August 27th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning. Day two with no kids around. My youngest spent another night at her friend’s house and won’t be home for a few hours yet. This is going to take a while to get used to, if I ever do. Even when she does get home, it will still be a quiet day because she still has not done her summer reading project. Heck, she hasn’t even started it and we are at the end of summer. She’ll have her nose in a book for the next few days. At least, this year’s book is short and a very quick read. That doesn’t mean I will not have to threaten her to get it finished.

I wish I could find the one book to spark her interest in reading. My middle daughter was the same way. She hated to read. Getting her to read was a battle. Then one day, just before her birthday, she asked me for the book “Twilight” by Stephanie Meyers – quite rolling your eyes, she asked for a book, so I was doing backflips. The book could have been “The Art of Farts” for all I cared if it got her reading. When she finished “Twilight” and asked for the next book in the series, I was overjoyed. By the end of the summer, she had read thirty-eight books and can still be found, quite often, with her nose in a book. So, as I said, I wish I could find the one book to spark my youngest daughter’s interest in reading, then these summer reading projects wouldn’t be such a nightmare.

I’m still gathering and photo copying two years’ worth of receipts to send to the insurance company. Hopefully I will have everything together and in the mail by Friday. It’s times like these where I really want to kick myself in the butt for not being more organized! So no more procrastinating, time to get to work.

Until tomorrow… have a great day and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

 

Tom leaned against the tree and stared unseeing into the backyard. Memories of that fateful day came flooding back.

“Please Grandpa, please.”

“I can’t right now Tommy, but I promise we’ll go as soon as I finish the chores.”

“But the fish are biting now. Look, I can see them jumping.”

“And they’ll still be jumping in a few hours. Go find something else to do. Maybe Grammy could use some help in the garden.”

Six year old Tommy hung his head and walked away from his grandfather. He didn’t want to wait. He knew the fish wouldn’t be there later, it would be just like last time when they waited.  They would sit in the boat for hours and have nothing to show for their time. Why did Grandpa need to do chores first? The chores would still be there when they got back.

“Hey Brat.”

Tommy looked up to see his big brother sitting on the back porch. “Leave me alone Joey. Aren’t there any bugs or frogs you could go bother?”

“What’s got you in such a mood?”

“Stupid chores. Why can’t Grandpa do the chores later? I want to go fishing. Look,” Tommy pointed to the creek, “they’d be jumping in our boat if we went now.”

“So let’s go.” Joey said as he hopped off the step and started to head toward the boat.

“Are you crazy? You know we’re not allowed to take the boat out by ourselves.”

“I’m almost nine years old. I’ve been out on that boat a million times, I can handle it.” Joey glared at his little brother. “So Brat, are you coming or are you going to be a baby?”

 

Definitely better than the last one, I just couldn’t form a thought I liked yesterday. For tomorrow I’ve decided to go back to a prompt style I used when I started this blog, and set up a scene for you to write a story. I’m still waiting for input from y’all as to what types of prompts you’d prefer. So until I do, I’m kinda shooting in the dark.

Your Next Challenge is:

 

You and a group of friends all have busy lives and you don’t get to spend any time together anymore, so you decide to make a weekend getaway. You book rooms in an old mansion which has been converted to a bed and breakfast. The place is beautiful and at first you are completely enamored with it, but then some strange things start to happen.

 

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.