Wednesdays Ten: Congrats Kim!

Congratulations Kim on your winning contribution!

In bold colours she wrote her life in broad strokes.

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Mondays Free Write: Featured Post Winner

Congratulations Ms. Daisy on your winning contribution!

The drum beat pierced her mind like an icicle. Cold winds of memories blew about and brought tears descending the mounds of her cheeks. She wished she could see him once more, if only to tell him of her heart's desire - to forgive him...

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Fridays Poetry: Featured Post Winner

What else can I say but...awwww!

Thank you Susan for such a beautiful submission:) Loved it!

I know about happiness,
For I’ve had sadness in my life.
I know what it means to love,
After becoming someone’s wife.
I live moment to moment,
Never looking beyond the day.
I tune out all the troubles,
And let the sun shine on my face.

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Fridays Poetry: Featured Post Winner

Congratulations Kim on the winning contribution. Absolutely beautiful!

His ashes disappeared into the vast pool.
It was as he would have liked.
One with the sea.
Her heart said a small prayer, a small goodbye
And headed back.

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Wednesdays Ten: Featured Post Winner

For Wednesdays Ten, we try to use only 10 words in our writing about the photograph. I thought that this was an interesting, scrumptious looking photograph for this week.

Congratulations Susan on the winning contribution! Thanks to everyone for their wonderful submissions. It was a fun and delicious picture for inspiration!


Against all odds, life spills forth, gaining strength amid decay.

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Thursdays The: Featured Post Winner

Congratulations morganna on your winning contribution.

The sun broke through the clouds for the first time in days. Was the storm really over? Erin dared to take a deep breath and go outside to survey the damage.

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Mondays Meme: Featured Post Winner

Thanks, Abbey, for your contribution!

reminds me of several things...going to the Jersey shore as a kid with my parents and my sisters, building sand castles and pretending we were "The Monkeys" running away from the tide. But it does bring a painful memory of all the sunburns i got every year there too. :(


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Mondays Meme

Thanks, septembermom, for your memory of that childlike happiness and wonder. :)

I remember having a bunch of 5 year old boys jumping up and down in my kitchen waiting for the microwave popcorn to be done. Each time they heard a pop, they would jump. We all got a good workout that day.




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Fridays Poetry: Featured Post Winner

J Cosmo Newbery, I enjoyed your comment very much!


I have an indescribable desire to eat souvlaki and drink white wine.

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Tuesdays Tale: Featured Post Winner

Thank you, septembermom, for your contribution!

"No way! That water is too cold. You're crazy Becca!" Laura yelled from her comfy lounge chair. Becca didn't pay any attention to Laura's opinion on this June afternoon. Roy was there, and Becca knew that she had to make a big "splash" to impress him. Well, she didn't manage to get his attention. Unfortunately, her dive wasn't as graceful as she planned. Becca smiled in Roy's direction. He was too busy with his buddies to notice this pretty girl's shy glance. She decided to jump again and make it more impressive.



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Thursdays The: Featured Post Winner

Congratulations Dani on your winning contribution.

Suddenly I felt like my entire life was insignificant. I was standing near the edge of what, to me, appeared to be the end of the earth and the beginning of something else...could it be heaven?

I stood in awe, silent and reverent, humbled by the magnificence that surrounded me. I was so small. What purpose could I have on this big beautiful world? What significance were all those worries I had earlier today. So what if my mother lost her wedding ring yesterday. So what if my purse ripped today. So what if my wallet ran out of cash. I had the sudden urge to throw it all...everything...right over the edge. For what meaning did it have? Next to everything else, what was the point?

The wind picked up and lifted my hair from my shoulders, cooling my neck and brushing the heat from my forehead. I closed my eyes and breathed in the clean dusty scent wafting into my face and something within me began to glow. Tears sprang to my eyes before I could stop them and I didn't feel insignificant anymore.

