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Lifestyle

It’s A Festivus Miracle!

Festivus

Happy Festivus!

Today is Festivus!

This week we had National Short Girl Day.

Today is Festivus.

We’ve already had Hanukkah.

Christmas, New Years, several family birthdays, and The Rose Bowl are coming up.

So many things to celebrate.

“…but who needs all that joy and cheer anyway?”

It’s a Festivus miracle!

“I’ve got a lot of problems with you people, and now you’re gonna hear about it!”

…and another piece of the puzzle falls into place.

And there it is.

Festivus shaped me.

Which explains an awful lot.

Happy Festivus!

Liz Brenner

Everyone has a story to tell.

Even you.

Especially you.

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Categories
Dog Lifestyle

A Bag is Better Than That Yellow Bucket

The Yellow Bucket

SPOILER ALERT: This Story Is Disgusting (And Hilarious)

Blue is a big dog.

And big dogs leave big piles of poo in the backyard.

Since we play fetch out there every day, I clean the yard daily.

I bag the mess and toss it straight into the garbage.

Bob has a different method.

Instead of using bags, he shovels the poo into a yellow bucket and then dumps the contents into the trash later.

I’ve never understood this system.

Why dirty up the bucket?

It’s just more poo in more places.

Needless to say, I never, ever, ever use that yellow bucket.

Not for gardening, not for cleaning, not for anything.

Because… well, poo.

The other day Bob discovered something horrifying in a corner of the yard.

The Yellow Bucket.

Forgotten.

Full of rainwater.

Sun-baked and steamy.

And, yes, still full of poo.

What he had on his hands was a steaming bucket of Poo Stew.

I didn’t say, “I told you so.”

I didn’t need to.

He was gagging too hard to hear me anyway.

Lesson learned (hopefully):

Use a bag.

And toss it immediately.

As for that yellow bucket?

Let’s just say it disappeared quietly on trash day.

No questions asked.

Liz Brenner

Everyone has a story to tell.

Even you.

Especially you.

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Categories
Family Lifestyle

The Planets All Lined Up – Did You See It?

Everyone happened to be home for dinner the night the planets all lined up.

I made the whole family march outside and take a look.

Everyone rolled their eyes, but they all followed me out.

It was amazing!

A discussion about Uranus ensued.

Of course it did.

I have boys.

A Mother of Boys comes to expect this.

The Uranus jokes kept us all outside just a little bit longer, taking in this fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.

With boys, it’s a trade off.

I have to listen to some off-colored remarks.

And they (usually) do what I ask of them.

It works for me.

Liz Brenner

Everyone has a story to tell.

Even you.

Especially you.

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Categories
Lifestyle

A Seriously Disgusting Sale Item

A seriously disgusting sale item

Canned vegan hot dogs.

Seriously?

I saw them on the clearance rack at the grocery store.

Yup, they were on clearance.

Apparently even the vegans don’t want them.

I am not a fan of canned foods in the first place.

But canned vegan hot dogs are about as disgusting as you can go on the canned food scale.

Especially since you’re already at the grocery store.

You could just walk over to the produce department and find a fresh, yummy, vegan option.

I was tempted to buy them, just for a joke.

Maybe I could pull a joke on someone at the next potluck dinner.

But then I thought that I didn’t want to give the canned vegan hot dog folks any false hope.

Being their Only Customer Ever would be too great a burden for me to bear.

Yeah, nah, I passed on that particular clearance rack item.

Seriously.

Liz Brenner

Everyone has a story to tell.

Even you.

Especially you.

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Categories
Lifestyle Work

I Don’t Think I Remember How To Use An Encyclopedia!

Encyclopedia

The word ‘encyclopedia’ was a spelling word for my middle schoolers the other day.

I asked if anybody knew what it meant.

After all, who uses an encyclopedia anymore?

Today we’ve got Google.

One kid knew what it was.

He has a set in his house.

Just that morning he used it to research information for his history class.

I was shocked that a 21st-century kid would know about encyclopedias.

He assured me that he only used it because his mom made him.

His preference would have been the internet.

It just goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Kids today still know how to use an encyclopedia.

And moms are still making kids do the right thing.

Liz Brenner

Everyone has a story to tell.

Even you.

Especially you.

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Categories
Lifestyle

This One Scary Procedure Will Stop That Vicious Cycle

A Vicious Cycle

It’s been a vicious cycle.

I’ve had this bit of scar tissue on the inside of my cheek.

It sticks out, so I keep biting it.

Because I keep biting it, it keeps growing bigger.

And the bigger it gets, the more often I bite it.

Finally, the dentist advised removing it.

I HATE dental procedures.

But I hate this bitey-bit even more.

So I agreed to have it removed.

I thought they would just take a knife and shave it off.

That’s what a dermatologist would do.

Apparently, the dentist operates in a completely different orbit than the dermatologist.

They did not cut it.

They cauterized it.

In other words, they burned it off.

They used tweezers to hold the lesion up, and then they cauterized the base.

Yes, there was smoke.

Yes, there was the smell of burning flesh.

Yes, I was completely numb.

I sat very, very, very still so they wouldn’t accidentally burn parts of me that they didn’t intend to burn

But I was freaking out on the inside.

When I got home and took a look, I was horrified to see a blackened, ashy fire pit inside my cheek.

Seriously, it was a third-degree burn.

It brought to mind every crime movie I’ve ever seen where they put out a cigarette on somebody’s face.

You can’t use a salve or an ointment inside your mouth.

You just have to deal with it.

