Lara D. Elliott - Inspirations

My little brother is…different. Joshie wasn’t always the way he is. His baby pictures are just as chubby and smiley as any of us. It wasn’t until his fourth birthday that he started to wither. His muscles just stopped growing. He just kept getting skinnier and skinnier. By the time he was five, Mom and Dad were sad all the time, but Joshie kept smiling. Even when they got home from one of his doctor appointments and Mom’s eyes were all red and puffy, Joshie was ready to play. He couldn’t run anymore, but he always won Checkers and Go Fish. That summer, Mom and Dad sent me to camp and our baby brother, Sam, went to Grandma’s house. “Give Joshie a big hug because when you get back, he’ll be different.” Dad put a hand on Joshie’s shoulder and waved me over. I was confused, but Joshie gave one of his silly smiles. “It’s going to be all right,” he said. I was so excited to be home from camp that I almost forgot about Mom’s warning. She met me at the front door, an...

The air ships made their way across the sky like huge buzzards circling their prey. The Anemoi were early this year. I gripped my dagger tight, my fingers numb and my heart racing. Terrance steadied his bow, though it would do no good against the mighty fleet. No. Once the Anemoi exited their ships to claim their prisoners--that would be our chance to defend ourselves. Terrance lowered the bow for a moment to cradle my cheek. His eyes spoke love and concern. “Gaia, I want you to run. I will hold them off. Go to the far side of the island and hide in the caves. Go deep. They fear the cold earth.” “I won’t leave you.” My eyes searched his. There was stubbornness in his brow but I continued to plead. “Come with me. Let’s sneak now while they are preoccupied with anchoring. Neither of us stand a chance alone.” “Others may have already made their way to the caves. You will be safe.” “I will die anyway of a broken heart if I lose you.” He drew me close and kissed me, b...

I recently posted about mom-ing being harder than dad-ing. In our culture today, adulting is a hot word, used in place of "being an adult" or "doing adult things." It seems nowadays, any old word can be turned into a verb. I think this has happened in the past without us realizing it. Here are a few nouns that are already accepted verbs: table egg chair toilet paper As a child, I remember the reprimand of "That's not a word!" when someone said "ain't" or other similar colloquialism. We used to be able to play Scrabble and check the dictionary to challenge someone's made-up word. Well, not anymore. Everything is in the dictionary these days! It's really interesting how language changes with the times. One person can say something new on the internet, and a round of viral sharing later, Webster is adding words to the dictionary. My son said "hugenormous" one day and I'm going to try to get that to catch on...

I'm a mom. My sons are 4 and (almost) 7 years old. They are absolutely mama's boys. They cling to me so hard. The problem is I work full time--more than 40 hours a week a lot of the time because of my band director job. I have after school rehearsals, night performances, auditions, trips. When I'm finally home, my boys want my full attention. But I'm tired! I don't want to downplay what my husband does for our family. He works part time and then watches our youngest. Our youngest is a handful. My husband is very glad for a break when I get home. My oldest gets off the bus at the same time. The kids want mommy. After a few minutes of doting, I take a fifteen minute break to change out of my work clothes and breathe. The rest of the night, they're mine. Hubby and I take turns fixing dinner. A lot of the time, we eat out since we're both too tired too cook. After dinner, it's play time. That is, I play with the 4 year old while the (almost) 7 year old...