try-It-With-Me Tuesday Book Club would replace my monthly reading challenge. Do I have any takers that would Try It With Me?

I would announce the book on the first Tuesday of the Month and review it on the last Tuesday of the Month. Then, all those who read it with me could write their own reviews on their websites, and I would publish the links so we could see what each other are saying. If you don’t have a website of your own, you could just leave your comments.

What do you think?

Join in by trying the challenges with me, commenting, linking, or suggesting a challenge. If you want to write a post on your blog about what happened when you took the challenge, I will publish your link. Just link to my website in your post and send me your link. Feel free to use the TIWMT image in your post.

Try-It With-Me Tuesday, an interactive weekly time and place to foster connections that challenge and encourage the process to become a well-rounded person.

I didn’t pull out a new backpack or sharpen my pencils when my children went back to school, but I did challenge myself to evaluate my routines and identify one or two that need a change and make that change.

Did you try it with me?

I anticipated some of my changes, but once I started evaluating, I was surprised by possibilities I hadn’t imagined. See if you can guess which change from the ones below had that unexpected impact.

Change of Habit. My father-in-law believes exercise should be productive, like working in the yard or walking to the store. I buy into the theory, but in practice, I just can’t raise my heart rate enough even with all the  running up and down the stairs that I do. And while Paul expends a lot of mental energy at work, he doesn’t burn many calories at his desk, in his car or standing at a job site. Both of us are nearing forty. Our metabolisms are changing and our activity level needs to increase.

Ironically, the same day our family hauled loads of firewood inside for our Tulikivi wood stove, Paul unpacked our new elliptical machine. He’s been working out regularly at the YMCA for more than eight months to reduce his risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Now that we’re both sticking to a routine, we’ve canceled our 8-year-old membership and created daily workouts at home.

What habits are you changing?

Change of Schedule. My mother always said that her father always said, “An ounce of morning is worth a pound of afternoon.”

After my young babies grew up and learned to sleep late, I eased back on getting up early myself. Now, everyone in our house has shifted to an earlier schedule, again, and we’re praying that my mom is right.

That’s the reason for the elliptical at home—to get our exercise in before the day begins, and that’s 4:50 a.m. for me! Can I keep it up? I hope so. I would have to be up by 5:30 anyway, and I don’t know how I would wake up otherwise.

Is your schedule changing with the change of seasons?

Change of Tradition. Something else we’ve been doing for the last eight years, too, has been to sit in the exact same church pew every Sunday. We sit in the back 1/3 of our chapel on the left-hand side. When we first sat there, the door was a close escape for a our crying one-year-old. Now, I’m distracted from my real purpose in being there.

No, we didn’t cancel that membership, but we did need a change. This past Sunday we sat on the right-hand side of the chapel in the third row from the front. I received some looks and comments, probably stunning a few people, but we loved the move. My daughter said, “I feel closer to the meeting and more a  part of it.”

Have any of your traditions diminished in meaning? How have you changed them?

To be honest, the few that I included only prompted a large evaluation of all my goals, especially my writing goals. I have written at this website for nine months. Today is post #235. Consistent posting is a routine that develops my writing, but I keep wondering if I am just toiling or if this is a productive use of my writing time. I’ve opened the door to another pondering process, and I’m wondering where that will lead.

When is a routine leading somewhere and when does it just become repetitious?

Join in by trying the challenges with me, commenting, linking, or suggesting a challenge. If you want to write a post on your blog about what happened when you took the challenge, I will publish your link. Just link to my website in your post and send me your link. Feel free to use the TIWMT image in your post.