I am a writer. It took me many, many years to be able to say those words aloud or write them on a page, but it took me even longer to come to terms with what I write. As a writer I kept trying to find a format that felt comfortable while comparing myself to my writing project colleagues who were successful writers of professional books for teachers, fiction, professional articles, picture books. I tried my hand at those genres, and actually had an article published in Today’s Catholic Teacher Magazine and an essay in A Cup of Comfort for Teachers. When I stopped trying to write what I thought I ‘should’ write, I discovered what I loved to write – poetry and essays.

Poetry appeals to my senses and emotions. It’s variety of form, freedom from/of conventions, and economy of words provide me with choices and challenges that feed my writing hunger. Essays are like having a conversation with a friend.

I am sure that if I worked at it I could write professional articles or fiction, but if I stay true to the voice within me, my focus will remain on poetry and essay writing. Those are what bring me joy.

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.org. #SOL21

Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

Algernon Charles Swinburn

Saturday is usually my recovery day. I allow my body to relax after a busy week of interacting with my students. This year has been extra challenging in so may ways, and my body can’t wait for Saturdays, but today I woke up with a lightness in my heart and a feeling of renewal.

Today is the vernal equinox – blackberry winter – season of grass – spring! I don’t know if is was the sunshine peeking in through the blinds, the knowledge that my son was getting his vaccine, or the fact that I slept in for a change, but I felt a peacefulness that I haven’t felg in a very, very long time.

Blossom by blossom, cool breeze by cool breeze, Saturday by Saturday life is beginning again.

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.org. #SOL21

Things That Made Me Smile

• Watching my 7th graders enthusiastically creating stories
• The end of Terra Nova Testing
• My grandson’s reaction to getting a set of base ten blocks
• My son getting a vaccine appointment
• A long overdue phone conversation with a trusted friend

Words to Describe My Week

• LONG
• PRODUCTIVE
• EXHAUSTING
• SATISFYING

Things I Plan To Do This Weekend

• Enjoy the sunshine
• Finish a book
• Start a new book

Things I Learned This Week

• I cannot make an appointment without gettting the name of the person to whom I am speaking
• There is something good in every day

Goal for Next Week

• Take better care of myself

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.org. #SOL21

I am receiving daily writing prompts in my inbox courtesy of Lisa Sonora and her FIRE: 30 Day Journal Project. One of today’s prompts was, “If I wasn’t waiting for perfection, I would…”

I love to draw with colored pencils and markers, but I am always very critical of my work. I haven’t had formal training, not even real art classes when I was in elementary or high school. I didn’t have the privilege of having a talented art teacher like Robin Schmidt, who taught my children for eight years. The work they created was beautiful and imaginative. Robin inspired her students, and many of them went on to careers in art, and many of them just developed a love for art and creativity.

A couple of summers ago, I attended a one-night water color workshop at my local library as part of their Adult Summer Reading program. The summer program had an outer space theme, and we would be painting galaxies. The instructor walked us through the process, and we practiced the technique for a bit before beginning the actual project. We were able to look at actual space illustrations to use as “mentor texts.”

I was hesitant to begin and even more resistant to mixing colors, but I knew of no galaxy which was completely primary colored. I decided just to go for it and see how things turned out. I was pretty pleased with my finished product.

After that workshop, I intended to take a water color class, but never did. The school year started, and then Covid hit, and plans were put on hold. I bought myself some great water color markers and a book to inspire my drawing. I have a dollar store sketch book that doesn’t get used enough, but might just come out of hiding very soon.

Although I am not a Piccaso or a Monet, I am going to make a point to draw more and explore my artistic abilities. What do I have to lose?

What would you do if you weren’t waiting for perfection?

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.org. #SOL21

Today my 7th-grade ELA inspired me. We are in the middle of standardized testing with today being an off day, so I wanted to have the class engage in a lighter activity yet still work on curriculum. Our grammar work is focused on independent and dependent clauses and how they can make your writing stronger, and of course we always have an vocabulary unit in motion. Today’s assignment was to work independently, with a partner, or in a group of three and write a story and try to incorporate some of the vocab words and grammar skills.

Some story writers were more successful than others in incorporating the skills, but that didn’t really matter because the were all writing; I mean really working together and creating. A few of the groups shared their stories with the class. There was an NBA player with a lucky coin in his shoe, a friend who anticipates her best friend’s homecoming from summer camp only to realize there is a new “best friend” in the picture, and an adventure in leprechaun catching. The kids really enjoyed themselves which was so heart-warming to see.

There are various types of writing required of 7th-graders, but none gets them excited the way creating stories does. It was so inspiring to watch them collaborate (while social distancing of course), laugh, get excited to add details to the story, and to just be kids.

Soon these 7th-graders will be 8th-graders and then flying off to high school. I want them to fly on the wings of imagination and confident voices. I want them to imagine all the possibilities the world holds for them and be confident in being a voice for change in the world. What they have to say matters.

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.org. #SOL21

Five down, one to go. That’s the tally of vaccinated adults in my immediate family. Two of us are fully vaccinated, three will get their second shots the week after Easter, and the last one should hopefully get one soon through the school district in which he teaches. I know how difficult it is to get an appointment, and I certainly don’t want to make anyone still trying to get an appointment feel badly. I just am feeling like I can finally start looking forward to what is coming.

For so long I couldn’t even think about life going back to “normal” or making plans There is so many things I miss about life pre-Covid. These are some of the things I am most looking forward to doing again.

