As I really think about it, #5 on my List of 57 in 52 is even more frightening/challenging than #1 Skydiving, #2 Pole Dancing, #3 Flip Turns and #4 10k.

#5 is more of a window into my mind and heart. It is WRITING. And #5 is Writing a Children’s Book Series that has been living in my head. This is one thing on my list that requires the revealing of oneself… with all the wonder in the words and all the self-doubt that accompanies it. This is a very big one for me.

I’ve been writing my entire lifetime. My Mom still has little poems that I wrote to her when I was very, very young. Birthday poems. Anniversary poems. Little rhyming stanzas from a very little girl. There were verses here and there from the angst of the teen… but my writing took a hiatus of sorts until I had children of my own. Then, little moments and circumstances and lessons tugged at my mind, my heart and my pencils. I began to write again. Poems. Stories. Little rhyming stanzas from a Mommy to her children.

Then the grandchildren began to arrive and my mind just SOARED with ideas as my heart multiplied its love more than I could ever have imagined. Poems. Stories. Little rhyming stanzas from a Grandma to her grandchildren.

I’ve had an idea in my head for awhile now about a story about grandparents babysitting for grandchildren. If you’re a grandparent, you’ll know what I mean. If you’re a parent of young children, you’ll know what I mean. And if you’re a child, you’ll know what I mean, too. It’s about adult children giving grandparents detailed, specific, minute, cataloged, meticulous instructions on how to care for children… like we’ve never done it before! Ah, yes. But we, as grandparents, just wanna have fun. Kind of like Cyndi Lauper, except with grandkids. But we also want to enrich our grandchildren with marvelous, unforgettable adventures…

And this is where my book series comes in.

#5 on my List of 57 in 52 is to complete 4 books in the series of grandparent adventures. And I know that I had to complete ONE before I could proceed. I put my mind and my heart into writing the first book, and I am going to put it out there now. For you. For me. I’ve been working on it every day since I turned 57 on October 6th… researching, writing, editing, revising… little rhyming lines to share with you. I wanted my story to be both whimsical and mischievous, wild but filled with information… like the names of animals, birds, rivers and continents. I wanted the grandparents to be responsible but daring and fun. And I want each book to end similarly… with the quiet, well-behaved grandparents and grandchildren sitting nicely back at home, but with something amiss – Grandma’s hair (“a telltale sign that they had been SOMEWHERE.”)! But the adventure secret is always safe between the grandparents and grandkids.

I am both humbled and terrified to do so… but here is my first story in my series (of course, you must imagine the illustrations!):

AFRICAN SAFARI

Grammy and Grampy sat quite still while Mommy and Daddy bustled and filled their heads with “where” and “when” and “that” and “this”, of “do’s” and “don’ts”… and one last kiss.

But in the time it took to say, “Bye, bye,” Grammy had whispered, “African Safari.”

Then tucked in a snuggly and packs on backs, with Puppy and sunscreen and Cracker Jacks… Harriet, Esther and Oliver, too, readied for their rendezvous.

Then whirlwind, tailwind, lickedy-split, in leaps and bounds off they went…

To a land enchanted with mangrove swamps, with ferns and orchids and parrots that talked.

And as they tiptoed further through, zebras and cheetahs leaped into view.

But as Grampy fetched his telescope, thunderous stomping of antelope shook the land beneath their toes, causing the Limpopo to overflow… tossing the travelers quite upended, downstream, swiftstream, as ringhals with venom writhed and wrapped and whipped and hissed…

Until Grammy grabbed the tail of a yellowfish. Then laughing, swirling, fancy-free, she called, “Hey, everybody! Grab onto me!”

Swishing and swashing and swiveling hogwild, they swam with the carp until a crocodile winked its eyes and snapped its teeth… ready to devour this unexpected feast.

But suddenly Grampy, with no hems nor haws, hooked right onto a cormorant’s claws… lifting Harriet, Esther, Oliver too, and Puppy and Grammy with her new hair-do.

And much like that of a meteorite, they flew high among songbirds, vultures and eagles in flight.

When lo and behold, the cormorant stopped… abruptly, suddenly, on a Drakensberg top. It folded its wings with effortless grace, creating a magnificent hiding place for Grammy and Grampy and all-aboard from baboons and hyenas who squealed and explored, and from lions and leopards and jackals who roared.

But more stentorian than all of this, a prodigious sneeze escaped the lips of Puppy, who then, sneezed and sneezed and sneezed again… propelling the travelers to disembark into the den of a sleepy aardvark, who opened his eyes and stuck out its tongue, thinking the intruders were ants on the run.

Now all sticky, all gooey, all uncomfortably damp, Grammy announced, “It’s time for a bath!”

So into the Orange they vaulted and rushed, to the irksome dismay of a hippopotamus. And sooner than soon, in multitudes, cape buffalo and elephants stomped into view.

But more perfunctory and more swift than one can surmise, Grammy leaped upon a giraffe’s backside… checking her watch and charting her charts, calling, “Hop up! Hop on! It’s time to depart!”

So whirlwind, tailwind, lickedy-split, in leaps and bounds home they went.

To do the “do’s” and “that’s” “whens” and “this’s”… just in time for homecoming kisses.

But the strange metamorphosis of Grammy’s hair was a telltale sign that they had been SOMEWHERE!

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My goal with #5 is to develop 3 more stories of Grammy and Grampy and their adventures with their grandchildren… the next one taking them on the Iditarod Race.

So there. #5. Not stepping off a plane at 10,000 feet or twirling around a pole to heart-thumping music… but opening myself to constructivity. Frightening? Yes. Oh, yes! But my series is a goal that I want to accomplish, and putting it on my List makes it that much more concrete. Now I’ve gotta go run a couple of miles and think about my characters!