Fancy Meeting You here! #50PreciousWords

In life things aren't always exactly the way you want them. Like possibly one day your kids want to do "something fun" and you want to do "the four hundred things on your to-do list." When those situations arise, I try to find some sort of compromise. Perhaps this means the kids help move piles of rocks in the backyard and I give them wheelbarrow rides. Or we clean a closet and then play with the toys we found. 

Maybe your husband wants to "hike up the side of a mountain so we can look down at the ground below" and you want to remind him you can see the ground right here without your thighs burning. So it begrudgingly agrees to a 2 mile walk with a waterfall (because I'm a sucker for a waterfall.)

Friendship often means meeting halfway, too. This is the theme I chose for my 50 Precious Words Contest entry this year which won an HONORABLE MENTION FOR FRIENDSHIP! Yay! [Note: It's completely appropriate for you to tear up some paper and throw it in an exuberant confetti display at this point.]  And congratulations to all the contest winners!

I hope you enjoy my poem (under 50 words) ... 

*** So I fashioned this picture from clipart in Canva and I had to kind of copy and paste Ostrich's head, so I hope you don't look too closely! #notanillustrator

Is it REALLY Valentine's Day?

 February means being misled by a groundhog, tricked by the crocuses, and bamboozled by the weather. And that's before you add in general Valentine's uncertainty of whether He loves me or He loves me not. Of course, that would leave anyone feeling SKEPTICAL... which brings us to this year's Valentiny contest!

The contest is hosted by Susanna Leonard Hill (who is author friends with a very nice groundhog who wouldn't mislead anyone) and the rules are: write a Valentines story appropriate for children (children here defined as ages 12 and under) maximum 214 words in which someone feels skeptical!    

Now I initially thought "skeptical" was a big feeling for little kids, but then I remembered my kids don't believe a single thing I say. 

        "Carrots are healthy"   

                            False. 

        "Don't wait to study until the night before a test." 

                            Ridiculous!

        "I'm brushing my teeth!" 

                            Mom, we all know you are just sitting in there playing games on your phone. 

It's true. Kids SHOULD be skeptical of their parents... Read all the fun entries over at Susanna's blog. 

Love is an Adventure

 

By Lauri C. Meyers

Dad unwrapped a balloon. Mom opened a scarf.

“You guys give boring Valentine’s gifts,” I said.

“Boring?” Dad gawked. “These remind us of falling in love.”

“Literally falling! I skydived past your Dad’s hot air balloon,” Mom explained. “He was cute, so I yelled ‘Call me!’”

I raised my eyebrows. Mom doesn’t skydive!

“But I didn’t know her number!” Dad said. “Luckily, the next day while bull riding, I saw your mother in a barrel. I yelled, ‘Number?’ Then I got bucked off.”

“I miss rodeo clowning,” Mom sighed

I rolled my eyes. Dad hate clowns!

“The next week, I was snowshoeing a glacier. Your Dad raced by on a dog sled. I yelled, ‘534-’”

“But a polar bear chased me away! I couldn’t hear the rest.”

My mouth hung open. My parents hate snow!

“Later that month, I flipped my kayak in a dangerous swamp,” Dad whispered.

“I was training alligators nearby. I heard the splash,” Mom said. “Snappy Al married us right then and there.”

“An alligator married you?!” I squinted at them. “How did you really fall in love?”

They winked. “Open your gift!”

“A week at Pirate Adventure Camp?” I read the pamphlet. “Plank diving! Shark riding! Sword fighting!”

“Create your own story about falling in love … with adventure.”