Posted in In my humble opinion...

SoCS- 6/3/23 Kids will be Kids

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “left alone.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Today I’m posting early because I won’t have access to a computer tomorrow.
I was reliving a day care moment this morning and decided to work it into my Stream of Consciousness post.
Years ago, I had a little guy with Down’s Syndrome in my care along with his older sister. He sat blocking my backdoor one day and I was anxious to move him away because he would have been knocked over and possibly injured if one of my BIG KIDS came barging through the door. For some reason my hands were either full or all sticky (I can’t remember which.), and when he wouldn’t respond to my request to move away from the door, I slid him away on my glossy wooden floor using the side of my foot. Ha! It worked so well, and he thought it was funny.
BUT, his sister, who often seemed to be on a covert spy mission, asked me out loud, “Why did you kick my brother?”
I said, “What?”
She added, “I saw you kicking my brother.”
I told her not to be silly and that he liked it.
But I worried about a following report to her mother (who incidentally is an extended family member).
That same child made a few other outlandish claims through the years. (She learned early on the more interesting her reports were, the more her mother intently listened to her.)
The impetus for such stuff seems to come from kids having a parent who lives on the edge of victimhood and outrage. That girl’s mother constantly complained about other people so there’s no doubt that I was a topic at their house too. I didn’t care about the mother. But I was afraid the kid (Who I love and care about.) was going to have a difficult life with that attitude.
So, I’m asking that everyone leave the kids alone. Keep them out of hearing range of adult conversations. They are sponges.
When I was a kid, it was a big “no, no” to be present while adults were talking. We had the option to be sent outside then. Lucky us!
Still, IMHO a refresher course for young parents needs to include keeping their kids “left alone” and away from adult topics. I see parents these days bringing up complex topics around their kids too often to count. Their children’s innocence is far more precious than they seem to realize.

Happy Saturday, friends! Talk nicely to the kids or send them outside this weekend. You’ll be glad you did!

Posted in Writing Prompts

Pass The Baton Challenge 5/2/23

Yesterday had been so much fun, except when Kai, his older brother, and he nearly came to blows in front of the whole family.
Kai accused him of cheating in their speed snorkeling event. He’d won it for the first time ever and wasn’t going to back down to Kai’s arrogance.
The claim was made that he had grabbed onto big brother’s ankle which was ridiculous. But Kai produced evidence in the form of red and purple finger marks above his foot.
A shouting match turned into a shoving match and if his brawny uncles hadn’t intervened, who knows what would have happened.
It was decided to break for their picnic lunch before entering the water for a more relaxed shallow scuba diving experience.
The two avoided each other until day’s end.
Stars twinkled and the moon looked larger than ever on the horizon when Kai approached his little brother beside the bonfire on the beach.
Looking at his hands as one finger traced the rim of his sweating beer, Kai whispered to him,
“I heard her, Noa. She spoke to me clear as day.”
Kai had taken Tutu Lulu’s disappearance the hardest. She had named him after the sea and had been her sidekick longer than he. He hadn’t really recovered from their loss.
“I’m sorry. But when you, someone, grabbed me Tutu Lulu spoke to me.”
“What did she say?”…


I nominate Di @ https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/.

Link to use if you’d like to put your name in for consideration so that future nominees can find you:
https://marladragon.wordpress.com/2023/05/24/nominations-starting-now-5/
Link to this post to put in all posts:
https://marladragon.wordpress.com/2023/06/01/10032/
#PassTheBaton


Posted in Writing Prompts

Reena’s Xploration Challenge #282- The Weight of Time

It is entirely your choice to use either one or both of the images as prompts.
I chose the image below.

Prudence became momentarily frantic while searching for her cellphone. She needed to know the time!
How long had she been ambling along the serene, wooded path?
What time IS it?!
“Okay Prudy, breathe…just breathe.”

