Category Archives: Writing

Weekly Photo Challenge: Room

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up north, June 2010
up north, June 2010

There is always room. Whether it’s a home, shelter, or an eave. There is room.

“After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die.” 
― E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

I am Up North for a couple of days. Jobs that needed to be done. I wanted to come up in May and couldn’t. Last weekend, fell through with much to do and too little time. Next weekend is filled, and the weekend after that… well, you get the picture. Room has more than one meaning.

Today’s post is in response to the prompt at the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge at Word Press.  ‘This week’s prompt is “Room.”  From the four walls that currently surround you to the infinite potential of space, this week we’d like you to show us your take on room, rooms, or a room.’

I have four walls; but others like the dear spider use two walls and imagines the other two. We are all constrained by nature and defined by it as well. There’s always room. I think Charlotte said it best….”what’s a life anyway…” It’s what is in between those two events that is important. It’s the way we leave our mark. It’s our service to our family, friends, and community. It’s how we leave our room.

I came up to work, not blog and I have a list a mile long, maybe even longer. School finished for my students yesterday and I could hear Alice Cooper wailing away in the background. I don’t have papers to grade, but I have chores to do and I have room on my schedule. Making the Days Count, one day at a time.

What’s in your room?

First day of June and perseverance

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photo courtesy of PBS.org
photo courtesy of PBS.org

Today is the first day of June. It’s a new month, a new season, and it’s full of possibilities. Summer vacation begins Friday for my students. They are so excited, I can hardly keep a lid on them; four of them have already left early for their summer vacation, and the rest are busy learning and working. I aim to keep it that way through Wednesday afternoon, mainly for my own sanity and mental well-being. Thursday, then Friday will be here before I know it and I’ll be signing yearbooks and asking my students what they plan to do with their 79 days of summer vacation.

“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.” Winston Churchill

It’s a new month, a new season, and it’s full of possibilities. Nevertheless, before I begin to think about what summer will be like, I need to go back and think about the year. The year was a challenge – full of triumphs and pitfalls in and out of the classroom. In the classroom, I had a new ELA curricula, based on the Common Core standards. I cringe when I say Common Core because it is sort of vilified these days. Folks in and out of education have turned Common Core into education’s current piñata – people just love beating on it. Unfortunately, it has not yet yielded any candy. It will be several years before educators know for sure if it is effective. But, I can tell you with absolute certainty there is a difference between my student’s learning from last year and my current students. This year’s students have developed into readers with a purpose, deeper thinkers, and stronger writers who can support their ideas with evidence from the text and their learning. However, they did not start that way. It was rough at the beginning of the year, but they have adapted and grown academically. They’ve also grown as people, too. They are ready for the next step, eighth grade.

Lately, it seems, everywhere I look I see perseverance. I see adversity. Continue reading First day of June and perseverance →

Memorial Day Parade

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Every year we attend the Memorial Day parade as a family. Sometimes we go to the parade at home, and other times we go to the one in Versailles – our home away from home. We usually ride our bikes to the cemetery and find a spot to watch the parade as it winds to an end and the participants file into the cemetery for the official Memorial Day ceremony. This year I walked, the kids and B rode their bikes.

There are veterans, politicians, firemen, police, bands, scouts, and other community organizations that march in the parade. There are the old, middle-aged, and young. They are dressed in red, white, and blue. They carry flags, wave at the crowd, and smile. One year I marched with the cub scouts. Sometimes it’s hot, sometimes it’s cool, sometimes it’s just right, but Monday it was between too hot and just right; depending if you were in the shade or not. The parade route is a lot longer than you think, but it is nothing compared to the sacrifice our veterans have made for their country.

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

Marie Curie (1867-1934); Chemist, Physicist, Nobel Prize Winner
from Values.com – Daily Quote – May 19, 2014 Continue reading Memorial Day Parade →

Memorial Day weekend – 2014

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It’s that time of the year, again. There are two weeks left before summer vacation. Nine school days. Summer vacation would’ve been sooner, but we had the brutal winter with sub-zero temperatures and excruciating wind chills. Four school days closed twice for two days and days were moved from June to January to make up. There is nothing like summer vacation days in January. My students are working hard and last week it was clear they knew exactly how many days remained; some even knew down to the hour and minute.

the flag flies outside, it's Memorial Day weekend
the flag flies outside, it’s Memorial Day weekend

But, I am not a day counter. I work at making the days count. Continue reading Memorial Day weekend – 2014 →

Mother’s Day

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It is Mother’s Day and Spring is in full bloom. The trees have begun to leaf out and the flowering trees are beautiful. The daffodils are gone finished, but they’ll be back next season.

But, flowers are available year round. You just have to know where to look.  Yesterday was a busy day – they all are. Lacrosse drop off at 8, game at 9 and 11. Softball at 11. Some days it’s seemingly never ending. But, someday it will end, the kids will grow up and head off to college and we’ll have memories and time. And, then it will be their turn.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2

I know where to find flowers for Mother’s Day and I’ve been finding them ever since W is was a baby. T Continue reading Mother’s Day →

Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring!

