SOL 15/31: Party Time!

Leigh Anne's party has begun and she asked us to assemble an analog bag or basket (new-to-me trend). I listed my collected items in handwriting and took a photo too. I can't wait to see what's in  your bag!

              Can you tell that I'm book obsessed?

 

 See you at the party!

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for creating this challenge and providing the space and support for us year after year. And thanks to this magnificent community for sharing stories with me and encouraging my writing life.

SOL 14/31: If we sliced in February . . .

I get on my soapbox about this time every year. If we sliced in February, we'd be halfway there! But I digress, I started this post to share why I've been slammed ever since I returned from Roots Tech. Here's my bio (written by me) for the 15th Anniversary Family History Discovery Day:

Ramona, a retired educator, is a recent transplant to North Carolina after residing in the Seattle area for 23 years. She has a lifelong identity as a reader. However, her journey to becoming a writer of stories began in the 21st century with an incredible group of sixth graders. This journey continued as she encouraged the members of her congregation to write their family stories and committed to writing a family story each week in 2020. Join us for inspiration to bind the hearts of your family through family stories and  discover the key to ongoing success in this endeavor.

As we began a month of writing slices in the classroom in 2012, it was my sixth graders who encouraged me to post my slices to my blog. Up until that point, I had only been a lurker at Two Writing Teachers. What a wonderful fifteen years I've enjoyed as a slicer here at Two Writing Teachers. This is where I was born as a writer and what a journey it is! Here's the description of the class I presented today at our Celebrate Family History Discovery Day, written by my friend, Denise.

 

Ramona shares how she has taken "eating the elephant" of family stories and broken them down to small, manageable "bites" to record and save cherished family lore that might otherwise be lost. She is a teacher and cheerleader "extraordinaire" and will inspire you to save that moment you have in your memory and write it down for the next generation. 

 

What fun to be dubbed a cheerleader of family stories! Of course, two classes I wanted to take were happening at the same time as my own class. Why does that always happen - the conundrum of dueling classes, ever present at conferences? 

 

My niece and sister-in-law (visiting from TX and OK) and my daughter are coming to pick me up for dinner. As Bugs would say, "That's all folks!"

 

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for creating this challenge and providing the space and support for us year after year. And thanks to this magnificent community for sharing stories with me and encouraging my writing life.

SOL 13/31: Currently I'm . . .

This is a familiar format, someone (I can't remember who) used it yesterday and credited their inspiration to Elisabeth. I'm combining it with Elisabeth's "write in six minutes" format. Can I do it?

WATCHING - nothing, too many other commitments on the horizon to spend time with TV

READING - Isola, an intriguing HF, for next week's book club meeting

LISTENING - trying to finish Project Hail Mary before the movie comes out 

FEELING - scattered with too many pots on the fire

PLANNING - a run through today of my Binding Hearts Together with Family Stories presentation 

LOVING  - that my niece Kara and sister-in-law Kathy will arrive Saturday from TX & OK for a spring break visit

WISHING - that my issues with comments disappearing would disappear. They didn't start until the 6th! Everything was fine until then. What happened? It's making me crazy. My apologies to so many slicers whose comments disappear when I try to post them and I can't figure out why.

That took nine minutes. Am I just a slow writer?

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for creating this challenge and providing the space and support for us year after year. And thanks to this magnificent community for sharing stories with me and encouraging my writing life.

SOL 12/31 & Poetry Friday: "Holding the Light" by Stuart Kestenbaum

This post is doing double duty for Poetry Friday and for Slice of Life.  Linda Baie, a teaching friend I met through blogging for Slice of Life, is hosting our gathering this week. 

This poem, Holding the Light, appeared in a pile on my desk, copied at some past point in time because it spoke to me. I think one reason I love it is because it begins with the word gather (my OLW in 2023 and 2024). And the poem ends with a reference to gather. Because many of our hearts are broken, and the heart of the world as well, this seemed a good time to share this poem. 

 

 Holding the Light

Gather up whatever is 

glittering in the gutter,

whatever has tumbled 

in the waves or fallen

in flames out of the sky,

 

for it's not only our

hearts that are broken, 

but the heart 

of the world as well.

Stitch it back together.

 

You can read the rest of the poem here at poets.org. May this poem bring solace to our broken hearts and give us courage to "repair and stitch together what beauty there is" in our broken world. 

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for creating this challenge and providing the space and support for us year after year. And thanks to this magnificent community for sharing stories with me and encouraging my writing life.

