Celebrate This Week: Movies and Plays and Books, Oh My!

                             Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 

                                                      When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

 

A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember! 

A movie, a play, a movie, and a play.  It's been an indulgent week.   Monday night we met Sara and Will at the theater to see "Hidden Figures."  Wednesday afternoon I went to the Rep with a friend to see "Woody Sez."   Friday afternoon we went to the movies again.  This time to see "Fences."  And today we have tickets for the matinee of "The King and I" at the Paramount.  If you haven't seen Hidden Figures yet, go!  Woody Sez, about the life and music of Woody Guthrie was delightful (especially for this homegrown Oklahoma girl).   "Fences" was thought provoking and intense.  We saw the play years ago in Houston.  And today, after "The King and I," I'll be humming those familiar tunes.  All in all, it's been a great way to spend the week.  Can you tell I'm avoiding the real world for now?  

We belong to a film club and tonight our friend Bobbi will be doing her Year in Review discussing favorite films of 2016.  That's why we were "forced" to fit in two movies this week that we'd been meaning to see.  

I also celebrate our Three Musketeers occasional book club.  When two good friends moved away, we set up a google chat book club.  It's always a challenge to get the three of us together, but what a delight to catch up with these two dear friends over a book.  This week Coleen was in town for her annual ski trip with some other friends, so she came by my place and we connected with Renae for our discussion of What Alice Forgot by Lian Moriarty.  Next up is The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton.  (I was a bit sneaky suggesting this title since it's what I'm reading for my other book club.)  

And as always, I celebrate our friend, Ruth, and this community of friends who come together weekly to look for and celebrate the good in our lives.  

Slice of Life: Newbery Joy at Book Club!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, and Melanie

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

Every January or February, I attend a favorite event in my pjs from the comfort of my own bed.  It begins at 8 am so when it occurs on the east coast, I'm up before 5 am to be sure that my computer is working and all is in order for me to watch the live feed of the Youth Media Awards from the ALA mid-winter conference.  

I've hosted Mock Newbery groups for more than a decade, first in my classroom and now for three years in our after school book club, Books, Brownies & Beyond.  We partner with the children's librarians at KCLS (King County Library System).  Each fall they select some titles for a Mock Newbery list and encourage classroom teachers to utilize the list with students as they examine Newbery possibilities.  This year the KCLS Mock Newbery books were Wolf Hollow, The Wild Robot, Ms. Bixby's Last Day, and The Inquisitor's Tale.  I added four additional Mock Newbery titles for the students in our after school book club:  Pax, Some Kind of Courage, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, and In the Shadow of Liberty.  

We follow a balloting system that was provided to me several years ago by one of our community librarians.  Each member votes for three books, a first, second, and third choice.  The ballots are counted according to a point system:  first choice books receive four points; second choice books, three points; and third choice books, two points.  Last week, our book club voted for our top three titles in our Mock Newbery election.  Wolf Hollow and The Girl Who Drank the Moon tied for first place.  The next book was only one vote behind those two titles.  So The Inquisitor's Tale was named our Mock Newbery Honor book.  

Fast forward to book club this afternoon as we watched the Youth Media Awards.  It took quite a while to get to the Newbery announcement.  The students were thrilled to learn that The Girl Who Drank the Moon, one of our titles that tied for our Mock Newbery, won the actual Newbery Award.  And that our other two favorite titles - Wolf Hollow and The Inquisitor's Tale - both received Newbery Honor status.

And I'm excited to report that my search after Monday morning's award ceremony yielded some important information.  In 2018 the ALA mid-winter conference will be held in Denver and the following year in 2019, it will be in Seattle.  So no more 5 am alarms to watch the book awards (at least for the next two years)!

Celebrate This Week: More Loose Ends!

                            Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 

                                                      When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

 

A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!

Sometimes procrastination serves us well!  Because I hadn't sent my postcard poems out, I had the perfect activity for Friday.  I relished the time to handwrite notes to poetry friends.  I immersed myself in the hopeful words of two past inaugural poets -

Elizabeth Alexander and Richard Blanco.

I appreciate the lady at Wal-Mart who tried to help me print the image a friend had created for my haiku.  When that failed, she walked me through the steps to add my own text to the pic.

I'm thankful to my friend who shared her pic of our

New Year's Day dusting of snow to accompany my haiku.

I loved this comment from Kristi on Tuesday's Slice of Life:  "Yippee for tying up loose ends! Congratulations and what will you get to do next, now that this is taken care of?"   

Her words nudged me to some productive tying up: 

I finished my Christmas thank you notes.  I took care of another long overdue thank you note.  I finished up a couple of care packages
that never got mailed before the holidays.

(As you can tell, I excel at procrastinating!)  

