Celebrating Family

        Celebrating with Ruth Ayres and others today. Come visit to see how wonderful it is to celebrate all the delights of the week! 

    

         I am currently reading Alan Gratz' Refugee and am struck by several common themes within the stories of the three children, but one that I am celebrating today is family ties. No matter the crisis, each child stands firm with family, is supported by family. And now today with hurricane Harvey bringing destruction, I see again people saying only that being safe as a family is most important. I am grateful for my life with little danger but am also aware that I am fortunate, need to help however I am able and need to keep informed of the wider world in which I live. Along with my own life events, I celebrate family love that I read about everywhere, in the best and worst of circumstances.  My time in Missouri with my brother and sister-in-law and niece was a special time we will remember.  I don't have a picture, but also had a nice visit with my nephew who just started his first year as assistant principal of a high school. Wow, what a challenge! We were so glad to see him and hear about his first week!

The beginning of our fabulous time at The City Museum
 in St. Louis. What a fantastic visit. If you can get there, go!

Yes, as I wrote in my last post here, the grand-girls had their
lemonade stand on eclipse day!

Celebrating Family

Celebrating with Ruth Ayres at Discover, Play, Build, and linking with others who share, too. I'm always grateful to Ruth for our weekly celebrations together.

      

By the time you read this, I'll be on my way home from our ocean vacation. There is much to celebrate and those of you who know my posts on FB or Instagram know most of it. This time, I am grateful and celebrate my children and their spouses who work hard to ensure they make the time to get together each time we do this. It isn't easy maneuvering jobs and vacations at the same time, but we've managed it for five years now, planning for more! The first time I came to these islands, Arvie and I brought Carter, so it's my sixth year here loving the ocean, exploring with family!

Imi didn't want to turn around!

Clearly, Carter has changed a bit since this was taken.

Celebrating A Few Nice Things

Tweet @ #CelebrateLu

         Celebrating with Ruth Ayres and others at Discover Play Build.  




            I haven't posted for several weeks, busy times, even though I know teachers are even busier at this time of year. If you teach, I hope you all have wonderful school year endings!
            I've done some traveling and had fun with friends, enjoyed the granddaughters' weekly visits, and loved spring flowers blooming so fast that each time I look, some new ones have appeared. I've been writing, poetry and prose and am excited about a new idea for a picture book that I'm working on. 
            I only saw them for a quick breakfast at a local favorite restaurant, but Nathan, Barb & Carter flew in Thursday morning to travel to the mountains for a friend's daughter's high school graduation. Yes, amazingly, it was snowing, but I loved our short visit, and after some delays, they made it to their destination!

They sent this pic from the mountains,
all bundled up!

Busy, Busy - Fun, Fun

       I'm slicing with the Two Writing Teachers community today. It's always a pleasure to read what everyone writes about their lives.

         I've been away, no blogging since last Wednesday, and it's been a marvelous five days. I visited my son, daughter-in-law and grandson Carter in Lubbock, Texas to see them all of course, but especially to see Carter and his marching band. Marching band is a very big deal in this town of Lubbock, I think all of Texas. One nice thing is that it's as big a deal as football, and they are not cutting music programs!

      I haven't been to a Friday Night Lights game in a long time, and this time they showed me more than I've remembered from years ago! The parents of Carter's marching band have a rolling grill and a trailer because they feed the kids before every game, and most times they feed the opposing team's band, too. That's 600 plus people! I couldn't take pics of the kids without permission, but there are pics of my son and daughter-in-law, on the "Grill Team". I was the person giving helpings of tortilla chips, and loved having small chats with all those wonderful high school kids, showing such gratitude for being fed, having such a great time with their friends before they marched across the road to the stadium, and then at half-time at the game. These kids do all that they do, plus practice every day (either morning or after school) and have been doing this since the beginning of August. I admire their dedication and grit, working to make as perfect a "show" as they can.

Celebrating Good Times

          Celebrating with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build.  and connecting with others who share their celebrations, too. It's fun to see the week through these eyes, finding what is wonderful each day.  

         My son, daughter-in-law are here this weekend, but spending the day with friends today so I have time to write. The good to celebrate this week including fun, family, a surprise book and lovely flowers blooming in my garden. I'm writing every day, and enjoying that, too. I hope you're having a great holiday weekend however you spend this particular time. 

