Inspired.

So here I am...blogging again. I completely slacked off on this pursuit during the month of July, but let me tell you...this was an intentional slacking off. There were times during the last month when I started to log on to blogspot and get a-goin' again, but then I thought to myself, "Brittany, Brittany, Brittany...you are exhausted. You are uncomfortable due to the blessings of the third trimester of a third pregnancy. You are behind on work, and you have not scraped away much creative writing time for yourself this last month." All of these things in conjunction with all sorts of other randomness meant that anything I sat down to write on here would be a little too melancholy, and possibly, a little too whiny for my posting taste and definitely too pessimistic for your reading pleasure, whoever "you" are, if "you" even exist. And if "you" do exist, then I apologize for neglecting you for the last month, but you have my word that it was for your own good.

So, I am back from a wonderful trip to Kentucky. I am finishing up one of my final online teaching assignments before taking a little time off. And I am writing again. Of course, I am still a bit uncomfortable, but this really is nothing to complain about considering that the above mentioned things have put me in a much better state of mind than I have been in. I really do think the number one change in my mood has been my trip to Kentucky. There is something about the shade of the mountains and the people and the taste of homegrown tomatoes from my family's garden (yum.) that restores me to my previously inspired self. Everytime I visit my hometown, I get so many new ideas for writing projects and so excited about sitting down with a pen and writing things down. I'm not really sure if this has more to do with the fact that I get a sense of home from being in the place where I was born and grew up, or if it has more to do with the beauty and laid back atmosphere of the specific place I am from. I tend to think that the inspiration I draw from the Appalachian Mountains has more to do with the history of a place which was able to hold on to its unique stories and food and ways of living much longer than most other places. There's something magical about a place where a writer or a painter or any other kind of artist can walk into her grandmother's kitchen and hear the same tales and songs that have been told and sung in that grandmother's family for hundreds of years. Call me old-fashioned, but that's pretty darn cool to me. Makes me want to write.

And I will write. This is me telling myself that I will make time to write, even if it means I will not sleep so much or if I need to find some other clever way of carving out time to be creative and live in the world of my characters. There really does have to be a way to make this time, because I am the kind of girl who, when inspired, will likely explode in some unattractive manner if I do not get out my inspiration by putting words down on paper.

Oh and while on the topic of writing, I'll also note that I have a goal to write down all the silly little smart things my daughters are saying on a regular basis now. I have to write down their funny statements or else I will be so sad one day if I cannot remember to tell my oldest that she called my dad an "ol' stick in the mud" or that my younger daughter finally decided to use complete phrases just so she could tell her daddy to "wait a second" when he told her to do something.

If a trip to Kentucky and clever little girls fail to inspire me, then I don't know what would. This is going to be a much better month.