Then I recalled the words my grandmother once told me when I was a little girl playing her back yard. "Sweetheart, can you find the smallest pebble at your feet?" When I retrieved the speck in my palm, she looked at it with her big sparkling blue eyes ---her eyes always had so much more animation then expected from a withering old woman--- and she smiled. "This pebble is tiny. The world is so big. But would you believe that this very speck had the purpose of resting at your feet at this very moment for you to pick up and hold in your little hand? God is very aware of this little speck." Then, she took both my hands in hers and looked into my face in urgency. "You are His daughter. He loves you. You can do great things."

As her words were whispered in the wind at this moment while I stood at the edge of the earth looking out into the dusty beauty that seemed to go on for eternity, I felt its truthfulness inside me. Brushing the tears from my cheeks, I turned back with a last glance to the wind and whispered back, "Thank you, Grandma."

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Fridays Poetry: Featured Post Winner

Congratulations Sarah on your winning contribution.

There always seems to be a way,
to add more color to your day,
Chalk and children lead us there,
Keep us present and aware.


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Tuesdays Tale

Great writing, both of you! This was a toughy. Congrats Septembermom!

Nothing can make a late night drive drag like a toddler's unending wailing. Betsy wished that she could crawl into a small space like the glove compartment. Her 2 year old didn't want to make this a pleasant drive back to their little apartment. Betsy watched as her husband's shoulders tensed with each screech from the backseat. It turned out to be such a long day visiting her in-laws. Nothing seemed to go well for them. First, she forgot the diaper bag. Her husband was barely through the front door when she had to send him to get diapers at the local grocery store. Betsy cringed when one of the cousins remarked, "That baby weight seems to like you." Another time when she wanted to crawl away and hide. Trying to entertain her little guy, Betsy couldn't really visit with anyone. She felt like the odd one out when she would walk in during a conversation. Not that she minded being excluded from that club. As she listened and listened to the wails from the backseat now, she couldn't help but smile at the memory of her little one running through the living room without his diaper. He knew how to bring some fun to those stressful family visits. Betsy looked out the car window and was happy to see that their exit was next.

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Tuesdays Tale: Featured Post Winner

Congratulations bel! You delighted me with your little story. I had to put a lot of thought into the winner this time - there were GREAT entries! Make sure to take a look at them all this week! Fantastic writing, everyone.

Ms. Muffin knew that Something had moved in the grass by the path to the entrance to the Warmthandfood Structure. She also knew that It would move again. So she waited, ready for what she was certain would ultimately be her victory over the small Whateveritwas that was no match for her Feline Superiority. Ms. Muffin also knew that the warmth of the Sun on her furry back was saying that she could catch the Thing, whenever it reappeared, even if she dozed while she waited…

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Thursdays The: Featured Post Winner

Congratulations Dani on the winning contribution.

The day wasn't unlike any other day for me, but it was still today, so I wanted to make it unique. I watched all the people in front of me as they watched me, trying their best to mimic the motions I made. One woman didn't seem to have the ability to raise her arms up past the height of her shoulders, while the older gentlemen directly in front of me seemed to have more energy than even the younger ones around us and that woman on my right moved like a ballerina. I felt like doing physical movements with people made me get to know them on a deeper level than even if I were to sit across one of them in a coffee shop. Some of them moved as though they felt all eyes were upon them and they didn't want to humiliate themselves. Some of them moved like they felt the same way yet wanted to show everyone how wonderfully fit they were. Then there were those who I liked to watch most. The ones that seemed to be here just to have fun. They didn't seem to care who saw them fall down if they did. This is why I do what I do. I want to help people to gain confidence in themselves enough to do whatever they loved just because they loved it.


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Tuesdays Tale

Congratulations Whitney on your winning contribution! It was very hard to choose a winner this time - great writing everyone! I encourage everyone to take a look at the other contributer's entries this week!