Found at the bookstore, a surprise story of a mouse
and her survival from the poet Wendell Berry, whose
poetry I love, but didn't know about this lovely story.

Imogene and I went to our museum of nature and science
to experience the robot exhibition. Below shows her
built robot. She is guiding it by keeping her hand close.
I was amazed that she figured it out, needing certain parts,
like a battery and a transformer, she used the pictures
given to construct it. This and other hands-on parts were
amazing. She and I even played tic tac toe with a robot!

Celebrating The People In My Life

              I celebrate each Saturday with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build - It's a close community that celebrates together. Come join us!          Tweet at #CelebrateLu

        I didn't post last week because my brother, sister-in-law and niece were in town to help celebrate my birthday, but so many other wonderful things have happened along with celebrating that day. Living a long way from them is hard. We all wish we lived so much closer. This is the family Sarah, her two daughters, and my grandson Carter (my son's son) travel to visit each summer. We are close, but we want the kids to know them and be close, too!

Celebrating Connections

              Celebrating Each Saturday with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build. It's a good time to read about everyone's celebrations! Come join us!                      Tweet at #CelebrateLu

              It's been two weeks since I celebrated all those endings at school, and now, these past two weeks of wonderful days make me want to write an entire book about the beauty of connected friends no matter how far apart (my time at the All-Write Conference), then about the blessings of family (my trip to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Missouri).  

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” 
     ~ Herman Melville
        I love the idea of those tiny fibers, that woven or twisted together, they make a lifeline for living. As we spend time with friends and family, we talk and learn new ideas to contemplate, to keep and enlarge, to hold for another time. Yet, all of it enriches when attention is paid, and the return are the effects, as Melville writes, for all our lives.

Slice of Life 22/31 -Sometimes Slices Taste Different

                Also blogging with my students at Linda & Jonathan's Class Blog

Day Twenty-Two of the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.   Tweet at #SOL15

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

        If you've remembered yesterday, Saturday, and I didn't have much that I had to do, but lots that I wanted to do, even cleaning, and I wrote that I've worked hard that past few weeks and weekends getting ready for new units with my students, writing evals and then conferences. So I ran a few errands, finished up with the minor grocery shopping and planned to go home before lunch and leisurely write and read. I didn't. 

Celebrating-After the 4th!

       Thank you Ruth, for Celebration Saturday! Everyone come over to RuthAyresWrites to share in the celebrations! 
        Tweet at #CelebrateLu  


         I've been gone almost since school was out, and am now celebrating being home! I haven't posted since the wonderful All-Write Conference. I was happy to be home for a few days, to relax a little before the next adventure. A week ago Thursday, my grandson flew in from Texas, and on Friday, he, my daughter and two daughters, and I took off for Missouri, to visit with my brother and family. What a wonderful time, a list of celebrations day after day. Among all the wonderful things, the very best is visiting with family, talking over old times, catching up on new times, and this time my grandson (13 next month) got to stay up with the grown-ups, listen and add to the conversation. Do you remember when you were old enough to do that?
        I've posted some of these on Facebook, so forgive me if you've seen them already, but am really happy about all the small things we loved doing. Each part is a special memory for us.

It looks this way, across eastern Colorado, then all the way
 through Kansas, & finally, rolling hills begin
as we near Kansas City, Missouri. After that,
 two more hours. Long days going and returning!

Goofiness surrounds us. The kids are hamming it up here!

Slice of Life - Best Laid Plans...

Thanks to the writers at Two Writing Teachers for hosting the slicing community!  I hope you're all anticipating the March Slice of Life Challenge.  See Tara Smith's great post yesterday about her class and their writing adventures while slicing here!  Margaret Simon of Reflections on The Teche and I are the support team for those who are entering the challenge with their classrooms.  See her wonderful post today that will help you begin.  Like Margaret, if you have questions, you can leave them in the comments, or e-mail me at LindaB414 at gmail dot com. I'm the connection for teachers whose names begin with A through M. 

#NFPB10for10 - Remember that tomorrow, Cathy Mere and Mandy Robek are hosting this event!  Don't miss it!

