SOL 31/31: Reflecting on this month of slicing

It's here, the final day of March 2022 Slice of Life Challenge. We have one day left to slice. I'm not sure what compelled me to start a seven-day countdown, but it's been a delight.

While I worked on this slice in the wee hours (think 2 am) of Wednesday morning there was one other family member awake. The youngest member of daughter and son-in-law's family, Oliver, was chattering contentedly in his walk-in closet accommodations. He was directly under the upstairs bedroom and his babbling provided a lilting accompaniment for my writing. 

 

 My babbling buddy! 

 

Hot chocolate staches are the best!

 

When I appeared on the scene at 7:15 am, 

Jack accused me of sleeping in. We 

love combining books and breakfast.

This was our second reading of 

Charlie & Mouse Lost and Found.

One of my favorite ways to end the month is to count my slices by topic. With no further ado, here's my numerical wrap up of this month's slices (with the #1s in bold, a nod to this last day of slicing):

One slice with no comments (Not any more! Thank you, Julieanne!)

One slice responding to the invite for Leigh Anne's slicer party  

One walking slice

One rambling farm woman slice (AKA if you give a mouse a cookie slice)

2 collection slices

2 spider slices

2 cookie slices 

3 ancestor slices

4 poetic slices

5 spring slices

5 book slices

7 memory slices 

8 grandchildren slices

11 numerically linked slices

20 slices with pictures

And just in case you're wondering, I recognize that the total is more than 31 slices (some slices fit in more than one category). Add them all up and you get 73, the year I graduated from high school (I know, most of you weren't even born then!).

This was my eleventh year of participating in the challenge, but I almost stopped at ten. Thanks to Leigh Anne Eck's  post on Facebook, I reconsidered my decision and jumped in at the last minute.

SOL 30/31 & Sharing Our Stories: Cheerios Collection

My one little word for 2022 is "clear.". With the year almost 1/4 over, I realize it’s time to pick up the pace. Sometimes I plan a specific clearing project and sometimes one chooses me. That’s what happened when I was digging around in a kitchen drawer and decided it was time to deep clean.

It's one of those odd drawers that becomes a catch-all drawer (AKA - junk drawer). But there are several things with a permanent home in the drawer. There’s a box for stashing gum when I find it on sale. There’s Ollie’s food: a pouch of banana squash, two packages of banana peach Teethers (Num Nums) and the guilty culprit, a baggie of fine baby oatmeal, which became unsealed and led to the necessity of cleaning out this drawer

I probably pulled fifteen pens and pencils out of the drawer, each one with fine flakes of oatmeal baby cereal coating them, seemingly magnetized to the writing utensils.  

 

I pulled out the weekly grocery ads and my stack of xeroxed shopping lists. 

 

I pulled out a leatherbound WW journal only 1/4 used and actually threw it away. Good for me! 

 

I pulled out several spoon rests. I guess I have another collection here. My favorite, blue and yellow from Sorrento, Italy, exudes memories of gelato, bright ceramic shops, shopfronts filled with leather purses, and hot chocolate in Florence (where Nancy flirted with our handsome waiter). I had forgotten about my bunny spoon rest, so perfect for this season. I replaced the Sorrento spoon rest with the bunny one.

 

I reached into the far corner of the drawer for the most important item in the drawer. A long time ago, perhaps a decade or so, I discovered an unusual Cheerio. My son consumed many Cheerios during his growing up years, but never had I seen a Cheerio like this one!  I've kept it all this time, in a plastic baggie. Only this month, it morphed into a collection.

 

It was a regular Friday morning with three of our grand boys gathered around the kitchen table for breakfast. Jack discovered the “funny” Cheerio and called me over to see it, which of course led to my telling the story of my very unusual cheerio and retrieving it from aforementioned kitchen drawer for all to see. And then I asked if he would allow me to add his cheerio to mine, thus beginning my unusual Cheerios collection of two.

Admit it. You were hoping for a picture, weren't you?

