Just 5 or 10 minutes…

Swish, swash, swish, swash. The dishwasher moves the water around noisily as I sit on the couch with my laptop. I’m preparing to write about this Writer’s Workshop prompt: “Listen to the sounds in your house for 5 or 10 minutes. Write about what you hear.” I’m thinking, “5 or 10 minutes to write a blog post! I can do that!”

Just as I open the “Add New Post” browser I hear footsteps on the stairs. A little voice says, “Mom, I can’t sleep.” I look up at my 7 year old and sigh. She has a big test tomorrow, and I’m supposed to make sure she gets plenty of sleep. Lately she hasn’t been going to sleep by 8:00 the way she used to. I take her upstairs to her bedroom. As I lie down next to her, she starts talking about what makes a sentence, and how it takes more than just a capital letter and a punctuation mark to make a real sentence. My tired brain has a hard time following what she is saying; we are whispering so that we won’t disturb her little sister. Her mind is churning with information she has learned at school today, and she seems far from sleep. I know that if I stay, she won’t be able to stop talking. I tell her it’s time to be quiet; she needs to sleep. I tiptoe downstairs.

The dishwasher has run through the wash and rinse cycle, and is now quiet. The window is open. The crickets chirp. I settle back on the couch to write my blog post. The only sound I hear from upstairs is the whirring of the fan in the hallway. Finally I have 5 minutes to myself to write this blog post. Until I hear the key in the front door, and Ed walks in.

Mama’s Losin’ It

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16 Replies to “Just 5 or 10 minutes…”

  1. DOH!!! Dagnabbit, the one night you needed traffic to be a little slower. .. I do feel for your little one with the test, and I love the way her sounds became the bulk of the post.

  2. I totally know the feeling! (Sounds like our place 🙂 I haven't been around the SITS girls site recently….kinda have fallen out of the "writing prompt" thing (I think ever since they started charging for linky-tools and I stopped blog-hopping….although I used to really enjoy it!)
    My recent post Learning the Dance

  3. Yup, sounds like my home lately! Everyone's schedule is shifting or just plain crazy! Nights like this are the reason I've been silent in the blogging world. I am hoping some sort of quiet at a decent hour is in my near future!

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