At first I just thought it would be some car ride entertainment.  Then I started thinking about the storytelling possibilities.

Visual aids to telling stories are the best.  The best.  And I totally suck at them.  If you’ve read this blog for a while (Congratulations!  You are the one!) you know that it is massively lacking in the visual.  I love photography and painting and drawing and paper mache and murals.  I stalk them on the internet, and they make me very happy.  But my brain just doesn’t produce on that level.  I close my eyes to think of a picture and all that comes up are a thousand words.

So this seemed like it might be fun to try.  I used it to tell one little short story to my kids.  I wasn’t sure if they would even want to listen to it.  They hung on my every word.  Then something even more awesome happened.  They took over.

They took turns, 7-year-old, 5-year-old, and 2-year-old telling stories with the felt figures.  They all listened to the others’ stories.  Well, until the littlest got carried away and refused to have an ending to her story.

Then a couple of days later, they got it out again when I wasn’t even paying attention and made up more stories.  Then they got it out again tonight and told more stories.  This time, my five-year-old helped my two-year-old with her turn and they told a story interactively.

“So where did they go next?”

“I no know!”

“To a cave or to the castle?”

“A cave!”

“And then what happened?”

“Da witches came!”

You guys, I have never heard…or seen… anything so awesome.  It went on for 10 minutes and only ended because I said it was time for pajamas.  (I know, buzz-kill, but reality is reality.  Story time may be magical, but not as magical as bedtime.)

So here’s the thing about stories for kids.  They can be the simplest things.  Really.  Just wanted to show you the story I told them, just to show you how little effort I put into it.  Not that I’m proud of being lazy.  It’s just that if you wait until you have the energy to put a lot of effort into it, you’ll never tell stories.  And you don’t need to wait for that.  Story magic is pretty strong even without much help from you.

Once upon a time there was a little baby princess.  She was little and sweet and everyone loved her.

She lived in a castle, of course.

As the princess grew up she got sweeter and smarter, and everyone loved her more than ever.  But they did not love her pet.

Because her pet was a dragon.

“A dragon is a very dangerous pet for a little girl,” they all said.

But she loved her pet dragon, and she wouldn’t let anyone take him away.

Then one day a beautiful lady appeared in the kingdom.  She was so beautiful that no one knew she was an evil ice witch.

She cast a spell that covered the whole kingdom with snow.  The castle was covered and the people were covered.  Even the dragon was covered in snow.

“Don’t worry,” said the princess.  “My dragon will take care of it.”

And he did.  He breathed fire on the ground, and melted all of that snow.

He cleared all the snow off the castle.

Then he very carefully melted all the snow and ice off of the princess and her people.

When all the snow was gone, everyone was so happy.  “Hooray for the dragon!” they all yelled.  And no one ever suggested getting rid of him again.

The End.

Told you it was lame.  But it worked.  It got the ball rolling.  My kids stories were much, much better.

One day, Joey decided it was enough.  He went to bed at five o’clock and wouldn’t get up, even to eat dinner.  When his mom came to ask what was wrong, he put his pillow over his head.  Whenever he heard or noise or someone came into his room, he didn’t answer or move.  He just lay there repeating, “Go away, go away, go away, go away” in his head.  (He knew better than to say it out loud.)  Finally, the house got quiet as everyone went to sleep.  Joey took the pillow off his head and rolled onto his side.  It was so quiet and still.  His last thought before he fell asleep was “I wish it could always be just like this.”

In the morning, when Joey woke up, it was still quiet.  He looked at his clock.  It said 7:00,  just like always.  Usually his mom was making breakfast by now and calling to them all to get out of bed.  This peaceful morning was a nice change.  He got up and got dressed and brushed his teeth.  Usually his big sister was fighting for room by the sink.  This morning he was happy to have the bathroom all to himself.  He wondered if everyone had slept in.  He checked his sisters’ room.  The beds were empty.  Joey went downstairs and got out some cereal.  Normally they all crowded around the table and ate quickly while Joey’s mom rushed them along to get to school on time.  This morning, he was the only one and got to pick his favorite seat and take his time.  When he finished, he wondered what time it was.  He went to his mom and dad’s room.  Their bed was empty, too.  Where was everyone?