  Top row (left to right): Grandma's Unusual Cheerio

 and Jack's Hugging Cheerio(s)

Bottom row: A normal Cheerio for size comparison

 

My slice of two Cheerios is my latest contribution to my countdown to the end of this challenge. We have two days until we finish the 2022 March Slice of Life Challenge. See you tomorrow for the all important final post! This is my eleventh year of participating in the challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories (some of the time) for stories to share.

 

 Joining my friends at Sharing Our Stories 

with this question, "Does acquiring two of 

something constitute a collection?"

SOL 29/31: An Illustrated Haiku

Come join me for a three-line haiku, 

illustrated with three photos near our library, 

only three more days to the end of March. 

New blossoms beckon

curbside pause invigorates

soul revels in pink. 

-Ramona Behnke

When I picked up my husband at the Park & Ride on Monday, I glanced at my phone to stop my podcast. It was, honest to goodness, 3:33! He never comes home this early, but he had at home tasks calling today and I received another fun connection for my post.

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories (some of the time) for stories to share. Some of the time I'll be writing numerical slices. I didn't know this would happen.

SOL 28/31: 4 by 4 by 4

Several days ago I discovered this numerical slice at Abigail's blog, perfect for Day 4 of my last week countdown to the end of March and daily slicing. 

Prompt: Look around and choose 4 things within 4 ft. of you and 4 minutes to write about them.

Setting the timer now.  (It's 4:04 and honestly, I did not plan that.)

A favorite standing lamp provides just the right amount of light for bedside reading and Zoom meetings. A yellow ribbon tied around its column was placed there by my daughter.

A fabric covered book, gifted to me by a fellow blogger, is almost filled with words from fellow bloggers that have inspired me on my writing journey.

A trivet of a ceramic sunflower, framed in wood, is on the nightstand, perfect for a cup of hot chocolate before bed.

Whimsical animals on a poster from the 2012 National Book Festival keep watch over me in my favorite writing spot, my bed. 

Disclaimer: I exceeded the four minute time limit. It's 4:14 now (and that was not planned either). 

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories (some of the time) for stories to share.

SOL 27:31: How Does 9 Squeeze Into Five?

 Sharing "Five" Connections (because we only have five days left in the challenge):

1. On Day 25 of this challenge, I was the 5th slicer to post. How about those multiples of five?

2.  I have five books I want to read that I've recently picked up from my holds shelf at the library. (Please know that I won't get them all read before I have to return them.)

Handling the Truth - recommended by Ruth Ayres and Leigh Anne Eck

The Power of Fun

ain't burned all the bright

Becoming Mrs. Lewis - a book club book that I want to read

Picturing a Nation 

3.  I have five books hand-selected for the grand boys.

Henry and Ribsy - our current chapter read aloud for quiet time

Magic Tree House Land of the Dinosaurs (graphic novel)

Charlie and Mouse Lost and Found (the boys love the Charlie & Mouse series)

Sweater Weather 

Eyes that Speak to the Stars 

4. We're getting ready for a quick family getaway. And of course, choosing which books to take along is the most important decision of the trip. Are your worried about my math skills? You should be! That's a stack of nine board books. How on earth can they fit into this five themed post? I tried to whittle the stack down to five, but I love all these books. So here they are organized into five categories.

1.) Begin the Day: Hello, My World

2.) Books with Moving Parts: Peekaboo Moon, Demolition Dudes, Who Loves Books?

3.) Concept Book: Landforms: A Geography Primer (son-in-law received a globe for his birthday this month, so learning about the earth is extra fun at their house right now)

4.) Books with an SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) Focus: A Recipe for How Much I Love You, I Feel Sad, Happiness with Aristotle

5.) End the Day: Sleepyheads

I love that I can check out board books for the grands from the library. They did not have board books available for check-out when I was raising my children. 

