Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows


I am not, in general, a fan of Focus on the Family. I don't believe that spanking is "Godly" discipline and I don't agree with most of what Dobson has to say on most things. So imagine my chagrin to find myself on the same side of a political issue as Dobson. I'm talking about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the insidious danger it poses to the rights of parents in this country and around the world.

It has, for much of human history, been understood that parents are the right and proper authority when it comes to making decisions for their children. It has been understood that the family is the basic unit of society and that government must err on the side of least disruption of the family unit. Along comes the UNCRC which threatens to turn that entire assumption on its head.

Simply put, if we as a nation don't codify current Supreme Court doctrine protecting parental rights into the explicit text of the Constitution we face a situation where this treaty, if ratified, becomes the supreme law of the land. On the face of it the treaty looks benign but as you look at recent rulings in the countries which have already ratified it as well as recent rulings in this country that are based on its principles and a very concerning picture emerges.

I invite you to go to http://parentalrights.org and educate yourself on the issue. If you feel led after you've heard what they have to say on the matter then please sign the petition and lets get the ball rolling to protect the rights of parents as they have traditionally been understood in this country and the world. Our elected officials need to know that "we the people" don't intend to have our rights superseded by this treaty. Lets send the message.

First Two Weeks

We have now completed our first two weeks of school. Yes, week two was sewing camp...BUT I can't imagine anything that she would have learned more from in a 5 day period. She made: 1-purse, 2-tissue holders, 1-skirt and an entire dress...WITH applique! This week she has three more days of sewing camp and she's making a pillow case and a pair of pajama pants. She is pleased enough with her dress that she plans to wear it to church tomorrow. I haven't seen the skirt on her yet but its cute on the hanger. The purse and tissue holders are adorable.

As far as "real school work" she has started working on both History and copywork exercises and a corresponding piece of literature. We will be adding Math, Science and Spelling at the beginning of week 4. Her copywork consists of copying her history narration once she has dictated it to me. She isn't aware of it yet but I already see her handwriting improving. Practice. Just gotta keep up with the practice.

Her fine motor skills have had a marked improvement. This year she can cut straight lines. Last year not so much. We have had an ongoing issue with this since she was in preschool and I'm glad to see she's finally maturing out of it.

As for me I'm working on creating a healthier lifestyle for us as a family. This week's action items include menu planning, finding a place for us to exercise regularly and getting an appointment with my counselor for a "tune-up" to deal with some issues that have surfaced in my own personal growth and recovery. I have high hopes that if I continue to be proactive about this situation I will see results that will make both me and my doctor happy.

I'm going to Jackson...

*hums a Johnny Cash tune in her head*

Ok...enough with the musical interlude...but I am going to Jackson TN tomorrow with two of my homeschool mom friends to their conference and curriculum fair. I'm excited. Road trip with friends, sans kids, to shop homeschool stuff. What's not to love about that?

I have almost all the pieces in place for DD's homeschool year that starts on Monday. I still need to buy "Spelling Power" and I'm hoping that the Jackson fair will have it. I didn't really get to shop our fair because I was working. I am the Administrative Assistant for MHEA and I was on the clock all weekend running our informational booth at our fair.

This will be a new adventure for us. With DD going into middle school this year we've mutually decided that she needs a bit more structure. Some folks would say that no longer makes me an unschooler. I disagree. If the decision for more structure is mutual I think it absolutely fits in with the idea of child led learning. Her desire for this more structured environment comes in part from her hopes of being a CSI when she grows up. Forensic science fascinates her at the moment and she knows that she is weak in some areas like math that she needs to focus on more intentionally for awhile. I'm excited but apprehensive. I'm not sure that my dominant random learning style will be able to sustain the structure. We shall have to see.

*breaks into song again* I'm going to Jackson, turn alooose of my coat, I'm going to Jackson, good-bye that's all she wrote....