I have never been one to shell out hard-earned cash for a shoe or a shirt or anything without putting it to work the minute I walk in the door. I more-than-frequently don shiny, saturated-hue stilettos around my house with ratty pajama pants and t-shirts - just to get a "feel" for them, to enjoy the noise they make as I traipse from my couch to the fridge and back. Or lay in bed with a brand-new bright-orange party dress, barefoot and alone with a paperback book - so long as I don't inadvertently wrinkle the fabric too much. I have a feeling I will never be one of those hostesses with flawless china stashed away just for "special occasions" or an old lady with antique jewelry that has silently tarnished, left alone for years in some velvet-lined drawer. I have lots of "nice things" that don't seem to last long without a few bumps and bruises - a casualty of my tendency to engage in a passionate and intense love affair with the little things I choose to invite into my life. But I'm okay with the bumps and bruises. I like everything around me to be well-loved. And most of the time, my life feels like a perpetual, exhilarating game of dress-up.




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Wednesdays Ten: Featured Post Winner

Congratulations to septembermom on the winning post.

"Mama, I can be a kite like your blowing sheet."

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Tuesdays Tale

Come on people, we need more contributors! I'd like more tales this Tuesday! I'd like to think that septembermom's little tale is a continuation of the grown girl from mine. Dani wrote:

Today was her big day. After so much hard work and sore muscles, she sat on the back of her best friend waiting for her turn in the ring. She was wearing more makeup than she ever had all her young life of 10 years and she smelled like hairspray if you got close enough. She stroked the beautiful sleek black tendrils of hair in front of her and leaned forward. "This is going to make it all worth it." She whispered to her friend.

At first, they hadn't been much of friends. She had tried to ride the "dark monster" as she once called it in her innocent loathing of the animal, but after so much effort to even mount the thing, it had bucked her clean off and she wound up covered in dirt after hours of work that first day. She smiled as she thought back on their journey together over the long summer. She had spent every day out there in the dirt and so after a month of dragging her feet she'd decided enough was enough and she'd show her ambitious father what she could do.

She remembered looking into the "dark monster"s black eyes and saying "it's you or me, Mister!" as she took the reins once more and briskly mounted the saddle. That day she had held on until her hands bled and he slowed. She told him she was just as stubborn as he was and they would have to join ranks or war forever at her father's orders. The end of that day was different than all the rest. She had swung her leg around and gotten down onto solid ground without a scratch all except for her raw hands. Then she sat in the dirt and spoke to the horse until dusk. This was the beginning of their odd friendship. She admired the fire that animal had within him. She felt like that flame was what kept her going from inside too.

After their truce, they'd worked until they mastered every move beautifully and she was ready for the rodeo when it came. They waited at the gate and the flag dropped signaling their entrance. She rode around with four other beautiful cowgirls on their horses and smiled as big and sparkly as she could to the judges. Then she muttered under her breath to her friend, "Let's burn them all up, Monster. Together, our flames are ruthless."

Septembermom added:

After the last dish was done, she would pull on her boots and get her saddle. Often ruffled a bit by her day, Marlee embraced that feeling of liberation as her horse began to gallop. "It's so close to flying," she began improvising a fairy tale for her son. Each night after her ride, she would pull up the blankets around the both of them and tell stories of the Queen and her ride of dreams with a beautiful horse named Majesty. Marlee's son would say, "Mama, the Queen loves her ride, doesn't she?" Marlee would smile and say, "Honey, there's nothing better for the soul."


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Mondays Meme: Featured Post Winner

Congrat's to septembermom...what wonderful memories :)

When I was a kid, we loved to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade. My brother loved to see all the balloons and floats. Loving the force and energy of the marching band, I remember getting into band formation as I marched around the living room. Joining in on the marching fun always made the day even more of a celebration for my family. I do have to mention that our kid band did get too loud sometimes for the adults in the next room. When we were told to quiet down, we would yell back with a reminder that bands have to be big and loud. Subtlety does not work for a marching band.

When I saw this one on Michelle's, One Crafty Momma's Photo a Day Project, blog, it brought back those first memories of standing on the side of the road in my home town when I was just a little girl. I've always been pumped up inside to hear the beating of the drums in a good old country parade.

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Wednesdays Ten: Featured Post Winner

Congratulations Sarah on your winning contribution.

Safely hidden little eggs. Mama coos and cares for them.

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