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.

Slice of Life: Kitchen Memories

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

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, and Lanny

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

Sears Cooky Press box
Memories fill my kitchen
As Spritz cookies bake

Decked in reindeer red

Our musician in training,

Jack, shakes jingle bells

The Sears cooky press box in the picture is the original box of my mother's cooky press (more than 50 years old). And inside the box is the Spritz recipe from my mother's Betty Crocker cookbook. My sister has the cookbook, but I convinced her that this page (loose, like many in the cookbook) belonged with the cookie press. Each year when I open the box and pull out the recipe for holiday baking, I feel the presence of those whose hands have touched this press and those whose fingers followed the lines of this recipe.

My daughter and I enjoy baking together.  The cookies go into the freezer in holiday tins ready for assembling into trays and plates to share with friends.  This year the addition of a certain young man sweetened our time together.  Sara let him have his first bite of cookie, a buttery Spritz cookie made from great-grandma's cooky press.

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.)

SOLC 2016 20/31: My Illustrated Haiku

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

to the Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Tara, Betsy, Dana, Beth, and Anna

for hosting this meeting place each day in March

and for nurturing our writing lives.

A quick backstory for today's illustrated haiku - would that be an illuku or a haistration?  I'm  almost finished with a four day sprint subbing in Emily's classroom who teams with Bruce.  As we plucked up bits of left behind trash on Thursday,  Bruce gifted me this reused card (fyi: my first name is Ramona).

Trash from Thursday's floor

Someone in search of wonder

My notebook treasure!