Slice of Life: Hooping it Up with the Huskies!

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.

After living in the Seattle area for twenty years, my husband decided this past year that we needed to go to a Husky football game and basketball game. I passed on the November football game by volunteering to watch Jack. However, basketball is one of my favorite sports to watch, so I joined the group for this past Saturday's game. My family warned me not to expect much from the Huskies who were playing 9th ranked Arizona. 

And were they ever wrong! I was thrilled to see that our seats were above the student section and the band since both of my kids played in the band in high school. "Animal Band" was the designation for the band at basketball games. Just hearing the band brought back so many memories of my kids' high school years. 

If you're wondering about the game, you can read all the details in this article from the Seattle Times, "Washington stuns No. 9 Arizona 78-75 with Dominic Green's buzzer beater." My husband certainly knows how to pick an exciting game!

Celebrate This Week: Jack's First Birthday!

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.

We celebrated Jack's first birthday on Wednesday! Come stroll with me through a few of the pics from the day's celebrations.

Beginning the day 
with a birthday balloon!

Making some music 

while Grandma makes . . .

birthday waffles for a

lunchtime treat.

Reading my birthday books!

Playing with my recycling truck!

Check out that candle, Mom!

 Mom, is this little cake all for me?

First tastes of chocolate!

 Snuggling with Grandma and 

 new stuffed toy - Stan, the Octopus!

 Showing off my new

walking skills.

Poetry Friday: Passing the Laurel Wreath

Head over to Donna's blog, Mainely Write, 

for this week's round-up of poetic goodness. 
She's sharing beautiful poetry postcards. 

Thanks, Donna, for hosting this week!

I'm sad to realize that it's been awhile since I participated in Poetry Friday. Yesterday while I was out running errands, I heard a teaser about an upcoming interview on our public radio station, KUOW. I listened carefully and dashed into the house to find the radio station on my computer. I didn't want to miss this interview with Tod Marshall, our outgoing state poet laureate and our incoming poet laureate, Claudia Castro Luna.  Claudia was Seattle's first civic poet. When I saw her on NPR's NewsHour last fall sharing her project to connect poetry and place, I was inspired to write a Poetry Friday post with a link to her interview.

Our outgoing poet laureate, Tod Marshall visited IMS in the spring of 2016.  I saw him briefly at Poetry Camp in the fall of 2016 which resulted in getting my copy of Words with Wings autographed by Nikki Grimes. I participated in a poetry reading at Island Books in September of 2017 with Tod and other local poets. 

I love listening to Tod speak about the power of words and so I settled in for this radio interview with him and Claudia at my upstairs desk. I didn't have my writer's notebook and no time to find it, so I had to make do with notes carefully written on eighteen yellow sticky notes (which I've now transferred to my writer's notebook). 

I hope you'll listen to the interview, "The words that hold our souls inside them" hosted by Bill Radke. It's seventeen minutes well spent. You don't have to be a resident of Washington state to appreciate the power of words and personal experience and memory and story shared by Tod and Laura in this phenomenal interview.

Spiritual Journey First Thursday: Moon Musings

I am excited to join a community of fellow bloggers who write on the first Thursday of each month about our spiritual journeys. This month Donna asked us to share a verse or passage, a snippet of something that mentions the moon. My mind has been thinking ever since I received this prompt, and I found myself totally unable to limit myself to a snippet. You'll have to forgive me for my moon wanderings. I can't wait to read the posts from others in our community. Thank you, Donna, for hosting our February gathering. 

I'm awake early and searching my shelves and the internet and my mind for moon themed books and poems and memories.

I find . . . 

Five picture books - 

• Mama, Let's Make a Moon by Clay Rice with its delightful silhouette illustrations,
• Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (I discovered I have two copies. Time to gift one of them.)
• Two favorites from my daughter's childhood - The Birthday Moon by Lois Duncan and Eric Carle's Papa, please get the moon for me 

A YouTube video (Weston Woods) of a favorite book I can't find  on my bookshelf, Happy Birthday, Moon by Frank Asch (It's just a little over six minutes long.) I wanted to include this one because yesterday was grandson Jack's first birthday!

Two books of poetry- 

• One Minute till Bedtime, Ken Nesbitt's delightful anthology filled with moon images and quite a few moon poems

• Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems selected by Paul Janeczko and illustrated by Melissa Sweet with wonderful moon poems by Emily Dickinson, Alice Schertle, Bruce Balan, Anne Porter, Herbert Read, Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser

These beautiful words of praise from Psalm 136 -  
Give thanks unto God for all things, for His mercy endures forever.

7 To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever:
8 The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever:
9 The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Amy Sklansky's acrostic poem "Moon" that I discovered at the Poetry Foundation 

These concluding lines from from One Today by Richard Blanco and illustrated by Dav Pilkey -

"We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always—home,
always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop
and every window, of one country—all of us—
facing the stars
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it—together."

