In late February 2017, I decided to join the Slice of Life Writing Challenge for March. This writing challenge, hosted by TwoWritingTeachers.org, involves writing daily for the month of March and responding to at least three other bloggers’ posts. I did it and then some. I kept writing and writing and writing. Five years later,…
slice of life challenge
The Simple Truth: I’m Not Good at Transitions
Last night, for the first night in a while, I had trouble falling asleep. I do have insomnia, but usually, I can get to sleep and end up waking around 2 am for an hour or two if I am having an episode of the infliction I sarcastically call an unwanted visitor. Last night was…
Slice of Life: Etiquette
I’ve been trying to scale back my blogging to allow me time to write and accomplish some other goals. This is hard while still having a desire to keep my regular blog readers engaged in my posts. Therefore, some of my posts are becoming shorter. Some might consider this a very good thing! As the…
Slice of Life: Loons & Humans
Over the past two years, I’ve become interested in loons. The reason? Well, we have a cabin in the Wisconsin North Woods on a small lake and have resident loons during the time they spend in northern climates. Which, if you don’t know, is the season of clear, open water, and seasonally warmer temperatures –…
Slice of Life Tuesday: Creating without words
My writing has taken center stage in my life as far as my free time lately. Last night, for example, I was rushing into my home office to finish a poem I had started. I had forgotten the deadline was December 6th. I ended up hitting the submittable button about fifteen minutes prior to the…
Out on a Limb
Last night, I did something spontaneous. It’s a big deal because I rarely work that way. Typically, I’m an over-thinker. But, I have been missing student contact. It’s been almost two years since I had a student group. Before that, you have to go back to 2004 to get to a year when I did…
Sleep and Devices
Last week, my Fitbit device gave me a sleep score of 57 (poor) on a night I thought I had slept well! So far my opinion of my sleep and the technology’s assessment of my sleep had been compatible. Now, I’m re-thinking my decision to wear this advanced wrist-watch to bed. In other words, if…
Red Light, Green Light
Last night, as we finished dinner, my husband looked up from his place at the table and said, ” Wow, look at all those deer back there!” By the time I looked out into our yard and the coulee beyond, I was just able see a pack of deer run between some trees and stop,…
Not Silent Sunday, but a Few Words, Instead.
I’ve been somewhat scattered today – trying to finish a number of projects that include a video of the signs of spring for first graders at a local school, a roman shade that has been nothing but problems, cleaning up our utility room, and putting winter hats and gloves away. I hope I haven’t jinxed…
Pourquoi? Por Qua?
One of the most satisfying, yet challenging, writing lessons I did with my former writer’s circle group was pourquoi tales. These are stories that tell how or why something came to exist. As you might imagine they are difficult to write but fun to read. Even though my students were above benchmark third graders, writing…