Strong enough to stand the winds of a stress-filled life

Standing proudly against the winds

It's been a long week and I feel like a weathered tree.  I'm a bit tired and bent over, and feel like I've lost a few branches along the way.  But, I'm home now, and gazing out the window as the western sky fades from gold to aquamarine to sapphire to diamond-studded ebony.

It's wonderful, these few minutes alone, in the quiet of a gathering dusk.  Quiet is restorative to me, and allows my thoughts to seek order rather than bouncing around in my head, trying to escape the constant barrage of digital noise.

I need to line up my tasks for tomorrow;  it's supposed to be warm and sunny.  Water stands in the rain-drenched yard while onions wave proudly among the dormant grass.

The garden plots are muddy, so yardwork will wait for a drier day.  There's plenty that needs doing inside, but it will have to wait because what I need lies beyond the door.

I need to hear the whisper of the pines.  I need to see the mohawk stripe of a female red-headed woodpecker.  I need to hear the whisper of the breeze-tossed broomsedge.  I need to see the flash of blue from a jay.  I need to hear the meadowlark's aria and the recitative of the phoebe.  I need to feel the wind cooling the warmth of the sun on my face.

I need space, and I need time, and I give myself permission to take it tomorrow.

Won't you join me?  Unplug.  Engage.  Recharge.  You deserve it.

What about you?  How are you living your Savory life?

Nancy

Enjoying Life's Surprises: Spring Snow Day!

We woke to snow this morning!

After a winter in which I was more likely to wear shorts than a sweater, it finally snowed.  On the first day of March.  And continued snowing all day.  Which might have been disastrous had the ground not already warmed too much for the snow not to melt.

Phooey.

For the lack of accumulation, that is, because I like snow, at least when I can stay home.  Today, I stayed home.  I washed clothes.  I cleaned off the dining table, which had collected a month's worth of mail and just plain junk.  I began the tax return.  I baked brownies.  Snow brings out my domesticated side.

The snow has gotten heavier as the day goes on.

We're having a spaghetti fundraiser at our church, so the Resident Dragon has been making meat sauce all week--to the tune of 5 gallons of the stuff.  Two gallons are going to church, one is going to friends, one is going into the freezer, and one is next week's supper.

Maybe I should bake bread to go with the spaghetti.

See????  It's the snow!  I realize our friends in the Midwest are sick of it, but, here in the South, it's a treat.  There is something magical about a snow.  Time seems to slow and silence blankets the landscape.  Although I can see my neighbors' houses in the distance, I feel blessedly alone, and focused on my own little corner of the world.

The snow accumulates
for a moment, and then
it's gone.

I have really needed this time to recharge.

Tomorrow, it begins again, my responsibilities to my family and community, but today I feel my exhausted body and spirit gathering strength as I watch the snow fall.

How are you living your Savory life?

Nancy

Making Your Corner of the World a Little Brighter: Volunteer Opportunities for Busy People

Sometimes I think I spend
my entire life
on the road!

How many times have you said, "I'd love to volunteer, but I just do not have the time!"  I know I have. It's occurred to me that I may have overstated the situation a bit.  I've been brainstorming some community-service ideas for busy folks and here's what I have come up with:

Double Cooking

Make a double batch and freeze one to share!

When you're preparing a dinner, why not cook double the amount and freeze it to share with someone. Our church organizes meals for shut-ins, those who are ill, and bereaved families and, invariably, the call for a contribution comes at a time when I truly do not even have time to make a piece of dry toast. If you keep one or two casseroles or entrees in the freezer, you are prepared!

Bleacher Crafting

Both of my children played sports or cheered so I racked up a tremendous amount of bleacher time, much of which was simply waiting for the next game/match.  I often threatened to start a quilt, but never did.  Why don't you outdo me and keep your knitting/crocheting/handwork in your bleacher bag. You could craft prayer shawls and baby blankets and preemie hats and chemo caps as you rack up the bleacher hours.  Now that's something worth cheering about!

Scorekeeping

How many people in your community
could use a warm scarf?

The Resident Dragon coached for years and, in the interest of seeing him more than 20 minutes a week, I learned to keep score for every sport he coached or my children played.  It made sense to make good use of the time I was racking up in the bleachers.  Turns out, I was actually good at it, and there was always a shortage of good scorekeepers.  

Social Media/Web Maven

Most organizations I know could really use a decent social media/web maven.  If you enjoy fiddling around on Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest or Twitter or Google+ or blogs or the web, you could volunteer those skills to your church or a ball team or a local charity.  It's work that can be done from home, and, often, does not take more than a few hours per week.

How do you volunteer in your community?

These are just a few ideas for making time to help others.  What do you do?  Post your ideas in the comments!

Nancy

Up the Creek without a Conflict

Beautiful, but ill-behaved

It was raining the day he came to Laurel Glen–a warm, early summer rain that you only felt when it dripped from your sodden hair into your eyes and when your clothes made soppy swishes as you walked. He levered his gaunt frame out of a vintage Mustang, and gimped into the ancient store, lamp wicks racked alongside memory sticks, cautious of the rain-slicked stone steps that jeopardized his stability. He stood out among the locals of the mountain hamlet–but not for the cane and limp, not for the scarred face and arms, but for the stark emptiness of his gaze. Even when he met the unabashed stare of a native, the human connection never warmed his steely blue eyes. He remained, in this crowd full of easy familiarity, abjectly alone.