One week until the 2008/2009 School Year Begins

I have selected July 14th as our starting date this year. We've been in the office for a bit over 6 weeks by then and the transition to that new routine is fairly solid so its time to make it into what it will be for the remainder of the "school year". I'm also tentatively working on a co-op plan for History/Science with some friends of similarly aged children that I hope goes well. I'm calling it Friday Funschool and I'm very excited about the potential.

I've got Story of the World by Bauer and Ancient Science by Jim Wiese that will be the spine around which we build the rest of our year. Math-U-See is also in the blend as is English from the Roots up. For Bible we'll study the stories that fit chronologically into the ancient history timeline. Speaking of timelines. I bought the complete timeline figures CD from homeschool in the woods along with the amazingly beautiful timeline book from Mystery of History and we'll be doing a ton of stuff with those resorces. Jess is pretty excited about having art as a formal part of school. I bought her a set of 36 colored pencils and 36 watercolor paints that are specifically restricted to her school stuff. No playing around with these and losing them. She has plenty of others to do that kind of thing with.

This probably sounds odd coming from an unschooler but I'm a complete curriculum addict. The difference is the way we approach the curriculum. They are resources. Starting points. Nothing more. No "complete the book" mentality here. We are very excited about the ancients because this is a favorite time period for Jess and there are unfinished projects (a trojan horse model for one) that are begging to be finished that we get to "count for school". LOL! I'm planning a visit to the Egyptology Institute at the local university as well as a weekend field trip to the Parthenon in Nashville in conjunction with this year's studies. A life mask project and the making of a chicken mummy just sound WAY cool to my little budding forensic scientist.

It should be an excellent year.

I can't decide...year end field trip or next year kick off trip?

Saturday we leave for Washington DC. I am absurdly excited. I get to be the tour guide as none of the rest of my family has ever been to our nation's capital before. I spent a week or so there in high school on a 4-H trip (Citizenship Washington Focus) and a brief weekend in the early 90's when my BFF got married and I was her maid-of-honor. I remember so much of the 4-H trip. It is one I hope my daughter makes when she is old enough. We will see many of the same sights this trip but I know it will have a different meaning to her at 10 than it will at 16/17 as it will have a different meaning to me at 40 than it did a lifetime ago. I'm just not sure what to call this trip.

I could call it a year end field trip and let it be the closing event of 4th grade or I could call it the beginning field trip of her 5th grade year. It really doesn't matter one way or another. Just trying to figure out how to caption the scrapbook.

I always have this deliemma this time of year. Since we have always unschooled year round it is difficult for me to decide when one "grade" ends and another "grade" begins. Usually I use VBS in June as the official beginning of a new school year because that is the only place in our life where what "grade" she is "in" has any real bearing. With that in mind I suppose this is her 4th grade trip.

Since next year we are starting Ancient History in our second cycle through the chronological history of the world making this the final trip of 4th grade (where we have studied the modern era) might "fit" more neatly. Since the school year at Veritas ended Tuesday it makes sense on those terms as well. The last time we will be chained to someone else's school calendar.

When I return I will be starting that desk job I mentioned last month. We are both excited about the prospect. How long that will last when she realizes we have to be at work "early" 3 days a week rather than one is anyone's guess, but the situation we have at the office will be so much better for us both. We have office schooled before, the last half of her kindergarten year, and it was one of my favorite times of homeschooling her. Being in the office, away from the distractions of TV and toys, we were able to accomplish more in those short days than we ever have since.

I hope that she comes home excited about what she has seen and done in DC and Williamsburg. I hope that she will be willing to do some projects with me that tie in with what she will have seen and learned. I hope that we stick with the exercise plan we have devised and begin seeing results in terms of better health for both of us. Yes, when we return it will be a good time for a new beginning and thus a new school year so this trip is the final field trip of 4th grade...5th grade starts July 14th. That will give us about 6 weeks to process DC and then be ready to move back into the Ancients. Sounds like a plan.

Getting the itch

Spring is springing up all over and the geocaching bug is biting hard. If the stupid trees will stop spitting pollen everywhere so I can breathe again I'll be heading out into the field again soon.