        One dictionary consulted reads that "Serendipity is finding something good without really looking for it." As I consider our lives observed as slices of life, I realized sometimes things that have taken a wrong turn do turn out okay! My son, daughter-in-law and grandson flew in Friday to ski with their friends and immediately went to our condo in the mountains.  They arrived at my house Sunday evening for a quick visit with my daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters. It was a lovely evening, and then Monday was spent with more visiting and shopping at a few stores they don't have where they live.  They left about 5pm to catch their flight back to Texas.  It's always hard to say goodbye, but I was happy to have seen them even for a short time, took a quick picture and off they went. 

           It was going to be a quiet evening, right!  I sat down at the computer to read some Monday blog posts, thinking about dinner prep, and then my grandson called.  

Slices On My Mind

       The Tuesday Slice of Life is hosted by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers.       Here is where many link their posts to share what's going on in their lives, personal and educational. Come visit everyone's posts to read their summer slices!                   
                               Tweet at #slice2013!

         My slice this week has much to do with support.  Many of you know that I’ve had some tough times these past few years, but I am so grateful for the support I receive from everyone.  Just the way people show they care with a smile and a ‘How are you?’ is like a big hug.  Here are three things that happened this past week that are the things I keep in the grateful scrapbook of my mind. 

Sweetness for Valentine's Day

         Poetry Friday is hanging out with Laura Salas-Writing The World For Kids

                                                        If you love Valentines

                                                   and the sweetest of rhymes,

                                                please read these poems today  

                                                written in old fashioned ways!

      I had a wonderful mother-in-law named Helen.  She warmly welcomed me as a new daughter into her family.  Through all the years and visits, she and I had fabulous talks about just everything:  raising children as well as politics, people’s behavior along with town events, the virtues of hand-mixing batter or use of an electric mixer.  I never heard her say a bad word about others, nor did she complain about anything.  As they say, she kept a stiff upper lip, even in the most sorrowful times, like when her husband of many years died suddenly of a heart attack soon after he retired.  Broken dreams.  She was a kind woman who helped out at the church nursery well past seventy and continued to play the piano for church when needed until the last year of her life.  I loved her and still miss her.  She just made it into the 21st Century, after having lived almost all of the 20th.

My dear mother-in-law Helen was one of those teachers who, after leaving high school, taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the 1920’s.  She rose early, saddled a horse, and rode to the country building where her first duty was to start the fire.  Like that story told so eloquently by Charles Portis, she had grit.  And, as a true woman of her generation, she saved everything!  I am the proud recipient of many old-fashioned Valentines given to her (Miss Helen) by her students, probably about 1928.  I thought since we will celebrate St. Valentine’s Day next Tuesday, I would share a little sweetness with all of you. 

Here are photos of some, and the rhymes found inside are beneath.  Many are intricate, lacy, and pop out.   A few have been altered like little hearts have been cut out in them, and it’s clear that it was hand done.  You may be able to see which are the pop out ones, but photos did not show that very well. 

                                              Happy Valentine’s Day!

To my Valentine

      Your voice is like a

              song bird

The sweetest thing I’ve

         ever heard.

May you be always happy, gay,

And joyous, as you are to-day,

Is what my ardent hopes express

For you, my Love,

           and nothing less!

The whole world

   loves a lover

So they say—I hope

        it’s true,

‘Cause then the world’s

     in love with me

‘Cause I’m in love

           with you.

Dear Teacher,

Don’t overlook

This One

from

me

You’re my Valentine

‘Cause you’re sweet

as you can be.

I hope my heart will

     reach you

And be there right

       on time,

It’s just chock-full of

     loving thoughts

For you, dear Valentine.

Oh let’s make life

a jolly lark

A picnic if you

please.

And it will be just

this for me

If words you say

are these:

I Love You!

The Valentine I’m sending

Is sealed with kisses two.

Which I trust will reach you safely,

For both are meant for you.

Of all the girls I know

You are the very best.

To me you seem much brighter

Thank any of the rest.

Postman, handle this with care!

I’m sending my heart to a lady fair,

Who is an old sweetheart of mine

And I want her to be: My Valentine.

I think that I shall try a line,

I hope to catch a Valentine,

There’s only one I want, ‘tis true.

