Here's the gist... "My 500 Words is a 31-day challenge designed to help you answer that question. [The question of what it takes to be a writer.] It will help you get more disciplined, hone your craft, and finally become the writer you’ve dreamed of being."
I'm not really "dreaming of being a writer." However, I did, at one point in my life, want to be a published poet - does that count for anything? A life of poverty maybe... not too far off from teaching..... Anyway, this just sounded like a fun January challenge, so I've decided to do it!
WARNING: For the purpose of these posts, I write stream-of-consciousness style. That is, I put "pen to paper" - so to speak - and just let it loose. I don't worry about grammar or revising or editing; I just write - 500 words or a little more - so keep that in mind when reading the posts this month.
Also, these posts will moreso be for ME, so I'm going all selfish up in this here blog. Read or don't, it's up to you. Actually, you might not want to read all this... this... I don't know what this is. Anyway, here you go...
The past few days have been great and awful and inspirational and exhausting – emphasis on the exhausting.
I’ve been potty training Hannah (my
two-and-a-half-year-old) for the last four days now. Overall, I’m pleased with the progress. She’s doing good! However, there are those “accidents” – the
waterfall of pee you turn to see your toddler baptizing your carpet with – that
make you reconsider embracing the pull-ups until… say… elementary school?
Maybe?
Anyway, when you look past that –
which you have to encourage yourself to do OFTEN if your aim is to more quickly
potty train your child and end the pee pee and poo poo wars – she’s about 75%
pee in the potty and 90% poo in the potty.
Day four complete – I’ll take it.
There’s no going back, folks.
It’s a diaper free zone in our house in 2014! And they old Christian hymn begins to play in
my head, “No turning back… no turning back…”
As for Beth, she was completely
jealous that her sister was getting chocolate rewards for putting her bodily
fluids and solids in the commode, so I had to come up with something for her to
do as to reward her for outstanding effort/behavior – for an almost
seven-year-old. As a result, we decided
that each time she read me a book, she would earn a chocolate. The inspiration for this came from a reading
challenge she brought home from school: read 200 minutes and earn a personal
pan pizza from Pizza Hut – courtesy of the Book It! program.
I can remember when I was her age
and completely enamored with the Book It! program. (Yes, it’s that old.) For every book I read, my teacher gave me a
gold star to put on my Book It! pin.
After the entire pin was covered in stars, I got a coupon for my own
personal pan pizza from – yep, you guessed it – Pizza Hut. Proudly, I would strut into that franchise
and claim my prize. Pizza!!! Who doesn’t love pizza?!
Anyway, I loved reading, so the
program was just icing on the cake for me.
So… between potty training successes
and, well, let’s just call them “learning opportunities”, and encouraging my
reluctant reader to read via mini peanut butter cup bait, my children have – as
I said earlier - been great and awful and inspirational and exhausting.
But you ask, “Jamie. Can you elaborate on potty training as
‘inspirational’?” To which I reply, um… no. Not really. HOWEVER, the time I spent with her on
Monday – the second day of training - had
some nice moments. That is to say it was found in-between the potty successes
and, um, learning experiences.
Because of those moments, I was
going to write a blog post entitled “A Day Spent With My Rainbow.” Then the hours and the days got away from
me. Suffice it say this, I realized that
day how very beautiful my Hannah is – not her physical aspect but her
personality. I’ll leave you with some
adjectives that describe my Hannah: compassionate and silly… affectionate and
strong. She completes us.
Thanks for sharing, I'm gonna do it too
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