Writing Challenge - A story

Grandpa Esau came for supper again tonight. We like to ask him questions about his childhood and memories. Tonight he was reciting poems that he'd learned in his childhood. Here's one of them.


Trees

By Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

He knew it perfectly. It about gave me goosebumps. I love poetry and I love Grandpa. And there is a reason we want our children to memorize things. What a gift it is in old age.

Cinquain Poem

Youngster

Lively, Vivacious

Shouting, Dashing, Playing

Intensely interested in learning

Wyatt

Season

Joyful, Peaceful

Praising, Singing, Praying

Best Gift Ever Given

Christmas

Chair

Overstuffed, Comfortable

Relaxing, Rocking, Reclining

Mother's place of honour

Président



A wedding and company and computer updates.

So, life happens.


We had a lovely holiday last week while our teachers went to school meeting. We went to Crooked Creek for Merv Toews and Sharon Wohlgemuth's wedding. We met so many dear old friends and family and crammed so much into our weekend. I'll just say it was good. So good.


And emotional.


Then, we travelled home on Monday and Cam & Luci and their six children came for night. It was so so good to connect with Luci again. Her and I taught school together in Hythe that year that everything happened. The year Gord and Adrian died. The year that ten of my friends got married, including her. Including Bren. Including being bridesmaid two times. Including much much much.


Anyway, it was just the best to be with Luci. And Luci is Sharon's older sister. And Char's older sister. And Char is one of my best friends. And Char was my almost-bridesmaid. We only had one attendant each but Char and Arnie were my front-bench-friends. Anyway, it was just so good to be together.


And then we had Mr. Barkman over Tuesday night and Pat had Villa meeting and Colby shot a deer and skinned, gutted and butchered it all by himself and I helped Colin with his Christmas art project.


And then, we got some more company Wednesday night. Darc & Marilee and their two girls came for night. They are old friends of ours, she's Pat's cousin and we hadn't touched base for a long, long time. It was just so good to be together. Pat's folks got home late Wednesday night from being gone two weeks and they came for breakfast with Darc's. And then we went to folks for supper with Jeffs.


And this morning I slept in. Like, seriously. I woke up when the bus drove on the yard to pick up Zach. And the boys were all still sleeping. I guess it just all caught up to us.


And this morning I finally had a moment to figure out the filter stuff on our computer and phones and all that good stuff. So ya. It is what it is.

Oct 31st - Heart of a Warrior

 I sat in my chair in the evening, my gums still bleeding and my mouth tender and went over my day. I certainly felt like a warrior but I'm not sure how my heart was, possibly a little chilled.




It started out good. I had arranged for mom to keep Wyatt because I knew two hours in the dentist's office would be a little trying for him. Mom needed to go to an appointment shortly after lunch and she wanted me back at her place as soon as possible.


There are a few things we aren't in control of, though. One of them is how long we spend in a dentist chair. I was very grateful for my careful dentist and how everything turned out but I did spend quite a bit of the almost-four hours rather tense and practicing my box-breathing. So when I finally was sitting in my vehicle, frozen and sore and bleeding and mom called and said she wanted to go to Steph, I asked if she would mind taking Wyatt with. There was no way I could make it to her place in half an hour and lunch seemed pretty high on my list right then.


I was supposed to wear my retainer right away but every time I put it in blood seeped down and around all my teeth. I looked a bit like a vampire, albeit a tired one. So each stop I made I pulled it out, mopped up the red and hoped for the best.


I stopped at Steph on my way home to pick up Wyatt and I ended up having coffee and fresh cookies that mom had baked with them.


Home at last, I put groceries away and made supper. I baked fish and fried potatoes and heated up one of my jars of canned carrots. Such a simple meal, but Pat thanked me a couple times. Possibly he was remembering a similar day last week when I served cereal and toast for supper. Who knows.


I sat sipping my tea, curled up in my chair. Really, everything went very well and my teeth looked so much better. I was so happy to be as far as I was on my braces journey.

Thoughts on Writing

I write to record our life, for our boys. I write because I have to express how I feel and see things.  I hope to someday put a little something together for my boys for memories. Another bonus is that writing is safe in this private little blog. It's not publishing everything on the housetops.


There are so very many things I want to write about.


Take last night for example. We were all in bed when suddenly Colby came running up to our room and whispered, Dad, come quick! Well, if Colby runs and if Colby says come quick, it's something to check out. We ran down with the boys to check out the big red fox on our deck. It had cornered Tattoo and Pinklepur. They were each clinging to a brace of a post of the deck, way up there. The fox was traipsing back and forth, eyeing the cats. Colby had his gun and shells ready and needed Pat to open the door real quick. It didn't happen quick enough. The fox got away. I grabbed the cats and cuddled and held them inside. They hearts were pounding. Needless to say, they spent the night in the garage. It would take Colby to find the fox. He'd seen the tracks on the deck earlier. He told me a fox or a coyote had been right by our front door and I didn't believe him.


These are the things I want to remember.


I think sometimes it would be fun to look back over other things. Like Wyatt explaining something at supper. It was zilch. Nothing. We all laughed.


Or my days. Today I bused and helped wash church windows in the morning and had an impromptu Villa board ladies meeting to plan Christmas supper. We ended up only eating lunch at 1pm. And then I talked to Char about the wedding next weekend and did laundry and had to fly out the door to bus again. Pat wanted me in the shop yet after school and I had no idea what supper was gonna be. I grabbed steaks out of the freezer and thawed them while I worked outside. Supper wasn't even cleaned up and Wyatt was asking for a program. I helped him plan it and as soon as all the lunches were made it commenced. Wyatt sang Jesus Loves Me as a solo. He was also chairman. Zach sat and rolled his eyes, his one leg draped nonchalantly over the armrest of the couch. (You know I'm not exactly proud of this behaviour.) Colby and Pat had a duet, There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea, only Colby didn't sing and Pat laughed. I read a chapter of Little House on the Prairie. It's worth remembering.


Some facts:

• I want to learn to write better.
• I don't have time to edit.
• I don't really have time for anything these days.
• I'm not keeping up with basic cooking and cleaning and how do I validate writing?
• I want to learn to write the in proper tenses. It's very important to me to use the right to/two/too and their/they're and write/right.
• One of the biggest things I learned in my writing class with Dena was about writing in the passive or aggressive voice.

I have a question. Is it better to write something that's badly written or write nothing at all?