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…
Winter
Silent Sunday: Welcome Snow!
Holiday Cactus Resource on TpT
Few probably know that I have some classroom resources on the Teachers Pay Teachers website. My user name there is Garden Club Lessons. I taught an after-school garden club for 13 years at the elementary school my boys attended. For the most part, I researched topics and then developed my own lessons. It’s not anywhere…
Poetry Friday: The Rut
I thought about not posting today. But, when I considered this, I thought about how hard I’ve worked over the last one and a half years to network with fellow Poetry Friday participants. They have grown to be an important source of support and opportunity for me. Therefore, I knew I had to come up…
Where’s my mom?
It was getting later and later. My watch told me it was now approaching five thirty! Club dismisses at 4:45 p.m.. It was early February and now dark outside. The school parking lot was empty and the outside lights were shining on the snow piles, reflecting with a glare. All but one of my garden…
Silent Sunday: A Little Mishmash
What do the Munsters have in Common with Game of Thrones?
Be assured that both The Munsters and Game of Thrones have to do with monsters and magic, but one in a humorous sort of way and the other, well, not so much due to an incredible amount of throat slashing! But, they have something else in common, too! Their commonality is that last night, instead…
Subzero
My one little word for 2021 is grateful. Tonight, I ran to the grocery store for a few items. When I left home it was 4 degrees. When I left the grocery store, the thermometer in my car went from zero to -2 by the time I arrived home, just twenty minutes later, including the…
Poetry Friday: Fun with Food
When I used to write poetry with students, I tried to decrease the intimidation they’d inevitably feel about writing poetry by helping them find relatable topics – topics they already knew something about – both as individuals and as part of our group. Color, as I’ve written before, was always both an easy and and…
What do you do During a Snow Storm?
Today, in the upper mid-west, we are having a good, ol’ fashioned snow storm. This is something I don’t mind at all, now that we’re retired. With no place we absolutely have to go to, we can stay safely at home. Gazing out the windows, the gently falling snow makes everything look clean, and unblemished….









