Kimberley Barker

I love this quote.  I laughed when I heard it. It gave me a new perspective on looking at my life right now. My mom was  raising four children and babysitting someone elses child during the day for some extra money. In addition, we had a dog or two, cats and perhaps the duck and the rabbit were in there somewhere.The woman whose child my mom was caring for came into the house one day to see the four of us running around the house, playing with the dog, the rabbit was out of its cage and her daughter was [...]

The art of taking one day at a time. I never quite knew what that felt like until these last few years of my life.  I always thought you had to have goals and a plan and if you worked hard and played by all the rules, you would meet that goal.  Well, what if, that plan didn't work as you thought it was supposed to?  What if everything that you envisioned your life to be at this point - wasn't?  What if you didn't know how or when things were going to change for the better?  What if one day [...]

My life in the last two months has put a complete halt to my writing.  I miss it terribly.  I haven't even had the time to write my Morning Pages, which is something I have done religiously for the last six years of my life. The pieces of paper cry out to me, yet, my heart belongs to my feline family who have been in such need of me.  The focus,  the worry, the anger, the denial, the hope, the solution seeking of curing one who clearly wants to be well again.  The perplexing behaviour of two who at one time slept together [...]

A friend of mine lost her father recently and her facebook post said " if only I could have just one more day."  I totally understand where she is coming from!  Today, my little boy Ben (he is a cat) was diagnosed with stomach cancer. All I can do now is love him up and make him comfortable until he gets put down tomorrow.  Words cannot express how much saddness is in my heart right now. He is a very sensitive, loving, sweet little boy.  He has weathered many traumatic life experiences with me, unemployment, a mother diagnosed with cancer (and I [...]

Life Happens when you are trying to build your dream life.  Pets get sick and need our attention, work calls and something happens that sets you back a bit on an emotional level and rebuilding your financial life takes a high priority.  Yet, that still small voice whispers " remember me? - I am still here, I didn't leave you."I have missed you my readers and I have missed putting pen to paper.  Yet, I know it only takes one step at a time to get back on the path.No matter how much life throws at you, don't ever forget [...]

Ok, so this mornings' blog is about these yummy little donuts that I love so much!  They come out only during the lenten season and I look forward to them every year! They are soo good! Those of you who know me on a personal level, know that I love to cook and bake and I love to make treats that are celebrations of the seasons. This particular little donut looks like a little rectangle, deep fried and covered in powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar.  Traditionally, they were made on Fat Tuesday, the day before lent starts as a way [...]

And those friends are you my blog readers! I haven't written a blog in quite awhile and I am so missing all of you so much.  Fortunately for me, God/The Universe, whatever you call the Higher Power you believe in, has answered some of my deepest prayers and those answers have occupied my time over the last few weeks.  They are presents that have seemed to arrive at just the right time.  As they always do.  And when I take a step back to reflect after the events of these weeks, I ask myself - why do I become so fearful [...]

I walked through the grocery store tonight, after a long day, just yearning to go home and crawl under the covers. It was cold outside and I hadn't slept much last night.  I was hungry but knew there was no way I was going to cook when I got home.  As always, I spend most of my time in the fruit and vegetable aisle. I was looking at all the colors displayed in the Wegmans produce section.  The bright oranges, the reds of the apples, the green celery, the blue berries.  I found myself yearning for spring and summer and [...]

I am so touched by this that I had to share it with my blog readers.  Some of you know me on a very personal level, others not.  For those of you who do, you know that one of my least favorite things in life to do is take the garbage out and bring the can in from the street after they pick up the garbage.  Don't ask me why, its such a little thing actually - its just one of those things for me.  It's one of life's little things for me I guess, like changing light bulbs.Two weeks [...]

Today, I took another step in my journey to share my first novel with the world.  I submitted the manuscript to Createspace and Amazon, who are sponsoring the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awared. This opportunity gives a writer a chance to win one of two $15,000 publishing contracts with Penguin USA and distribution of their novel on Amazon.com.Writers had to submit a 300- word pitch for their entry. I was so excited about this opportunity and when I went to sign on this morning and submit my work, I discovered I was too late to submit for the general fiction category, [...]