5. I saved the best connection for last. Terje's birthday is today (March 27th). To solve for her age, multiply 5 times n (n=the number of fingers on your right hand + the number of fingers on your left hand). Pop over to Just for a Month and help her celebrate. 

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories (some of the time) for stories to share.

SOL 26/31: Book Spine Poem

I thought it was Leigh Anne who turned my thoughts to book spine poems this week. Well, maybe it was Elisabeth, Nope again! I will check one more slicer and promise to write my post without knowing who inspired me to do book spine poetry. Eureka! It was Terje. 

Knowing how book leads onto book (Did you catch my nod to Robert Frost there?), I limited myself to two shelves of books for this poem.

The Search for Joyful

Italy in Mind

Copper Sun

By the Lake

A Fall of Marigolds

This Tender Land

 

Random wandering thoughts:

Did you notice there are six books in my poem? That was intentional, this is day 6 of my countdown to the end of the month. I already had plans for Day 4 and Day 2, but I just figured out my Day 5 and my Day 3 post. I have never before planned four days of slices in advance!

The two shelves (I limited myself to so that I wouldn't drag books from all over my house, like I've done in the past) are filled with books that I have never read, but want to read. Have you read any of the six titles I chose for my poem? Do you have a recommendation? 

It's 3:15 am. Time for me to get back to sleep. 

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories (some of the time) for stories to share.

SOL 25/31: 7 Days to Go

 I have a love/hate relationship with March and Slice of Life. I decided that after completing my tenth year last year that I wouldn't participate this year. And then I signed up in a fit of frenzy on the last day of February. I frantically opened my blog and set up the first twelve days. I've been doing that daily for days 13-24. But today, I set up the last seven posts, with a tip of the hat to my friend. Leigh Anne!

And because I love numbers and we have just seven days of slicing left, I bring you seven things you may not know about me:

1. I never learned to ride a bike. (I tried to learn before my mission to Hong Kong, but I wouldn't call the crazy wobbling I did down our street "riding.")

2. I want to play the ukelele.

3. I have an "odd cheerios collection." (Two of anything makes a collection, right?)

4. I rarely want to write, but love having written.

5. Maybe I'm in too many book clubs. The "need to read" books take precedence over my "want to read" books. And I'm thinking that's not a good thing!

6. If I've ever commented on your blog, you're one of my blogger friends.

7. I love birthdays. Birthdays rock. Embrace 50, Terje!

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories (some of the time) for stories to share.    

SOL 24/31: A Retiree Rambles Along

Retirement is tough on me. I have more time than I should and it's easy to get lost reading slices and then ramble down memory lane. I try to set deadlines, but they're not real. I miss the days when I would sit down at 10 pm or 11 pm to pound out my day's slice before the midnight deadline.

My daughter gifted me a subscription to Story Worth for Mother's Day last year. It's been interesting to watch my response to the questions she sends me. I have a new understanding about how hard it can be to respond to a specific prompt. Our memoir writing group likes to have a prompt for our monthly gatherings. Here are the prompts I shared for March. Doesn't everyone like having a choice?

• What stories have you been told about yourself as a baby? You could begin with one of the stories and see where it goes from there. (This question was the genesis for my spider slice.)
  
• Or share a collage of baby stories you remember others telling you about your baby self.
  
• Or write about what's on your heart.
  They're all good possibilities.  

I don't like the questions about my "greatest" whatever because that requires decision-making which has never been a strength of mine. But today I decided to share some of the thoughts I stumbled onto during my meanderings while reading slices. I can't label these as my greatest or most or biggest because as soon as I did that, I know I would remember something greater or bigger.

A disappointment: When I was a missionary in Hong Kong, I wanted to be selected to sing with "Sound of the Saints," a missionary choir that traveled around Hong Kong and performed almost daily during the month of December. I auditioned, but I wasn't selected. However, that disappointment led to a greater joy because I returned home in time for Christmas.

