Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Celebrate This Week: A Week's Vacation!

 Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 
                                                             When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.
Discover. Play. Build.
A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember. 

1.  Sunshine
We've enjoyed days and days of sunshine.
It's glorious to wake to the sun streaming
through the window, to walk with friends,
and to notice the beauty in our world.  
This crying tree was discovered
by Jan on one of our recent walks. 

2.  Clouds
We've lived in the Northwest for almost twenty years.
I'm thrilled that our extended ten day forecast shows
clouds and rain for every single day with only two 
days when the sun might peek through the clouds.
And no more days of 80+ degree weather.
(That's worrisome in May.)
I guess celebrating rain and clouds makes
me a true citizen of the Northwest.

3.  Poetry Reading
I was invited by a local poet to participate in 
an evening at Island Books.  I agonized over what to share
in my allotted ten minutes on the program.
My daughter said to focus on just three books -
an impossible task.  So I took a bin of books (36)
and shared poems from some of my favorite children's authors.
What I didn't anticipate was how much I would enjoy
the rest of the evening after being asked to go first.
We heard from Christopher Jamick, author of Not Aloud;
Laura Totten, teacher and founder of the high school Poetry Club;
and David D. Horowitz, author of Cathedral and Highrise.
(Laura, Christopher, David, and me)
I'm looking forward to connecting Laura's high school
Poetry Club to our middle school book club.

4.  Embracing the Slow at Books, Brownies, and Beyond
Maybe it's the call of the sun, maybe it's the time of the 
school year, maybe it's due to the past two weeks of state testing,
but our numbers at book club have dwindled recently.  
Our attendees have been in single digits and we've enjoyed
our time together in new ways - reading alone, sharing titles,
chatting with friends, and looking at poetry books together. 
This past week, Elsa, Katie, and I explored my blog
trying to figure out how to add "tags" to my entries
(something I've wanted to do for a long time).  
It turns out they're called "labels" in blogspot. 
Elsa kept a running list of labels we created and
even sent me a list of entries with original poetry. 

5.  A Week's Vacation!
Yes, I'm taking a week off from subbing.  It's been a busy spring
and I'm looking forward to diving back into some 
neglected projects at home and enjoying a bit more time to read. 
I'm reading Rules for Books, Brownies, and Beyond,
My Brilliant Friend for our quarterly google chat book club
(with two friends who've moved away),
The Shepherd's Life for my monthly book club,
and Bettyville just for fun.  

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Celebrate This Week: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!

 Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 
                                                             When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.
Discover. Play. Build.
A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember. 

1.  One new calendar page with a great quote for May:
"The whole world is a series of miracles, but 
we're so used to them we call them ordinary things."
-Hans Christian Anderson
2.  Two gals (daughter and me) beside the blooming rhoddie outside the laundry room

3. Three days of state testing down, with two to go (but only one for me) 

4.  Four titles selected for new book groups at Books, Brownies, and Beyond 
5.  Five friends at our Cinco de Mayo celebration

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Slice of Life: A Beautiful Tree Sparks a Musical Memory!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 
to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.
Thanks to Stacey, Tara, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Anna, Kathleen, and Deb
                   for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.


Last Sunday I pulled through the church parking lot around 12:45 pm.  I usually go the other direction when I head home, but as soon as I pulled up beside a certain vibrant green tree, I knew why I had gone this way.  I rolled down my window and pointed out the tree to some friends who were leaving just as I was.  I parked my car, pulled my phone out of my bag,  and strolled over to snap a picture.  And that's when I saw the gorgeous contrast, green against a clear blue sky.  

Tonight as I was writing this slice in my head, the lyrics to "Who Will Buy" came floating into my head, from concert choir, more than 40+ years ago.  Our high school musical was "Oliver," and we learned all the songs for the play in choir (even if we weren't in the play).  

"Who Will Buy?"

OLIVER
Who will buy
This wonderful morning?

Such a sky
You never did see!
...
OLIVER
Who will tie
It up with a ribbon
And put it in a box for me?
...
OLIVER
So I could see it at my leisure
Whenever things go wrong
And I would keep it as a treasure
To last my whole life long.
...
OLIVER
Who will buy
This wonderful feeling?
I'm so high
I swear I could fly.
...
OLIVER
Me, oh my!
I don't want to lose it

So what am I to do
To keep the sky so blue?

There must be someone who will buy...

All the songs from all our stories are tucked away safely in our memories, waiting for the right moment to tease the lyrics out of long term storage.  I praise God for memories, for friends, and for songs from high school choir that still fill my heart.  And yes, I praise God for the magnificent tree and sky that sparked this musical memory for me.  

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Celebrate This Week: Poetry, Friends, Teachers, Sunsets, and Books!

                             Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 
                                                             When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.
Discover. Play. Build.
                                   A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember. 

Thanks, Donna, for that lovely last line.  
I like the way you posted the poem with each 
contributor's name beside his/her line.  

2.  A technology win! 
I finally figured out how to add a gadget
(the sidebar) for the progressive poem with links
to each poet a full week before the poem's completion. 

3.  Girls' Night Out!

An evening exploring family history with
these friends at the Seattle Discovery Center.

4.  Teacher encouragement for SBAC! 
Testing season finds most teachers as grumpy as
our students.  I love that at a recent training session
we made posters of encouragement for students.
This week the posters and pics of teachers
who created them appeared in our hallways.
This acrostic poem was my favorite!



Stay
Bold
And 
Crush it!




(Teacher on far right was my mentee two
years ago AND one of my third graders. )
  
5.  Saturday night sunset at Slater Park!  
I'm always hopeful that I might bump into my 
friends that I first met at this park two years ago
when they were expecting Vivian. 
They weren't there last night, but I did see them
a couple of weeks ago, and Vivian is almost two.

6.  Book joy!
I stopped by the library on Friday afternoon
to pick up my holds.  Two novels-in-verse were waiting:
Booked  by Kwame Alexander
and 
The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary 
by Laura Shovan.
Saturday was Independent Bookstore Day so, of course.
I had to stop at Island Books.  It took me awhile to find the
perfect book for the last day of April, but I finally did.  

I was so sad when I had to return it to the library
last week, and I'm so glad to have my own copy!

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Celebrate This Week: Poetry, Showers, and Blossoms

                               Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 
                                                             When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.
Discover. Play. Build.
                                   A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!


1.  Added line 23 to the 2016 Progressive Poem!
2.  A baby shower for Courtney,
sweet mama-to-be!
3.  Poem in  Your Pocket Day!
Members of Books, Brownies, and Beyond 
handed out candy to students with poem in pocket.
4.  More blossoms and sunshine!
5.  A rain kissed tulip!
Happy for the return of rain and cooler weather.