Celebrate This Week: Come Ramble with Me!

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.

Whew!  This has been/is one of those weeks.  I returned from DC on Sunday evening and played catch-up most of the week.

• I'm celebrating a lovely evening spent with my friend, Anne, at Beautiful:  The Carole King Musical.   I was transported to my college years when Lynn and I religiously listened to Carole's Tapestry album.  And then I made the mistake of counting up how many years ago that was.  I won't share, but it was a bit surprising/horrifying.  How did I get this old?

• I'm celebrating the creative talents of my friends.  We decorated for Trunk or Treat on Friday evening.  It's a fun annual event that I've been attending for two decades.  It's amazing to watch the transformation from plain church gym to beautiful decorations for this fall event.

• I'm celebrating my friend, Deborah, who agreed to work three additional days. Then I only had one more day to work for my friend, Patty (who's been  in upstate New York celebrating the birth of her granddaughter).  
• I'm celebrating words.  I get a M-W's Word of the Day.  Today's word, osculate, is new to me.  It just doesn't seem to fit its meaning, kiss.  Something about kiss is soft, but osculate feels hard.  I was thinking it's maybe the difference with the hard c sound in osculate.  Kiss has that k sound at the beginning, but it's softened by that double ss sound at the end.  Another word I'm celebrating is lagniappe.  The popcorn effect continues as I encountered it last week in Kirby Larson's new book, Liberty.  "She gave them each a B.B. Bats Taffy saying, 'Here's a lagniappe, something extra, to celebrate.'"
• I'm celebrating connections made in books.  Connections that can carry us from the words of the page into delightful memories from the past.  Kirby Larson's reference to Popular Mechanics magazines in Liberty was a lovely stroll down memory lane for me.  My dad subscribed to Popular Mechanics and kept yearly stacks of the magazines in our attic tied up with twine. 
• I'm celebrating words and books and a serendipitous discovery after I read this from The Poet's Dog:  "But I grew up with words. . . He read me Charlotte's Web, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Morning Girl, and my favorite story, Ox-Cart Man."  I made a mental note to check out The Ox-Cart Man.   I was curious to see why it was the character's favorite story.  Several days later, I stopped by one of the free libraries in our community and sitting on the shelf was, you guessed it, The Ox-Cart Man!
• I'm celebrating daughter Sara's baby bump of grandson #2.  He'll be here in a little over three months.  
  

• I'm celebrating that it's only three and a half weeks until Teddy and his folks arrive.  Last week's Sunday parting was softened knowing that it would be just a short time until this sweet boy and his smiles (and his parents) would be visiting us for Thanksgiving.  Here's a pic Sara posted on Instagram:  "The evolution of a Teddy smile!  Feeling like the luckiest Aunt in the world the way this sweet boy smiles for me!"
  

Slice of Life: Three Doggone Good Books!

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.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear!  I'm a cat lover and it's rare for cat lovers to fall for "dog tales (tails)."  Heck, cat lovers usually don't even pick up doggie books.  But my previous experience with Kirby Larsen's Dash found me itching to read her new "Dogs of World War II" book, Liberty.  I expressed my desire to read it on a Twitter feed and a few days later, an autographed ARC arrived in my mailbox from Kirby Larson!  I started it on my trip to DC and finished it while I was there.  Its next stop is my niece's 4th grade classroom in Oklahoma.  

I can't talk about Liberty without introducing Wish by Barbara O'Connor, another book I read this month.  As I read Liberty, I couldn't stop making connections to Wish.  Both books have boy-girl friendships at the heart of the stories.  In Wish, the friendship is between main character, Charlie (a girl) and Howard.  In Liberty it's between main character, Fish, and Olympia, his next door neighbor.  The boy in each story has a physical struggle that affects his walk.  Howard's irregular gait is described by Charlie as an up-down walk while Fish's step-clomp walk is due to a bout with polio.  Both main characters have an older sister.  Both books are set in the south:  Liberty in New Orleans during World War II and Wish in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina.  In both books, the main character tames a stray dog.  And yes, even if you're a cat lover, you'll found yourself falling in love with Liberty and Wishbone!

My third doggone good book is The Poet's Dog by Patricia MacLachlan.  Patricia MacLachlan is one of those authors that I've loved for a long time (ever since Sarah Plain and Tall).  Her novels never fail to fill me with delight.   And The Poet's Dog does not disappoint.  It's a slim volume that can easily be read in one sitting.  The narrator is a dog named Teddy.  I'll borrow these words from the front book flap to entice you to read this book:  "... a poignant story about two children, a poet, and a dog and how they help each other survive loss and recapture love."  You'll sigh with delight as you turn the last page and look around you in search of a next reader for this lovely gem of a book.  

I give you three books by well-known authors, three dogs to love, three doggone good books!

Celebrate This Week: Birthday Weekend!

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 in VA celebrating the birthdays of my two with both of them.

Yesterday Sara turned 30 and today Blake turns 32.

