March 6th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Really late today, I know, but I had several things to do before I could get to my blog. My son sent me a text last night asking if an essay about survival interests me. Translation, he needed help on one of his college essays. Now, in the past “needed help” required a whole lot of work on my part, but I told him sure, email it to me. He has been working all sorts of crazy hours at work – to the tune of seventy plus hours a week – and going to school at night; so I wasn’t really surprised he asked for help.

I opened the email first thing this morning, and boy was I pleasantly surprised. Other than correcting a couple of erroneous commas, replacing a redundant word, and correcting his continuity of tense in ONE spot, the paper was fine just the way he wrote it. Proper English has never been my son’s forte, so seeing the progress he has made over the past couple of years has warmed my heart. It was just a silly little paper, one which probably isn’t worth a whole lot toward his overall grade, but it was well done and he made me very proud. I know, sappy proud mom moment, but I wanted to share anyway.

You’ll be happy to know Lys is feeling a lot better today. Yesterday afternoon she returned to the land of the living, and today she wants to drive over to a camp not too far away so she can put in an application. She also wants to make a few other stops, but we’ll see how it goes after our first stop. She may be surprised at how quickly she gets tired after being so sick for four days.

I have given up waiting for the bank’s website to send me my log in information, so I will be stopping at the bank today and asking them to print the one statement I’m missing. After that, it will only take me a few minutes to plug in the information and update the Schedule C with the new numbers. Hopefully, with the Schedule C completed, my taxes should only take an hour or so to complete, and then another half hour for the FAFSA and I WILL BE DONE!! It’s hard to believe I ever enjoyed doing this type of work, but at one point in my life, I truly did. Silly child!

Today was Dani’s last late arrival, so I wanted to surprise her with breakfast (not my forte). I saw a photo on Facebook where the person put a piece of bacon right inside a pancake, and I thought cool, Dani likes pancakes, and she loves bacon, so let’s give it a try. I got the bacon all crispy, whipped up some pancake batter, assembled them, and with a big smile on my face for not screwing up, I handed Dani her breakfast. After a few bits she asked why I was feeding her raw bacon. Apparently, even after the bacon is fully cooked and extra crispy, the pancake batter makes it all gooey again. Needless to say, breakfast was an epic fail and I will NOT be making pancakes and bacon like that ever again. What can I say, live and learn right?

Okay, Lys is ready to leave, and the quicker we get her errands completed, the quicker I can get back here and finish those dang taxes. I hope y’all have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

(I’m going to step WAY out of my comfort zone here) Your challenge is to write a poem – silly or serious, rhyming or not – the choice is yours

It’s a poem you say I need to write

The mere thought fills me with dread and fright

Several cohesive lines of rhyming verse

I worry of sounding trivial, or juvenile, or worse

Don’t fail me now oh illusive muse

Let me come up with something I can actually use

Make it inspirational, or funny, or light

Please help me now so I don’t fret all night

Alas I must hang my head in shame

Defeated yet again, and poem was its name

Your Next Challenge is:

Create a holiday (you can thank Lys for this one)

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.