• hugging my kids and grandkids
• sleepovers with the grandkids
• family dinners
• seeing my siblings
• my sister’s wedding in June
• a massage
• getting back to the pool at the gym

Over the past year, I have thought a great deal about what is really important in life, and experiencing lockdown, fear, and anxiety has cemented those thoughts. Covid exposed the great differences between the haves and the have nots, those who could work remotely and those who had no choice but to work in person every day, and many other disparities people experience. However, I think we all wanted the same thing – for our families to be safe. I am more hopeful for the future than I have been in a long, long time.

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.org. #SOL21

March 15 – the ides of March. This day is always associated with the death of Julius Caesar, yet for me it was always just my dad’s birthday. He would have been 93 today if he hadn’t passed away 25 years ago. I didn’t really have a story to write about him today, so I went searching for other things associated with March 15th, and boy was I surprised!

It seems that there is a holiday or national day of something or other every time you turn around, and today is not different. Did you know that today was National Napping Day? Now that’s a holiday I can get behind! It occurs on the Monday after Daylight Savings Time each year, and in its honor I dutifully took a nap after our early dinner. (Really I just couldn’t keep my eyes open and set my phone alarm to get up and blog before retiring to bed.)

Today is also National Act Happy Day which was invented in by Dr. Dale Anderson “in an effort to promote the health benefits of happiness, humor and laughter”. This had me scratching my head; is this another name for “fake it till you make it day?” If that’s the case then we’ve all had lots of practice with this over the past year!

One holiday celebrated today that I definitely won’t be celebrating is True Confession Day. It was “founded by Thomas & Ruth Roy of Wellcat Holidays™, True Confessions Day is a way of encouraging those keeping secrets (so let’s face it, all of us!) to confess them.” This couple has come up with over 80 holidays! They must really love to celebrate. I don’t find anything appealing about True Confession day though; some secrets are best taken to the grave.

Last but not least on my little research journey is National Everything You Think is Wrong Day which was every day during the days of parenting teenagers. I hope you didn’t make any big decisions today because they were most likely wrong according to the description of this holiday. But no worries, tomorrow is Everything You Do is Right Day (I kid you not!), so you can fix any mistakes you made today.

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.org. #SOL21

All of my grades are finalized!

The last day of the grading period was last Tuesday, March 9th, but you know you never have all the grades in when they are due. I have been more patient and understanding with my students, but when does being patient become enabling? I always want the grades to be a true reflection of a student’s ability, and being unorganized and late can be recorded on anther section of the report card.

This school year has be so difficult for students and teachers alike, so I will continue to be as patient as I can possibly be. I do have a deadline, and I let students hand in work until the very last minute I can. That however leads to more stress for me when trying to locate missing assignments and complete the grades on time.

I am SO RELIEVED right now though. I don’t have to worry about this again until June. I have the rest of the evening to myself, and so many things I want to do. That is a good problem to have!

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.org. #SOL21

Do you constantly judge yourself, compare your life to someone else’s, engage in harsh self-talk? Unfortunately, I do.

It’s not that I am unhappy with my life because I am blessed beyond measure. I am married to my high school sweetheart, and he loves me more than I love myself. Our children have found their soul mates and have created beautiful families, and my grandchildren are my heart. Then what’s the problem?

Women by nature are nurturers, but often we forget to nurture ourselves. I am an emotional person, and wear my heart on my sleeve. I like to think I am patient and compassionate with my students and colleagues, family and friends, yet I don’t bestow the same grace on myself. I have a conversation with a friend or read something online or hear things on TV, and right away I begin with the “I should or I should haves.” I always find a way to turn random thoughts into negative ones directed at myself.

This week as I did my 5-4-3-2-1 week in review my #1 (one goal for the week) was to take better care of myself and move more. The past year has had me stuck, and now is the time to get unstuck. Being part of this Slice of Life writing challenge is helping my writing life to start to grow, but even here I compare my writing to others; I look at others’ comments and think I have nothing better than that to say. Ridiculous right? So this week I am going to focus on self-awareness instead of self-judgment and exercise patience and compassion on myself. Wish me luck!

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.org. #SOL21

Today is one year since we got the call that school would be closing for two weeks. I left school early that day for a doctor’s appointment and an appointment to be fingerprinted for my summer teaching job; the job that never happened. We all know what happened next – two weeks became four – four became until the end of the school year. Who would have thought the world would change on a dime?

So many times I thought to myself, I can’t do this much longer. Some days I still think that, but I go on because I have no other choice. Like everyone else, I mourned the loss of a “normal” life, but that was small in comparison to those who were mourning the loss of family and friends. I prayed for the safety of my family and thanked God each day they remained safe.

I have been a fan of Dr. Wayne Dyer for many many years. I wonder what he would have thought about the pandemic, what sage advice he would give his followers on public television? His quote at the top of this post has been with me for years and has often encouraged me to stop and try to change the way I look at things. That has been difficult this past year, but I have tried.

I went from looking:

• at being “stuck” at home to being thankful I had a roof over my head
• at not being able to go to a restaurant to being more appreciative of my chef husband
• at having nothing to do to seeing an opportunity to tackle things on my “to do” list
• at taking my family for granted to making the most of video chats and Facetime

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. I could have never imagined the world would look as it does today, but I am going to try and continue to change the way I look at things and hope that next year when I look back some of the lessons I learned during COVID will still be with me.

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge for the month of March. I will be posting every day this month. It is sponsored by twowritingteachers.org. #SOL21