A joyful time:  Christmas 1978! Everyone was home for Christmas. We are not one of those families that gathers for Christmas, but that year my sister Kay and her husband and almost one year old baby (whom I hadn't met yet because of my mission) came from California, my sister Velma and her husband and three children came from Texas, and my brother came from Shawnee. It had been my dad's greatest wish to have everyone home for Christmas that year. We made an even dozen, a full house in Mama and Daddy's three bedroom home. Some of us might have stayed at Granny's, but I think Dad wanted all of us under one roof. The hardest part was sharing the one and only bathroom. Thank goodness, we had Granny's house, across the street and down two houses for those times when someone couldn't wait any longer. We cherish the memories of this Christmas together because our dad died, very unexpectedly, in the summer of 1980.

A regret: My refusal to help Daddy pick strawberries because I was in the middle of averaging six week grades for the end of the year.  There are many of you who have never sat down grade book and calculator in hand for this onerous task, but I've never forgotten this refusal to help Dad. He died less than a month later. I have always regretted not joining him in the strawberry patch. I hope he's forgiven me. 

This post was not completed without a few calls to my sis Kay who, thank goodness, inherited Dad's razor sharp memory.

SOL 23/31: Come Walk with Me

 It's that time of year when rain is our frequent guest and the sun is an occasional visitor. So when the sun comes out, Seattleites go out. Join me for Tuesday afternoon's walk when I dropped everything to bask in the sunshine and brilliance of spring.

Shadows summon me outside.

Small hills push me into the exercise zone.

 

Daffodils nod hello.

 

Playing field cajoles, "Come and play."

 

Lime green flaunts her new growth.

 

The sun's brilliance urges Shadow to shed a layer.

 

Pink buds beguile me.

 Rocking chair welcomes me home with an invite, "Come, sit a spell."

SOL 22/31: Meet Nora Elizabeth Brock

Each month I'm selecting an ancestor to get to know better. When I received a notice yesterday of the wedding anniversary of my great-grandparents, Nora Elizabeth Brock and William Pete "Buck" Young, I knew I'd found my ancestor for March. 

Nora Elizabeth Brock, my great-grandmother (mother of my grandmother, Martha Ada Young), was born in 1837 in Smithville, DeKalb, Tennessee. She was the 4th child of eight children born to David Brock and Dameris Capshaw in Tennessee. Her parents were both born in North Carolina. John Capshaw, my 6th great-grandfather,  was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland in 1694.

Nora married William Pete "Buck" Young 163 years ago on March 21, 1859.  Nora was twenty-two when she married William in Smithville, DeKalb, Tennessee. William was thirty-seven, a widower with four children whose first wife had died in 1857. Nora and William had thirteen children. My grandmother, Martha Ada Young, was the 11th child born. When Nora was 42, she lost both of her parents. Nora still lived in Tennessee  and was only 48 years old  when William died in 1886. The new century was not an easy time for Nora. Her 12th and 13th children, Ennis (25) and Isaac (24), died in 1902 and Mary (38) died in 1908. Nora died in 1909 in Chisholm, Rockwall, Texas at 71 years of age.

All the pictures we have of Nora Elizabeth Brock feature her with a covering over one side of her face. This note of explanation is attached on FamilySearch: "Most known photos of Nora show her with the right side of her face covered with a hood or scarf. It was originally believed that her face was disfigured due to a burn or perhaps a stroke. However, Bill Duke, descendant of Nora, reports that it was an eye condition known as 'granulated sore eye' which causes pain due to light sensitivity. This photo was found inside an interior wall by Runelle Young Milby during a renovation of a family home near Royse City, TX. The photo was severely damaged and has been restored."

This photo features William Pete Buck Young on the left with Nora Elizabeth Brock on the right with perhaps a daughter and two grandchildren in the center. (It's really important to label our photos.)

