Category Archives: Writing

Three things for a Father’s Day morning

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It’s Father’s Day and I have already gotten my gifts. We are at the lake, my daughter is upstairs sleeping after, our son is home with his family after travelling home yesterday, and the dogs are curled up sleeping. It is a quiet Sunday morning, and the lake is still, cool, and overcast.

It’s been almost sixteen years since my father died. For me Father’s Day is a quiet day best spent with family. This year, it’s special as it is my son’s first Father’s Day.

Family at the lake
This past week my son and his family visited us at the lake. It was exciting, fun, and a whirlwind having twin grandies and their parents join us at the lake for several days. It was fun hearing them babble, cry, crawl, eat, and grow.

our first family photo from last summer….
Weston and Hudson!
Weston rides Archie with O’s help
Hudson and my wife….
already printed, framed, and on display…

I remember his first visit as an infant and our daughter’s a few years later. We enjoyed their visit and celebrated several firsts – especially our first three generations photo!

Father’s Day
My daughter gave me my Father’s Day gift a few weeks ago. It is a hummingbird feeder with a camera. I opened the box this past week, installed it, and have been enjoying the feeder and its images since.

I am thankful to my blogging friend Margaret for encouraging me to be a birder with her book’s post from April 2018. I did read the book Where the Poppies Blow, and I am excited to return to Europe this summer and travel through the battlefields of northern France and the Netherlands. Also, I am thankful to the COVID lockdown for accelerating my curiosity and wonder for birds.

Sometimes we simply need a gentle push and I’ve been enjoying since. Continue reading Three things for a Father’s Day morning →

W^2 – portage

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W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, June 12, 2025

Portage means to change from one waterway to another; more specifically it means to unload one boat and transfer the goods to another boat.

During the annual canoe race in late July, the racers must navigate the Ausable River and ‘portage’ their canoes at several spots along the course. For the racers, it means they have reached a dam along the river, and they must climb out of the canoe, pull their canoe out of the river, and carry the canoe to the river below the dam. Then climb back in and continue paddling down river.

Portage is also used as a name for a city. There are five cities or towns named Portage in the United States – Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

the view from our daughters apartment – a great place to enjoy morning coffee

It also is our daughter’s new home. Last weekend we moved her from her college home to a new home in Portage, Michigan. She took a job and needed a place to live; she chose well. It’s a great apartment (much better than my first) and it has a nice patio for the dogs where they can sniff and explore. It’s also a nice place to sit and sip coffee while watching the dogs – Fern and Nova.

 

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A post shared by Clay Watkins (@makingthedayscount)

This morning finds us at the lake with our son and his family – the grandies. It’s their first visit and it’s the first time we’ve had three generations at the lake in long time. Our daughter will join us late Friday night or early Saturday morning for a full three generational photo. I can’t wait!

It’s going to be an exciting day with maybe a visit to the beach and hopefully some photos. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day or I’ll be left behind. Making the days Count, one day at a time, while watching the dogs, the grandies, or a sunset.

What are you going to watch today?

Three things for the first day of summer break 2025

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Summer break, my annual audition for retirement began yesterday after I finished getting my classroom cleaned, organized (that might be a stretch), and stored for the summer cleaning and learning season.

most of my work is done on my mobile device, but I had to work with this one on my desktop…. a color vision is posted at the end of the post

This year’s edition is seventy days long. It will be filled with family, grandies, travel, baseball, creativity, and dogs. I can’t wait.

TRAVEL and GRANDIES
This summer my wife and I will be traveling to Europe for a two-week vacation starting in London, then Wales, back to London, then to Paris, and finishing in Amsterdam before returning home. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. This trip is similar to the one I took fifteen years ago to take my father’s cremains home, except this time we will return our step-mother’s cremains to where she wanted to spend eternity. Like that trip to honor my father, I plan to blog along the way.

seven months old and growing by the day… soon they will be crawling.

Summer would be summer without a few weeks as the lake.  This year we will host our grandies for the first time. We are excited and looking forward to the summer with the family.

CREATIVITY
Continue reading Three things for the first day of summer break 2025 →

W^2 – two sunsets

adventure, Challenges, Reading, teaching, Weekly Photo Challenges, Wordless Wednesday, Writing

W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Lake Margrethe sunset – Saturday, April 19, 2025 8:34 PM EDT

I’ve been meaning to share the sunset photo taken Easter Eve when we were at the lake house for Easter. It was a fun weekend and great to get away with family and dogs. Our daughter met us there. She’s a two-hour drive away at college. It wasn’t until she went away to college that she fully understood the restorative benefits of a weekend drive to the lake house.

I do love a sunset and was able to find this past weekend when we were visiting for the Memorial Day Weekend.

Lake Margrethe sunset – Saturday, May 24, 2025 8:54 PM EDT

No single end of the day is the same. Never, not one.

It’s Wednesday evening, Thursday is a few hours away and there are seven more sunsets before school is finished for the summer. Making the days Count, one day at a time, enjoying a Wednesday evening thinking about sunsets for the summer and beyond.

Where do you go to watch the sunset?

Starry night

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It’s Memorial Day weekend and I am reminded I started this blog on a Memorial Day weekend fifteen years ago. Somehow, I’ve kept it going.

Along the way, I’ve gained some amazing friends all of whom I know only through Making the Days Count. I have met a few and even stayed in one’s bed and breakfast – twice.

