John and I both have Celtic blood. His ancestors came from Scotland and Ireland primarily. I'm half Irish, with some German and Swedish thrown in. As you can imagine, most of our kids have pale complexions and freckles. I'm brown eyed, and John is blue eyed. Three of the kids are brown, three are blue!
John has flat feet. I have high arches. Some of the kids have his feet, some have mine.
I have always loved to sing, and Maria has inherited that trait from me. She has a lower voice (I'm a first soprano), she's an alto/2nd soprano.
Yesterday I wrote about the kids taking the stage. There's another thing they do (each one of them) that amazes me. They all love to write. We actually have a family game that is about writing. We sit around together (we do this with my mom, too, because she is a writer) and concoct the very beginnings of a story. Then we set a timer for 10 minutes and we all expound on the idea. When the timer goes off, we take turns sharing our stories. We have had so much fun doing this! It is really funny to see how many directions we all go.
For Ian's senior project, he wrote an entire fantasy novel. It was fantastic! He got an A on it. He and Jacob scored off the charts on their SAT's in the writing area and were invited to take honors english/creative writing their first year at Penn State. Jacob writes all the time. He is dedicated more than anyone I know. I hope he submits something for publication one of these days!!
Jacob and I belong to two local writer's clubs: one is statewide, so it has more benefits that the one based in the valley. We meet to share, critique, and encourage one another.
Even at the age of nine, Therese is a very good writer. As soon as my kids were old enough to hold a pencil, they all took up this hobby. I have stories that they have written that are spelled completely phonetically because they were too young to know proper spelling.
I grew up thinking it was commonplace to sit and write for hours. I always had meetings with my mom in the kitchen. While she washed dishes or prepared dinner, I'd perch myself on a kitchen chair and read my latest adventure to her, asking for her opinions.
Only later in life did I realize that most other people did not share this experience!
My mom put herself through college and got her degree in English and Comprehensive Social Studies. She has a certificate in writing and wrote for two newspapers for years. She taught numerous writer's workshops, which I attended. I learned the most about writing from her. She's a heck of a good writer.
When I was a kid, perhaps aged 12 or 13, my class was assigned a paper. We had to write a short story. I have always enjoyed mysteries, suspense, scary tales, etc. So, I did research on ghosts and wrote a story called 'Poltergeist'. Sounds familiar? Well, my story came several years before the movie! (They must have copied my idea!!) I had never heard the term 'poltergeist', but in my research, I learned this was the word for 'ghost' in German, and I thought it would be interesting to use instead of the common terms we are accustomed to.
JohnPaul loves to write comics. A few years ago, he would spend every spare moment in school drawing and writing. He began to collaborate with a few of his friends. Now he is creating one on Facebook! (It's really funny!)
I love watching my kids develop their interests!
HUGSxxxAnnie
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