We've got a lot of travel planned this spring and I need to get my geocaching premium membership activated again so I can search along our route as we go. Its that time of year again.

In other life news...

I am quitting my teaching job at Veritas. I decided that teaching in a schoolish environment was too at odds with my unschooling philosophy and I am counting the days until freedom. Three more weeks. Just three. The end is in sight and while I will miss my kids I am SO very ready for it to be over. Ever since my decision was made, my heart just hasn't been in it.

I may be taking a part time desk job to make up the income we'll be losing but its with an organization I am passionate about and my daughter will be able to come along and actually have my attention while I'm working. I think she'll learn some valuable office skills as well. I hope that comes to fruition but if it doesn't there is some reason I'm supposed to not be working right now. It would sure give us more time to geocache. :)

I LOVE THE FALL!

Because the poison ivy is beginning to die, the snakes are back in their holes for the most part and the ticks are back wherever ticks go when it gets cold. It was SO good to get back out today! The weather was perfect and the company made up for the fact that we only had a couple of finds.

We also stumbled on our first letterbox today! It was cool. I may throw a stamp in the cache bag for future occasions.

Today we went out to Shelby Farms looking for caches. We started with one of cgeek's "evil micros" out at the Farmer's market. I got the find on that one. It wasn't as evil as some of hers are known to be and I'm getting more familiar with how she thinks. :) We headed back to the picnic table and chowed down on the chicken salad I'd made and brought along. After lunch we went after "Calibration Station" but we only found the 1st stage. I'm not 100% sure how to log that actually. The second stage is on my to do list for very soon. Maybe even next weekend. I've got to figure out how to see where a given group of caches are. I thought I had picked Shelby Farms caches but none of the ones I picked seemed to be in the boundaries of the park itself. I think maybe the google maps feature will help me with that.

We tried for "Nothing to Cheer About" but we DNF'd that one. There was a lot of muggle activity at the nearby BMX track and I wonder if it has perhaps been geomuggled...either that or maybe it was somewhere in the muck we were wading around in.

We decided to head back over toward the farmer's market area and go after "Wetlands Sometimes" which is where we found the letterbox. We also found the cache and were able to swap some swag.

We had a brand new cacher with us today so she got to experience 1) a micro, 2) a stage of a multi, 3) a DNF and 4) a full sized cache with swag to swap and as a bonus 5) A letterbox. Pretty good variety for a newbie.

It was a perfect day for caching...and man have I missed it!

CITO Imagine what we could do...together.

Yesterday J-bear97 and I stopped and found "Pine Row" on the way home from work. I always carry wal-mart/kroger bags in my cache pack so we can CITO any cache areas we visit. To my dismay yesterday we encountered such a mess of trash that we didn't have sufficient bags or other equipment to carry it out. What bothered me so much about it is that this cache site is over the back of the "privacy fences" of an adjoining neighborhood and it honestly appeared that the folks that live over there are in the habit of just chucking stuff over the back fence. Maybe that's not the case, maybe this stuff was dumped by others or blown there by the wind (not likely as it is not an area that should get much foot traffic and its at the top of a hill) but still. We carried out what we could and disposed of it properly and we're planning to go back and clean up more with the proper equipment (gloves, big trash bags, those poky sticks) probably next week.

The ideal/habit of of CITO could be one of the best "selling points" for geocaching if all of us that play the game would do it consistently. Imagine. Imagine what it would look like if we picked up the cans and plastic bottles and bags in the parking lots when we were seeking LPCs. Imagine what we could do for our city parks, especially those where our logs consistently say "I'd never have known about this place if it weren't for this cache if we would just CITO everywhere we go. Heck, imagine the places we could find to put caches if we stopped and CITO'd places we noticed were trashed. Not to mention, picking up trash provides ideal "stealth" when muggles are about.

