Giving and
Receiving comments on the slices of our lives
Are at the crux of
This community of writers.
Ever supportive and inspirational, I
Feel myself growing in confidence as we
Unite in our
Love for sharing our lives through the written word.
Giving and
Receiving comments on the slices of our lives
Are at the crux of
This community of writers.
Ever supportive and inspirational, I
Feel myself growing in confidence as we
Unite in our
Love for sharing our lives through the written word.
Every year, I try to do something with the word slice. I have reviewed my first slices of each challenge, written an acrostic poem, and written poetry about the community. As I was driving earlier today, I was thinking about the slices of me.
I first started writing it as a poem because poetry is my jam. Then I had an idea because I am that visual learner - a pie chart.
I entered all of my ideas into a Google sheet thinking I could make a pie chart there, but that did not work out.
I then decided to take my text from the spreadsheet and put it into Chat GPT. That created table and even attributed percentages to it. I am not sure how it determined the percentage, but I left it as is.
Earlier in the month, Leigh Anne invited us all to a Slice of Life Music Festival. It has taken me some time to figure out what songs I want to bring, and I am even making some last minute switches as I type.
"Fields of Gold" by Sting
This song always reminds me of the early days of my relationship with my husband. The summer and fall after we met, we would prepare a picnic and find a waterfall to spend the day. We would hike and then find a spot in a field near the parking lot to have our lunch. We loved being near the falling water and sitting in the sunshine. We would spend Friday evening scouring cookbooks for some unusual salads to make for our outing.
"Make You Feel My Love" by Adele
This song always reminds me of my daughter's dance competitions and never fails to bring tears to my eyes. This was one of her solo songs, and she wore a very simple yet stunning two piece red costume. This was the competition where she won the title and was called up on the stage for a "sit down" session with the judge during which he gave her fabulous feedback.
"For Good" by Indina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth
This song reminds me of my friends. They have helped and supported me through some of my fears and lowest points. In particular, it reminds me of our Cape weekend when we ordered our dinner from the wrong Basil Thai restaurant in Virginia, watched a weird assortment of movies from Bad Moms to The Revenant, walking the beach, and talking for hours.
I have seen a prompt a few times throughout the month called 444 - write for 4 minutes about 4 things within a 4 foot radius. I would love to do this at different times of the day, but I chose to write during my morning writing routine.
Morning Writing
My writing group's Personal Journaling workshop had me thinking about hiding places. It took me to two different places: one being a literal hiding place and the other a more figurative one. I can see myself coming back to this prompt and thinking about this in a more abstract way, but for now, I reminisce back to my childhood. Both seemed to beg to be poems.
Hiding Amongst Words
I attended a Personal Journaling workshop with my TeachWrite writing group last night and enjoyed the writing prompts that allowed me to explore myself.
The first prompt allowed me to share something I do every morning: hit the snooze button.
Prompt: Describe one of your bad habits and why you secretly get joy out of it.
Response:
I don't receive calls from my children often unless there is something wrong. That is in large part because I call or text them quite often, maybe too often.
So, when I saw the call come in from my Cam while I was talking to Ashley, I immediately told her I would call her back.
I am always worried about the kids. Last month, Ashley got into a car accident in Wisconsin. It is so hard being so far away. My head automatically thought something was wrong when he called me. I could physically feel my body bracing for bad news.
I picked up the call from Cam, and he said, "Mom, do you have some money to bail me out of jail?"
My heart started to pound, and I yelled, "Cam, what the _____ did you do?"
He started to laugh and said, "I'm just kidding."
I replied, "Cam, you rarely call me, so I thought something was wrong, and I literally can feel my heart rate skyrocketing right now."
I don't think he felt bad; he likes to keep things light. He is the kid who left me little sticky notes with the word "poop" on them all over his room when he left one weekend. He knows how much I miss him, and there is a softness in his joking.
"Well, I was driving home from Katherine's and was thinking of you, so I decided to call to talk," he said.
My husband is away, and he knows that I tend to get sad when I have not seen him in a while. He knows when I need a little something to pick me up. I am not sure this is what my physical heart needed, but it was what my emotional heart needed.