I enjoyed the last of the nuts from our Christmas stockings.  This nut bowl is one of the treasured items from my youth.  It has the power to transport me to my ten-year old self seated beside my daddy learning how to crack a brazil nut so that it comes out in one piece.  I never managed that this year, but the last one I cracked came out in three pieces that I put back together

in honor of those happy memories.  

Because my son-in-law was on an outing with the Scouts, 

I enjoyed a sleepover at daughter's house on Friday night. 

We're looking forward to sweet baby boy's arrival 

sometime in the next three weeks!

Slice of Life: Tying Up Loose Ends!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, and Melanie

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

One of the things we do on our Christmas card is to note important events of the past year.  Author Irene Latham's visit to our middle school was listed this year along with grandson Teddy's first visit to Seattle.  

As I cleaned up a bit before the holidays, I guiltily unearthed a green banner completed by the members of our after school book club with their thoughts about Irene's visit.  My slice of life on October 4th summarized Irene's visit to the Seattle area and her stop at our middle school.   I linked to padlets created by one of our ELA teachers and promised a forthcoming padlet that would record my takeaways from both presentations and responses from the students in our after school book club.  

So that is the loose end that today's slice refers to and here's the link to the padlet with my notes and the responses from members of Books, Brownies, and Beyond (who were treated to a special session with our visiting author).  The banner was reduced to small snippets of paper that I cut off the banner and then photographed.  I hope you'll enjoy this late share of quotes from Irene's visit and student responses.  I know I'm enjoying the relief that comes from finally taking care of this obligation.  Better late than never, right? 

Celebrate This Week: Friends, Bloggers, and Finding Neverland

                             Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 

                                                      When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

 

A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!

I celebrate time with two good friends at an independent bookstore.

I touted the merits of recent middle grade books I've read in preparation for the upcoming announcement of the Newbery award.

And I snapped pics of titles that caught my eye.  

I celebrate finding new blogging friends.

This morning I read Kate Kraushaar's post on TWT.   While I don't read all the TWT posts anymore, anytime a middle school teacher is featured I'm compelled to read it.  At the end of her post, I clicked on the link to Kate's blog and scrolled through her posts, stopping to read more if something caught my eye.  And I found one I simply must share.   Check out Kate's post which provides some questions to guide students as they reflect on their progress in reaching this goal:  

"Students will be able to select and comprehend good-fit books, build their reading stamina,

and show their thinking in writing and conversation."  

If you're looking for a way to have your students write authentically about their reading lives, then this post is a great starting place.   

I celebrate that my daughter and I are headed to the theater today

to see "Finding Neverland."

Slice of Life: Transitioning from Christmas to Winter Decorations!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, and Melanie

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

I am not a woman who transitions easily from December to the New Year.  I'm never ready to put away the Christmas decorations.  So some years ago, I convinced myself to embrace snowmen and winter themed decor in January.  This decor eases my transition into the new year.  Most of the Christmas decorations are put away, but my snowmen are scattered around the house
bestowing winter cheer!

My January Cheer

(with apologies to "My Favorite Things")

When the day's gray

When the rain pours

When I'm feeling sad

I'm simply surrounded by snowman decor 

And then I don't feel so bad!

Celebrate This Week: The Helpers

                              Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 

                                                      When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

 

A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!

I'm celebrating the helpers in my life this week!

My husband helped out by cooking dinner and cleaning the kitchen several times this week.  And he listened to me as I made my way through a very busy week.  I subbed three days and then helped with a dinner for 75 missionaries on Thursday.  I so appreciated my friend Diane's instructions for food preparation and her expertise since she's done this many times before.  I had many helpers from our congregation - from the lettuce brigade who prepped all the romaine, to the brownie bakers, to my friend who made the final Costco run since I was subbing, to the servers who arrived to make sure everything was ready for the luncheon.  Thanks to all who helped!

Every week, there are two special helpers at book club.  
This is the third year that these young ladies have participated 
in our after school book club.  Whatever I need during book club - 
a trip to retrieve something from my car, help organizing book groups,  managing the drawing for a free book, or arranging the final clean up at the end of our meeting, Katie and Elsa are ready to help.  They always help me haul my stuff back to the car after book club.  Here's a fun pic I took last week of these two helpers as they patiently waited (while I chatted with Carrie, our KCLS librarian who assists at book club) to make that trip to the car at the end of the meeting.  

A few other quick celebrations:

I found my OLW and posted about it on

Spiritual Journey First Thursday.  

I finished this book which celebrated Beatrix Potter's 150th anniversary year.  Don't miss this tribute from 32 children's book authors-illustrators who reimagine characters from Potter's most beloved tales.  I finished Wolf Hollow and now I'm reading The Girl Who Drank the Moon.  Not much time left before we'll be voting for our favorites in our Mock Newbery at book club.

