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For all you romance writers out there, there was officially a duck love triangle this morning. My husband spotted Mr. and Mrs. Duck in the neighbor’s yard. Only there was a usurper in their midst. Another male duck – competition! The two males had a sort of face-off and flew away, leaving Mrs. Duck alone to contemplate her options. We were very sad about this until Mr. Duck (I don’t think its the usurper) came back. The two are now reunited. He fought for her!

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Here they are – the two ducks that have been wandering around our neighborhood for the past week. (disclaimer: these two ducks are not the exact same ducks, but the resemblance is uncanny). I refer to them as Mr. and Mrs. Duck. Creative, I know. I imagine they are very much like those elderly couples you see holding hands and taking walks very early in the morning. I think they are in love.

My husband and I first spotted them in our neighbor’s yard, pacing the fence line, as if they wanted to get into our yard. But before they could do too much exploring, we let our dog, Bubba, outside (he was whining at the door). He ran to the fence and chased them away.

The very next day, we spotted them again, meandering on the street behind ours. And this morning they were in our front yard. Right now as I type this, they are across the street. They waddle from yard to yard, side by side, and I’ve grown quite fond of them. Ryan decided to put some bread on our front lawn. Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Duck will have a little dinner date outside our window.

The other day, Mr. Duck was standing in a puddle on the side of the road while Mrs. Duck watched. I imagined their conversation going something like this:

Mrs. Duck: Dear, you do know that’s just a puddle, don’t you?
Mr. Duck: But it’s delightful! Look, my feet are wet.
Mrs. Duck would probably have no response for this. She probably would just blink several times and let Mr. Duck amuse himself.

Maybe I should write a children’s story about Mr. and Mrs. Duck. Oh wow, that would be a horrible idea. I have ideas for other kid’s books though. I thought of a whole series once about animals that were afraid of things they shouldn’t be. Like a bird who’s afraid of heights. Or a raccoon who’s afraid of the dark. Or a snake who’s afraid of mice. Or a worm who’s claustrophobic. Isn’t that sort of cute? What other ones could there be?

I got up at 3:30 AM this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep. So I just stayed up and started writing. Can you tell I am currently sleep deprived? Who blogs about ducks, anyway?

Question to ponder: Have you ever thought of writing a children’s book? If so, what would it be about?removetweetmeme

My husband and I go through these weird phases. We get on some sort of kick and run with it for awhile, until we get so absolutely sick of it that one or both of us agrees to put it away for awhile. Here are some examples of Ganshert family phases:

There was a period of time in our life when we “called” everything. For example: I call you do the dishes. Or, I call you feed Bubba. Sort of like elementary school – only we weren’t calling “Not it!”. And for whatever reason, we went by this rule. This started leading to arguments. It was at this point we decided maybe there was a healthier way to assign chores.

We went through a very bizarre phase where we would go to the mall and set down different coins (like pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters) and sit on a bench, and see if anybody would pick them up. We discovered nobody cared about anything less than a quarter. I can’t remember how this started – I think we were at the airport and our flight kept getting delayed, so this is what we resorted to for entertainment. We are easily amused.

We went through a phase where we stopped listening to the radio and would sing instead. This often led to hysterical laughter. If you heard either of us sing, you would understand why. It doesn’t help that Ryan always makes up his own lyrics to songs.

Our most recent phase originated from Ryan watching Donnie Brasco. Now, whenever I ask him a question or ask him to do something, his first response is, “Fah-get about it!” I have a feeling this phase will be leaving quite soon.

I go through phases is reading and writing too. I’ll get on one author and read all of his/her books . *cough* Francine Rivers *cough* Or I’ll get hooked on a certain genre and read all those books. Or, as a writer, I’ll fall in love with a word or a phrase or a character trait and find myself using them often in my writing. I have to be very careful here, since this can get repetitive.

Question to ponder: What phases have you gone through in life? If you’re a writer, what writing phases have your gone through?removetweetmeme