Haiku Friday: Pink Blizzard

cherry tree in bloom --
gently swirling pink blizzard
drifts and paints the steps.

i wait all year to
scoop up soft petals and make
playful poofy snowballs.

when rain falls, petals
are splash-plastered to the bricks,
nature's can of paint.

leaf blowers protest,
blowhards powerless against
the pink dot onslaught.

before green bursts forth,
nature celebrates spring with
a confetti blast!

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? It's easy! Just a haiku on your blog, any theme. Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

And be sure to have a great spring weekend!

Whew

After all, I'm 45, for pete's sake. Getting a little old for this, dontcha think?

It's true that I can't bring myself to give away the Moses basket or some of the cutest baby clothes and stuff ... so I do have some mixed emotions about the whole thing ... but overall, I'm sticking with, Whew.

Haiku Friday: Guest Poems by DuckyBoy

Perhaps hosting Haiku Friday is not the best model for helping my son learn to write poems, which they do every April in school. Here are some of his, clearly dashed off during homework time at afterschool. I think they probably expect a little bit more, but then again, it's only second grade.

homework
homework, homework
lots of it, every
day and every
night, let's hope
I don't have
to do any more
work!


penceil
sharp, point yellow
tool used to write
(His teacher wrote next to this one, "That's a bit short!")

paperclip
tiny
skateboard
like a paperclip
long
oval glide
fast
(There's another one on this theme
but it's written in a circle
and I can't read the overlapping letters.)


Birds
tiny
little ani-
mals that fly around
the area.

That last one's actually almost a haiku! So here's my version:

Birds, tiny and fast
little animals that fly
up, down; flit in, out

How about if this week, I remember to put Mister Linky in!

If you'd like to play along on Haiku Friday, just write a haiku on your blog and post the link (to that post) here:


And please leave a comment to let me know what you think of my future haiku-writer in the family!
Have a great week and take a look at my happy guys enjoying their bike ride last weekend in Washington, DC:

(More DC pix on my Flickr page.)

Family Lemonade Stand

DuckyBoy has asked at least once a year for the past couple of years to have a lemonade stand.

I think it's adorable when kids do that, and would love to see him increase both his social and business acumen from this type of endeavor, but...

I'm really shy about stuff like this. And he's not old enough to do it himself.

This year, I hit upon the bright idea of "We have to ask Dad if he'll do it with you!"

So last night, when we got home from school, after DB asked me in the car if it was a nice enough night for a lemonade stand, he asked his dad so nicely that Husband said yes. And then, because it's not like I have something more important to do, I said I'd come along.

And it worked out great!

Dad gave DB pointers on when to make his sales pitch, what to say when they decline ("have a nice day) and the right tones of voice. A cop even stopped his car and bought a cup.

It was awesome, I couldn't have helped him with ANY of that because I can't get past my own self standing there waiting to get rejected.

I dug up the dirt in the flower boxes while my salesmen did their thing.

Oh, and another best part? DB wants to donate the money to the people of Haiti. (Previously he's wanted to keep the cash. This time he decided in advance he wanted to donate it.) Awesome!

Here's his sign, which I didn't help him with at all. It says:

All of your funds will go to the people in Haiti

LEM[o]EN-
ADE

(There is also a dollar bill with a glass of lemonade in place of a president, and another refreshing glass of lemonade at the bottom of the poster.)

How About a Haiku Weekend?

It's not that I forgot about ...

... it's more that the haiku I wrote sounded the same as all my others -- in fact I managed to blend seasonal and maudlin haiku and I just didn't want to post another sorry-sounding poem! Here's Kari's fun haiku for the week (there's even a contest attached).

And, since I wrote it already anyway (in bed Thursday night), here's mine:

The drops of rain are
bullets to a daffodil,
lullaby for me.

I'll try again next week!!!

How to Care for Your Bossy

Having had the delightful chance to be part of the first stop on Bossy's (No) Book Tour 2010, and being the helpful type who does things like take pictures with Bossy's camera of the cameraman taking pictures of Bossy, and make the cameraman feel welcome by chatting amiably with him -- we talked about his wife! honestly! ok, and his brilliant movie idea! -- I thought I would compose a few hints for those of you who are anxiously, I mean eagerly, awaiting Bossy's arrival in your town.