Ewww, it was gross.

Nobody was more surprised than me to find, the next morning, that it was significantly healed.

It was no longer black and ashy.

It didn’t even hurt.

It’s reassuring to know that the dentist really did know what she was doing.

I’ll still freak out at my next visit.

Because that’s how I roll.

But I’ll definitely freak out with a little more confidence, a little less crime-movie vibe, and a whole lot less of that painful vicious cycle.

Liz Brenner

Everyone has a story to tell.

Even you.

Especially you.

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Categories
Lifestyle Work

Being Coachable Is The Secret To Success

On being coachable

My boys once had a coach who swore he could teach any kid to play.

And he did.

Kids would start out timid and shy and uncoordinated.

And he would turn them into athletes.

It was an amazing transformation.

The caveat, he said, was that the kid had to be coachable.

The ones who argued or who complained or who dragged their feet might not turn into athletes, even if they had raw talent.

Anyone who was willing to listen, willing to try, and willing to accept advice could be turned into a fine athlete.

I always admired that coach.

I teach my English classes the same way.

Every child has the capacity to learn to read and write.

I have had middle school students reading at a third-grade level, and I’ve brought them up to grade level.

I have had ten-year-olds who couldn’t read at all, and I’ve brought them up to grade level.

I have had troubled kids who thought there was no hope, and I’ve brought them up to grade level.

The caveat is that they have to be coachable.

They have to be willing to listen, willing to try, and willing to accept advice.

I had one middle-school girl who was not coachable.

The class was online, and she was always on her phone during every session.

How do I know?

Her eyes were glued down to her lap, and she would laugh at inappropriate moments.

I called on her often, in an attempt to force her to pay attention.

Her responses were either an eye roll or a completely off-topic answer.

I encouraged her to set her phone aside.

I sent messages to her parents.

Nothing ever changed.

Sigh.

She got out of this class exactly what she put into it.

Nothing.

This kid didn’t make any progress.

Hopefully it was just a phase for her.

One day she’ll realize that she has some catching up to do.

I’ve taught plenty of adults how to read.

She can come back to me when she has her epiphany.

When she’s ready to be coachable, I’ll teach her to read.

Liz Brenner

Everyone has a story to tell.

Even you.

Especially you.

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Categories
Lifestyle

How To Turn Down The Hot Date Of A Lifetime

A hot date?

I got an urgent notice regarding my toll tags.

Apparently, I’m overdrawn on my account.

And I owe late fees.

They’re going to send me to collections.

Unless I follow their instructions.

And do it immediately.

But here’s the thing.

Their email address had the word “romance” in it.

Seriously?

The Texas Department of Transportaion issues the toll tags.

I don’t think of romance when I think of TxDOT.

I know, Valentine’s Day is coming up.

But that still doesn’t equate TxDOT with a hot date.

Yeah, nah, I’m not going to follow those instructions.

It doesn’t sound romantic at all.

In fact, it sounds like the exact opposite of a hot date

Since there’s no possibility of chocolate or flowers, and it’s a sure bet that there will be no sizzling hot date, I’m just going to ignore the whole thing.

Sorry, Scammer, I won’t be your Valentine.

Liz Brenner

Everyone has a story to tell.

Even you.

Especially you.

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Categories
Lifestyle Work

Why Spelling Is Important – Put the Pedal to the Metal

Put the pedal to the metal

I’m an English teacher.

And an editor.

I should know better.

But I’m only human.

To this day, I can’t figure out the difference between affect and effect.

I know, I could use the RAVEN trick.

Remember that Affect is a Verb and Effect is a Noun.

Except, of course, that sometimes affect is a noun and sometimes effect is a verb.

Ugh.

I just can’t.

My workaround is to simply find another way to say it.

I’ll go to huge lengths to avoid using these words.

There’s always another word.

And so it is with the idiom “put the pedal to the metal.”

Is it pedal or petal or peddle?

Is it medal or metal or meddle?

The correct idiom – put the pedal to the metal – is a car reference, indicating that you should push the gas pedal all the way down to the floorboard in order to go as fast as you can.

If you can’t figure out how to write it correctly, find another idiom.

There’s always another idiom.

Try using “B*lls to the wall.”

It’s an aviation reference, and it means the same thing.

Go as fast as you can.

Liz Brenner

Everyone has a story to tell.

Even you.

Especially you.

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Categories
Dog Lifestyle

It Snowed, And Now We’re In A Winter Wonderland

It Snowed, and Now We're In A Winter Wonderland

It snowed, it snowed, it snowed!

Everyone is always so surprised when it snows here in North Texas.

But why should they be surprised?

It snows every year.

This was a gentle snowstorm with several inches of lovely white powder.

It’s a beautiful, powdery, winter wonderland.

Blue is in doggy heaven.

She has had the perpetual zoomies, running and jumping and romping in the snow.

With her curly hair, the snow clumps all over her body, and it won’t rub off with a towel.

I have to hair-dry her to melt the ice clumps off.

She does not appreciate the hair dryer.

But she does appreciate the iciclectomies.

I have enjoyed wearing boots and mittens and sweaters for the past couple of days.

But now the storm is over.

The weather will warm up over the weekend, and the snow will quickly melt away.

I’m fine with that.

I’ve had my fill of winter.

This Southern California girl can only take so much of the winter wonderland thing.

I’m ready for spring.

Liz Brenner

Everyone has a story to tell.

Even you.

Especially you.

This post might include affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small commission from the seller at no cost to you.

Your Voice Matters – Your Story Is Powerful

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