Happy May, An Update & an Unplanned Harvest

You may have noticed things look a little different around here lately. We had to make a quick change of the theme because of some technical difficulties with WordPress that could change the site’s security. If you stopped by during the interim, things not only looked strange, but a little difficult to navigate. Since the person in charge of these renovations is a bit overwhelmed at the moment, it’s going to take a little while before eliseskidmore.com is looking just the way we want it to be, but with a little tweak we’ve managed to make things legible again.

There will be more changes coming, but hopefully, we’ll be able to get the final touches done to make it feel more like home in the not too distant future,. Thank you for bearing with us and I hope you’ll keep coming back to check on us.

Next I’d like to thank everyone for the support during April’s PAD Challenge. You have no idea how much it means to know people were following along every day and really enjoying what they read. A few of you reached out to me privately to let me know how much reading those poems each day meant to you and that touched my heart more than words can say. So thank you all for that too.

In April, I not only managed to complete the PAD challenge by writing 30 poems in 30 days, I posted all of them here—except for the last one. (Darn those technical difficulties!) Those of you who follow me on Facebook might have seen it because I did share it there, but for those who “don’t do Facebook” I’ve decided to share it with you today. This poem was meant to be read on multiple levels, the literal and metaphorical. It emerged before I knew about the sudden website changes taking place, but I think it fits with the ideas embraced in the poem—that we try to do our best, but sometimes things happen to change everything—and sometimes that can be a really good thing.

So let’s all keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

Unplanned Harvests

We planted the seeds.
Watered and fertilized them.
Prayed for sunny days.
All living things grow and change.
We cross our fingers and hope.

We reap what we sow,
but sometimes harvests are poor
despite our efforts.
Even when we plant roses,
sometimes we only get weeds.

There are so many
variations and sometimes
random birds and bees
change the outcome of our plans.
Different can be beautiful.

~Elise Skidmore ©2026