I'm so lucky to be Mom to these two kids who are also my good friends!

Sara and I came to see Teddy, to celebrate birthdays, and to help with some

of the packing for my son's upcoming move to be closer

to his work and whittle down that daily commute. 

I've treasured every moment together even though it's been a busy visit.

I've loved all the moments spent getting to know Teddy better -

reading books together, chatting together, snuggling together.  

Oh, I'm in grandma heaven!  

Here are a few pics with Teddy's comments.

Most of my books are packed,

but Grandma & I have read these over and over.

Reading with Grandma

                                                       Story time at the library

Meeting Aunt Sara for the first time!

Every year I think I should compose a #whyIwrite post.

This year I contributed a tweet.   Baby steps, right?

I write to capture the present, reflect on the past, and dream about the future! #NationalDayOnWriting #WhyIWrite

 

Slice of Life: A slice composed in the air

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.

Currently I’m . . . 

Flying to Washington DC

Marveling at the technology that can take us coast to coast in under five hours (good tailwind today)

Scheming to come up with a quick slice of life

Reading Kirby Larsen’s new book, Liberty, so I can send it to niece’s 4^th grade classroom (it’s an ARC she autographed for me)

Listening as daughter shares her quarterly goals just entered in her bullet journal

Praying for Daniel who had a stroke yesterday and for his sweet wife, Eva

Hoping that their son Jeremy will arrive home from college soon to be with his mom

Feeling gratitude for friends offering help and prayers to this sweet family in our faith community

Sneaking peeks to see what other passengers are reading as I make my way to the restroom

Chatting about books with flight attendant, Jennifer, who loves to read too

Calendaring the Passey’s Pie Night coming up on November 5

Flirting with precious Caroline, the 14 month old across the aisle

Anticipating Teddy time

Celebrating that we will arrive half an hour early

Celebrate This Week!

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 love fall color and these words from James Whitcomb Riley:

"...But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze 

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days 

Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock— ..."

So I'm sharing pics I took just this past week

celebrating autumn, my favorite season of the year!

We had a few crisp and sunny mornings early in the week, 

but for now our days have turned to soggy and gray 

which seems to highlight the fall colors even more.  

I'm fearful that our predicted high winds will rip the colors

from the trees too soon which is why I take so many pictures. 

Come stroll with me!

Walking with Coleen near Rotary Park

Spotted on my way to the grocery store

Spotted circling block for previous picture

More autumnal bliss near Rotary Park

Poetry Friday: "When the Frost Is on the Punkin"

Head over to Irene Latham's blog, Live Your Poem,

for this week's round-up of poetic goodness.  

Thanks, Irene, for hosting this week!

My fourth grade teacher was Alta Llewelyn.  She had no children of her own.  She was a stickler for penmanship.  She arranged for us to be pen pals with a ship's captain that traveled regularly to Australia.  She was a demanding teacher.  She always put her lipstick on after lunch and before she put her purse away.  She read aloud every day after lunch.  She insisted that we memorize poems.  Some days snippets of those poems memorized 50+ years drift to the forefront of my memory.  This time of year I find myself reciting the first verse of the James Whitcomb Riley poem, "When the Frost Is on the Punkin."

A few years ago I discovered this lovely book illustrated by Glenna Lang in the hues of autumn and added it to my collection of poetry books.

While cleaning out files this past summer, I ran across this mimeographed copy of the poem with a line drawn after the first verse (we only memorized the first verse) and my name (written in cursive at the bottom of the page).  

And this morning I found this gem!  Take a few moments to listen to Kent Risley's recitation!

Slice of Life: Serendipity on the Way Home!

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.

When I took Irene Latham to Seattle to meet Carmen T. Bernier Grand for her ride to WWU and Poetry Camp, I used Google maps.  I don't know Seattle at all, but I do know enough to know that we took a very circuitous route to Leonie's home .  I called it our stair step adventure - 1 block north, 1 block west, repeat over and over.  We eventually arrived. but I was convinced that I could improve on Google's directions and so I struck out on my own, to bird dog my way home. 

Success?  No!  

I found myself under the overpass of the bridge I needed to be on to cross Lake Washington.  I continued on a bit, recognizing a few streets, confident that I could still find my way home.  And that's when I stumbled across a most serendipitous discovery.  

I found the park that I had accidentally discovered several years ago on another lost in Seattle adventure.   My sister-in-law and her husband were visiting us prior to their Alaskan cruise.  We wandered around Seattle after dinner, and they laughed as I found myself totally lost.  But we did find this little park with a great view of downtown Seattle.  I've often wondered where I was and wished I could find that little park again.  

That won't happen again.

Because this time, I parked the car and took a picture of the street sign.

I snapped this pic of the small entrance to the viewpoint.

I snapped this pic of the view framed in golden leaves.

And this pic of downtown Seattle. 

And this pic of the neighborhood plaque informing me
of my whereabouts at Mt. Baker Ridge Viewpoint.  

Isn't it lovely what can be discovered by turning off Google maps?