This is the month for CITO events...and those are wonderful. But what I'm talking about is the impact of the entire area's geocachers picking up the habit of carrying a trashbag on the hunt and CITO'ing each site we search. I remember hearing when Memphis used to get awards for being one of the nation's most beautiful cities. This scene brought home for me why we don't anymore. There are hundreds, if not thousands of caches in the greater Memphis area. If we CITO'd each of them...imagine the impact we could have...just imagine...

No Geocaching Here - Event Cache

I attended my first event cache tonight. It was way cool to get to put faces with the names I've seen in logs and on cache pages for the last few months. Alicia (sskaysee - 1/2 anyway) said from the log it looked like we had something over 40 people present. It was great.

Tripp and the girls showed up late, Morgan had cotillion tonight. I hope they had fun. We overflowed the one room we were in and ended up spread all over the restaurant so I didn't get to talk to them as much as I would have otherwise.

Prior to the event Jessi, who has decided on J-bear97 as her caching name, and I spent the afternoon doing some caching in the area. We finally scored "This Park Rocks!" on our third attempt with a hint from Sprout. We had a lot of fun with "Llama Spits Again", not that we saw the llamas. We did however get to spend several minutes petting a very nice strawberry mare and we also got to see geese landing, turtles mating and a slew of ducks. Our second failed attempt at "rocks" did result in the collection of an entire walmart bag full of trash so we did our CITO duty for the day. We also got our first "skirt lifter LPC" with "Stevi's Cache" I must say, I think they're pretty cool.

No, its not the most exciting scenery, but its neat to think that there are things hidden in places like that, where a ton of people walk by all the time and have no idea they're there. It's like being in on a secret. Remember how it was when you were a kid? Or when your kids were little? And everything, every rock, every tree, every bug was fascinating? Its kinda like that. Geocaching brings that sense of childlike wonder back for me. I think that's why I do it. It lets me not have to "mom" for a little while. It lets me go back to being a kid with a treasure map only this time there really IS something where X marks the spot. Not like when we were playing pirates as kids and all we had for our effort was a big hole and some angry moms because we dug up their yards. And for my daughter, mom's not mad because she's along for the hunt. Its fun to just get out and play together.

I continue to plot where I'd like to do another hide. Like Timbercreek, I want it to be somewhere special. I've asked permission to place one at our church but thus far we have no answer. I'm afraid that the answer will be no. They're a bit nuts about avoiding liability. Sad but I guess that's the "nature of the beast" these days. I'll keep thinking and looking. When its time, it'll come.

I'm itching. I hope its windburn and not poison ivy/poison oak. I don't see any evidence of blisters yet and I'd think I would by now. It could be psychological from finding that stupid tick. I HATE THOSE THINGS!!!! I can find one, flick it off, do a thorough tick check and still itch for days just at the thought of it. EWWWWWWWWW! I was all up in the bush looking for "Sleepy Hollow" today. That's one that's going to have a DNF for awhile. I'm not about to try that one again until the fall. Too many ticks and poisonous plants.

Tomorrow I have to work. Bummer! I'm ready for school to be out, its cutting into my geocaching! LOL! But we have a lot to look forward to tomorrow. Its Ben and Jerry's free cone day! Its also VW club meeting. And of course, I'm planning on caching between the two events. :) Priorities you know. Speaking of priorities...sleep is becoming one. Terbear out.

Ok...I am SO digging paperless caching

I talked my darling husband into giving me his pocket PC so I could try caching without fighting a sheaf of papers on a windy day. We tried it today for the first time while going looking for "Fields of Clover" and "Old Raleigh Cemetery"...it was so cool! I am going to LOOOOOOVE this.

We found Fields of Clover with very little trouble. I'm learning more about how to handle my GPS and what to look for that gives away the hides. There is a geotrail beginning to form to this particular cache, 3 months ago I probably wouldn't have investigated it, even if I HAD noticed it. Today, even though the tree cover was giving me some difficulty with my readings, I noticed the geotrail, followed it to where I thought I would hide a cache if it were me and BINGO! There she was. That felt pretty good.