So, there it is, the opening paragraph of my novel.  You know, the novel that's been haunting me for a over a year, stuck in the middle with nowhere to go.

Until this week.

Until one tweet.

Yes, I am on Twitter (@LiveaSavoryLife) and I'm just as surprised as you are.  I'm following about 40 feeds, mostly about organic gardening and writing.  I've been surprised how helpful both have been--especially the writing.

Through twitter feeds, I'm finally plugging into the writer's community in a way I have not before.  I know there are discussion boards, and listservs, and all sorts of other communication conduits, but, so far, the tweets have been more useful.  I think it's because they seem more efficient.  Let's face it:  writers write and its usually wordy.  Tweets are not.  They are succinct, so I can quickly pass by what does not interest me.

One author whose tweets are really helpful is Vicki M. Taylor (@vmtwriter).  Vicki does tweet about her own writing, but she also shares great links about the craft of writing and promotion techniques for independent authors.

One tweet shared this week was by a writer who discovered, far later than he'd hoped, that conflict is the element that transforms an essay into a story.

The inside of my head lit up like a fourth of July fireworks display.  Conflict?????  (Or lack thereof.)  That's the reason I'm adrift.

I remember reading somewhere that an author cannot fall in love with her characters.  An author must be willing to do anything to a character to move the story along.  If it sounds a little bit creepy, it probably is.  But, it's probably true.

And my problem is, I love my characters.  Too much.  They're beautiful, and noble, and honorable, and always make the right choices.  They're boring.  What happens to these people?  What could happen?

So, you see my problem.

Chaos is more interesting than order . . .

<CUE sinister music>

I must let them make the mistakes real people would make, and reap the whirlwind.

I must send misfortune their way.

I must become ruthless.

<CUE evil laugh>

It sounds like fun.

I'm off to give it a try, at least until the temperature creeps above 40.  In the meantime, check out Vicki's blog, and Andy Rane's; they're both worth a look.

How are you living your Savory life?

Nancy

Life Hack 2013: Social Media Networking Strategy Development

I'm ready to get down to writing!

For those of you who have been following along, many thanks!  My little social media marketing experiment has yielded a few insights into what can really work for me.

First, let me explain the constraints under which any strategy must function:

My fledglings have
flown the coop!

1. I have a job outside the home--a full time job--and spend two hours on the road each day commuting.  I know this is not ideal, but it's the price I must pay, for now, for living on the farm.
2. I am active in my church.
3. I have an actual family--albeit my little fledglings have established nests of their own (without grandchildren)--and the Resident Dragon is an absolute jewel.
4. The demands of the garden are endless and cannot be ignored.
5. My real goal in all of this is for me to write, and for the Resident Dragon to make and sell his jewelry both at shows and through our Etsy shop.

So, the gleanings from my experiment are:

Craft and art fairs are fun!

• Facebook does nothing for me, at least until I have more than 8 followers.  No, I did not spam my address book to develop followers; I just could not do it.
• In-post linking is not a strategy; it may be helpful for your readers, but do not count on building readership from the links.
• BlogHer has not worked well for me yet, but I haven't really worked it.  Because my posts are spread among three blogs, I'm not sure I really qualify for their frequency requirements.
• SEO is not a complete strategy for the beginning blogger.  It has helped and is worth some time, but, unless you hit a really hot niche, you'll be languishing on Search Results page 3,857.
• SITSGirls is a good resource, although you sometimes have to hunt around for your topic.
• Angie Nelson's Work at Home Wife has very good information--especially for WordPress bloggers.
• Girlgab.com is my major source of hits.  Thanks, Mary Jane and all of the Farmgirl Sisterhood!
• Twitter and Pinterest have been the best development tool so far, by far.
• New posts drive new traffic.

Looking ahead . . .

I've been thinking about this all week and have come up with a plan:

1. Post once a week to each of my blogs and spread the post dates throughout the week.
2. Tweet each post (and each new jewelry item) with appropriate hashtags and mentions.
3. Participate in blog parties like SITSSharefest and writing memes like Five Minute Friday.
4. Convert my personal Pinterest board to a business board and let my daughter, the absolute queen of Pinterest, manage it!
5. Pay attention to my stats and target interest groups.
6. Re-evaluate my brand Live a Savory Life.
7. Write!

Developing the roots
of a good brand
is hard work!

So, that's the plan.

It's been an intense few weeks, and I really need to finish the organic gardening course I've been taking online.  Hopefully, the plan will allow me to do all the things I want to do, without one pushing aside any others.  My last task, re-evaluating my brand will be challenging and may require input from you, too.

Well, the dog is awake, and the cat is awake, which means the Resident Dragon will not be far behind.

Until we read again, how are you living your Savory life?