Then Joey remembered that his big sister had a special breakfast before school that week.  “It must be today,” he thought.  “They must have all gone before I woke up.”  Joey felt a little sad that they would leave without telling him.  He felt left out as the only one who didn’t get to go the breakfast.  Still, the quiet was awfully nice.  He put on his coat and boots and started off down the path they always walked to school.  Usually, his big sister would jabber away the whole time and hurry him along and boss him about staying out of the mud.  Today, he got to stomp right in a puddle and dawdle and daydream all he wanted, but he couldn’t help feeling just a little scared when he had to walk past the creepy hollow tree all by himself.

When he got to school, Joey noticed that it was very quiet there, too.  Usually, the sidewalks were crowded with kids and parents saying goodbye and calling out to their friends and pushing each other to get in the door first.  Today, Joey walked right through the doors without anyone bothering him.  There was no one around at all.  Walking down the silent halls, Joey began to feel worried.  Something wasn’t right.  Where was everyone?  Quiet at home had been warm and soft.  Quiet in the big echoing school building was cold and unfriendly.  Joey went to his class room.  The door was open.  All the desks and shelves and books and papers were exactly the same as always.  But there were no people.  No teacher with her cheerful smile and pleasant voice.  No friends waiting to tell him about the new comic book they had gotten last night or the way their cat had looked  when it climbed up the curtains.  No Joey was really afraid.  What was he supposed to do if no one was there?

For more than hour, Joey looked in every room in the school.  They were all empty.  Sometimes he thought he heard voices in the next room, but always when he opened the door, there was no one.  Finally, Joey couldn’t stand being all alone in that big school.  He ran all the way home.  It was quiet on the path, but he didn’t take time to enjoy it at all.  When he got home, no one was waiting for him.  Not even his hound dog greeted him at the door.  He called everyone’s names, but no one said anything.  Joey thought about going outside and walking around to see if he could find someone, but he felt too afraid to leave the house again.  Here at least he knew he was safe, even if he didn’t know what was happening.

That was a very long day.  Joey tried to watch TV.  He tried to read some books.  He tried to draw pictures or play with his toys.  Nothing seemed like much fun.  No one laughed at the cartoons with him.  No one helped him with the words he couldn’t understand.  No one admired his pictures or the ship he made out of Legos.  Time went by very slowly.  Joey felt very lonely as he poured some more cereal for his dinner.  When it was dark outside, Joey locked all the doors and crawled into bed trying not to think about tomorrow.  He put his pillow over his head, but this time it was to shut out the quiet.  It was a long time before he fell asleep.

A hard jab in the ribs woke Joey up at 7 the next morning.  His baby sister was sitting on his bed poking him with a Barbie.  She was the best thing he had ever seen.

“You see me!  I see me!” she yelled over and over.  Joey raced down the hall.  His big sister darted past and slammed the bathroom door in his face.  Joey laughed.  He went to the kitchen, where his mom was cooking pancakes.

“Feeling better?” she asked with a smile.

“Much better,” Joey said.

My head was still fuzzy
There was sleep in my eyes
When I felt something furry
It was quite a surprise

I jumped at least
Three feet straight up in the air
Then I looked at the creature
That now stood ‘top my chair

He was horrible, hairy
His breath knocked me out
I saw glittering teeth
There was drool on his snout

And while I was staring
Too frightened to think
He snatched up my toast
Just as quick as a wink

Once my breakfast was his
He left me there quaking
So it is that you find me
Sitting hungry and shaking

So heed my advice
Be smarter than most
That houndy is horrible
Keep your food close

Harold did not see his grandmother very often. She lived quite far away…Harold was never really sure where…and she only came once each year to visit. Visits from grandmothers are always rather wonderful, but visits from Harold’s grandmother were something even more extraordinary. She always brought her bulging yellow carpetbag and, as is often the case with grandmothers’ luggage, it always contained presents for Harold. Presents from Harold’s grandmother were never exactly what you would expect. She never brought toys or books or new clothes or anything like that. She only brought magical things. One year there was a magical ball of string, which looked depressingly ordinary until you unrolled it and discovered all the things that it could do and that you had already been playing with it for hours before you even thought to ask the time. Another year there were magic bottle caps which made beautiful music and played jumping games and turned into pirate gold when you put them under your pillow at night.

