Slice of Life

I put my slice of life entry under my One Little Word page

every opportunity

I was about a half hour into my Tuesday morning routines when I noticed that one of our butterflies had popped from its chrysalis.  But the poor thing lay crumpled and lifeless on the floor of the netted enclosure.  I quickly made a dish of sugar water and placed it close to the fragile insect but the wings were too deformed; I knew it wasn’t going to survive.  I waited until the last minute, secretly hoping for a miracle but finally pulled it out before the students arrived on the bus.

I decided to let the students witness the hatching of the other five before I recounted the story of my early morning finding.  My students are young and  I could have conveniently forgotten to tell them the story of this butterfly; none of them had really kept track of the fact that six caterpillars become six butterflies.  But this was a powerful story and one I knew they would repeat often.  Since a primary goal in our class is to strengthen oral language, I try to use every opportunity to prompt student story telling.

Sure enough, Lena was absent on Tuesday and so on Wednesday, her good friend, Taryn, escorted her to my journal and retold the story of premature butterfly.

ps to all readers and writers at Two Writing Teachers – do you have a recommendation for a professional book read for elementary school teachers to begin with in the fall?

compulsion

I can not not do it.

I know that is a double negative but I want to emphasize the “can’t” part, the part about it being impossible.

I can not not be creating something most of the time. Knitting, embroidery, doll making, paper art, writing…I’m happiest when I’m diddling with something.  I know I come by my compulsion naturally – genetically.  My mom is always working on new quilts and knitting projects.  Now, seeing the silhouette work created by my great-great-grandmother that my mom has dug out of her basement, I know it is deep in my DNA.

It has taken awhile but my husband has finally become aware of the fact that an Amelia sitting without something in her lap is probably sick or truly troubled.

I’m happiest when I’m creating something for someone else.  I just finished up some felt amulets,  a sweater for my daughter and most recently a stole for our new pastor.  My thinking and creating are so interwoven that I can look at stuff I’ve made and recall the thoughts I had in the process.

Now my creativity is being tickled by a new challenge the women in our family are taking on: to create something with a common theme by Christmas time.  We had a challenge on a boat theme about 2 years ago which you can read about on my art page. Since my sister-in-law is working on a circular calendar, some of us have decided to try our hands at creating work with a year of seasons in mind.

The table by my favorite chair and my  countertop are overflowing – like water lapping the lip of the tub, a flood of creativity is rising.