SOL 11/31: Sunset Haiku

 

Sunset beckons me

Nature's marvelous paintbrush

Springtime spectacle

Photo taken by me!

March 7, 2026 

Millcreek, UT

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for creating this challenge and providing the space and support for us year after year. And thanks to this magnificent community for sharing stories with me and encouraging my writing life.

SOL 10/31: 10 Teasers I Can Never Resist

For this tenth day of slicing, I'm sharing ten words or phrases that never fail to make me click on someone's slice:

 1. Cats (looking at you, Elisabeth)

 2. Books (I love picture books, chapter books, middle grade books, historical fiction, book clubs, bookstores, libraries, author visits  . . . )

 3. Cookies ( Baking delectable cookies is my superpower.)

 4. Grandchildren (just home from visiting the three UT grands for almost two weeks) I'm leaving a link for yesterday's post because I was unable to do so yesterday. Oh, the challenges of technology!

 5. Spiritual Life (always interested in how to strengthen this part of life)

 6. Middle Schoolers (When I retired, I left my heart in sixth grade!)

 7. Family history (Not a genealogist, but I love encouraging folks to write their own stories.) 

 8. Poetry (always new poets and poems to meet . . . Kim, I'd like to meet Clint Smith too!) 

Now I'm stumped, off to look at posts for inspiration.

 9. Lost items (Always searching for something)

10. Buds, blossoms, sunsets, springtime ( I know that's four things, but they're all nature related and I do love alliteration.)

 Happy Day 10 of this month of slicing! 

 

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for creating this challenge and providing the space and support for us year after year. And thanks to this magnificent community for sharing stories with me and encouraging my writing life.

SOL 9/31: 9 3/4 years ago I became a Grandma!

I'm in a memoir writing group and this was our latest prompt:  

"Scroll back to your photos from 2016 and choose one image that catches your attention. No need to overthink it. 

I'll spare you the lengthy paragraph I wrote summing up all the important (according to me) events of the 2016 calendar year. I totally ignored the advice, "Don't overthink it." Can you tell that I'm an easily distracted writer? Back to my response to the image I ultimately chose.

Beginning in July 2016 I begin to travel more frequently. I make three, yes THREE trips to Virginia to visit Blake and Stefi in July, August, and October of that year because there is now a 3^rd person in their family. I proudly accept the crown as grandmother to my first grandchild, Theodore Faust Behnke, born June 22, 2016. It’s been a delightful almost ten years as grandmother to Teddy and five more grandchildren! I’ve always loved babies and was sad that my two grew up so fast. I looked forward to becoming a grandma from the time that my children married. I watched dear friends become grandparents and hoped to join their exclusive club someday. And in June 2016 it happened. 

Here's the 2016 pic of Teddy (just a little over two weeks old) when we had our first meeting:

And here's a poem I wrote after we met:

Time for another day of
cuddling sweet Teddy, 
kissing his soft forehead, 
nuzzling the down on his head,

absorbing baby molecules,
capturing precious expressions,
observing my son in this new role as Dad,
celebrating the love of his sweet Mama,
murmuring sweet endearments,
taking turns with Grandpa,
singing tender lullabies, 

nuzzling the down on his head, 
kissing his soft forehead,
cuddling sweet Teddy, 
time to plan my next trip. 

 

What can I say about Teddy? He’s a mini-Blake! He’s a wonderful brother to his two younger sisters. He’s a natural born athlete (definitely not the Behnke genes). I remember watching him scooter around our driveway on Mercer Island with the ease of someone totally at home on wheels, even though he was barely two. I visited Utah the summer he mastered the bicycle and loved watching him fly around the park near his library. I love watching him play soccer, baseball, and basketball when I visit. He likes talking to me about books and spends a lot of time asking me about authors and titles. He has a wonderful sense of humor just like his dad. He knows how to work hard to reach a goal. He is a gentleman who loves opening the doors at church for anyone who needs help. He’s a friendly guy who loves people. His excitement when I come to visit always makes me feel right at home. His arrival prompted three visits to Virginia in 2016, he turned a family of two into a threesome and last night when I watched him play basketball, he made three baskets for his team. And most important of all, his arrival made me a grandma!  

And here's Teddy the night he made those three baskets during my visit:

This Grandma stage of my life is absolutely the best! And I think I finally understand why my mother used to say, "I know you kids will be okay, but I really wish I could stick around to watch the grands grow up." Somehow, I think she's watching over all of us.

 Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for creating this challenge and providing the space and support for us year after year. And thanks to this magnificent community for sharing stories with me and encouraging my writing life.