Cake

     Ingredients assembled, pan perfectly greased.  Carefully measuring, mixing, and preheating for the suggested temperature.  Baking, the aroma is heavenly!  Timer dings: carefully, I retrieve my culinary masterpiece from the oven. Pandemonium, chaotic as the kids pursue dogs…colliding, splat…oh shit! 

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It's a Hit!

Picture by saavem on rgbstock.com

   

      The vacant lot on Cherry Street became the place to be when school let out for summer.   All the guys had something to prove.       When it was my turn at bat, nobody got excited.  It was as if everyone knew I would be struck out and wasn’t worth their attention. Determind, I took my swing, expecting to swing air once again.  Smack!  Elation filled my heart as the Louisville Slugger struck the ball sending it flying.  Thrilled, I ran until the heart sickening sound of shattering glass stopped me cold.  Grandpa always said one swallow does not make a summer.

  


     A fictional story written for the  Friday Light and Shade Challenge, we were asked to write a piece of fiction in 100 words or less using the quote “one swallow does not make a summer”by Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)  and the picture above.  I discovered that according to Google the quote is a proverb which means that a single fortunate event does not mean that what follows will also be good.

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The Shoe

 
     I am running behind.  Well then, I am always running behind!  Now that Brittney has figured out how to take her shoes off she hides them everywhere.  She thinks it is a game.  I think it is a pain in the ass.  Especially when we need to be at her doctor’s appointment in less than an hour and I never have the foresight to lay out her outfit and shoes the night before.     When will I learn to put her shoes up out of her reach?  Think!  Where in the hell can they be?  She is so oblivious playing with her toys and singing to herself.  OK, if I were her and a precocious 3 year old what would I do with my shoes? 




       I decide to rule out the places that are wild first.  I peer in the toilet bowl at the clear water, rush to the refrigerator and search among the pickles, hot dogs, and cheese.  I am beginning to freak out!  I glance at the clock, at my precious little darling and decide to ask her.  Who knows, maybe she will actually tell me! Ha!  “Brittney, honey, do you know where your shoes are?  Can you show Mommy?”  She looks up at me with her innocent eyes, smiles her sweet smile, and says “I left them for the Prince to find!”  Great!  I continue my search exasperated.  She is 3, what bloody nonsense is she talking about?  No princes live here!   I don’t have time for this crap!!  The clock is ticking.  I have to make it across town on time or they will reschedule plus charge me for missing the damn appointment!


         Frantic, I begin searching the cupboards.  Who knows?  Maybe her prince is there?  Brittney ambles out to the kitchen singing “Hey Diddle Diddle” when I notice she is actually wearing one of her shoes.  Sweet mother of God!  “Honey, do you know where your other shoe is?  It is really important that we find it!!”  She looks at me with a sideways glance and smiles.  “Don’t you ‘member where Cinderella left her shoe after the ball Mommy?”  I stop what I am doing and stare at my baby while understanding slowly dawns.  My mouth drops.  I read her “Cinderella” last night before bed.  Holy shit!  I am running late and she has me living a flipping fairy tale!   

       I rush out to the dining room and glance out the glass sliding doors to the patio where she had played earlier while I drank my morning dose of caffeine and there almost glowing in the morning sunlight is my daughter’s shoe!!  I make a beeline for the shoe while grabbing my purse, pick up my sweet baby, lock the patio door,   and sprint to my car.  I glance at my watch as I buckle her into her car seat, put on her shoe, and give her a toy to occupy her for the ride.  I still have time!! Breathe!!   As I back out of the driveway, I glance in the rear view mirror and see myself for the first time and really register what I look like.   My hair looks uncombed; however my face is washed clean.  With a grimace, I comb my fingers through my unruly locks.  Screw it!  I am late as it is!  After all, it doesn’t matter what I look like, they are seeing her, right?   I glance back at her playing happily.  She looks completely adorable.  I continue on down the street toward our appointment which I will be able to make with no time to spare.



This completely fictional story from the depths of my imagination was written in response to the Write Tribe Wednesday writing prompt.  This weeks prompt is a picture prompt courtesy of Vidya Sury.

         

The First Day

      It was his first day.  He was wearing new clothes, new shoes, and his brand new backpack was filled with brand new school supplies.  He was all clean and sparkly, utterly adorable, and brimming with anticipation.  Filled to the brim, the backpack must have been awful heavy on his small shoulders.  He was so excited for the adventure that kindergarten offered.  