We got to "Old Raleigh Cemetery" around 5 pm. I'm still not sure if we ever actually found the right entrance. The cache description said to look for a historic marker and there definitely wasn't one of those anywhere that we saw. In fact the sign was the lid to one of those large plastic storage boxes with the reflective mailbox letters on it that said "Raleigh Historic Cemetery". We went on in, thinking we'd find our way to the correct gate and then backtrack from there. Ultimately though the jungle-like undergrowth, complete with aggressive "wildlife" in the form of a fairly loud dog, proved a bit more than I felt like tackling that late in the afternoon with a skittish 9 year old along for the game. We'll talk to Spencersb at the meet and eat on Monday and get some insight and go after it again soon. Hopefully with a weedeater.

Speaking of the Meet and Eat. I'm so excited to finally meet some other geocachers. I've met cgeek and she's awesome. Its going to be nice to talk with folks that understand the addiction. I don't always get to see trippdyer and company at church and other than the CUMC Tech Teens crew that I've also gotten hooked on it most people look at me as if I've taken leave of my senses when I bring it up. Even explaining it doesn't get it across what's so attractive about tromping around a weed infested cemetery on a sunday afternoon looking for an ammo can or a tupperwear box full of "junk". Its going to be quite the challenge to avoid the "catch phrases" Geocaching, caching, geocache, cache, or geo and still get my fix of people who "get it" I'm afraid. LOL!

I want to spend some time tonight and tomorrow playing with designs for my patches and also maybe playing with the shrinkydink material for some "geocoins" for the Tech Teens. I did go back to hobby lobby on Saturday and buy some. It was just too cool to resist. :)

Guess that's all for now. Teribear out.

I found the coolest thing today!

Shrinky Dinks for Inkjets! The possibilities boggle the mind. Photo "geocoins" were the first thing that leapt to my thoughts. A photo of the "CUMC Tech Teens", who by the way now have their own account on geocaching.com, from one of our recent cache runs or other gatherings would make a lovely "signature item" for the team.

I'm still working on my patches. I found a neat product today that I THINK will make my patches "iron on" for those who don't have the time or desire to sew. Its a double sided fusible interfacing and I think that if I do it like I did the back of the last set and have it stitch with the last pass around the border to cover the bobbin threads that I will have made "iron on" patches. Stay tuned.

I'm hoping to hear soon what the status is on the meet and eat for next Monday. It appears our first choice of venue is no longer in business as of last Friday or Saturday. I'm really hoping we'll chose a new venue and keep the date. I'm looking forward to seeing cgeek again and to meeting all the other names I recognize from my collection of cache pages.

In homeschool news...we've decided on a return to no daytime TV on days that begin with the letter T. I think we've all noticed a marked decrease in creativity since we let that policy lapse. The good news is that geocaching is an educational activity and therefore is perfect for those lovely T-days that we've been having of late. Except for next Tuesday. That's Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's...gotta have priorities. :)

Adventures with Teenagers

One of my churchkids turned 16 yesterday and her parents allowed her to take today off to go to the DMV and get her license. Another of them goes to an Episcopal school and today was the last day of their Easter holiday. We hooked up for lunch around 1 and then we were off for an afternoon of geocaching. Yay!

It was interesting playing the leader for a new driver trying to follow in city traffic. She did well. We managed to pick up 6 caches today between 2 and 4:30.

Our first stop was "Mama Mia" which we'd gone after without success on Saturday. We'd been searching for a micro and completely overlooked the nano that was the actual hide. I'd never seen a nano "in the wild" before. Those things give a new meaning to the word evil. In a good way of course.

One of the neat things about this trip was that, totally by chance, none of the containers was alike and all the hides were very different. It was a great learning experience for me regarding the variety of hides that are out there in our urban environment.

From "Mama Mia" we went to "Butterflies". This was in a neat little "pocket park" that I had no idea existed. The container here was a metal candle or spice can and it is not handling the weather well. The log was soaked. I posted a needs maintanence log on this one and I'm hoping the cache owner will take care of it because its a really nice location.

