Sandra Rose Hughes

I have been considering what to write in this post for a long time. It is my 100th post, after all. Unfortunately, with a yearbook deadline looming, the beginning of play rehearsals starting, and being smack in the middle of house-building insanity, I don't have much creativity left in me. So today I will leave you with two random things. 1. The first is a picture of my house at its current unfinished stage. This house is the reason why we live on 1/3rd of our income. It is the reason why we have been living in a 30 foot trailer for almost 4 years now. It is the reason why my husband and his father have been busy every weekend and every evening for the past 9 months. It is the reason why I have gained 10 pounds in the past 4 years and my husband has lost 10. It is 2400 square feet of glorious living space that we paid for with ready money. It is our ticket to a debt-free, mortgage-free, nobody-owns-us-not-even-our-jobs lifestyle. I am more than a little proud of this house. This ho...

Usually, I am the one facing rejection when it comes to my writing and other new things I try, but this week the shoe was on the other foot. We had auditions for our spring show this year, and I had to choose between my little darlings. Their bright little faces were so enthusiastic about auditioning for the show, and when I told them it was a funny murder mystery about an old family curse in a castle in Scotland, their little eyes got big and I could tell they wanted in the show SO BADLY. Alas, there were only 11 parts, and at least 20 kids showed up to try out. It is very hard to be the rejector. I posted the list this morning, and tried not to look out my window and see their little faces droop. When I was in high school, I had directors who would refuse to even come to school on the days where casting or honor choirs were announced. Thankfully, most of my kids are mature enough not to throw a fit or anything like that, but I think many of them went home with a heavy heart today. Ah...

2010: A writer’s year in review Last year around this time, I had high hopes for my writing in 2010. I was going to write a page every day. I was going to get my poetry published again, and I was going to finish writing my second children’s book and keep revising the first. As the song goes, “You don’t always get what you want…but sometimes, you get what you need!” I did not succeed in writing a full page a day. However, I did write a whole lot more than I had the year before. I did get two poems published in literary magazines and I was published in our local newspaper a few more times. I even won a local poetry competition! I started this blog, and had a wonderful time trying out new poems and ideas with a truly supportive blogging community. I made more friends than I ever expected to, and I have had a wonderful time reading other people's experiences with writing and publishing. I discovered that grief can both inspire writing and bring it to a grinding halt. I learned a lot a...

Some of you may recall a few months ago when my laptop bit the dust and I had to go on a brief hiatus. Well, the replacement computer which someone gave us...is now no longer working. Very frustrating. Anyway, I do not know when I will update again. Hopefully in a few weeks we will get a new computer. Thanks- Sandy

Is there a limit to the amount of sadness a school can absorb? We had another attempted suicide last night. Thank God she didn't succeed. They found her in time and she is in the hospital right now, recuperating. The first two students succeeded. That makes three attempts in the past 1 1/2 months. It's unreal. Everybody is kind of freaking out, including me. I have always heard that these things come in threes. Dear God, let this be the last.

Yesterday, I had two real-live, non-family people who actually know me face-to-face tell me they have read this blog and like it! That made my day. So, thank you Denise (one of my favorite students ever) and Brandon (local photographer for the Kern Valley Sun! Also, I found $10 and .10 on the ground. That was also very nice. As you know, I have been coping with the death of my grandfather this year. Writing poetry helps immeasurably. This is one of the more uplifting poems I have written about his death. 112. Final Gift. 11/7/10- 7 months after he died. When your body shriveled into grasshopper legs and gaunt face- When your mind wandered to places none of us could follow- You were reduced to the core of what makes up a man. You never complained, even when dying hurt. You did not lash out, you did not whimper. You died the way you had lived- Quietly, with strength, and forbearance. You who had already given me so much love, such a powerful past- You gave me one last blessin...

A few months ago, I told you all the story of Sippy, the tiny black kitten in our SIPS Panels. Sippy was around 3 or 4 weeks old when we found him, and he had been living in our construction materials, where it stays relatively warm. Unfortunately, there is very little to eat over there, and so Sippy was quickly starving to death. He cried piteously until we captured and fed him. We soon discovered that he was very personable and, once we put some weight on him, a cat with a very nice personality. Within a week, we found a forever home for him with a fellow animal lover, Nancy. Well, some of the SIPS panels are still out there, and they are still a deliciously warm haven for cats in the middle of this cold spell. For the past few days, a new mystery cat has appeared in the panels. She (I think) stayed mainly in the panels, frightened of people, but occasionally we caught a little vision or her tail or face. This morning, her hunger and loneliness drove her right to the steps of our tra...