Mainely Write

This is not only the last day of the March SOLC at Two Writing Teachers (sad face), but it is also the day to celebrate my OLW (smiley face) on Holly Mueller's site where she hosts Spiritual Journey Thursday. So, once again, this post is doing double duty... BOLDLY doing double duty.  It is pretty much a ramble from the poem on...not sure why, but it didn't seem to come together today as clearly and smoothly as I would have liked.  I apologize now for it being so long. You can pick and choose what you want to read and what you want to skip! Boldly Go Bold means stepping out one foot following the other without more thought than is necessary without more shaking than the shaking off of fears. Bold means chin held up leading the way forward into places not encountered before without casting eyes down except to clear a path. Bold means not questioning, knowing it is the right way even in a deep, dark valley marching without hes

It is already Day 30 of the Slice of Life Challenge at Two Writing Teachers - only ONE DAY left to go! What to do? What to do? Keep writing!  You are almost to the finish line! Or are you?  Don't you think you should just keep writing for writing's sake?  Aren't you wondering what good stuff you still have in you?  Don't you remember that thing that happened that you didn't have enough days to tell about?  I know I still have pictures that I'd taken to use in case I needed a prompt for the day, that I haven't written about yet.  Two Writing Teachers still links each Tuesday to Slices, so you can still keep up the writing at least weekly. Or, here's another "think to think", alongside Tuesday's Slice of Life and/or the A-to-Z Challenge , that I mentioned yesterday... Adrienne Gillespie, at Books and Bassetts mentioned, in the comments yesterday, another April writing challenge - that of writing a poem a day for NaPoWriMo !  And I&#

It's almost April 1.  And then the March SOL at Two Writing Teachers will be over... I hate quitting this fun cold turkey.  It is always a fun month of blogging and getting to know new bloggers and getting reacquainted with old friend-bloggers.  We only have two more days, can you believe it? But then the A-to-Z Challenge begins.  I discovered that the second year into SOLC, that I didn't have to wander aimlessly around the blogosphere in April.  The SOLC had made a bit of a blogging addict out of me!  I went in search of the next adventure. In this event, which runs throughout April (with time off on Sunday), posts are written to correspond with each letter of the alphabet on the assigned date.  So A is on Friday, April 1; B is on Saturday, April 2; Sunday, April 3 is skipped; Monday, April 4, is C and Tuesday, April 5 is D...and so on to Z on the last day of the month. I have signed up to do this a number of years now and have picked different themes for my bl

Quickly, an update. My glucose level is no longer in early diabetes range. It is totally in the normal range.  Blood pressure continues to be quite low.  By that I mean under 120/80. It's around 106/70 most of the time.  And I'm down 27 pounds since December 14th.  I am feeling very well aned need some new clothes. I am taking in seams now, waiting a bit before getting anything new. I have another small person to lose before settling in on a size and new wardrobe. But I did get a new skirt for Easter! I felt pretty colorful! Then another random note about yesterday. As we drove to church, there on the side of the road just over the edge of the road embankment a bit, was a Bald Eagle, snacking on something tasty. He must have dropped something because they just don't go scavenging.  I've seen them soaring in the skies here, but never on the ground and this close!  Close enough to see his eyes. What a gorgeous white head!  And huge! I would SO love t

Today is Day 27 of the SOLC for March.  We are slicing a bit of life and serving it up each day in March, thanks to Two Writing Teachers . I took this picture in our church sanctuary on a sunny Sunday morning.  I loved how the sun was streaming in through the windows and lighting up a small piece of the church that I'm not sure many notice. And I wrote an aCROSStic for it - in not record time... it wasn't that simple for me today.  Sometimes poems come easy, others not so much.  This was a not-so-much one. I hope you have a joyous Easter today! I'll be back to comment later today.

