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EN Anecdotes

March Slice of Life No. 26. Thumbing my journals today, I ran across a few EN anecdotes from his preschool years. Anecdote 1. EN had been trailing me around the house all afternoon. EN: What are you doing, Gramma? Me: Brushing my teeth. EN places his hand on his hip...

Triumphal Entry

March Slice of Life No. 25. On Friday, I shared “Palm Sunday” by Marie J. Post. Today, in the comments, Kay McGriff shared a link to Malcom Guite’s, book of sonnets, Sounding the Seasons (2012). I was not familiar with the man or his writings....
Assumptions

Assumptions

March Slice of Life No. 24. “Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in.” – Alan Alda Several years ago my redheaded daughter-in-law shared “The Cookie...
Antithesis of Holy Week

Antithesis of Holy Week

March Slice of Life No 23.   *   Poetry Friday With a haunting beauty, Marie Post captures the antithesis between Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his arrest, trial, and crucifixion later in the week. Palm Sunday Astride the colt and...

Eating Bugs

March Slice of Life No. 22. It was a nondescript day. EM and EN were playing within earshot of the discussion going on at the kitchen table, a discussion between their three older brothers and Mommy, a life science discussion, a discussion about taste buds. Suddenly,...

The No Shot Doctor

March Slice of Life No. 21. It is booster shot day! Every mother knows the misery of that day. My daughter has scheduled two in one — two kids in one visit. I think she is very brave. Characters: EM, a pink girl, almost five EN, big brother, in first grade Mommy...
Spring Arrives

Spring Arrives

 March Slice of Life No. 20. SPRING ARRIVES TODAY at 9:15 AM PDT On the vernal equinox, all over the world, day and night are balanced — twelve hours of light, twelve hours of darkness. And all over the world, the sun rises due east and sets due west.  I took...
I Was Caught

I Was Caught

March Slice of Life No. 19 EN leans in toward me, swinging his leg off the edge of a grown-up chair. His eyes are laughing as he puts his hand up near his mouth like he is about to tell an important secret. “Gramma.” I motion a quiet sign to remind him to...
Twilight

Twilight

March Slice of Life No. 18. So the evening and the morning were . . . And God saw that it was good.  –Gen. 1 twilight diffused-light candle between sun and moon and sun daybreak to sunrise, sunset to nightfall stars hide and return, sun rises and sets slowly...
On a Book Cover

On a Book Cover

March Slice of Life No. 17  *  Celebrate This Week. I found my slice on a book cover. I was sorting through a dozen randomly organized books. [Isn’t that an oxymoron?] These books are on a the shelf next to the place where my carry-on bag waits in my office for...
Slicing, Laughing, Blessing

Slicing, Laughing, Blessing

March Slice of Life No. 16  *  Poetry Friday. I. Slicing with green– I have already selected something green to wear on Saturday, lest I forget and one of my kids or grandkids come by. I know they won’t forget. And since Saturday is St. Patrick’s...
Hundreds of Cast-Offs

Hundreds of Cast-Offs

March Slice of Life No. 15. We arrived late afternoon for our annual end-of-summer beach week. We unpacked. [Funny how two words represent over an hour’s worth of work.] Then we eagerly headed to the path that would take us through waving sea grasses, over a...
Pink or Copper

Pink or Copper

March Slice of Life No. 13. I watch the jet bridge for Gate A28 move slowly like a giant arm toward us, latching onto our plane. The seat belt sign blinks off with a ding. Buckle clicks in rapid fire follow. In a single automatic move — quick and sweeping...

Talking Crow

March Slice of Life No. 12. I. Relaxing in lawn chairs, we soak up the warm March sun. EM is bouncing around, shooting hoops, rolling on her belly on the basketball, sitting on the porch steps. II. Caw…caw! Caw…caw! The raucous call of a crow comes from...
Country Spring, 1913

Country Spring, 1913

March Slice of Life No. 10. Evening came and I had not written a slice. I wondered, what should I write? Blank. I only knew that it would be short. I thought about today being the 9th day of March and my name being Nine. That idea lasted about nine seconds. Then I...
In the Sycamore’s Shadow

In the Sycamore’s Shadow

March Slice of Life No. 9  *  Poetry Friday. During the month of February I participated in Laura Shovan’s 6th Annual February Poetry Project. On Day  11, Linda Baie provided a pencil drawing as our prompt. Linda received the pencil drawing, “Monday”...
My Daddy’s Golden Shovel

My Daddy’s Golden Shovel

March Slice of Life No. 8.   What’s a golden shovel? It’s a poem. Last month during Laura Shovan’s poetry challenge, I read a number of shovel poems. I did some searching and learned that the “Golden Shovel” is actually a poem...
Beer-Ox

Beer-Ox

March Slice of Life No. 7. Tonight we had beer-ox! Some people call them bierocks, pronounced /brocks/. Some people call them piroshki. My grandkids call them meat pockets. I have a favorite memory. Really it is an accumulative memory of balmy afternoons that included...
Brumation

Brumation

March Slice of Life No. 6. I learned a new word. The text A limerick by Diane Mayr There once was a ‘gator named Nathan who eschewed the state of brumation. He skied and he skated– and was truly elated– to became an Olympic sensation. The word...
Epitaph for the Snows

Epitaph for the Snows

March Slice of Life No. 5. This will be my final post about snow for Winter 2017-18. The life and times of the Snows begin on February 19th and end on 28th. MONDAY Our world awakes to a thin white blanket. 9:30 AM. My grandkids build a “partially brown...
Song of Joy

Song of Joy

March Slice of Life No. 4. In February, I joined Laura Shovan’s poetry challenge. Each day we were presented visual art as a prompt to draft an ekphrastic poem.  On Day 17, Tricia Stohr-Hunt shared “The Tall White Sun” (1917), a painting by Charles...
Cornbread Saturday

Cornbread Saturday

March Slice of Life No.3  *  Celebrate This Week. I’m sharing a slice and celebrating comfort on this Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and a wedge of cornbread drizzled with warm cream and maple syrup. There are some days that are comfort days, like...
No Snow for Me

No Snow for Me

Poetry Friday  *  March Slice of Life No. 2. “Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.” Dr. Suess, Happy Birthday to You   During February, I wrote poetry with a wonderful community of poets. On Day 21,...
Launching SOLSC18

Launching SOLSC18

March Slice of Life No. 1. It’s already March 1 in EST zone. And since I live in the northwest, three hours behind EST, I take advantage of this to be an “early slicer.” Tonight I’m sitting in an easy chair, drafting this slice on my laptop....