Noah Scalin’s challenge for me, on this 279th day of making things, was this:

Be monumental. Make a monument to a mundane event, place, or person.

Thinking back on my day, I considered designing a statue in honor of the kitchen sink, where I seem to spend a significant percentage of my day. Not that I love the location or its associated activities … but the mundane work I do at that sink does nurture my family.

Not sold on the idea, I continued brainstorming.

How about elevating my Google Calendar on a pedestal? The family schedule certainly qualifies as mundane. But truly, what would we do without it? That simple but crowded matrix is worthy of high regard.

This train of thought reminded me how hectic our family schedule really is, and how even mundane activities like carpooling, choir practice, and basketball games can make me nearly lose my mind.

Hmm … the death of my sanity. Perhaps I should create a tombstone for my dying brain.

But I had to remind myself: my theme for this make something year is “words.” As much as possible, I’m focusing my creations on words, reading, and writing. Especially writing.

So what’s the most mundane aspect of writing? Punctuation? Proofreading? Penmanship?

In my business writing classes, one tiresome topic emerges time after time after time. Grammar. The students don’t love it, and neither do I. They struggle with the tedious rules, and I tend to manage grammar by gut—a strategy that is only effective because I did the time in Mrs. Bean’s eighth grade English class and with a host of other teachers, from elementary through journalism school. Now, I’d rather not think about it.

Alas, we must. So here’s that monument: