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....
A Month of Writing

A Month of Writing

Slice of Life. I.  Wednesday will be the last day in Laura Shovan’s  February Annual Poetry Writing Project. February has been a great month of sustained poetry writing, spontaneously responding daily to a random visual art prompt. Every day for 26 days (soon to...
Girlhood Memories

Girlhood Memories

 Poetry Friday  *  Celebrate this Week  *  Spiritual Journey.   A poem became a song and is sung around the world. I have a girlhood memory, or perhaps I should say a repeated memory, or maybe it’s really a string of memories that telescope into one, of my...
Partially Brown

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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,...
Ekphrastic Poetry

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

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...
Sneak a Peek

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

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

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...
Visit

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...
Last Day of School

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...

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

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...
The Lure of Lavender

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...