More Words-More Stuff

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, on this Friday, goodbye to November, hosts us at her wonderful blog, The Poem Farm.  Travel out to the farm to see what's happening there!  

        Thank you Amy!

             In the arduous task of cleaning out things, it is a constant question of what to keep, what to leave for my own children to deal with someday, and what to throw away.  In my thoughts, this poem emerged.  I imagine you have noticed I am rather single-minded these days.  It’s all about the changes and the move. 

   “A poem is a small or large machine made with words.”  William Carlos Williams

Ch, ch, ch, CHANGES

     Every week, Ruth and Stacey host Slice of Life Tuesday on their Two Writing Teachers blog.  Come check out everyone's slices!

Stacey Shubitz wrote a blog post Sunday that touched me about keeping busy, or not, and planning with more attention to needs, and with a further link to another blogger that expanded the reasoning of handling all that one puts on to-do lists.

Stacey began with looking at lists with the following headings:

Needs

Wants

Shoulds

Musts

Coulds

Mights

             She further asks why not look at the mights, wants and coulds first, instead of the musts and shoulds. 

             And then asks if we might look at needs differently, look at them first! 

             As some of you might have read, I am moving, in a couple of weeks!  I am fortunate that I do not have to vacate my house all at once.  I’ve already closed on my new home, and am moving some things a little at a time.  It is very close to my work, so every day for a couple of weeks I’ve moved some things in, to help with the big move later.  I do have movers hired, but am trying to move many things first, both to make it easier on the “un-packing” and on the “expense”. 

Busy, Busy Week-Not As Much Reading!

Jen and Kellee host this kidlit meme at TEACH.MENTOR.TEXTS.  Join us to see what we're all reading.

          It's Monday! What are you Reading? is another meme hosted by Sheila at BOOK JOURNEYS that offers reviews of all kinds of books.  

        If you’re on Twitter, use the hashtag #IMWAYR when sharing your link!

        And, Myra, Fats & Imogene host the blog, Gathering Books and challenge us with their reading Challenge, which you can find here.  This week, I read three books that were honored with awards.

Blackout – John Rocco   

Created with the look of a graphic novel, this tells the story of an urban family who finds stars on the roof  (in the night sky) and a party of many neighbors on the street.  Rocco shows the characters with a clever use of light and dark in his cartoon-like illustrations. Even with all the electricity expected, then lost, the family learns the fun of other kinds of entertainment, doing things together! 

Caldecott Honor book in 2012

Monsters of Men – Patrick Ness

I finally finished this very long story, and it continued to be a marvelous, edge-of-the-seat, heart-rending story. The characters are flawed, as everyone is, which made one think again and again, how does one make 'right' decisions and keep from negatively impacting others while defending oneself and others close?   I got so involved with the characters, wishing for good ends so much that I sat in my driveway more than once, listening to just one more part.   It is quite a story, and I wonder how I would have felt if I had read a print book instead of listening?  The actors creating the book were wonderful, and of course after listening to them for over 30 hours, I thoroughly got to know them. 

       winner of the Carnegie Medal last year

Moving Day - Coming Soon

         Thanks to Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading for hosting Poetry Friday today.  Drop by to see what others are sharing!

            Almost exactly two months ago I visited a library near my school, and thought I would drive around the neighborhood.  Oh my!  I found a house that I liked and called a realtor whose name I had kept.  Through personal soul searching and persistent paperwork I now own this house.  I may write about it later, but now I only want to share that I am moving in a couple of weeks.  I am leaving my home of thirty-four years.  I am crazed, sad, excited, exhilarated, nostalgic, and hopeful. 

A Little Bit of Gratitude

           Every week, Ruth and Stacey host Slice of Life Tuesday on their Two Writing Teachers blog.  Please come to visit some, or all, of the bloggers' posts.

        

          The Teaching Authors have posted, I think, for the second year in a row, the Thanksgiving challenge for the next two weeks to write a “thanku”, either in their comments or link to them in your own blog post.  I imagine you can guess that a “thanku” is a thank you written in the haiku form.  You can find the link above that explains all about it.

         There are numerous ways to be grateful, in special places at special times.  I hold dear my family as you all know, and friends far and near, but the newest group that help me live my life are the blogging friends.  Friendship is born out of commonalities and indeed there are friends out there who believe what I believe about learning and growing and being kind.  I write this "thanku" for all of you.

Gratefulness blossoms as friendship is fertilized, slicing words with friends.

  Gratefulness blossoms

as friendship is fertilized,

slicing words with friends.

 Happy Thanksgiving Everyone - To You and Yours!

photo credit: kabils via photopin cc