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It is here. Spring has arrived, after what seems like an incredibly long winter.

the Daffodil Glade at Morton Arboretum, April 26.. a beautiful late afternoon

Every year, we visit the Daffodil Glade at the Morton Arboretum for a family photo shoot. It started innocently enough in 2004. Ten years ago, after church, we decided to take in a drive through the Morton Arboretum. It was Easter Sunday, we had our camera and we decided to stop at the Daffodil Glade and shoot some photos. B with the kids among the daffodils, the kids by themselves, or together, regardless it was a beautiful morning. We took some incredible photos that morning. We came back the next year and had similar results. Wonderful photos, memories of children growing, and blossoming like the daffodils. Since that morning, it’s become one of our family traditions, one of our milestones. It’s our sign that spring is here. We’ve missed a couple of years but we have photos and memories going back to 2004.

Spring is here, I can see it. Continue reading Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring! →

Weekly Photo Challenge: Monument

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I am a little late on this week’s photo challenge, by now it’s last week’s photo challenge. I’ve been overwhelmed with many things since my last post, but mostly family, for the past week, or rather the past couple of months.

School and my students have kept me hopping, too. The kids have been wonderful. There is another story in this, it’s just waiting to be written or for time to sit down and write, actually there are several stories.

It’s been a tough time in our home. My sister-in-law last week passed away last week. I think her passing was hardest on my wife, she is, after all the little sister. It was hard on all of us, but I think B took it especially hard. She’s been helping and has been there for her sister since she became ill in mid-February. In a way, I’ve been there, too even though I’ve been here, and there and seemingly everywhere.

It seems that as a family we gather only now for big occasions – we are scattered across the land. There are the holidays, but they seem so rushed and then there are funerals. So far there have been two in B’s family – separated by over a decade. We gather somberly almost on cue. The kids and I drove home last Saturday afternoon and evening. The wake was last Sunday and the funeral and burial followed on Monday. We had a gathering afterwards, it was lovely and a perfect ending for a sad day. The two days could not have been more different – Sunday was clear bright and sunny and Monday the exact opposite – sad, gloomy, grey with overcast and rain.

It was good to see the family, even on such a gloomy occasion. it was best for the cousins – there are my two, B’s other sister’s two boys and her brother’s children – two boys and a girl. All of the cousins are out of college and working, except one who is in college. But they all visited, W trying to be older and O, being O. I think B’s sister would have been glad we gathered, shared, and laughed. It was good for all of us to remember, and perhaps forget – even for a moment – some of the pressing issues weighing on us all.

Afterwards, W and I packed the car, loaded Ivy, and drove home. We both had school the following day. O stayed behind with mom and her aunt and grandma.  W and I stopped at the cemetery on our way out of town.  I took in all of the markers, the monuments to lives gone before me.

greenlawn1
Greenlawn Cemetery – Versailles, Ohio

It’s Friday morning, four full days have passed since we laid my sister-in-law to rest. It’s Good Friday, a perfect day to reflect on those who have passed before us. There is no school today. W and I will be loading the car and driving back to Ohio this morning. It’s gonna be a great day, but I can’t sit and wait for it to happen. Making the day Count, one day at a time, thinking and remembering.

What is on your mind this Good Friday?

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threshold

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A threshold is a point of entering; that point just before a new beginning — that split-second moment in time, full of anticipation. All the hard work is over; relief is palpable.

It has been a challenging winter here and across the Midwest. We have had over 80 inches of snow and normal or average snow is 35 inches. We have experienced  extreme cold weather – below zero multiple times and school was cancelled for four days due to excessive wind chills (in the -15-40F range). By all accounts, it was brutal. But times are a changin’ and we are on the threshold of something new, great and wonderful. Spring blooms, spring flowers, and green gardens.

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I came across this lovely idea by following Mary and A Wilderness of Words. If you’re interested in the Weekly Photo Challenge, you can check it out here.

some things take time…

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The sun is shining and I saw a robin in the backyard as I poured coffee into my mug earlier this morning. It’s chilly now, but it’ll warm up this afternoon. It’s the last bit of Spring Break, today, tomorrow, then school resumes. It is always the best part of the year for me; not because the year is almost over and summer is on the horizon, but because what I’ve taught my students begins to blossom like a field of daffodils bursting with color on a bright spring afternoon.

Spring break this year was what it needed to be – a break. B and I decided to divide and conquer. Continue reading some things take time… →

The equinox and Spring, bring it on….

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Night and Day 2002 - courtesy of sunthingspecial.com
Night and Day 2002 – courtesy of sunthingspecial.com

The year is three quarters finished or at least it is for me. I am a teacher. A seventh grade language arts teacher and the third quarter finished Friday. We have one week before Spring Break begins and then the long march through April and May to finish the year. This year, we’ll be marching, probably more like stumbling, into the first full week of June.

Spring arrived this week on Thursday at 11:57 AM CDT local time. My students have been measuring sunrise, sunset, and the amount of daylight for locations across the globe – ranging from Tromso, Norway at 70°N to Stanley, Falkland Islands at 52°S and places in between. We began measuring last September on the occasion of the autumnal equinox and have been checking every month on the 22nd ever since. The students have gathered a lot of data. However, the lesson they learned was that Earth’s tilt is changing constantly and Thursday they realized that no matter where a person was on Earth Thursday the sun shone a tad bit more than twelve hours – the variance among the 32 locations we checked was ten minutes: from 12 hours and 16 minutes at the northern and southern extremes to 12 hours and 6 minutes nearest the equator. WOW. Spring is here, finally. Continue reading The equinox and Spring, bring it on…. →