THIS WEEK’S QUESTION: What challenge do you have to overcome each day?
TINA
As a parent we all want our offspring to grow up 
big and strong, of mind and body. It’s not always a easy journey but a journey nonetheless.
In every home, I’m generalising here, I imagine there is a wall somewhere which is a growth chart.
Ours, it’s simply a column near the front door where I have used grey lead to mark off their height. It’s always a moment of excitement shared by all.
My biggest challenge is to get these kids to grow and be healthy happy human beings. For awhile there, a few years back, I wasn’t so sure that was going to happen.
Am grateful how things have turned out….
Every time I see our height chart …it makes me smile for the smallest is now the tallest and still going strong. Yay !
JIM
WASHRINSEREPEAT
look at weather
choose bike commute (lakefront for tailwinds, city streets for otherwinds)
make coffee
shower
pack lunch pack breakfast fill water bottle
check for flats
Change clothes
set up computer check remote computers check email
respond respond respond
ignore ignore respond
ignore respond respond respond respond
take action
ignore calls
be helpful be unhelpful
eat lunch and read the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and Salon to attempt to understand what is happening
craigslist searches for “mid+century+modern”, “evanston+free” and “26+bike+rims,”
check remote computers check email
respond respond respond
ignore
take action
ignore respond
ignore respond respond
take action
ignore calls
be helpful be unhelpful be helpful
change to commute clothes
ride ride ride ride ride ride ride north to pick up kids
collect hugs
try to understand after school glaring
then to banjo or to soccer or to Spring Sing with the canceled band performance or to Sea Animal Night
then laundry dinner baths TV espresso
bedtime stories and kids’ sleepy eyes
nightcap
website security alerts
nightcap
wordpress wrangling
keyboard dozing
calling it a night
sleep.
CATHERINE
The backdrop on my computer screen isn’t a picturesque sunset, or a stunning image from my last vacation. It’s not even a picture, actually. It’s bright blue letters on a stark black background – a quote from the movie Fight Club.
“This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.”
You know how when you have the same backdrop for a while you begin to zone it out?
That never happens to me.
Each and every day those same neon blue letters flash across my screen as if for the first time, demanding my attention. Fresh start. New day. Make it count.
Our time here is short. It’s so easy to coast along, letting one day melt right into the next, as they all slip away…
And I’m trying really hard not to live like that.
JUDY
My Everyday Challenge in Four Acts
Act I--The alarm clock goes off
Hollywood bed with me covered up and Rosie cat at the foot, slippers on the ground. Lamp and alarm clock on the night stand. My sentiments at this point. "Ugh!" I will spend the next hour or so, consulting my Kindle Fire Tablet for the state of the nation and FB friends and slamming down the snooze button every 7 minutes. The cat will alight on my back at some point begging hugs and scritches.
Act II Procrastination Ends
I set off for the bathroom. This may take a while. So, it gets an act all for itself.
Act III--An artistic interlude
I insert this picture, because I thought it was my best effort at drawing, sort of. On the left bottom, you might catch a glimpse of my shuffling slippers and halfway up on the left, my anguished out-flung stick hand! Like any striptease artist, I'm hesitant because of the reveal of the final act!
Act IV--What hangs in the balance?
Well, now you've seen me naked. I'm blushing. But that's it, my big challenge every day is somehow heaving my right leg into the tub and dragging the left one after. It's all downhill from here. Easy peasy.
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MICHÈLE
For May 22: What, in your opinion, is the main difference between men and women?
-The featured image is an illustration by Jules Feiffer, from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.
