April 19th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning. Oh what a glorious Spring day here in Central New Jersey. This is what Spring should be like, not too hot, not too cold, sunny with all the flowers and trees in bloom. I just love the Japanese cherry trees and the weeping cherry trees. The shock of pink against the lime green is so beautiful.I keep asking, but I still haven’t received one for our front yard.

I totally forgot to mention it, but yesterday marked the one year anniversary of this blog. What originally started as a two week project, has turned into a daily “must” for me. If I can’t blog first thing in the morning, my day just doesn’t seem to ever get into sync. Over the past year, you have been with me through me winning my first award for writing. You talked me down from a panic attack over going into NYC to accept the award. You cheered with me when my daughter got into her first choice college, and you cried with me when my son moved out and my daughter left for college. You rooted me on during the insanity of NaNoWriMo. We have celebrated every holiday together. You’ve sent prayers when requested. You’ve laughed with me, and I’m sure a few times at me. All in all, this has been one of the most wonderful years of my life, and in part, I have all of you to thank for it. I appreciate all of you, and may God bless you as much as you have me.

I did manage to get some writing done yesterday, again mostly from a horizontal position. Yesterday was better than Thursday, and so far today has been better than yesterday, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow won’t be too terrible. It took me a little over three hours, but I also managed to get the Easter baskets finished. (This photo is from a previous year.)

That still leaves, the eggs – both dying the real ones and filling and hiding the plastic ones, the letter from T.E.B., the cleaning, the baking, the cooking, and the grocery shopping. My hubby’s not going to be happy, but I’m sending him to the grocery store. We qualified for the free ham or turkey at out ShopRite, and it has to be picked up by today, the dog is out of his morning chew sticks, and I want juice, danishes, bagels and muffins for tomorrow’s breakfast. It’s less than ten items, I think he can handle it.

I had a nice surprise yesterday. At around quarter to six last night, my dog started fussing, so I thought he needed to go out. I open the garage door, Colby goes rushing out, I follow at a much slower pace; and there it was, a box, just sitting in my garage. I walk over and check out the label. It's addressed to me. To the best of my knowledge, I hadn't ordered anything. Curiosity piqued, I abandoned the dog, who was perfectly secure by our invisible fence, and brought the box inside.

Dani asked, "What's that?"

"I don't know." I reply.

"Who's it addressed to?"

"Me."

"Who's it from?"

"I have no idea."

"So open it!"

"That's what I had planned on doing before you started asking all your questions."

"Can I open it?"

"Sure, why not?"

I hand the box to my daughter, and with painstaking care, she opens the box. After a few minutes, she gets the box opened, reaches inside and pulls out a beautiful gold box, adorned with a royal purple ribbon and bow. Thankfully, tucked inside the ribbon is a note.

It seems the Easter Bunny is a bit of a detective, and he managed to track down my address so he could leave a box of incredibly yummy chocolate truffles, as a thank you for editing his book.

It was a wonderful and totally unexpected surprise, and I had never heard of the chocolatier. Being a confirmed and admitted chocoholic, I thought I knew (and probably sampled) most of the chocolates the world has to offer. Between friends traveling, me traveling, and a brother-in-law who sets up candy store all over the world, I thought I had them all covered. Happily, I was wrong, and missed a chocolatier who has been around since the mid-17^th century.

Bissinger’s started in Paris, sometime in the early 1600s. Then in 1668, King Louis XIV, bestowed the title of “Confiseur Imperial” on the Bissinger family for their confectionary excellence. Their name and reputation grew throughout Europe, and in 1845 they found their way to America, when Karl Bissinger settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. Over the past 169 years, Bissinger has received many Sofi awards, been featured in Food magazine, and has caught the eye of numerous celebrities including Lauren Bacall and Oprah.

See, this is what happens when you have a historical romance writer do a blog. A tiny thing sparks my curiosity, and I need to seek out its history. Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much. If you have a chance to try Bissinger’s chocolate truffles, do so. So far I have tried an espresso flavored one and a raspberry flavored one, and they were delicious. The only complaint I have is, there was no key in the box, so I have no clue what the flavors are before I try them.

