Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 59

This is week 59 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. Even I'm tired of hearing me complain about the words every week so I'm not going to do it this week. I'm just going to post my wordzzles. Nope, no complaints here even if they were so bad that I almost wanted to give up.... Nope... no complaints.... Just posting what I post and leaving it at that.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: prefix, art festival, income tax, chicken noodle soup, jump rope, Dutch Treat, flowering plum tree, bats in the belfry, diamond earrings, tigers Mini Challenge: book club, organic tea, the cow jumped over the moon, paragon of virtue, wench

Here's my ten-word offering for this week:

Dutch Treat seemed like a better name for chocolate than chicken noodle soup, Amanda mused to herself, but there was no denying that this soup was a treat, Dutch or not. Sitting at this outdoor café, surrounded by flowering plum trees here at the art festival the bats in the belfry madness of last night’s income tax trauma seemed like ancient history, though just the thought of sorting through bank accounts and prefixes and numbers made her anxious all over again. Nerves aside, the happy outcome – besides the fact that the filing was done – was that she was getting a big enough return to buy herself those diamond earrings or if not them, maybe that cool painting of the tigers she had looked at earlier. She felt elated enough to join those kids playing jump rope… well almost, anyway. It was fun watching them at least. In any case, all things considered, today was a good day.

And here's my mini challenge:

Miranda sat drinking her organic tea and feeling like a paragon of virtue as she read this month’s book club selection, which was entitled The Wizard’s Wench and while not the greatest book ever was entertaining. Certainly, she thought to herself, smiling at her sleeping three year old, it’s more exciting than the cow jumped over the moon.

My maxi Challenge:

Peter Prefix loved being curator of the art festival. He had single-handedly (well, almost) revitalized this once forgotten corner of his little city. It had all begun as he read Joseph Campbell and absorbed that great man’s sense of wonder… and the idea of following your bliss. Peter had followed his bliss and opened The Flowering Plum Tree, a sweet café where he served organic tea and quality vegetarian food. The place was famous for its vegetarian version of chicken noodle soup, a cocktail of his own invention which he called the Saucy Wench, and for the weekly book club gatherings held there. With the amazing success of Plum Tree, he decided to open another- very different - place in the same neighborhood. He had called the second cafe The Cow Jumped Over the Moon. It was created with children and parents in mind and was part café, part indoor playground. There was a padded jump rope corner, a room called bats in the belfry where kids could bounce and run and burn off steam, and the Paper Tiger room where they could learn origami or put on smocks and draw or paint while their parents watched and enjoyed his signature Dutch Treat hot chocolate and an unlimited supply of donuts and cookies or they could enjoy the "dining room" and have a meal if they preferred. With the success of both restaurants his bliss had guided him on to creating the series of annual arts festivals which included the whole gamut of the arts from painting and sculpture to literary talents. The Flowering Plum offered weekly poetry readings as well as the book clubs and The Cow had a standing gallery for the children’s art. Peter was a happy man. Though many accused him of it, he didn’t think of himself as a paragon of virtue. He felt he was a good man and an honest one. He paid his income taxes gladly, gave money to charity, helped those in need when he could and did everything he could to reach out a helping hand to those to whom life had been less than kind. He did this in part because he knew that his own good fortune had been built on an amazing stroke of luck. Thirty years ago as a very young man he had found a pair of diamond earrings lying on the sidewalk and after making great effort had been able to return them to their owner. She had rewarded him with the down payment on his first restaurant, a life-long friendship and her daughter's hand in marriage. He was more lucky than virtuous and he knew it. He was happy to be alive. Life was good and he counted his blessings daily.

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Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: preparation, tic-tac-toe, splurge, auction block, the bitter end, milk, papyrus, when the parade passes by, bill of lading, stone wall

Mini Challenge: polar bear, 20 seconds, get it together, spasmodic, antiquity

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!