#ancestorofthemonth #moderngenealogy 

SOL 21/31: I Really Am that Scatterbrained Farm Woman

My friend, Mallory, asked if she could swing by this morning while they were on a layover from Hawaii to pick up her chocolate: 10 lbs of white and 10 lbs of milk. I've had it in my front closet since the fall when we did our yearly chocolate order. I said, "Sure. no problem." Since I knew they were stopping at a favorite donut place before swinging by my place, I asked for a donut. She knows I'm an early riser and a 6:30 am drive-by would be fine. I took the time to brush my hair just in case we took a picture. I perched on the stairs and waited excitedly for their arrival. It was a delight to see Mallory and Jared and their three girls briefly and visit for a bit on our front porch.

I finished half of the donut and then decided it was time to get on with my day. But I really wanted the other half of the donut first. I decided to use pairing, a strategy from a favorite podcaster, Monica Packer at About Progress. "Pair 'blah' tasks with a 'yay' reward." And so I decided to eat the rest of my donut once I had completed my slice for the day. I don't consider writing my slice a blah task, but it is a task that takes up too much of my day during March. 

But first, I wanted a picture of the half donut to accompany the post. I went downstairs and  realized my phone was upstairs. So up again I went and down again I came.

And then back upstairs. Before completing my slice, I decided to make my bed. But first, I had to put away the clothes that were piled on the bed. As I hung up some pants that my daughter folded for me from the guest bathroom downstairs (where I hang my wet clothes that I don't dry), I noticed that I hadn't organized my shirts from my latest laundry day by color (silly, I know, but I decided it would help me plan future purchases). So I stopped to do that. THEN I made the bed. And then I sat down to write this post. But there's that nagging basket of clothes behind me just calling to be put away. It's a task I can do in under two minutes, so I should just do it, right?

And when I return from putting away the clothes, I notice a sweater on the back of my chair that needs to be folded. 

And then my husband calls from downstairs that he's about ready to leave for work. So I go down to chat with him a bit before he leaves. 

 I unwrap the Sunday papers and push back the urge to sit down and read them. Instead, I unload the dishwasher. Then I reload it with the breakfast things.. Then I rinse the pile of plastics from last night's garbage round-up (I despise having trash day on Monday. It interferes with my day of rest.) And then I notice a plastic bib on the counter from Oliver's Saturday visit that hasn't been washed. So a quick hot rinse takes care of the sticky residue. And then I resolutely march myself upstairs to finish my post. 

If you don't know the story of the farm woman's day, well, I couldn't find it, but I'll spare you the details of the rest of my day. Just know that I stay busy all day, but have a hard time accounting for what I've done. Such is the life of an an easily distracted/scatterbrained retiree. I'm off to eat the rest of my well-earned 1/2 of a donut.

 Good thing I split it. It definitely a deserves a second glass of milk.

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories for stories to share.    

SOL 20/31: A Poetic and Photographic Tribute to Spring

Winter brown transforms to

spectacular, showy blossoms.

Bask in the fleeting beauty for

all too soon the transitory colors

will leave a blossomfall behind.

Green, glorious leaves

will sprout from brown branches 

announcing spring's eminence.

                       - Ramona Behnke  

 

This pic was taken March 1, 2022.

The remaining pics were all taken in April 2021.

 

 

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories for stories to share.     

SOL 19/31: It's the Little Things

When you hang out with little ones, you quickly realize that it's the little things that matter. Two little things are requested every time our grandsons visit. Colby Jack cheese is their favorite lunch choice. More than four years ago, I began using a blue Tupperware doo-dad (the kind of trinket won at a Tupperware party) to cut shapes in the cheese slices. When our numbers increased to two grandsons, I scrambled around for another cutter that would work well and pulled the orange cutter from a set of nested cookie cutters (also Tupperware) with a heart on one side and a scalloped circle on the other side. You can actually cut the circle and then cut the heart shape in the center of the circle. I put a plastic cutting board between the boys' lunch plates and they cut away to their heart's content. 