After school let out for the weekend, I climbed in the car and drove north. A lot of folks had a similar idea and what can be a five and half hour drive stretched into a seven hour plus drive. But when I arrived, my family was here, the dogs greeted me enthusiastically, and the stars were shining brightly.

the stars at night are big and bright…..Grayling, Michigan, May 24, 2025, 12:10 AM EDT

I’ll be driving home Monday so I can teach six more days, really four, but the kiddos are in school for six more school days. School’s out Tuesday, June 3rd, and my summer break OFFICIALLY begins after noon on Wednesday, the fourth. It’s going to be a great summer.

Today is going to be a great day. I am going to continue to write and keep making the days count like I have for the past fifteen summers. Last Monday, I reminded my students that the four days next week are going to count. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days COUNT, one day at a time, looking up, looking down, looking all around.

What are seeing when you look around?

Last on the card for April – sub plans

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I am traveling this weekend. We are in Michigan for our daughter’s college graduation. I have a little extra time this morning and saw a post on another blogger’s page and thought perhaps I could dip my toe in the pool and join the party.

This post is inspired by Brian at bushboys world’s post – last on the Card April. But, I first saw it at my blogger friend, Margaret’s blog, From Pyrenees to Pennines .

Since, I am on the road, I needed to write subplans. Teachers can’t leave without leaving some sort of plan behind.

my office desk, awaiting Thursday’s sub on Wednesday evening……

I stayed late Wednesday afternoon to make sure my kids were learning, challenged, and focused while I was gone. I was the last one out of the parking lot at 6 :15 PM. I’ll be back in the classroom making the last days of the school year count on Monday. Making the Days COUNT, one day at a time, learning every day and making each day count.

How is your May starting out?

W^2 – Friday sunset

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W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Friday’s sunset – Seven Mile Bridge, Marathon, Florida April, 4, 2025 at 7:40 EDT

It is Wednesday afternoon, and I am home after a week-long vacation by the ocean for spring break. It was great to get away with my wife and another couple whom we know very well.

We stayed in the same place we have stayed for the past several years; the only year we have missed in the past decade was the Covid spring break when we went to the lake instead. Continue reading W^2 – Friday sunset →

Three things for the first Sunday in March

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…and the first post of 2025. I started this post in January and didn’t finish. It happened again in February. I am going to finish it today and get on to the other things I need to finish for the weekend.

I’ve been following along on other blogs and I last month I read the sad news that another blogger I’ve followed for years has decided to stop posting. I was sad, because the thought crosses my mind from time to time. I was in late 40s when I started Making the Days Count dot org and now, I am in my early 60s, a fact I find difficult to believe. But I am here as stubborn and resolute as I was the first time I pressed ‘publish.’ I am hopeful too that my stories and posts show that I am still making my days count.

MOM DAY
Today is mom’s day. It was six years ago this morning when I learned my mom had died after a brief illness. I was talking to my brother David when he told me he needed to take a call. He called me back a few minutes later to share the sad news.

Her death wasn’t unexpected, she’d been moved to hospice weeks before she died. But six years later her passing still resonates with me.

I got my curls from her, or the bread crusts she coaxed me to eat. My mom as a child in 1938.

This morning, I was looking for a photo of her I could post, and I searched through the boxes I packed when she moved out of the house, we called home in 2028. I brought them home the summer after she died. They’ve been stacked unopened near my desk since. Continue reading Three things for the first Sunday in March →

Three things for the last Saturday of ‘24

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It has been a long time since my last post, rumors of my passing are greatly exaggerated as Mark Twain said or wrote. I haven’t been writing much, though I’ve had ideas and photos I’ve wanted to post, but I have been keeping up with other blogs.

from “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and Horse”

Since my last ‘real’ post in August (Day 64 – Dog Days) I’ve gone back to school (twice), our grandies – a phrase copied/borrowed/stolen from Beth at  I didn’t have my glasses on… -have arrived, and my wife has recovered from her hip surgery, and so much more.

Christmas
I’ve been on break from school for the past week and the week has screamed past. I have been busy, and it was Christmas the first with our grandies. Our daughter and her dog have been home on break, too and it adds to the festiveness as well. We hosted Christmas Eve afternoon and attended Christmas Eve service, it was a good service with the traditional candle lighting and singing of ‘Silent Night’ to close worship. I cannot sing ‘Silent Night’ without thinking of my last Christmas in wife’s hometown ten years ago. For Christmas our daughter roasted the prime rib and for the first time ever, it was perfectly done even though it was almost an hour behind schedule. We enjoyed it at the table before exchanging gifts with our son, his wife and the grandies. I expect the coming week and New Year’s will be as busy and pass as quickly as this past week had.

Grandies
A new role – grandparent was bestowed upon us by our son and his wife. Christmas Eve marked their two-month birthday. Continue reading Three things for the last Saturday of ‘24 →

W^2 – comet chasing

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W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Tonight, my wife and I popped in the car to travel a little further west to see the early evening sky. We took off after sunset I’ve been excited about watching sunsets and looking up at the sky since I shared this month’s edition of the Jet Propulsion Lab’s What’s Up: Skywatching Tips from NASA with my kiddos. I’ve added the video below. We are learning about light, it’s that time in the school year.

I was excited when I learned we might be able to see a comet this month if we looked at the western sky close to sunset. That’s what we were looking for, but all we could see was a pretty sunset, Venus and a couple of stars. If I looked the other way, I could see the waxing gibbous moon rising in the eastern sky.

the sunset look east
to rising moon looking west

This past weekend we were at the lake, but we arrived too late Friday night to look for the comet and Saturday and Sunday were cloudy, so I couldn’t look for the comet away from the light pollution of the big city. But I am not giving up. Tomorrow night I’ll be outside to see the setting sun and I am hauling along a pair of binoculars for tomorrow night’s volunteer shift at Loaves and Fishes. Continue reading W^2 – comet chasing →