Writer's Workshop- 10 Things That Make You HAPPY

From this week's assignment at Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop:
List ten things that make you HAPPY:
(in no particular order...)

1. Fresh brewed ice tea. with a piece of lemon. and sometimes, half a packet of the pink sugar package.

2. being with friends, in no hurry, and laughing, laughing, laughing.

3. a date with my husband. just us. anywhere.

4. my Life is Good long sleeve t-shirt.

5. Road trips.

6. clean sheets.

7. listening to my kids play nice.

8. my summer i-tunes disc.

9. worship. especially closing my eyes and listening to voices in harmony.

10. sunshine on my face.

You?

I'll Never Forget...

It has been a few Thursdays since I joined MamaKat and the Writer's Workshop over at Mama's Losin' It. This week's assignment? I chose number three:
Why won't you forget? List six true sentences that begin with the words 'I'll never forget...' Then use all six of your sentences in a paragraph, poem, or longer descriptive piece.(writingfix.com)

I’ll never forget…
Four years old,
Hiding under the bed,
Piercing sirens wailing,
TV on.
Tornado in the neighborhood.

I’ll never forget…
Elementary school years.
La Cienega picnic grounds.
Marshmallow roasting on a whittled stick,
Slick rocks across a bubbling stream,
Sticky sap of vanilla scented pines.

I’ll never forget…
17 years old and invincible,
Road trip AZ to CO.
Dusty dry Moab camping,
Dire Straits out the window,
Rocky Mountain air in June.

I’ll never forget…
College summer before senior year.
Train ride Juarez to Mexico City.
Glowing smoking wildfires rage outside,
Closed window musty inferno smolders inside,
Babble of language to be learned.

I’ll never forget…
Eight months pregnant in July.
Unfiltered sunshine on the shadeless Kodak Hula Show.
Strumming ukuleles, swirling grass skirts, beating tribal drums.
Frozen lemonade for sale,
Sweet tart icy cold slushy delight.

I’ll never forget…
The comfort of mid-life friendship.
Dawn of early morning Fridays.
Holding a warm mug of strong coffee,
Trusted confidence,
Prayer and tears mingle sweetly together.

I'll never forget...
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits.
Psalm 103:1-2

And you? What will you never forget?

Writer's Workshop- A to Z poetry

MamaKat at Mama's Losin' It has issued her weekly writing assignment prompts.

My choice this week?
Write a 26-line poem using all the letters of the alphabet, where the first line starts with the letter "A," the second "B," the third "C," etc., culminating with the final line starting with "Z."

I do love A to Z lists. For several years, I have been writing our Christmas letter in A to Z format. Poetry? That's a new challenge.

On a Thursday Morning.

Awake later than I would like,
Beginning the day with the Word and
Coffee

Daybreak dawns,
Evening seems
Far away.

Girls wander to my bedroom,
Hoping to watch the weather report,
Indignant that rain clouds the forecast.

Jump into the shower,
Keeping an eye on the clock,
Lingering not allowed today.

Make haste to pick up a lady
Needing a ride to the hospital for
Outpatient surgery today.

Parenting a toddler,
Quickly chasing,
Running down the halls.

Stop to pick up daughter,
Time for basketball practice,
Umbrella might be necessary.

Van returns home.
Welcomed with rice for lunch,
eXceedingly capable daughter serves.

Yearning to glorify Him,
Zealous for what is next.

Writer's Workshop- Five Favorite Things

One of the prompts this week at Mama's Losin' It's Writer's Workshop:

List your five most recent favorite things:

I was hoping that I'd have a reason to write about these things, five of my most recent favorite things.

1. Tul Pens-
Not just ANY ol' Tul pen. My favorite is the Gel Retractable Rollerball 0.5mm fine point black ink.
I realize that makes me sound extremely high maintance. Generally I'm not. Except about pens. I really struggle with bad pens. These are good pens. My son wanted to take one to Latin class on Tuesday, and I had him sign a contract pledging to bring it back or, or, or... well, I never got to what but he knew it would be bad. He brought the pen back. phew.


2. Moleskine journals- This is not really a recent favorite thing. I found these over a year ago. But, I don't want to live without them. I keep this with my Bible for morning notes and thoughts and prayer. It is the perfect size. It is tough. The paper is lovely(especially with the #1 pen). They come in a pack of three, which lasts me several months and means I can have one stashed away for an emergency. I am so unabashed in my devotion to Moleskine that I give them as gifts. You need a Moleskine too. You do.

3. William Hendricksen's New Testament Commentary on Colossians-
My church recently purchased the Hendricksen's 12 volume commentary on the New Testament. And I'm sure that the entire set is just fine, but I'm partial to the book that includes Colossians because I'm teaching a Sunday School class on Colossians right now and Hendricksen makes that work much more clear. Thank you Mr. Hendricksen!

