CHEESE!
Gooey stretchy stringy
goodness
smothering my pizza
Sprinkled over green
leaves of lettuce
to add a tangy flavoring
Smushed inside two
pieces of bread
melting all over my fingers
Hugging
elbow macaroni
to create a tangy
treat
CHEESE!
Comfort food
Macaroni & cheese
Grilled cheese
Caesar salad
Pizza with extra CHEESE
Mozzerella
Cheddar
Parmesan
American
CHEESE!
Brings me back
to my childhood
Mmmmmmm…
PLAY. I believe PLAY is an important part of life! When we are children, we love to PLAY. We go on PLAY dates and PLAY with our friends. As we get older (and really old, like me) I wonder, do we still PLAY? How does PLAY look different for you now? As a young child, PLAY meant make believe and running around and climbing trees and laughing a lot! PLAY doesn’t look like that anymore. I don’t climb trees anymore. (Why not?!?!) I don’t make believe. I don’t run around.
I laugh. I talk. I spend my PLAY time with people that I love. We take walks, go to the gym, go see movies, eat dinner out, shop, make crafts, talk about books and share our writing. To me, that’s my PLAY time. When I look back at that list, I guess I do make believe, when I read fiction and write! I do still run around, when I walk and go to the gym. I don’t climb trees.
PLAY time feeds my soul! It gives me energy for another day.
LOVE! Valentine’s Day is a day when we stop and celebrate love. I believe it’s important to always act in a loving way to everyone. (It’s not always easy though.) Today to celebrate love, I’m going to make a list of people and things I love…
1. My parents
2. Being an auntie to Jack and Jillian
3. Having the BEST aunts in the world!
4. Teaching the most AMAZING students in the universe!
5. Writing
6. Being a friend and having friends that make me laugh and listen to me
7. Owning my cozy home
8. BELLA!!! Cuddles and always happy…no matter what!
9. Strong women in my family, like my grandmothers!
10. I LOVE !!!!!!!! and ……… and ?!?!?!?
I am continuing this blog post from the first class, so my five minute Friday, may be twenty minute Friday. I’m finding it challenging to get back into the thought process after a block of teaching, but here goes nothing…
11. Peppermint Coffee
12. Snow days…it’s like getting the gift of time
13. Kind words…showing kindness is a LOVING gesture and makes us all happier!
14. Stickers!
15. Finding just the right book at just the right moment!
16. Anne Shirley…my kindred spirit (in book characters)
17. Comfy shoes
18. Warm soft sweatshirt (Can you tell it’s cold?)
19. Working with motivated and enthusiastic teachers!
20. Unexpected surprises
Journey. Taking a trip. Right now, it’s 16 degrees. I’d like to journey to a warmer climate. Right now, it’s taken us 20 minutes to start class because of technological issues. I’d like to journey to a place where all students have all the technology they need and it always works. All. The. Time. Alas, I’m here. No, not “Alas”…I’m HERE! I spend my days with the greatest students in the universe! They make me laugh everyday! They write about dead hamsters. They try and wiggle in extra reading time (that’s usually ok with me)! They work hard! They are kind…so kind.
I’m here with my sixth graders…watching them JOURNEY through the challenging days of middle school. They do it with humor and grace and struggle and hard work. I watch them make friends and learn about each other. I see them grow as writers and readers. I notice they are growing up. It makes me humbled. I get to be part of their journey…broken computers, dead hamsters and all!
This is a very rough draft of a poem I’d like to continue revising. I’d love to hear what you think…
A hero inspires
A hero fails and
gets back up to try again
A hero is kind
even when it’s inconvenient
A hero is action
fixing
helping
A hero is there
present
listening
A hero is real
in my life
Friends are heroes to me
Bella is a hero to me
My mom is a hero to me
My students are heroes to me
They are present, kind, and they
always inspire!
Secrets. That’s our topic today. The class buzzed with ooohs and ahhhs when the word was picked from the jar, but now I don’t know what to write. This is a blog, so I’m not going to tell you my secrets. I can tell you this. I am not good at keeping secrets. I seem to give everything away. Like birthdays….I like to think I am an excellent gift giver! I search high and low for a meaningful and thoughtful gift for friends and family. The problem comes if I find the gift too early. I can’t keep it a secret. I have to tell. RIGHT away. I just gave a birthday gift to a friend this week. Her birthday is on March 17th. Uh-oh.
My family and friends know that I’m not good at secrets like that so they usually don’t tell me things like gifts they are getting. I am good at keeping important life secrets. When a friend tells me something important that she doesn’t want anyone else to know about, I will not share that. That would be gossiping, so that’s easier to avoid. Knowing secrets can feel powerful! I prefer to let someone else have that power. That’s too much stress for me.
Beginnings are my favorite part of life. Beginnings are new. Beginnings are fresh. One of my favorite quotes is from the movie Hope Floats. She says,
While I think that is a great way to look at life, I disagree. I don’t think beginnings are scary. Well, maybe they are a little bit scary, but I feel like beginnings are exciting and full of potential. Beginnings are a chance to start again…a place where no one knows your mistakes. With a new beginning, I have a chance to reinvent myself. I can be whoever I want to be.
Planning and preparing are part of beginning something new. When I begin a new notebook, I gather many fresh, clean notebooks to pick my next one. Once I have picked a new notebook I gather stickers and stencils and the things I want to add to my notebook to make it mine. Finally, I’m ready to begin. Begin a new chapter in my life.
Writers often complain about the blank page. I don’t mind it. Actually, I kind of love it. It doesn’t have any mistakes yet.