       He didn’t notice my bittersweet mood.  Where had the time gone?  Could it be possible that my precious son had grown so much he was big enough to start school?  My heart clenched as he hugged and kissed me goodbye on his way out the door to catch the bus.  I told him to have a good day, to have fun at school, and with a heavy heart I let him go. 

        As I watched him walk out the door I thought about that precious armful he had once been and compared him to the fine young man he would one day be. I hoped the kids would be nice to him.  I hope he makes friends.  I hope he likes school!  “Please God, go with him.  Please, let the other kids be nice to him!” I silently begged.   He looked back and waved.  I bit my lip, swallowed the tears threatening to escape, smiled, and waved back.  There he goes, my little man off to discover and experience life…without me.

Written for the Write Tribe Wednesday prompt.  Photo courtesy of Morgue File.

Afternoon

          My favorite time of the day is between the hours of 3 and 4 in the afternoon when the school buses finally bring my children home from school.  Twice a day I make the familiar trek to the bus stop.  In the morning to insure they get on the bus safely and back again in the afternoon to welcome them home.  Both kids greet me with smiles, hugs, and kisses with my son hitting me with a running tackle as he flies off the bus like a projectile missile into my waiting arms. 

        The walk home is filled with constant chatter that doesn’t cease until all the excitement from their days at school has been revealed.  We gather around the kitchen table eating snacks and doing any homework that was sent home with them.  Laughter is contagious and the kids share their days with me with such enthusiasm.  I hear who did what where and who said this and that.  I hear about what they had for lunch.  What tasted good and what sucked and was regulated to the cafeteria garbage can.  We relax and enjoy each other’s company.  They ask about my day, read my posts, and offer encouragement.  We vote on what’s for supper, and then I fix it.

         The house is quiet while they are away.  Except for the occasional barking of my dogs when someone walks past the house, the furnace kicking on and off, and the quiet tapping of my fingers across the keys as I write my latest post, the house stays relatively quiet.  Every once in a while whoever is in charge of setting off the storm sirens set them off for effect.  Since I live near the pole where the siren comes from my dogs go completely bat shit crazy.  They line up on the back of the couch looking out the front window barking and howling for the duration of the siren.  Sometimes I howl with them.  Other times I yell at them to shut the hell up.  Occasionally I will crank the volume of my favorite music full blast as I work methodically away and sometimes I will watch television while I work, but lately I revel in the silence that surrounds me punctuated with the quiet snores of sleeping dogs.  When they come home, it is as if the house and I come alive once again.  There is nothing better than hanging out in the afternoon.  What about you, what is your favorite time of the day?

7 Things I Must Do Every Day

I am taking part in “The Write Tribe Festival of Words 1st to 7th September 2013". 

1)      Every day that happens to be a school day I have to get up at the butt crack of dawn and wake each of my children, one by one.  Now that my oldest is in junior high that means my alarm goes off at 5:30 in the morning.  Almost a month into the school year and I am sorry, 5:30 in the morning is entirely too early for anyone to be up looking about let alone rushing out in the dark chilly air.  I wonder if as the year unfolds if I am still as bleary eyed at 5:30 in say December as I am now.  Even the sun has the sense not to be up, so why must I?  I am not a morning person; I am more of a night owl.  My son is getting to be more of a challenge to wake.  He is also a night owl.  Where my daughter grudgingly bounces out of bed and gets on with it, my son stays in bed as long as he can.   I entice him out of bed with promises of cereal and a game of cards.  It works every time.  Lately we play a game I got recently called GUBS.  We love it!!  Being the protective mother hen I am, I walk each of them out to their bus stop.  I walk my oldest half way and wave from afar before heading home because staying longer makes me feel like a stalker in that large group of teenagers and is so NOT cool.  My son is a lot younger so it is still cool for me to stand at the bus stop with him and hug and kiss him goodbye in front of God, everyone, and our neighbors. 

2)      I wash dishes every single day.  You would think that there wouldn’t be such a mountain of dirty dishes when all I get done doing is washing dishes.  There always is.  I love to cook, so you have to pay the price around the waist line and at the sink.   

 3)       With two kids in the house and sometimes a husband that has been gone several weeks at a time accumulating dirty laundry in abundance for yours truly, I do laundry every single day without fail.  Into the washer, into the drier, then folding, and putting away.