4. Whole Foods 365 Shower Gel-
I looked all over for a picture, but alas. None.
This is good stuff. I like the lavender and the citrus the best. My girls like mint, but the shower experience reminds me of my sister's favorite ice cream. And, bonus, it's cheap. A fat 32 oz. bottle is less than $5, and a couple of pumps on your bath scrunchie thing will do ya. So a bottle lasts a while, which is important when 6 people share a shower. (well, USE the same shower, not SHARE the shower all at once...!!!)

5. Dove Rich Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds- (you did not think that I'd finish a list of my favorite things without some form of dark chocolate...!)
Oh these little things. I found them wasting time waiting for a friend at WalMart late one night.
Dark chocolate morsels of rich and crunchy goodness.
mmmmmmm.

Thanks, MamaKat, for the chance to tell you all about five of my most recent favorite things! Go to Mama's Losin' It to see what others are writing about this week!

Blind date

Today's writing assignment from MamaKat at Mama's Losin' It:
"Tell us about a memorable blind date."

"Blind date"- –noun
1.a social appointment or date arranged, usually by a third person, between two people who have not met.
2.either of the participants in such an arrangement.
Origin: 1920–25, Americanism

One blind date remains particularly memorable. Had I been on others? I think so, though none stand out. My college roommate and I were the girls that everyone in the house wanted to set up on a blind date. Sometimes we were game. Sometimes we were not. But for this spring pajama party, why not, we thought.

A friend was dating a nice guy from the Naval ROTC unit. She stood in front of their composite photo and picked out two guys for us. I ended up with the guy that was the taller of the two, because I was taller than my roommate. And, he was divorced and had a daughter. Our friend thought I would be better with that than my roommate. "Why not?-it's just a date," I told her.

We were t-shirts and boxer kind of girls, so we headed over to Sears for some non-descript men's pjs. We shared a two-pack. We were practical pajama party kind of girls.

The night came, and my date arrived. He was wearing Dennis-the-Menace-style red one-piece pj's, complete with drop bottom. Ever a gentleman, the bottom stayed buttoned.

We talked a lot. We danced. We had a great evening. We planned to meet again.
And we did meet again, over and over.
Two and a half years after that blind date, we were married.
And, nearly twenty one years after that blind date, we still have pajama parties, that guy and I do.

Much to my children's horror, I even have a photo. We're the two at the top. For the sake of the rest, I won't identify any names! (but, one of those couples also married, and is still together today, too!)



Be sure to check out Mama's Losin' It for more writing prompts!

Writer's Workshop- Haiku

Over at Mama's Losin' It, Kat hosts Thursday's Writer's Workshop.

One of today's five prompts-

Write a haiku about what you see out the window.

Looking out the dining room window to the backyard:

Skeleton branches,

Dry leaves barely hanging on,

Fall turns to winter.

Looking out a dining room window to the side yard:

Evergreen pine branch,

Soggy leaves on muddy ground,

Thorns and orange berries.

This was such a fun assignment! My younger girls are working on poetry this week, also- writing a definition poem, a limerick, an example of hyperbole, and a diamante. Poetry prompts us to think and express ourselves in a new and different way. Try it!

Writer's Workshop

I'm a day late, but with encouragement from One Crafty Mama , I'm going to try out Writer's Workshop Wednesday from Mama's Losin' It.

The Prompts:
1.) Recall a time when you did something to get noticed. Write about it.
2.) Begin with “I wish someone told me…”
3.) If you could rearrange three things about your life what would they be?
4.) What do you love to create?

In general, I dislike doing anything to get noticed. I'm the I in INTJ. I like to be on time, because if you are late, people notice you. Especially when you have five kids trailing you... And like my oldest daughter, I don't really enjoy when the waiters sing to you at your birthday, except for the fact that it comes with dessert.

However, I ran with a really fun group of friends in high school, and we sometimes did things that got noticed. My favorite memory of being noticed was at the talent show at the annual summer gathering of student council members from around my state.

Please realize, I don't really have any demonstrable talents. Growing up, an annual ritual for me and my sister was to watch the Miss America pageant. As we grew up, my ever ambitious mom would look at my very talented musician sister and say, "You could be Miss America! You could play the clarinet as your talent!" And then she would look at me, and she would hesitate, and then she'd say something like, "Maybe you could... (awkward pause)... juggle the soccer ball..." But truthfully, I couldn't even juggle the soccer ball THAT well.

However, despite that we weren't great musicians or baton twirlers or rhythmic gymnasts or even possessing any ability to do stupid human tricks, my girlfriends and I were determined to be in the talent show. Fortunately, it was the 80's and air bands were king. We came up with the perfect song on an album. (remember those?) The beginning notes were familiar... Devo's Whip It. However, the voices- not quite the same. We "sang" to Alvin and the Chipmunk's Chipmunk Rock. And like the Chipmunk's, we rocked.

OK, well truthfully, I don't even remember if we won a thing. Or if they gave out awards. Funny how unimportant that stuff is 20 years later. But I do remember that we had a blast. And I still love air drums, especially on the dashboard of the car.

But I don't do it to get noticed anymore...

What about you? Think about one of those prompts and write! And then go leave a link at Mama's Losin' It.