It's Day 26 of the Slice of Life Challenge for Marc h.  This is my sixth year participating, and though this post is later than I usually post, I HAVE to get it in!  I've always made the 31 days straight for the past five years.  I just can't slip up now! Today is Saturday, so Noah just wanted you to know what he was up to this week.  He was really into my computer this week...kind of literally and figuratively. I know, I've posted this one before, but Noah likes this one especially and wanted to make sure you saw it. I've had this screen twice this week alone...due to Noah's lounging on the keyboard. No!!!  Noah, what are you doing? I'm getting warm. Get off my keyboard! Do you think you could not yell at me? What are you doing?? Get off my computer! Your computer?  Yes!  Oh, now look what you've done! I've done nothing. Yes, you have.  It's shutting down. Get off. Please? Please.  Get off. Here let me help you. I can do it

This week, Laura Purdie Salas posted a picture of decorative lights strung from the ceiling in an airport. I saw these lights as our attempt to bring starlight closer to us to enjoy on a cloudy day or EVEN inside!   We (well, I do anyway) have a fascination with stars, but stars are not to be visited by us - at least not in the near future.   We can enjoy the feeling of starlight and stars by simply stringing some lights above. We can bring our stars closer to us, though we cannot get closer to them. This was my 15 Words or Less response: Faraway Lights Drawn to stars Where we might never go, But we can bring them closer.   ©Donna JT Smith, 2016, all rights reserved It's pretty amazing that, though we cannot always see the sun, the moon or the stars, they are always there.  Pretty comforting thought. Happy Poetry Friday! It's a Good one! More poem links my be found at our hostess, Heidi Mordehorst, at My Juicy Little Universe . And of cour

On this white, blustery day of no sun, no shine, I know there IS shining somewhere, a sun.  It is just above the clouds.  It is always there no matter the day, the hour, the weather, or even the sadness.  It is always there. And no matter the circumstance, we are to look to that shining sun.  Hope you have a Slice of Sun Shine today! ********************************* Added this portion on Friday morning - wish I'd added it it on Thursday: Though many of you will not be returning to read this additional note, I felt I needed to mention that this poem may be taken on a "sun only" meaning, or it may be seen as an "only Son" poem.   My reference to the moon, "reflects" the fact that we are to be the evidence or the witness of the Light as John said here.  The moon is not the light, but reflects the light of the sun - the evidence of the source of its true light, the sun.   John 1: 6 Th ere was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 T

It's Day 23 of the Slice of Life Challenge! Ginger at her checkup...in control! Since my fall with Ginger in the lead, I've asked my son who comes over on Sundays, to work with her on commands.  He has a deep, "commanding" voice, and is way stronger than I (he moonlights as a bouncer sometimes).  I just don't have the strength to follow through on my demands that she heel or come.  My back, my shoulders, even my voice, do not allow for her to give me much more thought than she would a mosquito! We had bought a shock collar a while back, but had procrastinated about using it.  I just didn't like the thought of it.  There are so many differing opinions on its use, that I wasn't sure we really wanted to resort to it. However, for her, it has been the BEST THING ever.  Used correctly, and on the right dog, it is a wonderfully helpful device.  I began by using it a little in the house when she stole my shoe, or stole my husband's handkerchie

Sometimes a Slice of Life comes from my pets... "She does not see me up here, but I can see her every move!  And I am thinking about  how much I need to jump on her." Leave Ginger alone.  I don't want to have to put her in her crate. "I am leaving her alone. Here, Doggie-doggie!" First of all, is that what you call leaving her alone, and secondly, her name is Ginger, not Doggie-doggie. "Does it matter?" Well, would it matter if I called you kitty-kitty? "I see your point.  But I'm different." Oh, you are different, all right. "I perceive you are using 'different' in a slightly sarcastic way." And you are never sarcastic, I suppose? "Am I?" No-oo-o...never. "I didn't think so.  I will ignore that sarcastic tone.  Aha!  She's moving!  I love a moving target!"  Leave the dog alone. "Ohhh, Doggie!  You do not see me!  But I see you-ooo! Ha!  Pow!  Go

I wasn't sure what I was going to write about today for SOLC .  And then Starbucks happened. Well, we are in our second Starbucks for the day!  We left "our" Starbucks and drove to Freeport.  Summer Starbucks in Freeport is not good - too busy, but Winter Starbucks in Freeport is doable.  Quiet, no distractions...  oh, and the chairs are better!  It's the whole downstairs of a small house in downtown. We left our usual haunt.  I will be selective when I am there from now on. Our usual Starbucks had a lady there, about our age oddly enough, who was playing the radio through her phone loud enough to be heard throughout the place.  It was on so loud that it was kind of hard to understand, being so far in overdrive it was vibrating.  She sat between two tables, with her stuff on both - coat and sweater and coffee on her left, and purse, hat, scarf and some other items on the table to her right.  This is the second time I've seen her in this Starbucks doing t