Okay, enough already. I have tons to do today, and one of them needs to be some work on FTQ. I hope y’all have a fantastic day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story about Easter eggs…

I love Easter eggs, all kinds of Easter eggs.

When I was a little girl, I used to go over to my neighbor, and best friend, Nadia’s house. Her and her family made Pisanke, aka Ukrainian Easter eggs. We would use these strange sticks with a medal nail pushed through the end, we’d heat the nail up with a candle flame, dip the hot nail into pure beeswax, then draw on the raw egg. After we drew everything we wanted kept white, we would submerge our egg in yellow dye. After the egg absorbed enough of the dye to be a deep rich yellow, we would take it out, add beeswax to everything we wanted to stay yellow, then dip the egg into the orange dye. We’d repeat the process with the red, then purple and finally the black dye.

When the egg came out of the final dye bath, it looked hideous. It had lumps of grey beeswax all over it, and the only part of actual egg showing was black as pitch. Ah, but that’s when Nadia’s mom would bring our eggs over to the stove. She would warm a towel by rubbing it on the inside of a hot pan, then she would take the hot towel and start to rub our egg with it. That’s when the magic happened. As she rubbed, the ugly grey wax began to melt away, and all our colored designs started to appear.

Right from the start, Nadia’s eggs were beautiful, and mine were a disaster. My lines were shaky and incomplete. I’d miss covering portions of the design in beeswax, so the color scheme was off. I guess I just don’t have enough Ukrainian blood in me. 

I haven’t given up though, every few years I get out my Pisanke kit and give it a whirl. Although they are better than when I was young, I could never make the pieces of art that Nadia can, but that’s okay. I kinda like the silly face eggs my daughters have been making the past few years.

Your Next Challenge is:

To spend tomorrow enjoying your family, whether you celebrate Easter or not.

You have 24 hours. There is no right or wrong, just enjoy. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize how someone else chose to spend their day. Go

February 12th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Batten down the hatches, we’re about to get blasted again! Depending on which radar model you look at, we are in for somewhere between 8” – 20” of snow for tomorrow. Oh joy. Is this winter ever going to end? Still no invites from my southern relatives to come for a visit. L

Let me tell you, yesterday kicked my butt. Basically I stood for six hours cleaning roses, around 200 roses, with no break. I received a grumble when I pulled out a stool and sat for a few minutes, but then I explained I had a really bad back, and it wasn’t an option. It’s not like I stopped working, and I was only cleaning flowers, not making an arrangement – which you should really stand to do so it comes out symmetrical. After about five minutes, I pushed the stool back under the counter and stood again, but I felt guilty each time I took my five minute sits.

That aside, I did enjoy working again. Today I will probably be answering the phones and waiting on customers. The owner is really nice and so are the two ladies who work with him. I wouldn’t mind continuing on in the shop after Valentine’s Day, but I doubt that will happen. Oh well, hopefully they will just call me to help again next year.

I don’t think my hubby liked me working again, because when I got home, I crashed and burned. My back hurt, my legs hurt, and I was wiped out. I went to lie down for a little bit, woke up four hours later, managed to get dinner on the table, then went right back to bed. It may take me a while to get back in the swing of things, but as soon as I do, the job will be over. Whatchya gunna do?

Since I’ll probably work until four or five today, I have to go and pack a lunch for me too and not just for my husband. (Dani’s home sick again today, so no lunch is needed for her.) I thought I was only working for a few hours yesterday, so I didn’t pack anything. By the time 2:00 rolled around I was starving. The owner was so sweet. He sent one of the ladies out on a delivery and had her bring a pizza back with her for us to share. He also treated for coffee in the morning; both really nice and unexpected surprises.

Well, I should get going. I was a couple of minutes late yesterday because there was an accident which had the road closed and I had to detour. I don’t want to be late again today. In my book, getting to work exactly on time means I’m late.