However many magical presents the yellow carpetbag contained, there was always room for one more thing inside. This was the thing that Harold loved best. It was always kept at the very bottom and taken out on the very last day of the visit. It was a wooden box. The box was just the right size to sit in Harold’s two hands and its plain wooden lid was attached by plain brass hinges and held tightly shut by a plain iron lock. Harold’s grandmother said that the box contained the world’s most wonderful treasure, but Harold had never seen what was inside. He was allowed to hold it, to feel its weight in his hand, to wonder and wonder what the treasure could be until his wondering was just about to burst out of his ears and he must ask once again if he could open the box. “Not this year,” his grandmother always said. “Perhaps when you are older.” But even though Harold was older every year, he was never given the key. Often throughout the year, Harold would find himself thinking about the wooden box, and in his dreams it opened, but somehow he always woke up just before he got a look inside.

The year that Harold was eight, his grandmother came later than usual. Her back was perhaps a little more bent than Harold remembered and her voice a little quieter, but her yellow carpetbag bulged as much as ever and the presents inside had all the usual magic. Harold waited patiently for the last day of the visit, and when it finally came and the wooden box was placed in his hands, he breathed a huge sigh of happiness. The box felt heavy. Was there more treasure than before? Slowly, Harold lifted it up until it was right in front of his eyes. Then he saw it. The lock. It was open. Harold looked questioningly at his grandmother, and she nodded. Trembling now, Harold set the box on the table between them and slowly, slowly opened the lid.

It was full of small things, full right to the top, but none of the things looked like treasure to Harold. An old key. A dried rose. Two black buttons. An acorn. A feather. A shiny piece of glass. Some withered leaves. Where was the treasure? Was the glass really a precious jewel? Did the key perhaps open a larger chest filled with gold? Harold felt all empty inside, like a bubble that is just about to be popped.

Harold looked steadily at the box, not wanting to lift his face and let his grandmother see what he was thinking. He breathed slowly once. Then twice. Then a gnarled, wrinkled hand came into view as his grandmother plucked the tiny acorn from the box. Harold couldn’t help but look up. The acorn sat in his grandmother’s hand, held up right before her eye.

“What-?” Harold started to ask.

“Listen,” his grandmother said.

Harold listened. He couldn’t hear anything.

“I can’t-”

“Just listen.”

Harold listened. He leaned forward to listen better. He strained his ears. But no matter what he did, he couldn’t hear anything.

After a few minutes, Harold’s grandmother leaned over and pressed the acorn into his hand. “Each and every thing in this box is a story waiting to be heard. Those stories are the greatest treasure you’ll ever find. Listen well.”

Harold held the acorn tight in his hand as he said goodbye to his grandmother. Watching her walk slowly down the path away from his house, he vowed to himself that he would uncover every bit of treasure in that box. He would listen like no one in the world had ever listened before.

And that is what he did. He set the acorn next to him in the morning while he ate his breakfast. He carried it with him as he quietly walked to school. He slept with the acorn under his pillow at night. Days went by. Then weeks.

And then one day, sitting under a tree with the acorn in his hand, he heard it. The acorn’s story was right there, just as his grandmother had said. Without warning, the story seemed to pick him up and carry him away to another place.

And when he came back, he had inside him a shining treasure.

So it was that Harold spent his days listening. Listening to keys and pressed flowers. Listening to tarnished rings and broken combs and tiny pebbles. And the treasure inside him grew and grew until it filled him up completely and he knew he needed to share it. So he began to look for others who wanted treasure, and he passed on what heard. And then he listed some more.

And Harold was happy.

Monday: Story of the week. It’ll usually be based off of something my kids said. Nothing sets off the imagination like the crazy, random things kids say.