 

After lunch, we have a bit of play time before we head upstairs for quiet time. When quiet time is over, Jack always asks, "Grandma, did you put treats in the trolley?" The trolley refers to a tin of Ghiradelli chocolate that was gifted to me by a student after a trip to San Francisco. It's where I kept my sweet treats for those long days when a piece of chocolate was just the thing to help me get through the endless after-school tasks. Now it's where Grandma stashes the treats. Somehow, I've evolved to allow a certain amount of choice over what goes into the small plastic containers inside the trolley. I'll list the treats available: currently the favorite is Reese's Pieces and then they'll chose either a Reese's miniature peanut butter cup or minature Kit Kats (our chocolate hearts from February are gone). The trick is that the treats go into the plastic containers and then into the trolley tin so the boys can retrieve them. Yesterday, I made the mistake of filling the plastic container and handing it to one of the boys. That did not work! Half the fun is finding the treat in the trolley, even if you know it's going to be there and you've chosen what will be inside. After all, it's the little things that matter to my little people!

I tried to think of a third little thing that matters to my boys. However, when my husband brought in today's mail just now, it triggered a remembrance of a yearly tradition that started years ago with my daughter (the boys' mother) and me. Our community enjoys a yearly directory that is compiled by our local guild of Seattle Children's Hospital. It is a volunteer project published since 1943 to benefit the hospital. The directory always comes in a white envelope that is clearly labeled as to the contents inside. My daughter and I guess the color of the new directory each year before we open the envelope. I guess dusty rose. Daughter guesses yellow (which was the color I wanted, but didn't think they would use. I tear open the envelope and send a pic to daughter. 

This year's directory is pumpkin spice cinnamon, the color of Spunky, my first car. It appears that little traditions matter to the big people in our family too! 

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories for stories to share.   

SOL 18/31: Grandson Delivers Spider in Hand to Arachnophobic Grandma!

Spider Stories: Chapter 4

My alarm was supposed to go off at 5:30. When I woke up at 5:45, I sprinted for the shower, knowing that I was already behind schedule. I asked my husband what time he had planned to wake up and he said 5:15. I'm not sure what happened with his alarm, but a quick check of my phone showed a 5:30 PM (?) alarm. Moral of this story: Double check that alarm setting, especially if you're not a night person. 

We were out the door at 6:30 am and headed for daughter's house. We even arrived early enough to swing by Safeway and pick up the needed Bisquick for morning pancakes. As soon as 8 month old little brother was awakened from a sound sleep for his morning feeding, we loaded three boys into the car and headed for Grandma and Grandpa's house. Usually our son-in-law brings the boys to our house, but this was a different work day for daughter since her husband is out of town.

Our morning had been busy, but uneventful. I heard Jack call from the other room that he caught a bug. He came into the kitchen. I was not prepared for the sight of a big spider crawling out from between his fingers. My first inclination was to scream, but not wanting to pass on my fear of spiders to a new generation, I suppressed the urge. I puzzled as to how to get the spider from Jack's hand, knowing there was no earthly way that I would cup my hand so he could transfer the spider to me. As the spider started to crawl up Jack's arm, I flung his arm into the air and the spider fell to the floor, where he met his demise, flattened by my shoe (an action I can execute with no compunction whatsoever) .

For chapter 1 (an explanation of my lifelong fear of spiders), and chapter 2 (where 30-something me insists my barely 20 year old niece kill the largest spider I've ever seen) and chapter 3 (where I stand guard over grandson as spider protectress), see this post from Day 2. I sincerely hope this is my last spider slice for this month's challenge!

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories for stories to share.   

SOL 17/31 & Poetry Friday: Serendipity!

My pot of gold (not at the end of the rainbow) had flecks of red and green and was edible.
 

Costco run completed.

I shift items in freezer

and uncover buried treasure,

two monster cookies!

 

Red and green M&Ms reveal

a December provenance.

Three months later,

the sweet taste of Christmas lingers.

 

 -Ramona Behnke

 

 

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories for stories to share.  

Sometimes, I participate in Poetry Friday. Our host for this week is Ruth who blogs at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town.

