Americana on Elliott Place

As you might have noticed, I did not fulfill my own challenge to have 7 posts in 7 days. I blew it on Day 5, I believe - Lol!  In my planning, I knew I would be away for the 4th of July weekend, and hoped I would be able to stockpile a few blogs and publish daily. That didn't happen :-) I may have failed the challenge but I was successful in kickstarting my writing. In just those few days, I wrote more than I had written in all the time since I created Veni-Vidi-Scripti. Yay! 

So in the spirit of challenge and overcoming adversity, I bring you my take on something awesome that happened over the weekend. Two things actually...and they both had to do with spirit and perseverance. One happened ON Elliott Place and the other IN Germany but I watched from Elliott Place.

The first...The Sykes Lemonade Stand, manned all weekend by Caroline and Henry.

They hatched the plan on Friday night. Caroline was so excited she could hardly sleep! Saturday morning dawned bright, hot, and very humid...perfect for thirsty customers. We set up the beach umbrella, table, ice cooler, and lemonade pitchers. Then they sat and waited...

They ran the stand for 5 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday.  If you build it, they will come. And come the customers did - neighbors, cyclists, dog walkers, beach-goers, Sunday drivers.  Their best customers by far were the biker dudes.These barrel-chested, bearded guys would drive up and park, purchase, recycle the cup, and off they roared on their hogs.  I don't think these guys could resist two kids with a checkered tablecloth selling good, old-fashioned lemonade. Too funny!

Jeff and I were really proud of our kids. They handled their stand like pros, waiting on customers, counting money, making change. They had the patience to sit out in the blasted heat for two days, never complaining once. Anyone who has kids, been around kids, or ever been a kid will understand that in itself is a minor miracle!  They were so determined and serious about it,  I finally had to buy the last two cups on Saturday just so we all could go to the beach.

YOU GO, GIRLS!
On Sunday, I may have been in my living room on Elliott Place, but my heart was in Dresden, Germany! The second awesome thing-- the Women's FIFA soccer game between Brazil and U.S.A.  . This game was a doozy! I watched it live and I am not one for sitting inside on a summer day to watch sports. But I hardly sat...I cheered, I cried, I cheered some more, I jumped up and down, I pumped my fists.
There was drama, oh boy! Bad calls, yellow cards, a red card, amazing plays and athleticism, but what I will remember most is how the entire team never gave up, never pouted or showed poor sportsmanship. Our USA women showed the world an amazing display the HUMAN spirit. I can't recall the last time a women's sporting event captured the front page of  The Washington Post...above the crease, mind you!

This weekend the American entrepreneurial spirit was alive and prospering in front of 116 Elliott Place and the American Girl Power was being cheered inside 116 Elliott Place.
I raise my glass of ice-cold lemonade to spirit and perseverance!

--Meghan

Do you Haiku?

Hello, my name is Meghan and I am a Haiku-aholic.

It is no secret. . .I love poetry! Caroline's 2nd grade class did a unit in Haiku and it reawakened my interest a few months ago.  I have started keeping a little journal and jotting things down here and there.  If you aren't familiar with Haiku . . . I pulled the following off a Haiku website for a brief 4-1-1.

"Haiku is both a type of poetic pattern and a way of experiencing the world. This short, 17-syllable form, usually written in three lines with a 5-7-5 syllable count, focuses our attention on a single, insightful moment. Closely tied to the Japanese aesthetic of Yugen and the spirituality of Buddhism, Haiku looks deceptively simple, yet can take years to master."

It may take years to master but the Sykes family sure had some haiku fun over dinner the other night. Before you envision our family going all high-brow reciting poetry together, I will warn you that Henry did work his all-time favorite word, "fartlips", into one of the poems.  Leave it to my boys to discover Haiku works very well with bathroom humor.

We went around the table, each person adding one word in the 5-7-5 syllable count in the poem, until it was completed.

It is my honor to present to you, the Sykes Family Dinner Haiku. . .

"Dinner"
Plates of fresh rockfish
    noodles with dressing pad thai
lime in glass cold wine.

"Watermelon"
Watermelon grows!
    delicious juicy seedless
ripe for the picking!

"The Dog"
The dog smells like poo
   ears like velvet rainbows
scratching paws and tail.

And last but not least...

"Farts"
Melting, squinting toots!
   fartlips - gross! Butt burps, oh my!
Brown turtle is near.

And there you have it, our dinner haiku! I hope this hasn't turned you against haiku or turned your stomach in any way ;-) . It was a different and fun way to share the dinner table with my husband and kids.  I hope to share with you some of my other haiku in future posts.  I am not worried about that "years to master" stuff. 

So...do you haiku? 

--Meghan

High Adventure on Summer Day

The trip was planned for a week.

Shovels? Check!

Sifters? Check!  

Food, water, bathing suits, towels, sunscreen? Check!

The kids, a few neigbors from our Elliott Place Posse, and I were ready...to seek, to strive, and not to yield until we found what we came for. And there is a beach, tucked away in Calvert County...about 35 minutes south, called officially Bay Front Park, but known to locals as "Brownie Beach" that held our treasure. 

So the Sykes crew piled out of the truck, and took off down a shady path that led to the small beach.  We set up camp for the day near some steep cliffs, then the hunt began. We used our hands, shovels, and sifters...and Brownie Beach did not disappoint! We quickly started to find the prehistoric treasures we sought...shark teeth!

Brownie Beach is known locally as THE place to find shark teeth because as the cliffs are worn away by time and tide, more teeth get uncovered.

We found hammerhead and snaggle-tooth shark teeth, as a paper guide in Jack's fossil kit told us.  The kids took breaks in the day by swimming and then climbing on the cliffs.

All totaled at the end of the day, over 100 shark teeth!

Not too shabby for our rookie attempt at shark teeth hunting.

The kids had eagle eyes and gobs of patience in their hours of searching.

High adventure on a summer day,

--Meghan