Earlier this week, I was listening to the Bangles' song "Manic Monday" and realized that is where the term "Sunday funday" came from. I chuckled because Sundays are not really fun days for me as I usually spend the day prepping and planning for the week and sneaking in some grading if there is time left over.
At that time, I decided that I would do whatever I could to make some time for some "fun" things today. That meant I went shopping for some much needed clothes on Friday and grocery shopped and prepped my lunches for the week on Saturday night. I also did some grading before going to bed.
That meant I could get outside for a 2 mile walk today. The sunshine and cool air really helped clear my mind and relieve some stress. I love thinking about writing during my walks, so I am sharing a haiku that was rumbling in my head.
Closing my eyes, I
face the sun; shoulders drop and
exhale the tension
Last year, I promised myself that I would start my garden from seed this year. I did not get to it last week because I was working and running errands. While this may not be fun, it is something that makes me feel good, and I think I will enjoy tending to them over the next several weeks in anticipation of planting my garden. I carved out time to get that done today.
Seeds, a promise of
new beginnings, requiring
attention to thrive
While I still have to do some work, I made sure that today was my "I don't have to run day," so that I could do a few things that I want to do not have to do.
I have not done this reflection in quite some time.
5 things that made me smile.
1. Kids begging for the poetry match-up results..
2. A student's comment, "This is so fun."
3. The birds singing.🐦
4. My sister-in-law laughing.
5. Walking in sunshine
4 words to describe my week
Frustrating
Slow
Packed
Exhausting😴
3 weekend plans.
1. Pilates class
2. Clothes shopping
3. Visit sister-in-law
2 things I learned
1. Incel - Involuntary celibate as used in the Netflix series Adolescence.
2. Some teachers will start an EL lesson, and since it is made for one period, stop mid lesson at the end of the class and move onto the next lesson the next day.
1 weekend goa
1. Correct a workshop assigment
I am using Cathy Hutter's "Currently" prompt today. I am trying to work on my descriptive writing while I sit at my writing desk.
Currently...
I'm listening to my printer chug out a copy of "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe.
I'm drinking water with very berry flavored Propel electrolytes.
I'm wearing black paint and a gray striped shirt with silver threads woven through.
I'm feeling overwhelmed by all of the work I have left to do at 8:00 p.m.
I'm wanting to watch the last episode of Adolescence, but my husband is away.
I'm needing new clothes because my wardrobe is too big.
I'm thinking about how much I miss my kids.
I'm enjoying a quiet house with no judgement about how much I work.
Thank you to https://arjeha.wordpress.com for the 10 sentence story idea. I found Tolentino Teaching on Facebook for I actually had my students do this today, and they loved it. I told them that I would do it tonight for my slice. It was so much fun.
The Mysterious Door
Sentence 1: Start with "One day, [character's name] discovered a mysterious door."
Sentence 2: Describe the door using two adjectives.
Sentence 3: Use a feeling word
Sentence 4: Write a simple dialogue
Sentence 5: Use a preposition
Sentence 6: Include a sound word
Sentence 7: Use the verb"step"
Sentence 8: Use an adverb
Sentence 9: Write a sentence with "but"
Sentence 10: End with a surprise
1) One day, Ashley discovered a mysterious door. 2) It was 3 feet tall and made of moss covered wood. 3) Suddenly, goosebumps erupted all over her arms as a wave of fear swept over her. 4) "What could possibly be passing in and out of that door?" she asked the silent forest. 5) Ashley started to back up, trying to put distance between the door and herself, but she tripped over a tree root and landed on her tailbone. 6) She heard a low hissing sound from behind the door. 7) Jumping to her feet, she took another step backward. 8) The handle on the door turned slowly. 9) She started to tremble, but her curiosity would not allow her to leave. 10) The door creaked open, a basilisk slithered out, and Ashley fell to the ground.
Giving and Receiving comments on the slices of our lives Are at the crux of This community of writers. Ever supportive and inspirational, ...