SOL 16/31: My Favorite Day of the Challenge

I looked back at ten years of slicing to see if I had ever written a celebratory post about Day 16, when we're finally more than halfway finished with the challenge. I haven't! But here's a summary of my March 16 posts through the years.

2012 - I write about a student who rescues me from my Friday night funk and provides fodder for my slice.  *I was delighted to discover this comment from my brother, a fellow educator.

Karl March 18, 2012 at 7:00 PM

Ramona, I love that they are your students forever. Reminds me of what I always tell my clients that go through my Starting & Running a Business 101 class. I tell them that they have lifetime rights to me -- that they can always come back for help or a sounding board for new ideas they want to try in their business.

And that's the kind of educator and person that he was! We miss him.

2013, 2014, & 2020 - I write about our book club retreat, a yearly event held annually in March until 2020. Now we've missed three years of gathering. Maybe we can meet later this year. We still meet virtually to pick our books for the upcoming year. 

2015 & 2019 - I write posts inspired by fellow slicers: Heidi at Wordsmithing inspires my job description and Kim & Elsie inspire an illustrated cinquain.

2016 - A four-pawed guest becomes the mascot of our after school book club, Books, Brownies, & Beyond.

2017 - I write a mediation on badges. Can we create a hybrid badge (plantsers) for slicers who usually fly by the seat of their pants (pantsers), but occasioanally manage to plan (planners) a slice?

2018 - I write a post about moon books and a moon poem. Update: I need to add my latest discovery, The Children's Moon (2021) by Carmen Agra Deedy to the two favorites I spotlighted in this post: Owl Moon (1987) and When the Moon Comes (2017).   

2021 - I join Leigh Anne's slicer party!

2022 - I write about Day 16 through the years and celebrate my favorite day of the challenge.

Do you have a favorite day of the challenge? I do and it's today, March 16th! (Cue the confetti and balloons and let the celebration begin.) I love it because we've come over the top of the mountain (just barely) and the end is in sight. The slow slog to day 16 is accomplished and we will fly through days 17-31! 

 

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories for stories to share.  

SOL 15/31: My RSVP

The invitation came from Leigh Anne. She's one of the slicers I've met in person. You'll feel  like you've known her all your life about two minutes into your first conversation. There's no one better suited to host our writing retreat. I'm all in for this gathering!

Come join us in Leigh Anne's idyllic setting, "...a cabin tucked away in a world of lush green fields surrounded by beautiful flowers blooming under blue skies and perfect temperatures." There's only one thing I would need to add to this description and that would be sunny skies. Even though blue skies implies sunshine, I want to be sure it's there (spoken by the gal who may not see the sun until a week from tomorrow).

Writing Tools - I'll bring three notebooks for writing and my favorite pencil pouch filled with a variety of medium point (never thin!) writing implements. I may try out some of your favorites before I arrive so I can add to my collection. And of course, I'll include sticky notes.

 

Foods/Beverages - Terje says we'll have our own chef, so I'll bring my favorite tea, Celestial Seasonings Cinnamon Apple Spice, and my favorite Theo's chocolate bar, Salted Toffee. I'll pack an assortment of Theo's chocolate bars for everyone to try. I might even add some milk chocolate choices for those who haven't gone to the dark side yet.

When our book club gathers for our annual (except for the last three years 😢) retreat in March, I bring frozen cookie dough (of my own making) and milk for a midnight snack. Everyone loves to see me disappear into the kitchen and return with cold milk and hot cookies. I'm sure our on-site chef will allow me access to the kitchen for this late night treat.

Quote - " If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a (wo)man when (s)he goes for a walk." - Raymond Inman (parentheses added by yours truly)

I hope you'll join us! You can find the invitation here. The hardest part will be quieting the chatter for writing time. But we'll look forward to sharing our writing and our hearts at that midnight gathering around the fire. 

This is my eleventh year of participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. This year I'll be mining my memories for stories to share.