Stop, drop, and write. That’s what we do for five minutes here on Fridays.
No tweaking, no back-tracking, no self-editing. Just words. Lots of lovely words for a full five minutes.
This week the prompt is:What’s the best mail you got recently – email, text, or snail mail?
GO:
They’re always writing to me. Sometimes in finger paint on the walls. Sometimes in scribbles on the bills, the newspaper, my magazines. But the best part is when they want to read it to me. When they want to press still sticky peanut butter lips against my ear and whisper what their letters couldn’t quite spell out. How they love me more than chocolate milk. How they worry I will get “small” when they are older and what if I stop being their mom once they become dads.
How when Pete and I are “old and short” they will make us go to bed early and then they will stay up late with computers.
How my hands feel nice and they prefer my hair tied up rather than loose. How Micah wants to be a police dog when he grows up and Jackson wants to be a policeman. How they miss South Africa even when Micah can’t actually remember it. How much they both love chicken nuggets.
These secret beautiful glimpses into my boys’ insides are scrawled down in green permanent marker that bleeds through the paper onto the kitchen table and into my soul. And I try to savor every word. Even when I’m hard at work scrubbing them away with Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.
STOP.
OK, your turn:
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Oh… this makes me a bit forlorn to think that I didn’t write enough of my daughter’s sayings down. She of the grubby fingers which used to perpetually smell like peanut butter. She, who will be a mother herself soon. And it makes me a bit sad that when she does have the baby, her little family will be living far from us and I will miss these special words of the newest family member.
Ah, Lisa-Jo, I love this. (I confess my entry is not quite so, um, sweet.)
I just have to say–what you can write in 5 minutes confounds me! I think I took 10 minutes for mine, and it still only had the depth of a sidewalk puddle. :-)
Love to you, sweet friend.
Jo
Oh but side walk puddles are just *magical* as every boy-mama knows!! Just magical!!
Lisa-Jo, you are so talented. Your boys will treasure how you have captured their innocence in this five-minute work of art.
Your boys make me happy.
I have a stack of such writings… red and green and blue pen scrawled across practice paper. Stories, they tell me, of the adventures they’re going to have with Daddy when he comes home.
I can’t bear to toss away a single scribbled sheet of paper.
ugh… I don’t like this one! I can’t think of one exciting piece of mail… will have to go look through my email, to see if I can come up with something!! :) Or maybe something awesome will come in the mail today!!
The last paragraph really captivated me: “These secret beautiful glimpses into my boys’ insides are scrawled down in green permanent marker that bleeds through the paper onto the kitchen table and into my soul. And I try to savor every word. Even when I’m hard at work scrubbing them away with Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.”
Beautiful.
You always make me smile… the kind you can’t get off with a Magic Eraser :)
My boys told me today that they never get in trouble if my hair is down.
(no wonder I can’t find a single hair-tie or barrette!)
I love you so much it pains,
S.S.
What a beautiful post filled with active, joyful images! Thank you for sharing.
And thank you for hosting these Five Minute Fridays! I’ve been wanting to join for weeks and keep letting time slip up on me. I hope you’ll forgive me, but I’ve linked up late this time. I promise to try my best to actually write the post on Fridays!
LOVE the peanut butter whispers and that Micah wants to be a police dog when he grows up. He must be distantly related to my 5 year old who told her sister, upon sis arguing with her about exactly who is marry-able in life, that she would just marry the bush outside our house.
:)
Oh, this picture! You are just beautiful! Beautiful!