Here are a few items you should be sure to think of ahead of time, by which I mean at least a few minutes before Bossy arrives, to help make your Bossy comfortable in her new surroundings:

1. Do you have your Bossy's drink of choice?
Bossy likes cocktails. Does the place where you are meeting Bossy have good cocktails? Bonus points for cool cocktail glasses.

Remember, too, that your Bossy is driving, so make sure she can safely get to her bed for the night. (Though I hear she is planning to test out the comfortability of the backseat of her Ford Fusion, I don't think "I slept in the car because I was too drunk to drive" is what Ford had in mind when they gave Bossy the car for her tour.)

2. Do you have toys for your Bossy?
By toys I mean, of course, persons with a Y chromosome.

There is a wide range of acceptable male attendees. Charming, handsome and at-or-close-to legal age seem to be preferable qualities. Use your own good judgment based on who you'd want to greet you at an event in a strange city.

(You don't really have to worry to much about this one, as my few encounters with Bossy have indicated she has an unusual ability to attract this type of amusement on her own. I hope she'll post her secrets some day.)

3. Don't forget to feed your Bossy!
This should be obvious, but it's easy to get caught up in the excitement and forget things. Especially if you are in a back room with no waitress service. So do what you must to flag down that inattentive bartender and get some food!

4. Make sure you take pictures of your Bossy.
You have a beautiful Bossy in your midst; don't forget your camera, or charge your phone, or whatever you need to do.

You might want to grab a friend and practice the arms-length-photo-of-yourself-and-Bossy beforehand. Or, you can forget to do that and end up with pictures of everyone else and just hope you show up in someone else's photos as proof you were there. (Whew, I made it into one.)

Bossy Bonii:
(the word "bonuses" just isn't unique and special enough for Bossy)

5. Can you meet somewhere that will enable Bossy to see some Local Sights as well as enjoy everyone's company? Bossy has scheduled herself solid with driving, sleeping, and eating at Burger King, and as anyone who's driven on the US highways knows, that's no way to see the country. (If not, see #2 above.)

6. This is going to expose me as the 100% dweeb that I am, but I gotta be me, so here goes: If you're at all inclined this way, toss some pens into your bag or pocket. Specifically, your Bossy needs a coupla Sharpies (for nametags) and a coupla regular, blue or black ink pens (for photo/video disclaimers and signing Bossy's guestbook). You may even get them back!

Edited to add:
You may wish to schedule a recovery day for yourself following your Bossy Visit. I mean, Bossy was here Tuesday and no way could I sit at my computer long enough yesterday to write this.

Edited again to add the link to my Flickr photos.

Nature on Display

We had beautiful weather in northern Indiana last week. My brother's town is small and surrounded by fields, so it's full of beautifully chirping birds, his yard is covered in violets:



And Duckyboy had a blast trying to "jail" a ladybug, who kept blithely meandering over the sticks that comprised his triangular cage:





Between being able to run in and out of the house which was full of people and cats to play with inside and lots to look at outside, at one point DB said, "This is even more fun than playing on Club Penguin!" Which, believe me, is saying something.

This Is Family: 21, 14 and 7

Here's my sister's daughter, my brother's youngest son, and DuckyBoy. They sat like this for probably 2 hours, playing some funny online game together.

After awhile I realized the 3 of them are exactly 7 years apart: 21, 14 and 7.

We went to Indiana for a few days to see my Dad, expecting the trip to be nothing but, well, pretty sad. Actually what I really wanted to do was give Dad a CD of old heaven-focused hymns, see how the conditions are at the home, and tell him that if he wants to, it's OK to let go, that his brother is waiting for him in heaven.

I did all that, but the surprise benefit of the trip was seeing these cousins make connections. Plus one, this beautiful young lady is my brother's 16-year-old:


Dad may not know us any more, but he brought us together. God does work in mysterious ways.

Haiku Friday: April Fool!

Son's disappointed, no school April One -- how can he fool friends?

He had it all planned:
rubber chicken in his bag,
with a clucking sound.

If he remembers
to do it after Spring Break,
it should be a hit. We're on an airplane -- I hope the pilots don't have a 4/1 joke planned! We'll be home in time to go on Club Penguin for April fool fun (whew!)

Yes, I'm posting this on Thursday -- April Fool!

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? You know what to do: Write haiku, any theme. Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

And be sure to have a great weekend!