Partially Brown
Slice of Life. It snowed. On Sunday, in the stillness of a windless afternoon, under heavy grey skies, gigantic wet flakes like confetti fell straight to the ground. Whenever it snows, I like to look at the trees and rooftops from our second story hallway dormer...
You Are Beloved
Celebrate This Week This week I've been celebrating love. On Saturday, I found a skinny poem in the words of 1 Corinthians 13. Love Greatest of all is love kindly patiently enduring. Love hopes believes forgives. Love is greatest of all. (Back story is below in...
Night at Noonday
Poetry Friday. This week Holly Thompson shared "Eclipse," a corrugated artwork by Colleen Sakurai, for Day 15 of Lauren Shovan's 6th Annual February Poetry Project. Having experienced a total solar eclipse in Oregon on August 21, 2017, I immediately decided I must...
Tell Your Heart To Beat Again
Slice of Life This is February. The month that belongs to Valentine's Day. The month of roses, chocolate, and love songs. The month of candied hearts and silly school rhymes. The month that I initial papers with red hearts that smile. And so with hearts on my mind, I...
Poetry Challenge – Week 1
Poetry Friday * Celebrate This Week I am celebrating a week of writing. A poem. Every day. I've committed to composing a poem each day in response to a work of art. I wrote about it last week and shared my first two poems. This week, I've played around with...
Staying on Task
Slice of Life. Our temps reached 57 today before the sun began to sink. I've noticed evening light is lingering longer and the sun isn't tracking so low in our southern sky. Dare I believe that winter is behind us? With the warmer weather and sunny hours, I've...
Ekphrastic Poetry
Poetry Friday. It is February! And the 6th Annual February Daily Poem Project has begun. About the middle of February last year, I joined this community of poetry writers. I wrote a few poems and I read a lot more. And most of all, I fell in love with the support they...
2018 Is Yours
I saw this graphic and thought, What a compelling question on so many levels. Answer carefully, for your answer --a working thesis for your 2018 life essay-- will help you keep your focus. And don't wait too long to give your answer. I'd love to read your answer; just...
Sneak a Peek
Take a peek inside my notebook that I use for my Snippety Grammar 4 Editing STAARs workshop . . . Visit Snippety Grammar 4 Editing STAARs on my Calendar. Take a peek inside my notebook that I use for my Writing STAAR Essays workshop . . . Visit Writing STAAR...
Growing Strong Writers
Growing Strong Writers is a series of professional development workshops. In these workshops, I am attentive to the importance of daily writing practice, the complex demands of learning English, and a desire to cultivate a love for writing. These workshops offer...
The Future
Poetry Friday * Five Minute Friday * Celebrate this Week. As we slip from May to June, our schedules are filled with end-of-school celebrations, commencements, weddings, anniversaries, and anticipation of summer vacations -- all marking stones in life that give us...
Visit
Five Minute Friday & Celebrate this Week. [I've linked up with Kate Motaung where bloggers share their five minute quick write on a chosen word. I've also linked up with Ruth Ayres where bloggers share something they are celebrating.] The VISIT I. One of my...
Last Day of School
Poetry Friday. During the next few weeks, schools will be closing for summer vacation. As a tribute to teachers everywhere, I share Mattie Stepanek's poem-- written when he was eight years old. May it bring you a few chuckles even as it has me. Not Quite What I...
GPS
Slice of Life. It is still twilight when I pick up a banana and cup of coffee from the hotel breakfast buffet. My reserved Carmel Car drives up as I exit the lobby. I drop my bag onto the floorboard and slide into the back seat of the dark sedan, confirming my...
Celebrating Family and Truth
Celebrate this Week : Family. [I've linked up with Ruth Ayres where bloggers share something they are celebrating.] I celebrate family every week, but this week it is extra special. On Sunday we all knew we were into the final countdown. A countdown that has lasted...
The Lure of Lavender
Poetry Friday. Lavender. Oh, -- -- the color. -- the fragrance. -- the sound of the word. All summer long, I enjoy my bed lavender. I can't walk past it without breaking off a stem and rubbing it between my palms. In the cool of early summer mornings, I drink its...
Celebrating Mothers
Five Minute Friday : Mom 00:00.00 Begin a five minute stream of consciousness on paper. Mom. How do I write in five minutes about you? You are the one who gave me life, Who showered me with unconditional love. You kissed away my boo-boos and told me the great stories...
Bug Wisdom from EM
Slice of Life. It was our first warm spring day, temps reaching the 80's. In the northwest, as summer approaches and the earth's axis tilts toward the sun, the sun is actually closer to us than it is to our southern sister states. And its rays are more direct. That...
Celebrate Week #18 with should
Celebrate this Week In the morning. I am enjoying a brilliantly sunny, blue-sky, green-trees, summerishly warm morning. Who knew it would jump from highs in the mid-50s to the highs in the 80s in less than 24 hours? We slept with the windows open and a fan running...
Chatter
Poetry Friday. On this Friday, to salute chatter that I love and silence that I crave, in memory of my childhood, in memory of my brothers, I share "Little Charlie Chipmunk"-- the lines of which I can still recite. Little Charlie Chipmunk Little Charlie Chipmunk was a...
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