Next it was on to "Sudoku Challenge - Hard". I was glad to have the younger, lighter people with me because I'm too old and too heavy to be climbing trees. It was a nice hide. ML took one of cgeek's wood geocoins, I already have one in my collection. cgeek's kind of a celebrity around our crew...we love her hides, evil though they may be. We left a mint tin that I'd been saving for an "evil micro" container in homage to the queen of the "evil micros".

Our next hunt takes the prize for biggest comedy of errors and I truly hope we didn't manage to get another of cgeeks caches muggled. *crosses fingers and prays hard* We went after "Marquett Park". It was a beautiful day and the muggles were everywhere, including sitting right at Ground Zero. I asked ML to stop and tie her shoe and check to see if the cache was where I thought it was planning to come back later and grab it when someone wasn't sitting right on top of it. Something got lost in translation though because she tried for it and got caught. The lady thought she'd stolen her cell phone! After much explaining and showing of the cache container, the GPSr and the cache pages we were able to convince her otherwise. We replaced the cache without further incident and the people there weren't inclined to take it but I'm still paranoid that it will end up gone and we will once again be the last people to "see it alive." Note to self - DO NOT Take teenagers on Stealth Required missions. Just don't.

"745 - CACHE" was left for another day. At least teenagers do learn. There was just too much muggle activity in the area to get it today, although we're certain of its location. It will wait for another time.

"A Walk In The Park" yielded a unique hide combining a carabiner and a decon container. When we opened the cache we found among the swag the dreaded used golf ball so we took that. We left an easter button and a pencil sharpener shaped like a small wrench. We figured that for a used golf ball we were definitely trading up. :)

We ended our day like we started it, with one of cgeek's evil micros, "On The Perimeter". This was one of my favorite hides of the day. The tiny bison tube could have easily been mistaken by the unobservant as some kind of cocoon. Very creative hide and in an area that we really didn't have to worry too much about muggle activity.

All in all it was a lovely day. Good hunting, good friends, good weather. Who could ask for more?

2007 CUMC GPS Easter Egg Hunt - recap

After much plotting this is what I came up with:

Two teams - you saw the patches below.
Two sets of eggs in different camo colors (thank you Walmart).
8 locations (they came in packs of eight)
Each egg filled with a "congratulations you found it" sheet (in case someone else found it before my kids did) and a rubber stamp.
Each team had a GPSr, the hunt booklet and a stamp pad.
I was available to be a PAF if they got stuck.

On the morning of the hunt, I went out alone with the GPSr and placed the eggs and took a single reading of the location. If I had it to do again I'd have done that more carefully but I'm a beginner and I was in a time crunch. I had designed the booklet with a place for the stamps, the rules of the hunt and a place on the back to record the coords for the teams to enter into their GPSr's.

I placed the eggs at various locations around our church and, since we have a rather large campus, I placed the last four and the prize box in places on our campus. This got everyone back on campus for the birthday party that followed. One of my churchkids in team CUMC Tech Teens turned 16 today.

The teams arrived at 2 and were given a gallon ziplock bag containing their patches, their booklets and their stamp pads. And then they were off on the hunt and I was off to get the stuff together for the party.

The hunt ended up taking about 1 1/2 hours and everyone seemed to have a great time. Egg #3 gave them all a problem and they had to call for a hint but otherwise it seemed to be just about the right level of challenge. Team Purple found the prize box first but elected to re-hide it and wait until Team Pink completed the hunt and then everyone picked their prizes at the party. They're all wanting to know can we do it again next year...so I must have done something right. Smile

After the party we finished up the day by doing some loggable caches and we found MUM's The Word, team trippdyer found Fogleman's Revenge and we looked for Mama Mia without success but I'm going back to check on that tomorrow on another cache run.

