The Sunrise Story

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for providing this space to share our celebrations. Please join us and share your own! I have a confession. I am loving the new series, Fuller House, on Netflix. The first season was released last night and I've watched two episodes already. As I was watching it, it brought me back to a simpler time. The world didn't seem so big and scary. The original series began in the late 80s, so I was already in high school headed for college. My world then looked different. This peek back reminds me of that time and brings back good memories. Is it formulaic? Yup. Is it cheesy? Absolutely! And I am loving every moment of that goofiness and silliness. Here's a quick peek... There's something about watching this show that makes me laugh and smile and enjoy. Even my sixth grade students were talking about it yesterday too. I can't wait to talk about it with them next week.  I celebrate humor and family and nostalgia. It's true, you can n...

Thank you to Holly Mueller for giving us this space to share our spiritual journeys. Join us here .  I am so far behind in my OLW posts for Spiritual Journey, I am sorry. I offer no excuse. I am here today. Mindfulness. This word pops up everywhere lately. The simplest meaning to me is "the state of being aware". The roots of this word come from Buddhist meditation, according to The Greater Good . I wonder why it's become part of our broader vocabulary. The reason seems obvious to me, we need it. The world is filled with distractions...more arrive everyday. It's easy to get lost. It's easy to forget what's important. I've gotten lost in the minutia of social media. I've wandered through the maze of Candy Crush and Words with Friends. I've allowed email and messages to rule my time. It's too much. Being mindful means being present. It means consciously choosing where my time will be spent. When I am aware of that, I feel different...

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 . Do you have a internal voice? A critical voice. I call mine, "Judge". The one that makes declarations and insists you're not good enough. Mine is loud and mean. I've decided that my "Judge" is a big, fat liar. Recently my critical inner voice has been drowning out every other voice. It's all I've heard...or maybe it's the only one I've been listening to. That voice is loud and negative. It doesn't trust, it's suspicious. It's rude and disrespectful. It's judgmental and unforgiving. I hear it all the time. It's toxic. How did I recognize it? This has been a snowy winter with lots of cold weather and this past weekend, the warmth returned. I was out walking Bella and my f...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for providing this space to share our celebrations. Please join us and share your own! One of my favorite quotes about writing is from Natalie Goldberg, "As writers we live life twice..." This is so true! This week in school we have been writing a lot. I shared this quote with them. We discussed it and talked about what it means. I love sharing quotes with my sixth graders because it connects us and it makes them think beyond themselves. On Friday, I introduced the idea of the slice of life writing to them. Usually, I start this much earlier in the year, but this year I tried to wait. I shared my slice from this past week and talked them through how I created it. We talked about writing stories from our lives and about small moments. The idea of a small moment is a difficult one for an eleven year old, but it feels like we got it this time. I asked them to spend a few minutes walking around with their notebooks and sharing ideas for slice...

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 . Just when I thought I had nothing to write about, life happens. We have another snow day...or should I say, ice day.  I'd woken up early, walked Bella, eaten breakfast and I was just about to sit down to write when the power went out. I waited and it flickered for a moment and then again it was out. It's unusual for my neighborhood to lose power. I looked out the window and saw that everyone had lost power, even the stores and restaurants near me.  Bella was scared. She refused to leave my side. She was shaking so much. I wonder what spooked her. I remained calm, which isn't like me. After lots of comforting and petting, we  found our way upstairs to the writing room. There a candle and the twinkly tree provided some li...

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 .  Living a writerly life means noticing the small things, the things others would miss, and writing about them. I am a creature of habit. Every morning I wake up and eat a bowl of cheerios with milk. Satisfying. Eating my breakfast out of my favorite bowl makes it sweeter.    What is it about a specific bowl? The yellow color makes me smile. The bowl is a perfect shape. It holds just the right amount of cereal. It's sturdy and it does it's job well. It fits. Just the right size...not too big, not too small, like Goldilocks. My perfect bowl. This reminded me of a book I read twenty years ago... Everyday Sacred by Sue Bender. My memory of this book reminds me to find the miraculous in the ordinary. I remember that the bowl repres...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for providing this space to share our celebrations. Please join us and share your own! Today I am celebrating in the form of a list... The power of writing and the connections made Voxer and my new Voxer groups Long drives to meet friends Motivated students American Idol My cuddly dog, Bella New favorite books like Some Kind of Courage by Dan Gemeinhart Returning to a regular schedule New opportunities Support of friends Phone calls with my family Summer beach trips End of semester & beginning of a new semester New pillows Morning pages Writing everyday Appreciating exactly where I am What are you celebrating today?

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 . What is it about writing? Beginning is the hardest part for me.  Once I pick up the pen, open the notebook,  sit down at the keyboard, the writing is there.  It's always there.  Doesn't mean it's easy! Writing is like a good friend Forgiving and grace-full. Fun and spontaneous Difficult and challenging. Writing pushes me to be a better version of myself. Writing reminds me that I'm never alone, the words are always there. Writing persists never gives up, even when I've given up. With ten days at home with over three feet of snow, writing found me again. It nudged me and reminded me to return. I'd only given my writing a perfunctory glance these past few months. I wasn't digging, I was only dou...