I celebrate that Sunday morning began with FaceTime
with a couple of my favorite guys - Teddy and his dad!

And here's my favorite holiday pic
from Teddy's first Christmas in Utah!

Spiritual Journey First Thursday: One Little Word for 2017

Thank you, Irene Latham at Live Your Poem, for getting this group back together.  I look forward to our year together as we explore spiritual topics. Carol at Beyond Literacy Link is hosting our first Spiritual Journey First Thursday of 2017.  I loved these words from Carol about choosing a OLW:  “Each year instead of creating resolutions, millions choose one word to guide their journey. Why? One, meaningful word becomes a focal point, a reminder, and a guide throughout the year. It makes its way into your life, tugs at your heart, snuggles into your being, connects with your lifestyle, and accompanies you on your journey. It can be your mantra, your go to word, your star to follow.” 

This is my 5^th year to choose a word to tug at my heart and snuggle into my being.  Here are the words that have guided my journey for the past four years.

Listen

Savor

Stretch

Abide and

Drum roll, please . . . 

My One Little Word for 2017 -   

Nourish!

This scripture in Psalms 107:9 spoke to me in December:  "For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness."  I considered the words satisfied and filled, but decided that nourished was the perfect word.  

There are so many ways that I want to experience being nourished in this new year:

Nourished by immersing myself in the good word of God

Nourished by extending love to family and friends

Nourished by choosing to exercise

Nourished by making healthy food choices

Nourished by observing beauty in the world

Nourished by embracing quiet time

Nourished by sharing my writing 

Nourished by reading the words of favorite writers

Nourished by stilling the demands that crowd my heart so I can

listen to the stillness,

savor the present moment,

stretch to grow, and always

abide in His love to 

nourish my soul and reach out in love. 

Slice of Life: Book Spine Poem

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, and Melanie

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

Always reluctant to pack away the Christmas decorations, I arranged some of my Christmas picture books to create a book spine poem that reflects on our biggest blessings of 2016!

Little One We Knew You'd Come

(that would be Teddy)!

A Dozen Silk Diapers,

A Christmas Memory 

(Teddy's first snow),

The Third Gift:  Bartholomew's Blessing -

Room For A Little One

(Grandson #2 - Arriving in February)!

I love how two births bookend this poem - one in June and one soon to come.  Those births and the joy they bring remind us
of how blessed we are by the birth of the Savior.  
And I must put in a plug for Bartholomew's Blessing, one of my favorite Christmas picture books.  I was so excited when it was picked by the Lundell girls to be read at our Christmas story hour last week.   If you don't know this book, you should.  It's a precious story of the mouse Bartholomew's search for a perfect gift when he's invited by an angel to be blessed by the newborn prince.  You'll be mesmerized by Margie Moore's beautiful illustrations and captivated by 
Stephanie Tolan's story of Bartholomew's journey.  

Celebrate This Week: A Sunday Morning Surprise!

                            Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 

                                                      When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

 

A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!

A sprinkling of snow greeted me at 4:30 this morning. 

I was hopeful that we might have enough snow to cancel church. 

 I had a lesson to teach and hoped I might get to sleep in instead.  

My husband said my prayer should have been more specific.  

"Don't just ask for snow, ask for enough snow to cancel church."

But before I worked on my lesson, I penned a haiku to honor our snow:

A snowy Sabbath
A new year's soft beginning
Wintry white frosting!

It was lovely to share a discussion with

a group of women I love around the topic:  

"How do we feel the love of the Lord in our lives?" 

I came away enriched from our discussion

and so happy to worship and learn weekly

with these women whose examples inspire me.

I introduced the idea of One Little Word to them.  

We searched our scriptures for words and phrases that are

meaningful to our lives as women of faith.  

Here are some of the responses that were shared:

Light

Living water

Strength and honor

Real intent

Satisfied

Remember

Good word

Patience in afflictions

Receive

Trust in the Lord

Encircled in the arms of His love

Rejoice

This has been a full week of celebrations:

A visit from our dear friends, the Grahams 

A stop by the Yves St. Laurent exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum

Christmas story hour and treats with the Lundell girls and a friend

Pics and FaceTime and videos from Stefi and Blake of sweet Teddy

Teddy with Great Grandma

 

Family pic

Teddy's first snow!

I finished Ghost by Jason Reynolds and am now reading 

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk. Ghost was a great read. 

I wish I'd picked it for our Mock Newbery list.

I luxuriated in a pajama and movie day at home with daughter Sara. 

(Thanks, Allison, for introducing us to pajama days.)