Author: Lisa

Lisa A. Listwa is a self-employed writer with experience in education, publishing, and the martial arts. Believing there was more to life than punching someone else’s time clock and inspired by the words of Henry David Thoreau, she traded her life as a high school educator for a life as a writer and hasn’t looked back. She is mother to one glorious handful of a daughter, wife to the nicest guy on the planet, and reluctant but devoted owner of three Rotten Cats. You can find her adventures and thoughts on living life deliberately here on the blog.

Thoughts on Dreams

I admit it: I am one of those English majors who will “think for food,” as the joke goes.  I will read and think about pretty much anything you throw at me.  If there is food involved in the process, more the better. When I think about life, my thoughts nearly always turn to words for…

By Lisa August 8, 2012 Off

Things I Never Thought I Would Do

Once upon a time, I was completely non-girly.  Femininity is one thing, but girly-ness is a whole other state of being.  I did not cry at sappy love stories.  Anything sparkly, ruffle-laden, or pink would cause me to roll my eyes and make retching sounds. Princess movies did not make me swoon and the sight…

By Lisa August 4, 2012 Off

Did You Really Say What I Think You Said?

Sometimes life is absurd. Over the several years, Fab Husband and I have found ourselves saying things out loud that are seemingly absurd.  Generally, it is something one of us overhears when the other is in the next room.  By themselves, these things are truly absurd.  However, when placed within the context of raising a…

By Lisa August 3, 2012 Off

Insomnia

Nothing is more silent than the sound of the night watch. The running refrigerator is annoying company. Until it stops. Ah, but there is the sound of the central air pump. And gone. Cats snore in near perfect unison. Aren’t they supposed to be nocturnal? Traitors.

By Lisa August 1, 2012 Off

Thoughts on Patience

Tonight, I was halfheartedly poking around looking at quotes and short pieces on patience – because I’m not feeling very patient right now.  Not with anything.  Not with the pizza guy or the Rotten Cats or the weather.  Not with myself or the people around me, not with the circumstances in life that we’ve been…

By Lisa July 30, 2012 Off

Know What Really Bugs Me?

I hate bugs.  A lot. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that I am terrified of bugs, therefore I hate bugs.  I can’t explain it (guess where they get the term “irrational fear”).  I cannot recall any particular bug ever doing anything unspeakable to me, other than a mosquito bite or a bee sting.  But I…

By Lisa July 27, 2012 Off

On Grandmothers and Tradition

My Lovely Italian Grandmother made terrible polenta. Seriously.  Terrible.  Polenta. She was the kind of Grandmother who, when you entered her home, asked about your last meal before she asked who you were.  “Here…sit.  Eat,” she would say.  Her Mother did the same – it’s how we got one of my in-law uncles.  He sat…

By Lisa July 26, 2012 Off

My Bad Day Monday

Monday was kind of a bad day. Although after sitting here for a while with a cup of hot homemade soup, poking around the headlines and getting a few reminders that there are far worse things in other people’s lives than I had to deal with. Everything in perspective. Forgive me for sounding like the proverbial…

By Lisa July 24, 2012 Off