The Sunrise Story

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at  Two Writing Teachers .  I have a confession. I've been in a reading drought...a serious reading drought. I can't explain it. School has been out for weeks and I haven't finished one book. Not. One. Book. I sit in shame as I watch friends participate in Book A Day challenges and book clubs about professional books and YA books. I continue to order books. I have piles waiting for me...and I don't read them.  The shame spirals. I wonder, "What is wrong with me?!?!" I sit down to read and I can't focus on any one book for more than a few minutes and I refocus my attention on something else. I tell myself, "It's because I'm writing a lot this summer." I tell myself, "I am so busy, I'll get back to it." Exc...

Thank you to  Ruth Ayres  for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! This week I am celebrating space. Space to write. Space to read. Space to cry and laugh and live. Space to BE. Space to be. There's a terrific blog called, The Messy Middle , and this week she wrote a post about slowing down. She said, "Our lives demand so much motion. But our souls demand stillness." This week, there's been space for stillness. The stillness can be hard, but it's where we grow and learn. I celebrate the stillness and space to just BE. Space to write. Writing has been such a focus for me this summer. I have miserably failed this past week...well, I haven't written what I wanted to write. On Instagram, Glennon (author of the blog,   Momastery and the book Carry On, Warrior ) posted a picture of her writing space. I needed to reorganize my space...I found a candle that looks and smells lovely. My pens surround me, as does my washi tape. I h...

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at  Two Writing Teachers .  I woke up at 7:30 today. I slept through the night, didn't wake up at all until 7:30 this morning. That usually doesn't happen. I'm awake around five a.m. every morning and most nights I wake up a couple of times. Last night was filled with restful sleep. I find myself wanting a reason for this night of restful sleep, and then I can replicate it. Instead, I'll enjoy it.    Yesterday I met a friend for lunch. It was one of those lunches...we met at noon and we were still there talking after three o'clock. We used to work together and she left to open a new school and life got in the way for both of us. I missed our friendship so much. I missed our talks and laughing and how much we had in common...like our school supp...

Thank you to  Ruth Ayres  for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! Saturday. The end of a busy week. I presented to teachers for two and a half days this week. Working with teachers is something that inspires me and brings me such joy and energy...I'm grateful that I'm provided with these opportunities. I celebrate hard working teachers who constantly look for ways to improve themselves.  It's been a busy summer with high expectations to get lots done! I've been writing. I haven't been...oh, I could make quite the list. I'll keep my eyes on what's getting done while making some changes in my schedule to try some new things. I celebrate trying new things, like catching up on my Playing Class in Sketchbook Skool . Danny Gregory is an amazing artist and author who teaches these cool online classes. The class I'm taking is about playing with art and trying new things. I started catching up on my lessons yesterday. Here's w...

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at  Two Writing Teachers .  I have been writing a lot this summer. Part of this journey has taken me back...back to remembering where my love of writing began and who supported and encouraged this love. I'm blessed to say that the list is long, but I want to focus on two teachers who made a difference. Miss Leone. Miss Leone was my history teacher in high school. She taught US Government. When I think back on my teachers, she always stands out! She listened to us. She talked to us, I mean really talked to us. It was the first time I felt like someone was treating me like an adult. Miss Leone got so excited, genuinely excited, about history and current events and politics. It wasn't my favorite subject, but I couldn't help LOVING it when I was sitting in...

I spent today working with teachers. They are joining the world of teacher bloggers. We spent lots of time reading and studying mentor texts...other teacher blogs. It was so much fun! I felt like I was introducing these teachers to my friends. Hearing their compliments about Stacey 's voice on her blog and Leigh Anne 's blog post about and Linda 's response to comments made me smile. I felt proud of my friends. Proud to be part of such a talented and smart blogging community and hopeful to be inviting more wonderful teachers to join us! Tomorrow we will continue our blogging adventure by sharing our slices on Two Writing Teachers . I believe with all of my heart that to guide students to blog and write, the teachers need to blog and write. Watching these teachers take this leap into a new space and share their stories, it's an honor to be able to witness it. Interested in my presentation? Visit my website, Michellehaseltine.com , and click on the ...

Thank you to  Ruth Ayres  for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! Today I want to celebrate reflection. I write. Today I write for many reasons. I've been thinking about why I started writing. My five year old niece, Jillian, just visited me for a few days and I shared my notebook with her. I asked her to write in it and draw a picture in it. She loved that and wanted a notebook of her own. We decorated it and wrote in it. I don't know if she will ever write in it again, but it reminded me of when I was little. I wondered when I decided to write. In my first notebooks, it's a diary...an account of my days, with very little commentary on that. It's like I wanted to remember. As I continued to write through my teen years, the writing got more creative...I included poems I wrote...and very dramatic, after all, I was a teenager. I feel like it was around this time when I started to realize that writing helped me figure out what I was feeling....

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at  Two Writing Teachers .  I am a writer.  Julieanne wrote about her struggle with owning these words today on her blog . I wrote about my own struggle with claiming this title a couple of weeks ago, here .  I am a writer. Since I first blogged about this struggle, I finished a week at a writing retreat. It changed me. I am a writer. I am writing a book.  What changed for me? How are those words easier (not easy) for me to say and mean? Routine and discipline. I am a writer. Every morning, I dedicate two hours to write. I show up even when I don't want to and I put my butt in the chair and my fingers on the keys and I write. That's how I will write a book...a little bit at a time. That's how I am a writer...I write everyday.  Taki...

Thank you to  Ruth Ayres  for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! Today I celebrate the simple things in life... Catching up with friends Days moving at a slower pace Visiting with family Time spent with Bella Netflix (now with NCIS!!) Writing Fresh strawberries and cherries Cucumbers Iced tea Packages in the mail Kindness...always kindness ...and freedom. I celebrate all of these things on Independence Day!