To see pictures check out www.deltageo.com

Today is the Day



I've got the rules printed out, the logs made, the eggs filled with cache notes and rubber stamps, the swag is bought, the eggs are ready to be hidden and these patches are made for all the players. I've been toying with the idea of a patch as my sig item so I wanted to see how hard they would be to make. I'm pretty proud of the way they turned out. I've got a couple of designs I'm playing with for my person patches but this is a special edition, limited run for the crew that is playing tomorrow. Team Pink has pink borders, Team Purple has purple borders. The bunny is the four colors of the geocaching.com logo. I think they're pretty cute.

So here's the "rules" for the hunt

Two teams - Two sets of eggs - Two Ink Pads

Each team will get a list of 8 coords, each will take them to a different location that has some significance to the Tech Team. Once they arrive at the site at that point it becomes a standard easter egg hunt until they find their own egg. Once they retrieve the egg, they'll open it to find a rubber stamp. There are 8 locations, 8 eggs of each color, 8 unique stamps. They'll stamp their logs with the stamp and them move on to the next site. The final site will lead them back to the church where there will be two eggs hidden and also a swag box filled with goodies for them to choose from. Hopefully it won't rain and all will go well.

Plotting: 8 Stage Multi Easter Egg Hunt

My caching buddies usually include my "churchkids" and since very few of them log their finds anyway its truly all about the game for them. I've been wanting to do some kind of personalized hunt, maybe places that are significant to us as a group, but I'm not versed enough at hiding to want to do all the work for permanent placements and I'm not sure if the places I want to do hides aren't already hosting caches I haven't yet found. So I've found these way cool camo easter eggs at Walmart and I'm plotting an Easter Egg Hunt. Nothing that will be posted on Geocaching.com or anything but just something fun for us as a class/crew and give me some practice in placing caches. I'm working on a list of potential places to hide. We may not do the hunt until after easter just to avoid scheduling conflicts. Or we may do the hunt on Good Friday if I get ambitious and get them placed in time.

Taking this a New Direction

I've been wondering what to do with this blog for awhile. I've got too many blogs to keep up and this one seems to get neglected more than the others. I've become addicted to geocaching recently and following the lead of my friend Lisa I think I am going to change the focus of this blog to being more about my geocaching adventures and other random thoughts and musings rather than about writing from prompts. A practice I'm sure has value, but bores me to tears. So stay tuned.

Bashful's Tale -- Part 3

*as one of my new years resolutions I have resolved to write at least every other day. I'm picking up Bashful's Tale where I left it off last year. I hope to finish it before long. Enjoy the next installment.*

After a dinner such as that the boys and I felt festive so we brought the instruments out and played. She seemed so delighted by our pitiful offering. She a princess that had grown up hearing the sweet sounds of a professional orchestra took such delight in our simple music. She danced and clapped and laughed. I got the idea that she should have a partner so I got Dopey on my shoulders and we put on a long coat and danced with her. I could have died a happy man right at that moment.

We decided that the princess should have our room for the night. We all made palettes on the floor and lay awake around the fire discussing what we should do about our guest.

“She cant stay here!” Grumpy grumbled. “Taint safe!”

“What do you mean taint safe? Safe for who? Her or us?” I demanded. The boys looked at me in shock. I rarely ever spoke, that was why they called me Bashful. “Are we such cowards that we’d send the likes of her out into the cold to save our own skins? The queen thinks she’s dead. Let her go on thinking that. She’ll be safe here. She needs a place to stay. She needs to stay here.”

The boys stared at me, jaws agape. It was the longest speech I’d ever made in my life. I half couldn’t believe it myself. My love for her gave me courage I guess for I’d have died rather than let them send her away.

Finally Doc spoke. “Bashful’s making sense. We can’t send the poor child out into the wilderness to fend for herself. Winter’s coming on. She can stay here. We’ll work it out.”

And so it was settled.

Bashful's Tale -- Part 2
The water was cold but I wasn’t thinking about that. I was thinking about her and how incredibly beautiful she was. I didn’t much mind washing up if it meant keeping one as lovely as her happy. I didn’t know about the rest of the boys but I for one didn’t want her to leave.