4)      I let the dogs out and back in.   Who let the dogs out?  If my husband is home, we take turns.  He is obsessive about it.   I have 4 and believe me, it is a necessity.  Our oldest dog Puppy Love needs to go out every single time I sit down.  Then he looks at me in a pleading way and bounces up and down doing the doggie pee-pee dance.  Puppy Love is the potty barometer in our house.  If he goes out, they all go out.  I usually listen when he insists because one time I was sitting on the floor watching television and didn’t jump when he thought I should and that dog raised his leg and pissed on my back!

5)       I read every single day.  Whether it is other blogs or books, I am reading and loving every minute of it.

6)      I do something creative every day.  I write, I take pictures, I knit, I cook, and sometimes I crochet.  When I am in the mood, I draw or paint although those things don’t happen often anymore. 

7)      I cook every single day.  Even if I get a much appreciated break and get treated out for a meal, I still prepare the other meals.  Now that my daughter is older she is my partner in crime and helps a great deal.

What about you?  What do you do every single day?

We Built It!!

    Today I took the kids to something really cool and I simply had to share!!  While at Lowe’s yesterday picking up a huge bottle of bug killer my daughter and I came across a cool workshop for kids back by the ladies toilet.  We simply HAD TO PEE  and rushed to the back of the store.  Right down from the bathrooms were long tables set up and several kids and parents congregating around.   I simply could not resist finding out what was going on!!  They were having a “Build to Grown Clinic” for kids to build a Pizza Planet Delivery Truck as seen in the Disney Pixar movie “Toy Story”. 

      How totally cool!!  The only problem was that my son happened to be at the house with my husband.  The lady asked me if my daughter would like to participate and I figured my son would be upset if he didn’t get to build a truck too.  The best news was that she said we could come back the next day because they were holding the workshop then too.  Then I thought to ask the all-important question…how much does this little adventure cost?  Even more great news…the workshop was free and included all materials!  How could I not take my kids for this event?  It was free and it looked like fun plus they would have a cool toy to take home for their efforts.

     This afternoon we headed back to Lowe’s and made a beeline back to the area where the workshop was being held.  Lowe’s is a big store and my kids literally raced to the back of the store like the hounds of hell were after them.  I refused to run…after all, I am a mature adult most of the time so I kept all of us at a brisk walk.  Each kid received a pre-packaged kit of all the pre-cut wood, nails, and decals they needed to complete the project.  They also got a free cloth apron and safety goggles to keep and they got to use cute little hammers.  It reminded me of something Santa’s elves would have.  Each kit had step-by-step instructions.  All the holes for the nails were pre-drilled and the project was pretty easy to assemble.

        It was a lot of fun.  While my daughter had no trouble assembling her truck, I got to help my son get his together.  When their trucks were completed they each received an iron on patch to put on their aprons and a certificate for their 
accomplishment.  How cool is that?  Evidently they hold these little workshops for kids twice a month so you can bet your last dollar the kids and I will be at the next workshop where the kids are looking forward to building a replica of Toy Story’s R.C.  It just goes to prove you don’t have to spend a dime to have fun and day 14 of the UltimateBlogging Challenge and NaBloPoMo is now in the record books!

   

Wordless Wednesday: Blowing Bubbles!

V is for Vegetables

     When my son was a baby the doctor started him on vegetables and he seemed to love them.  He would focus in on the tiny spoon filled with vegetables and open his mouth wide.  When he became a toddler he still ate his veggies but then blew the winds of change.




      It seems as if it was overnight that he developed a hatred of vegetables and has refused to eat them ever since proclaiming quite loudly that he didn’t like them.  I was perplexed.  When the vegetables were pureed and came from the baby food jar he gobbled them up.  Now he refuses to eat them.  

    I am a big fan of the “Biggest Loser” and last season they challenged three kids to lose weight.  Bob Harper suggested to Bingo’s parents that they prepare recipes that would hide the offending vegetables so that he would unknowingly eat them anyways.  Taking my cue 
from Bob, I decided to do the same thing.  My son has loved sandwiches since he was very little.  Instead of requesting any other snack, he always wants a sandwich.  One day I decided to mix mayonnaise and honey mustard together.  In the mix I added grated carrots and sweet peppers and spread the concoction on his bread and top with meat.  He ate his sandwich without ever knowing the difference.  I have also performed this little bit of veggie magic on meatloaf, hamburgers, and meatballs and watched with a knowing smirk when he gobbled each up proclaiming them delicious.


       He still refuses to eat vegetables.  I often remind him how much he loved them as a baby.  He always rolls his eyes and wrinkles his nose in disgust.  I hope someday he will discover how yummy vegetables really are and broaden his horizons to knowingly give them a try.  Until then, I figure what he doesn’t know won't hurt him.