Day 20 of Slice of Life Challenge , and I am on my way to a busy first day of the week. My Books of the Day Sunday is my down-time.  Well, it's an up-time, too.  But I just don't blog on Sundays.  I will link this early before setting out to church.  Church is a whole day thing for me and my husband. We leave the house by 7:30 at the latest, to drive just over an hour - 72 minutes.  We stop for breakfast along the way.  At about 9:15, we arrive at church. If I'm to sing that day, I rush upstairs for a quick practice with my sister-in-law, the pianist.  After that I go back downstairs and I prepare for my Sunday School class of 4 to 6 year olds, getting crayons, scissors, or whatever else the lesson requires, set out for them. After Sunday School I, go back upstairs to greet people, and nod to my husband who works the soundboard recording the sermons and posts them online. I file in with the other choir singers to the back room so we can go over the music quickly

Yesterday afternoon the dog started barking as she looked out the window.  It was a warning bark, but her tail was wagging and she was smiling.  She was serious about something being out there, but not unhappy about it.  She seemed pretty excited, so I went to the window.  And there standing proudly on the lawn - though I think it was just listening to potential snacks - was our first robin of the year. Robin hung around the lawn all day, going from front to side to back yards.  I watched as the wind picked up a few oak leaves and tumbled them across the lawn straight at Robin, who merely stepped forward a few steps to avoid them.  I wondered how Robin knew that the leaves were non-threatening.  But I guess, being a bird and spending lots of time around trees and leaves, they must know everything there is to know about that stuff. At one point a couple of friendly juncos joined Robin and they all scouted for bugs in the winter-flat grass covering our rain soaked lawns. It's s

It's the 17th day of the Slice of Life Challenge to write every day this month.  It is also Poetry Friday hosted at Robyn Hood Black .  So I guess it is the day to have a poem as a slice.  Let's see. Yesterday I had went to our book club meeting at Starbucks.  I leave the house at 5:10 am to pick up a friend by 5:15, and get into town by 5:45.  It is always dark.  It is still cold.  It was foggy, too, this time. Book Club and a Mug I got up early to read a book so early it meant I forsook the warmth of bed Threw back the quilt and next the sheet, then showered quickly - naught to eat; it's still nightdark, So quietly sneaked past the dog, out the door and in the fog; kept watch for deer. I drove to town to Starbucks Land and ordered coffee just as planned; paid with my card. A sip or two of warming joe and sun had risen in my soul, and I woke up. Perhaps there wasn't really fog and maybe I had woken dog and snoozing cat; But who

This post is doing double duty.  It's a Slice of Life for Two Writing Teachers and a Spiritual Journey Thursday post.  It is my way of heeding my own advice here - simplify your life!  The Spiritual Journey Thursday link up is on Holly Mueller's blog .  Everyone there is writing on Linda Kulp's OLW "Simplify" and how it pertains to their Spiritual walk. Me, unsimplified - but simplifying my life today by selecting an old avitar from my files. Last week I did two posts on a Thursday, separating my two voices - one voice was the everyday Slice, and the other was my Spiritual Journey post.  I realized I cannot and do not have to always separate the two.  My walk with God is a part of my daily life, and I'm not sure I've ever made that clear. I do not blog on Sunday's.  I will blog the day before and schedule it to post though.  And I have broken my own "rule" a bit for SOLC and linked up on that day early in the morning before I leav

It is Wednesday again, and the 16th SOLC day!  Join in the reading fun at T wo Writing Teachers where the list of Slices is posted. Yesterday, someone posted on the funny things kids say, and it put me in mind of a couple of things my oldest said when he was younger… Here’s one of them: One summer afternoon, my somewhere between 8 and 10 year old son came in hot and sweaty from playing hard outside.  He asked me if he could have some water, and I, being a wonderful mom, gave him a nice cold glass of water and watched him gulp it down.  He wanted another, being as spent as he was, so I refilled his glass.  Before downing this one though, he looked at me, and in all seriousness stated, “I think I have a drinking problem.” I assured him that he didn’t, and he should drink all the water he wanted. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ BTW:  Noah had a quiet night.   The monsters must have been too upset to return for a second assault.

