Writing contest

Yesterday I saw that there's a writing contest!  Fun!  It's at our local used book store, Pop's.  First prize is a $100 savings bond, second and third prizes are gift cards for their store.  Very neat.

This inspired me to make one of my goals to enter a writing contest.  Not win, but enter.  The deadline is a few months away and it's a 2000 word maximum.  I don't have a story deep inside of me just waiting to get out.  I really don't have an artist's soul.  I do, however, love visiting my creative side and seeing what fruits come of my labor.  I like the thought of creating something fun, submitting it and just seeing what will happen.

Currently, I'm having a cranky morning.  I'm taking a meal to a friend with a new baby today.  Yesterday was MDO in which I had to do grocery and the dentist.  Grocery was fine, but the dentist just isn't a good time.  He told me that at the next visit I'll probably have a cavity between my teeth that we'll need to fix.  Awesome.

After MDO I took the boys to the library in which 2 of the 3 of them behaved badly.  Not horribly, but enough to get the stink eye from the librarian.

Once at home, I worked like a dog to prepare the lasagne for my friend and another batch for my family.  At dinner, I realized it wasn't good.  Trying to be frugal, I had used a pound of sausage from the store and a pound of deer sausage from the freezer.  I always forget that the deer sausage has an odd twang to it that just makes things taste weird.

The good thing is that my boys ate it hand over fist.  It just bugged me and Aaron.  However, I'm frustrated because I'm out all that time and energy and I don't want to take the lasagne to my friend.

I'm also frustrated because 2 of my 3 wet the bed.  More laundry.  And last night I went to swat a very deserving behind and caught my pinkie on the bathroom counter.  Yowsers!  I don't recommend doing that.  I will say that said child felt way worse for my hand than the swat would have made his bottom feel.  But my hand still hurts.

So here I am, whiny and reminding myself to get it together.  3 little people will be watching me all day so I need to show them grace and love.  And MOPs has our open house today so I need to be loving and welcoming to those ladies, too.

So, I decided to take a moment to dream about my short story.

Here are a few ideas...

A take on Jesus' parable about the lost sheep.
A telling of my favorite Grandma story--the time she had a snake fall around her neck from a tree and she slung it across the yard.

And that's all I've got.  Fun thinking of it, though.  I've decided to pop in Target to get what I need to make a chicken spaghetti for my friend.  Easy, quick and I already had the shredded chicken frozen and it's thawing as I write this.  Laundry is whirring away.  It's funny--today I'm wearing a great shirt I bought from another MOPs group at convention that says:  Be calm and mommy on.  Very appropriate for me today.  Even when my emotions are all over the chart, I still have to mommy on.  No one else can be the mommy to my boys.  Deep breath.  It's going to be a good day.  I've decreed it, dadgummit!