January 22nd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I’m the biggest idiot ever! The last big snow we got was over Christmas break, and when my husband came home from work, he was annoyed that he had to go and shovel snow after working all day when the girls and I were home all day. I didn’t want a repeat of that whole scene, so I started to shovel yesterday afternoon. We only had about five inches at the time and it was a very dry, light, fluffy snow, so it wasn’t very hard to move. I made one path (so I wasn’t standing in snow) by pushing the shovel across the driveway and then I tossed small shoves of snow from the edge of the path out of the way. The first two path/toss sections went very well, but when I was pushing my third path, I hit a crack in the driveway, my shovel got caught, it jostled my back and sent it into spasms all over again. I spent the rest of the day in bed, on a heating pad, in agony. WHEN WILL I EVER LEARN??

Now it’s Wednesday. The house is still a disaster. My back is still killing me. I have a house full of people coming on Saturday, and I’m debating about driving to Vermont tomorrow and spending the night because I don’t know if my back would be able to handle a round trip on Friday. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, I’m going to pick up Lys for the weekend so she can see Kyle. If I don’t, they may miss seeing each other in August because he doesn’t know when his leave is going to be and she may be back at school already. Since they were born, I don’t think they have spent more than ten days apart, and this separation has been tough on both of them. So off to Vermont I go so Lys can see him at the dinner I’m having for him on Saturday. Then we leave early Sunday morning to bring her back because she has class on Monday. (Fair warning, there may not be any writing prompts this weekend.)

At around six last night the township emergency alert called to say there would be a delayed opening for the schools today. They said they would be monitoring the roads in the morning to determine if school will be cancelled. I woke Dani up at 7:00 so she could start getting ready for school. She was in the shower by 7:10, and at 7:15 the call came saying school was cancelled. Boy was she happy when she got out of the shower and I told her to go back to bed. I got the “well, I’m up now” glare. Whether she actually goes back to sleep or not is still to be determined, but she is in her room being quiet, so I can continue to write.

Although it’s hard to tell because the wind has been blowing a bit, I’m pretty sure we got at least a foot of snow yesterday. Remember back in October I told you about the old wives’ tale my grandmother had told me about when we see the first snow and it’s correlation to how many times we’ll see snow during the season? I’m sure most of you thought I was crazy predicting such a high number, but here it is January 22^nd, only one month into winter, and we’ve already seen snow twenty-one times. Baba’s tale isn’t sounding so far-fetched any more is it?

Okay, my back is cramping up so I need to get up and move around for a little while. I hope you all have a wonderful day & happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

I’ve never seen a (insert animal here) do that!

I was laughing so hard, I had tears rolling down my cheeks. If I hadn’t known better I would have thought I was either dreaming or had stepped into a cartoon, because I have never seen a squirrel do that except in a cartoon.

It was a beautiful spring day and the kids had the day off from school, so I suggested we have a picnic lunch in the park. We gathered our food, a huge blanket, a Frisbee and a ball and headed off for a carefree afternoon. We spread our blanket on a sunny patch of grass near the edge of the woods. After we finished eating, the kids grabbed the Frisbee and headed up the hill to play and I elected to stay on the blanket and enjoy a little peace and quiet.

I had just finished packing up the remains of our lunch, and was sitting on the blanket watching the squirrels’ antics. It was apparent they were enjoying the beautiful day as well. They were chasing each other around the grounds, up the tree, then around the grounds again.

Then I noticed one squirrel not playing with the others. He was off to the side, near the base of a tree, and he looked like he was trying to get something unstuck. He pulled, released, backed up and looked at the object, then went back and started scratching the ground around the object and tried pulling again. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t budge, and the squirrel repeated the whole process.

No big deal, right? You’ve probably seen animals do this hundreds of times, but here’s where it gets funny. After four or five attempts to dislodge the object, the squirrel backs away again, stands up on his hind legs, scratches his head, and then puts his hands on his hips. It honestly looked like he was puzzling out his dilemma. I laughed myself silly.

  

Your Next Challenge is:

Tell us about a toy you still have from your childhood

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.