Moments ago, she’d watched chipmunks scurrying in and out of a tree trunk. But for “How long?” She still grasped a little of a blissful, weightless, freedom. She hadn’t known the time and, for once, didn’t care. But now, Prudence needed to know!
She’d been a slave to time since… well, forever. Forever was indisputably a long time and “NOW” couldn’t work without the anchor of a clock. Everything needed a time stamp- a before and after. It was the lifeline and essential compass that sustained her.

A distant voice came out of nowhere, just in time.
“Prudence? Prudence, open your eyes.”
A white light made her wince as her eyelids separated.
The first thing she was able to focus on was a large analog clock with a bright red second hand on the recovery room wall.
Her heartrate immediately slowed to the rhythm of that ticking time and she relaxed.
Next, that same nurse’s voice announced from somewhere behind her, “You’ll need to take some time off to fully recover, Prudy. Maybe somewhere where you can stroll in the woods?”

While drawing in a jagged breath in order to scream, Prudence fainted.

https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2023/06/01/reenas-xploration-challenge-282/








Posted in 6 Sentence Stories

Six Sentence Story- Harsh Words for the Birds

PROMPT WORD:  YELLOWBELLY

The Birding Club, known as The Flockers, always met just before dawn in order to witness the ‘awakening’ time for prime photography lighting and birdwatching.

Therefore, the one-mile trek to their favorite observation field, surrounded by a forest of evergreens and hardwoods on one side and an expansive marsh on the other, took place while night was taking its last few winks.

Much to the chagrin of the seasoned group today the “new guy”, named Milton, stumbled along the unfamiliar unlit path making an inordinate amount of noise carrying a bulky backpack overflowing with every birdwatching tool ever recommended-since the beginning of the outdoor pastime- he’d purchased on the internet.

Milton wasn’t there for any other reason than getting his parents off of his back about ‘broadening’ himself by connecting with nature and already the walk in the black imposing wilderness was creeping him out because he’d recently read warnings about coyotes and bears terrorizing nearby communities.

A sudden sound of a coyote pack yipping a few hundred yards off of the trail, startled them all at first, but the group only briefly paused before continuing into the field, lit with yellow green first-morning sunshine, because there was already furious tapping echoing in the tree canopies and the yellow-belly sapsucker was the chosen prize Shot of the Day they’d all set out to capture.

Realizing that their group had grown especially quiet, they took a head count finding themselves one Milton short, so they called out to him in the agreed upon recorded sound of a Loon as to not disturb the area, but their cover was blown when a rather distant response was screamed through the trees, “Not today, you loony, yellow-belly sapsucker, crazy Flockers!”


https://girlieontheedge1.wordpress.com/2023/05/31/its-thursdays-six-sentence-story-link-up-40/

Posted in My Photo Adventures

Cee’s Midweek Madness- Index Finger- Let’s Be Friends

Since this is the 5th week in May, the topic is Iris, Ice, Independent or Index Finger.

This photo was one that I took when my oldest granddaughter was just a toddler. I cropped it for an up-close focus on her ability to befriend frogs at our camp. The second photo is the original whole event that I captured.

Posted in Words 'n' such Poetry, Writing Prompts

#Tanka Tuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge~ Spirit Animal Poetry-Lethal Poise

We took a quiz to find our spirit animal.
https://www.spiritanimal.info/spirit-animal-quiz/
Then we were asked to create a syllabic poem about it.

The owl spirit animal is emblematic of a deep connection with wisdom and intuitive knowledge. When the spirit of the animal guides you, you can perceive the true reality and see beyond illusion and deceit. 

Lethal Poise

Sharp sight,
Eyes wide open,
Sober owl discerns with
Outwardly unassuming poise.
Gotcha!”

The Crapsey Cinquain is a five-line, non-rhyming poem featuring a syllable structure of 2-4-6-8-2. Choose words that create drama that builds into the fourth line. The turn occurs on line five, the most important line. This is where you change your focus away from the drama in some interesting way. Cinquain poems need a title.