Tuesday: Time out Tuesday I’ll review good books I’m reading, talk about writing, or whatever else suits my fancy.

Wednesday: From the Box Series of stories inspired by little things we’ve found along the way.

Thursday: Poem of the Week Silly poems. Mostly just because there aren’t enough places in life to use those valuable rhyming skills.

Friday: A Thousand Words Stories inspired by photos. I have some talented friends, so I’ll be riffing off of some of their shots, as well as anything else I can find.

I’ll never forget the day my family first took me to the infamous Golden Corral. I’d heard of the place: endless rows of steaming vegetables and breaded meats, dinner rolls piled up to the sky, and mashed potatoes with that one-of-a-kind boxed taste. It was every kid’s dream, and mine was about to come true. When we walked through that second set of double doors, I stopped and sniffed the air. It was pure cafeteria. I had never been so excited.

I was halfway through my chicken fried steak and thinking about a second helping of mashed potatoes when I saw a woman walk in the front door wearing a dress so pink that it hurt my eyes and carrying a poofy little dog that reminded me of the end of my grandmother’s mop. I barely had time to wonder why anyone would bring a dog to an all-you-can-eat restaurant before the dog launched himself out of his owner’s arms and literally flew straight at a man who was passing by with a plate full of roast beef.

Seeing something small and white and furry flying toward his head, the man jumped back, landing right on the edge of someone’s table and sending two bowls of pudding and a banana split smashing down onto the ground. The man was clearly embarrassed, and he backed away quickly, apologizing and clutching his injured hip with one hand and his plate of roast beef with the other hand. Unfortunately, he didn’t see that the dog was now right under his feet. He tripped, dumping his plate of roast beef all over a dignified man in a nice Sunday suit.

The man jumped up, outraged, waving his spoon around and causing bits of noodle soup to fly in every direction. The longest noodle landed with a splat on the face of a nearby woman. It must have been hot because she yelped a really loud “Yeeeeeep!” and shot up out of her chair, immediately stepping on the peel from the banana split and sliding ten feet only to collide with a mother who was carrying three glasses of ice cold Sprite. The Sprite fountained up into the air as the two women tumbled to the floor.

The teenagers at the next table, now covered in Sprite, took one look at the chaos and gave each other big smiles. In seconds, two big handfuls of mashed potatoes were flying across the room.

Then two potato-splattered strangers were launching canned peaches back into the crowd. Then a little girl with peaches in her hair was running through the restaurant throwing handfuls of peas in every direction. Then a grandmother was pegging people with small pieces of corn bread. Then a family of four, huddled under a table, was firing corn and green beans at everyone in sight. Someone poured gravy all over the floor. Someone else was using a fried chicken leg as a sword.

I had never seen anything so crazy in all my short life. Pretty soon everyone in the restaurant was in on the fight. I may have thrown a handful or two of mini corn cobs myself. The last thing I remember seeing before the fireman burst through the door with hoses to clean the place up and shock everyone back to their senses was the little white dog over under a corner table, happily slurping up gravy with bits of chocolate cake floating in it.

Oh drool
A Pool!
Cool shade!
Let’s wade!
Or not
I’m hot!
Big grin
Dive in
Gasp! Shout
Get out!
Be bold?
Too Cold!

Now, having left this short message that half-implies I’m battling a life-threatening disease (when in reality I’m just battling normal life with three small human beings and some really hot weather and a few water outages) I’m going to go see if I can hunt up my creativity so I can leave a real post tomorrow.

Day one, take off jewelry, rings, bracelets and lockets
Day two, throw out all of those rocks in your pockets
Day three’s when those glasses of lead need to go
Day four, trim the nails from your fingers and toes
Day five, take your armor off, lay down your spear
Day six, pull the weeds that have grown in your ears
Day seven is wooden shoe burning time
Day eight, take a bath and wash off all the grime
Day nine, get a razor, shave off all your hair
Day ten, sell the monkey that was living up there

Now don’t you feel lighter and happier, too?
It is hard to let go, but so fun when you do.
You can run, you can jump, and it feel extra nice.
And it’s all ’cause you’re smart, and you took my advice.