Noah, attacking a bed monster. So what was that all about last night? "What was what all about?" You know.  That little madness going on at the foot of the bed last night. " Little madness?  There was a monster in your bed." There was no monster. "Oh, there was.  Believe me." There was no monster.  I would have known.  I was sleeping and my feet would have been touching it. "Your feet ?" Yes, my feet.  You were jumping all over them. "Oh, that couldn't have been your feet.  It was too big to be feet, I'm sure.  And too squirmy.  Monsters are squirmy when you jump about on them, and these were definitely squirmy." Yes, because you were jumping on them and wrestling them.  You got a claw through, too.  See my ankle? "That is not my claw mark.  That is clearly the bite of a bed monster." Do not do that again tonight!  I will kick you off the bed. "If I hadn't been there to

It is Day 14 of the Slice of Life Challenge with Two Writing Teachers ... plowing onward and Aprilward... Since losing weight (24 pounds today, but I promise this won't become just a month long weight loss journal), and doing physical therapy, I have found my walk again. When I say "found my walk again", I don't mean that I couldn't walk.  I could walk.  But my walk had been the walk of the wounded.  It was a walk of stiffness and pain.  It was a walk I could recognize in others as I cruised the grocery store aisles - walk I'd seen but refused to call mine.  It was a walk that enjoyed the rest of a shopping cart for leaning, for stretching, and one that sometimes required breaks at the front of the store to sit out the next dance. But recently, my back and hip joints seem to have been released, whether from the weight loss or the physical therapy, or both.  Either way, I think I have reclaimed at least a half an inch in height, and have begun to enjoy

It's a Slice of Life Sunday at Two Writing Teachers .  I'll see if I have time to link!  My comments will be late tonight after I get home. Wednesday night, March, 8th, a Barred Owl returned.  They stay around all year, but usually I don't hear them in the winter.   But this week he's back in our neighborhood.  Maybe the mice are more plentiful down the road a ways in winter, but spring mice are fresher here. Friday night, as we were driving home and the crescent moon was so clear and bright, I wondered if we would hear him again.  And right on cue, as we got out of the car, we heard him howling, loud and close by.  I love to hear the lingering "who cooks for you" question.  Suddenly we heard a return call.  So there are two in the neighborhood! The second one sounded a little upset, giving an almost hawklike squawk before commencing to speak politely.  Maybe she was just excited to hear a friendly hoot out there in the dark. I hope they are here to s

It's Cat - I mean Sat-urday. "No, you were right the first time." Well, really there is no day named 'Caturday'; it's Sat urday. "A grievous oversight." Maybe, but that's just how it is. "Be that as it may, today is still MY day.  And I'm wondering what wonderful things we  should say about me today." I can't think of anything yet.  It's been a slow week for you. "I did Pilates with the ball for a while.  Then I wrestled with that intruder, but you took it away." Yes, well, that was the cord to charge the dog's training collar, so we didn't need it destroyed. "Huh.  Really.  I am not fond of that collar.  I'm going to tell her it's you who is pressing a button to make her stop chasing me." Do not tell the dog anything.  You tease the dog on purpose, and then she gets all excited and crazy.  I need to have her pay attention to me and calm down! "Why?  She

This is Day 11 in March.  It is a wonderful day to be a Friday, don't you think? This is my Slice of Life for Two Writing Teachers , AND my Poetry Friday offering at Irene Latham's blog.  Click on either link to read more Slices or some Poetry.  Some bloggers others will also be doing double duty today, I'm sure! So this is just the best day in the whole world to have a Friday!  Until next week - enjoy!  I am going to!  Yippee! Photo from: http://hwitblogg.blogspot.com/2010/11/allhelgona.html Melted The flame burns hot, stretching, Its black wick, an island In a waxy sea that Pushes its banks Overflowing Dripping Down To Ripple. Dripples Droop down Candle’s skin; Spire shrinking To join the puddle of Candle bowels in the bobeche. By Donna JT Smith, 2016, all rights reserved I’ll bet you thought this poem was about a lit candlestick burning down.  The photo may have given it away. It is. And it isn’t. It’s about me. (Isn't ev