Nancy

Life Hack: Take Time Out to Relax

Iced wisteria

Last Saturday was very warm for January--75 degrees--but, by Monday, the temperatures had dropped into the twenties.  On Tuesday, the media bleated out a Winter Weather Advisory, supplanted by an ice storm warning.  Schools sent students home, churches and civic organizations cancelled evening activities, and businesses closed.

As is usual around here, the roads were not as icy as expected, although there was a nice coating of ice on everything else.  Wednesday was supposed to be warmer and sunny, but the clouds prevailed, and, with nighttime temperatures dipping, rural roads refroze and Wednesday evening activities were cancelled, too.

It's Friday evening, after a warmish sunny day, and I am at home again.  In fact, this is my fifth straight evening at home.  It's wonderful.

The Holly and the Ice

I had not realized how much I just needed some evenings at home.  I've not really done anything these evenings--the housework remains undone, for example--but I have managed to just stop and breathe.  For the first time in a long while, the iron vise around my forehead is loosening; that knot in the small of my back is unraveling.

Epiphany.

As much as I am committed to serving my community, I cannot do that as well as I expect if I do not take care of myself.  Since I am an extreme introvert, that means planning adequate time for myself.  I need it.  I will burn out without it.  I now give myself permission to do it.

That means I will need to either refuse some requests (like I would refuse any . . .), or find more efficient ways to accommodate them.  From home, if at all possible.

While I've been home . . .

Flowering quince

Lest you think I've been relaxing in the recliner noshing on bon-bons while watching "reality" television,   I've also been continuing on last week's quest to improve blog traffic.  You can now follow the Savory family of blogs on Twitter Follow @LiveaSavoryLife, or Facebook or Pinterest.

So, how did last week's link-laden post affect site traffic?  It may have caused a tiny uptick, but Twitter and Pinterest seem to drive more hits.  The quest continues . . .

And so I write on, shouting into the F5 tornado that is the Internet, trusting that you are reading.

Thank you so much.

How are you living your Savory life?

Nancy

Life Hack: Learning How to Drive Traffic to My Site By Linking to More Popular Sites

What makes a blog stand out?

Sometimes writing a blog feels like shouting into an F5 tornado:  can anyone hear my voice over the roar of the other Internet writers?  I wonder.  So, I've embarked on a mission to increase my site traffic.  Admittedly, this is DYI project, for now, since I've not commissioned an SEO analysis.  I have been reading some high-traffic blogs and have noticed a few things:

Post Titles

Growing readers takes good writing, and much, much more!

One of the biggest things I've noticed about post titles on high-traffic blogs is that their post titles fall into two categories:  cute/snarky/bombastic or SEO-tailored.  Cute blog titles seem to appear on either the very high-traffic or very low-traffic sites.  The high-traffic sites have established readers and are not reliant on search engine hits to increase hits.  Sites trying to increase traffic seem to use longer titles which are loaded with phrases which rank highly in browser searches.  There are times when the titles bear little relevance to the articles which follow.  I'm following suit and testing out this post's title for the express purposes of increasing search engine hits.  Nearly every phrase in the title receives over one million searches per month.  Maybe that will help readers find their way to my site.

Gratuitous Linking in Post Content

Links just seem to pop up out of nowhere!

This is the blogging equivalent of name dropping.  I've noticed that bloggers like Penelope Trunk will refer to several other blog posts or online articles in the course of one article.  In her recent ramble about discarding dreams in favor of plans, Trunk found a way to connect to a humorous article that mentions Lindsay Lohan.  In the course of a month, there are 4 million searches world-wide for the term "Lindsay Lohan."  In the 700-ish word post, Trunk manages to insert links to two YouTube videos, two of her previous posts, two New York Times articles, an Amazon book listing, three commercial web sites, and an App on the iTunes store.  She does maintain some semblance of continuity, but the post seems a bit link-heavy.  I don't really have room to snark, however, since, I'm sure, her site has more hits in an hour than my sites have ever had.

My Strategy

There's a hornworm in there somewhere!

So, Constant Reader (to borrow a phrase from Stephen King), I'm trying out her strategy.  Normally, I would not link to sites like Mary Jane's Farm unless they were part of my post.  Nor would I mention the New York Times Bestsellers List except that Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals is currently in my briefcase.  I certainly won't promote a social media rating site like Klout until I really understand what it's all about.  In the interest of increasing traffic on my other sites, I also would not fail to direct you to my other blogs, Savory Le Jardin and Savory La Bouffe, as well as my Etsy shop.

I am considering installing Instagram on my Android phone so I can share my pictures of clouds and tomato hornworms with my family and friends.  I may even start issuing Twitter updates about the exciting things that happen in my life:  new tenants in the toad house, killdeer eggs, beautiful sunrises.

I will share a YouTube video of the wonderfully talented dulcimer artist, Lee Cagle and refer you to a great Organic Transition Course from the Rodale Institute.  I will also point you to the witty and creative Chubby Vegetarian blog by Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence.  I will also let you know that Justin and Amy have a new cookbook coming out!  Do yourself a favor and pre-order The Southern Vegetarian.

So, that's the plan.  It's not like any of the writing advice I've read in Writer's Digest, but we'll see how it goes.  

What will it take to grab readers' attention?

What do you think?  Tell me below!

Nancy