Work In Process – Final Trifecta Challenge

Building facade, Jerome, AZ

Without development, I would be one-dimensional; a façade with no substance.

I’m a work in process, continually evolving, growing, becoming.

Each challenge, each word I write, builds depth-

reveals a window to myself.

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For Trifecta’s final challenge, we had 33 words to write about whatever we wanted.  I chose to write of my evolution over the last two years.  (I’m forever a work in process!)  Trifecta helped me to consider my words more carefully, to use them wisely.  Trifecta taught that although words are of endless supply, they should not be wasted.  I’ll miss the challenges and the community.  I wish the best to the editors who have spent numerous hours, reading, judging and encouraging along the way.

Hope

People hope this time of year.

My children hope for snow, wish for Santa’s gifts, and anticipate vacation.

I hope there’s no black ice, wish Santa wasn’t so extravagant, and anticipate school resuming.

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This is my response to Trifecta’s weekend prompt:

This weekend, writers, it’s up to you. We want you to choose a word and use it three times in your 33 words. However, it must be either a verb, noun or adjective and the form of the word cannot change, it must appear exactly the same three times. Please highlight your chosen word in your piece.

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I marvel at how differently my children’s eyes see the world.  It  makes me realize how cynical I’ve become (and also makes me wonder if I was ever really a dreamer in the first place.)

Today, it’s raining, and is expected to rain all day.  The kids are buzzing with excitement as they hope those beads of water transform into flakes of snow.  Snow is pretty to look at, but I’ve never driven in it.  (This is the first time I’ve lived outside the desert of Phoenix since I learned to drive.)  At some point, I suppose I’ll have to venture out.  Maybe by then I can shake the visions of my car crashing into someone’s house because I slid off a turn!

Santa neglects to leave the ‘good’ gifts at our house.  My kids want to know how come their friends got X-Boxes, iPads or laptop computers.  I remind them about some of the Christmas Angel gifts we’ve purchased where the boys asked for clothes.  It’s best they learn now that life isn’t fair.

As much as my children look forward to school breaks, I dread them.  I work from home several days a week and they like to fight.  A lot.  Their fighting  is causing deep frown lines to form on my forehead.  I’m not thrilled about this, but I’m trying to find the bright side:  in a few years, I’ll have the makings of a fabulous Halloween costume 🙂

All my adult sensibilities aside, I do look forward to this time of year.  My children’s enthusiasm exhausts me, but it also infuses me with joy that has been depleted during my encounters with commuter traffic, visits to Costco and evenings spent balancing the checkbook.

I hope you all experience joy and peace on this beautiful Friday!

Candy Or A Kiss?

Millicent’s bet:

First to swings, wins.

He yanked her ponytail

And ran.

She skunked him.

Couldn’t swallow his pride,

Had to weasel out of the kiss instead:

Seven was too young for marriage.

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I tried to get in the mind of a seven-year-old boy for the Trifecta weekend challenge, which is community-judged this week.  Poor guy never considered he might lose (to a girl)!

If you like it, please visit the Trifecta site on Sunday (after 8PM Eastern time) to vote.  If you don’t like my entry, you should still visit the site to vote because I promise you’ll find something you do like among the entries   The writing prompt given is:

This weekend we want you to write a 33-word response using the
name of an animal as a verb.  Some examples are: to dog, to snake, to bear,
to duck. . .you get the idea.  Write about anything you want and use whichever
verb tense you need, but give us an animal as a verb in there somewhere.

In honor of Trifecta, I used three animals.  I’m either an over-achiever or a suck-up…you call it 🙂

Oh, I almost forgot – if you want to write your own entry, check out the Trifecta site by clicking on the Tricycle picture to see full instructions.  Happy writing (and reading!)

Take Me Away

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The cacophony of boys fighting knocks at the locked bathroom door.  I lather soap on my washcloth.  It’s magic, they say.

I shriek.

Insects.  Ants marching toward their lake.

Calgon take me away.

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Yes, it’s time for another Trifextra weekend challenge.  Inspiration left my brain for the weekday challenge, which ironically enough, was to use the 3rd definition of the word ‘brain’.

Here are the rules For this week’s Trifextra, we’re switching things up a little bit.  The 33-word stories are fun to read, but we wanted to give you a bit more leeway this weekend.  The challenge is to write a response that is between 33 and 333 words long and uses the words listed below.  Use the words however you wish, but make sure that all three appear in your response.  Oh, and they must appear in order.  Good luck!

1. cacophony
2. soap
3. insects

The Light

THE LIGHT

Unfamiliar voices.  My condition, prognosis:  severe trauma… coma… likely brain damage…

I say, “help.”  They don’t hear.

I reach.  They don’t see.

“Let her go,” my husband says.

Silence.

Where is the light?

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This week’s Trifecta weekend challenge:  “Write a horror story in 33 words, without the words blood, scream, died, death, knife, gun, or kill. Good luck.”

This is my second entry, and I thought I’d better take the challenge seriously.  This scenario scares me…does it scare  you?