Gosh, language can be both a beautiful and disgusting thing, don't you think? It can make you feel all the feels; love, hurt, joy, anger, embarrassment, and all that's in between. Words like mellifluous, diaphanous, serendipity and sumptuous feel lush and can conjure up images of succulent feasts, shimmery, floaty and sweet things. On the other hand, certain words can make my mouth pucker like I’m sucking on a cat-haired Warhead I found beneath the couch cushions. A few of my main offenders are moist, riddled, bulbous, maggot and orifice. All these words represent things, feelings and images both tasteful and distasteful to me, hence the reaction. I'm sure I'm not alone here. One word can make an excellent replacement for a sentence or phrase in writing, and, being on the verbose side, it's probably something I should think about when I speak, too. I find myself studying books now to ponder how beautiful sentences are constructed. I do believe that the trick is to make it look effortless, when really, finding the right words at the right time is a bloody hard job! If you're a writer you can find a great article by Shane Arthur on the 'Smart Blogger' website here about what he calls unnecessary 'flabby' words. (The list is a goldmine but a little overwhelming, and I'm sure I've used some of his flabby words in this post, but hey!) So anyway, I thought I'd do some sharing and tell you what my favourite English words are. It was difficult choosing only ten when there are so many but I gave it a good crack. You can find them below in no particular order. Do you have any favourite words? I’d love to hear what they are in the comments, or come on over to my Instagram page and join the favourite words conversation!
See you there! Lisa x
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Got reading kids and live in Canberra? Is your school joining the challenge?
I’ve been in the fortunate position over the last few years to be involved in the management of the ACT Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge through my work at the ACT Education Directorate. I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of Canberra’s exceedingly talented authors (squeeeee!!), work alongside amazingly generous sponsors, see thousands of children rise to the challenge of reading 15 books between February and September every year, and work with some extremely dedicated people (usually ever-committed librarians) who drive the Challenge in their schools. I have to say, one of the best parts of the job is the Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge Awards Ceremony, held at the conclusion of the Challenge. Seeing the smiling faces of hundreds of avid little and not-so-little readers is just the best. I love this Challenge because it encourages children to read and provides a great opportunity for schools to celebrate their successes together at the conclusion of the Challenge. The encouragement and celebration of reading is so important to our community and children's future. The Challenge is open to all ACT schools and is for students in Preschool to Year 8. Schools register online (students don’t register individually) and there is no prescribed book list. If you have school age children and your school isn’t registered for the Challenge this year there is still a little time! Ask your school about their involvement and encourage them to register here before 31 March 2018. By the way, its also a really good chance for you to talk to your child about reading, listen to them read and model what readers do (i.e READ!!) to help foster their love of reading into the future. You might even want to do the Challenge with them. I know I will be! Good luck and happy reading! Lisa xx In the last twelve months I've realised that reading self-help books at bedtime isn't great for my mental health. I know, I know... sounds weird, but I've decided to stick to easy-breezy, not too brow-crunching fictions for my bedtime fix instead.
I made the decision after I started to see a direct correlation between the quality (or lack thereof) of my sleep and my reading choices at night. Self-help books are written to inspire and motivate, not to render you sleepless with anxiety, worrying that you know what you should do but you just can't see your way to doing it. Analysis paralysis sets in and then it's all over. Sometimes though, a short, easy to follow book catches your eye and you just can't bring yourself to put it down when time for bed rolls around. Brené Brown's book 'The Gifts of Imperfection: Let go of who you think you're supposed to be and embrace who you are', was exactly that for me. I found myself armed with a yellow highlighter and a pen, resisting hitting the lights and thinking 'just one more chapter', and it didn't impact on my sleep at all. Yippee! Brené's a great storyteller and I love that the ten guideposts to living a wholehearted life outlined in her book are easy to digest and make perfect sense. I had quite a few 'oh, thank god it's not just me' moments, which just adds to my respect for Brené and her honesty and open-heartedness. I found a beautifully drawn graphic by the most excellent (and inspiring) Leonie Dawson, who has kindly offered it for free on her website and encouraged people to share. It's a super helpful way of seeing Brené's guideposts in a snapshot. Have you read this book? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below! Lisa x |
Who am I?Hi, I'm Lisa. I'm a writer, educator, and artist of NFTs and printables. I live with my husband and son in Canberra, Australia. Archives
November 2019
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