Oh! Can’t you guess that one is you?

A Different Kind of Lullaby for Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday is hanging out today with Jim at Hey, Jim Hill.

My father-in-law and son, a long time ago, final run!

        My husband’s father was a railroad engineer for Union Pacific in the last years of his long railroad career.  We now have a number of different train memorabilia in our home because of him.  My husband talks of many trips his family took on the trains.  It sounds like such fun and I am also nostalgic about train trips after reading Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express and watching old movies where love and intrigue reside on the rails.  I grew up with others taking those trips and took one myself, with my Girl Scout troop, to Washington D.C.  Imagine the hours of giggling, hardly sleeping there and back!  I am grateful to our leaders who sacrificed their time and maybe sanity by taking us.

It’s a delight when I find prose and poetry about train travel, I read the words, and sometimes find them memorable enough to read to my husband.  Lately, on a website called The Daily Poem, a particular poem appeared with such rhythm and sweetness that I wanted to share it with you, and of course I shared it first with my husband. 

       I also found a little about Alicia Stallings, who is still writing and has published several books of poetry.  She is known as a classical poet, has translated from the Greek and lives with her husband and son in Athens, Greece.  More poems and a short bio can be found at The Poetry Foundation.

Lullaby Near The Railroad Tracks 

                         by Alicia E. Stallings

Go back to sleep.  The hour is small.

         A freight train between stations

Shook you out of sleep with all

         Its lonely ululations.

                        The rest can be found here.

Connections If You Look!

Tuesday Slice of Life is at Two Writing Teachers!

      I thought at first I would only write about my visit to see my son and daughter-in-law and grandson, but there happened to be more connections in this trip than just seeing them.  We had a wonderful long weekend and I had lots of time with my grandson, even played a little pitch and catch football with him as we've done since he was very young.  We saw many things that were both fun and interesting.   
       Perhaps it happens to lots of us, but the terrific thing that happened were the connections I made because I read your blogs.  So-thought I'd write a little poem about it all, and add in the photos, too.  


       I wonder how many connections students can make if we ask them to start looking?




Making connections serendipitously
is always a pleasure -
to me.


We traveled to Lubbock
first time on this plain, to
that Red Raider city of so little rain.

We visited my son and his wife and their boy
that grandson I speak of
so often with joy.


Now finally, at last, we are really here,
and seeing them in their new home
was simply great to be near.

Soccer games for my son
were cheered long ago.
Now it's football and kicking and whistles-great fun!


I ran to take this photo most
as this hydrant caught my eye,
recalling a student blogger's post. 

Tam's post about windmills
was great fun to read.
They were here too; wind is the feed.

We drove out of town to look for and find
fields and fields of cotton growing;
Elsie's post came to mind.

Write your stories and then you share them;
the connections sometimes grow.
Our visit held more than I imagined!

Fun Visiting Family But Then We Say Goodbye

Poetry Friday this week is with Jama at Jama's Alphabet Soup

My grandson, in the season!

As some of you know, my son, daughter-in-law and oldest grandchild, a dear grandson, moved away this year.  We have seen them several times, and taken my grandson on an annual trip to the ocean, but still it’s not the same as having them five minutes away.  Today we’re traveling to see them for the first time in their new home.  I’m so excited to be there, to see their workplaces and school, where they work and where they play.  It will be a good trip. 

As I was reading some old journals, I found this poem that I wrote after this same son and daughter-in-law moved out after staying with us for a few months while a house was being built.  Although of course we were happy for them, but even then, the house seemed too empty.  Change is hard no matter what the good circumstances.

All the friends who carted cardboard boxes,

lines of clothes on plastic hangars,

dresser drawers, and the ones who grunted bearing

out the tables and the bed

the washer and the stove,

all are gone.

They took their pay of salami and cheese on rye,

tall bottles of Bud

and thanks very much we owe you big time!

My son walks through the empty garage

carrying the last bits, the cold stuff—

ketchup, mayo, mustard

two packs of juice, a lime.

He turns, leans to give me a kiss.

Thanks Mom flies at me and he leans

toward his wife, squeezes her shoulder,

says Let’s go.

I begin to sweep the garage, and make the floor

really

really

clean.