I hope you have a marvelous day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Shhhh…it’s a secret…

Guess whose hubby is turning 50 this year? That’s right, mine; and I’m hoping to pull off a surprise party for him. His birthday is April 27^th and I will just have a little dinner with the immediate family. Then, a couple of weeks later … when he will no longer be expecting anything … BAM. My girlfriend Sharon said we could have it up at her house, and I know if we tell my husband it’s a surprise party for Nan (Sharon’s mom), he’ll fall for it, hook, line and sinker.

Nan’s birthday isn’t until July, but my husband is clueless when it comes to birthdays. The only thing saving him when it comes to family is many of our birthdays fall on holidays – mine’s April Fools, his mom is St. Patrick’s Day, our son is the 4^th of July – you get my meaning.

By saying it’s Nan’s birthday, it would be completely feasible for me to be cooking, and we won’t need to explain all the cars in the driveway; so I think it would be the perfect ruse. Also by waiting until May, my daughter will be home from college.

Okay folks, this is truly a secret, so if you do happen to know my husband (and quite a few of you do), please don’t say anything to him. My one saving grace is he does not have a Facebook account and he doesn’t read my blog, so I was able to share this with you. J

Your Next Challenge is:

Write a story containing the following: Peanut Butter, Kitchen & Diaper

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.

September 5th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I had an interesting experience at the beach yesterday. We went to Sandy Hook, our destination of choice as usual, so nothing exciting with that, but while I was in the water, I got bumped by something. From the feel, I knew it wasn’t a fish or a shark so I wasn’t overly concerned, but I did get out of the water and turned around to look to see if I saw any dolphin. I was quite surprised when I didn’t.

As I exited I told a woman who was entering the water what I had just experienced and she elected not to go into the water and we stood on the shoreline and chatted a while, both watching to see if we could locate what had bumped into me. A few minutes later a couple walked past us with their black lab; I noticed, but didn’t really pay them much attention. The woman, Cheryl, and I chatted a little while longer and then she went back to her blanket. I turned my attention back to the ocean. That’s when I saw what I thought was the black lab swimming with his head just above the water. A wave came and went over the black head. When it didn’t pop right back up, I panicked thinking the dog couldn’t handle the waves, so I rushed into the water to save him. That’s when I got my surprise. When the head popped up again, it didn’t belong to a black lab, but a black seal!

Never, in all my years of going to Sandy Hook, have I seen a seal. I rushed back up to our blanket and told the kids what I had seen so they could see it too. The people around us heard what I had said and they got up and went down to the water. Within minutes the news spread and a huge crowd of people were walking along the shoreline watching the seal’s progress as he headed north. I located Cheryl to tell her they mystery of what had bumped into me in the water was solved and I pointed out the culprit.

Still concerned with what I thought was an unprecedented sight, I located some of the lifeguards who were cleaning up for the season to ask if they could contact a park ranger. When they asked what the problem was I explained what had happened and that I was concerned the animal may be in distress or lost at least. That is when they told me they have actually seen quite a few seals and it wasn’t all that unusual anymore. Surprise number two or is that number three? Anyway, it was an interesting and probably once in a lifetime experience. I am thankful that black head popped up BEFORE I got my arms around it!! Boy would I have really been surprised then!

 

 

Your Last Challenge was:

The Magical Realm is in an uproar…

 

“What’s happening?” “How can this be?” “Why didn’t the veil hold?” “What does this mean?”

 

Mother Nature held up her hands and raised her voice. “Order, ORDER!” Instantly the fearful questions and murmurings stopped, all eyes looked forward. “I realize this morning’s incident has many of you alarmed, but I can assure you there is no need to panic.”

 

A voice rose over the crowd, “How can you say that? That, that child saw us. I know she did. I personally saw the surprise in her eyes.”

 

“I’m sure she did,” Mother Nature cajoled, “as she was meant to.” Before the rumbling through the crowd could get any louder, she continued. “What is it that sustains the protective veil?”

 

“Believing,” the crowd answered in unison.

 

“Yes my children, believing, and in recent years the number of humans who actually believe has decreased dramatically.

 

 

Darn, darn, darn! I really wanted to keep going with this one today. Oh well, tomorrow’s another day. Hope you have a great day and happy writing!

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Write a story containing the following three words: Licorice, Crystal & Cake.

 

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.