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 22nd,
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.