And a treasured moon memory of the night that Linda and I chased the moon. Linda and I frequently texted each other when we saw a beautiful moon. On this particular night I drove to her apartment and convinced her to join me for a nighttime drive on the island. We laughed as the moon hid from us and then would suddenly pop out from the trees. This memory is a reminder to savor the moment because Linda died unexpectedly last year. I will always be glad that I dropped everything to chase the moon with Linda on that magical evening. 

Slice of Life: Charles Waters, Visiting Poet!

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.

You'll be happy to know that I've broken my two week streak of writing about the weather. This past week was brightened by a visit from Charles Waters at IMS, the school where I used to teach. I still stay in touch with teacher friends and notified the librarian when I learned via Irene Latham that Charles would be in our area. I was delighted that the librarian arranged for him to speak to our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.

When I learned that the presentation fell on one of the days that I babysit grandson Jack, I knew I wanted to be there and so the babysitter got a babysitter. I slipped in before the 6th grade assembly to meet Charles and to have my book autographed. 

Ms. Cifu introduces Charles Waters

Even though the day was rainy and gray (as they've all been lately), Charles brought a spot of sunshine, humor, and poetry to an otherwise mundane Friday morning. He shared his journey to becoming a writer and his journey to writing Can I Touch Your Hair? with Irene Latham. Irene visited our middle school in the fall of 2016. How lucky we are to have heard from both of these authors  at IMS!

Here are a few of the nuggets I managed to jot down on my phone. I really prefer to take notes on paper, but somehow showed up without my notebook.

• Poetry is all about putting your own spin on an idea.
• You'll never know when it's time for you to perform a poem (good reason to memorize a few).
• Poetry is all about making the ordinary extraordinary.
• All you need is pen, paper, and your imagination.
• When you have a poetry emergency, go to 811 (in the library).

Charles encouraged us to follow the lead of

Irene and Charles from Can I Touch Your Hair?
 and start the conversation.

To learn more about the book, check  out this Q&A on the Lerner blog from a recent Hornbook webcast with Irene Latham, Charles Waters, illustrator Selina Alko, and moderated by Roger Sutton. You can also find a link to the webcast on the Lerner blog post.

Facts learned about Charles during the Q&A with students:

• Favorite poets - Valerie Worth, Nikki Grimes, and Jack Prelutsky
• Favorite food - breakfast 
• "Breakfast for dinner, Is always a winner." 
• And his closing words: "You all are covered in awesome sauce."             
  
  Charles shows off his poetry themed clothing.

Celebrate This Week: Remembering Jan

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.

It's been a rough January with too much rain, too many dark, cloudy days, and never enough sun. We know that winter means mostly rain for us (we loved our bit of snow for Christmas this year), but somehow we forget in the splendor of a Pacific Northwest summer that January and rain will come again.

Yesterday a dear friend in our small congregation died. My heart is heavy. I ache for her family, her friends, and all who knew her. Jan is one of those people who lived the good life. She was diagnosed with multiple myeloma more than a decade ago. Her diagnosis forced her to retire earlier than she had anticipated, but she showed us that life doesn't end when you get a cancer diagnosis. 

She and her husband, Jack, started a memoir writing group with friends from our congregation and community. I loved reading her story of staying overnight in the BYU library with a group of friends. This story gave me a peek into her life as a college student when I was just in elementary school.

When I visited her in rehab earlier this month, I was impressed by the young medical personnel surrounding her who spoke to her with such respect. They knew that Dr. Woolley was a pioneer who chose to enter medicine at a time when few women made that choice. She was my daughter's pediatrician and knowing her influenced Sara's choice to become a physician assistant.

Her illness did not keep her grounded as she and Jack were always planning their next trip. The trips were always planned around her treatment and when she could be away for a bit. And having cancer didn't keep her from continuing to learn and grow. On one of my recent visits to her, I had to leave because her piano teacher arrived with lunch for Jan and her husband. 

Her gentle demeanor and soft voice will be remembered by many who fought this battle with her. I loved hearing her stories of those who sat beside her for chemotherapy and those who ministered to her. She was frequently the one doing the ministering as she listened and loved all around her.

We were joyful when she could join our women's meeting at church and missed her and prayed for her on the few occasions when she was absent. She will leave a giant hole in our hearts for she was one who lived the gospel and loved the Lord. Heaven is a richer place now that Jan Woolley has arrived.

Slice of Life: Delighting in the Rain!

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.

This tree is just outside my kitchen window. I watch the rain falling  and contemplate the beauty of each drop as it collects on the tree.

Incessant rainfall

clings to bare branches, becomes

enchanted jewel drops!