When we returned to the cabin she had a stew going on the fire. It smelled wonderful, nothing like the vile stuff we cooked for ourselves. She’d found a loaf of bread that hadn’t ruined yet and she’d sliced it and placed it on a tray. While we’d been washing up she’d washed every dish in the place. No small task that. The table was set all nice, with candles even, like we was royalty. A princess that could put a house in order like a scullery maid or cook, will wonders never cease?

“Dinner is almost ready,” she said sweetly, “and you look so much nicer now. Let me see, now that you’re not all covered in dirt, if perhaps I can match each of you with the names on the beds upstairs.”

She studied us intently. Predictably I began to blush furiously under her gaze. Delighted she exclaimed, “You’re Bashful!” I couldn’t speak without stammering so I just ducked my head and nodded furiously. Grumpy snorted in disgust. “And you’re Grumpy!” she giggled. “And you’re Doc, and you’re Happy, and you’re Sleepy, and Oh my goodness! Bless you!” She exclaimed! “You must be Sneezy.” She laughed, “And that means that you have to be Dopey.” She finished. She’d not missed a one of us. “Well do come to the table, the stew smells like it is ready now.” She said. And she served us. Her. The Princess. Served the likes of us. I think that was when we all became captivated by her grace. She was a different type of girl and a very different type of princess. And we loved her. I loved her.

-- To Be Continued

Assignment #23 -- Part One

Rewrite the fairy tale, Snow White, from the point of view of Bashful, one of the seven dwarves.

Bashful’s Tale

She was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. Her raven hair spilled across my bed like a coverlet as she slept sprawled carelessly across four of our beds. Her long black eyelashes lay like feathers against her flawless white skin. Her blood-red lips were barely parted revealing perfect even white teeth. Grumpy, true to his name, kicked the foot of his bed. Startled, she roused. Her eyes fluttered open and she blinked sleepily at the seven of us standing there.

“Why, you’re not children at all!” She exclaimed in surprise. “You’re little men!”

“’Course we ain’t children!” Grumpy snapped. “Who said we was children?” He sputtered. “Seems to me the more important issue here is WHO are you and WHAT are you doin’ in my bed!”

A scarlet blush stained her cheeks. “I’m so very sorry!” she stammered. “It’s just that I was so very tired and frightened after my escape that I took refuge here without a thought. I shall go on my way at once.” She rose and began to gather her few belongings.

Doc spoke up then. “Oh, don’t mind Grumpy. He’s just well, grumpy. You don’t have to leave right now. Its much to late in the evening for a lady to be in the forest alone” The rest of the boys voiced their agreement. I just blushed.

I look of relief crossed her face, “Thank you! Thank you ever so much.”

“But what’s your name, child?” Doc asked. “And how did you come to end up here?”

A look of profound sadness crossed her face. “My name is Snow White. My step-mother is the queen.” She said. “This morning she sent me into the woods with the royal huntsman. He told me that she’d told him to kill me and bring her my heart in a jeweled box. He couldn’t do it. He freed me instead. He planned to kill a deer and give its heart to the queen so that she would not know I still live.” Tears coursed down her cheeks and she shuddered a bit at the memory.

“I ran for a long time. Some animals found me in the glade and they led me here. I was too weary to go any farther. If you will let me stay I promise I won’t be a moment’s trouble. I can clean and I can cook. I’ll show you! Let me cook you some dinner while you wash up.” She said.

“WASH!” the boys exclaimed in horror. How long had it been since we’d actually washed? I couldn’t recall.

“Why of course.” she said smiling, “Surely you don’t plan to eat with those dirty hands? Doc, haven’t you taught the others about germs?”

For once it was Doc and not me that got caught tongue-tied and blushing. “’Course we’ll wash! Come on boys!” He blustered. He headed out the door and down the hill to the stream. We followed along.

Grumpy grumbled, “Women! She hasn’t been here a day yet and here we are takin’ a bath! It’s not been a year since my last one! No trouble she says. HAH!”

.... To be continued.