Summer Writing

     Today is a little practice run for the summer days with no school that are just around the corner. Three short little weeks left until Knox is home--a lot! Naturally, I'm trying to equip myself with resources and ideas for ways to help him stay occupied so we can minimize the "I'm bored, there's nothing to do, what should I do?" mantra.

    I'm going to prepare a writing caddy with paper, pens, pencils, colored pencils, pencil sharpener, card stock strips, etc. I've ordered a book called "Rip the Page: Adventures in Creative Writing" by Karen Benke. It has fun writing prompts and ideas, lists to make, snippets from poems and authors--lots of good stuff to get the creative juices flowing.

    Another book I'd like to check out is "The Write Start: A Guide to Nurturing Writing at Every Stage, from Scribbling to Forming Letters and Writing Stories." 

    When I taught sixth grade (the one year I taught), we did a lot of creative writing, and my favorite writing prompt was called spill-a-story. I collected small objects and put an assortment of them in little containers with lids. I would give a container to each student and they would spill the contents onto their desk and write a story involving the objects. The objects can be anything: a penny, a plastic trinket, a fuzzy pom-pom, dice, a playing card, a ticket stub, an action figure, a sticker, a spool, etc. I plan to make some spill-a-story containers for Knox to rev his writing engine. It's fun!

   I want to sit down and do some writing exercises with him. I'm starting today with a little poem about a lady who didn't write her thank you notes (it just so happens that I know her very well, ahem):

She swirled through the rapidly moving stream

Calling out her thank yous to the figures along the riverbank

Who never heard them above the roar of rushing waters.

She left stranded thank yous in her wake, caught in the

Eddies and currents, bobbling unreceived and unknown.

The figures and their kindnesses blurred into green and gray

As she was swept along further and further from them.

Parental Evenings

The part of parenting where you've had a long, full, busy day and you're tired and want nothing more than to stretch out on the couch in a quiet house and read or watch a show or movie but you have to move through the after-school time, homework, dinner, bath and bedtime--yeah, that's rough. You simply don't get to relax when you want to (or need to). It always has to wait until after the kids go to bed, as do the time-sensitive emails, phone calls, and any planning and preparation for the next day, the next month, the trip, the guests, the job, the what-have-you.

I don't always notice or keenly feel how much I miss having down time as soon as I've arrived home from a meeting or work. But I feel it tonight. I feel the aching delay of my own time to recoup, relax and unwind after a busy day. I must supervise bath, play a little game, brush some little teeth and tuck in a little boy and then, and only then, will I take to the couch. I can do it. Just 45 more minutes until the big exhale and the sinking of my weary body into my sofa's soft embrace. Hang tough, mamas! I'd like to pass out some endurance awards to all my mom friends, and to myself. :)

Let Us Be Dissatisfied Until ...

MLK still speaking loud and clear through the e-stream. 

I wasn't able to embed the video, but I do enjoy listening to King's speeches so I'm including the link in case you have time or inclination to listen to the King. :)

http://vimeo.com/11154217

"Let us be dissatisfied until ..."

I'm starting a list of what I will be dissatisfied with until it is transformed by Love that protects and emboldens. Human trafficking, abuse of all kinds, neglect, rape, starvation, poverty, terrorism, oppression, warfare, genocide, violence, theft and piracy, racism, assault, lack of education, unequal status. 

So thankful for the people who make these things their problem, their business. I want to see transformation in individuals, cultures, governments, nations. I want to see LOVE. I want to work and pray toward it and join others who already are.

"What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic.

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice.

Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love."

~MLK

"There will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.”

~MLK

"When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows."

~MLK

"This is our hope for the future, and with this faith we will be able to sing in some not too distant tomorrow, with a cosmic past tense, "We have overcome! (Yes) We have overcome! Deep in my heart, I did believe (Yes) we would overcome."

~MLK

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart! I have overcome the world." 

~Jesus~ John 16:33

Women's Rights

Lately I've been wanting to know that I could kick someone's ass if I needed to, particularly if someone was assaulting me or anyone near me. Images of Demi Moore's and Angelina Jolie's bad-ass movie roles come to mind. I want to know that I have the skill and power to bring an attacker to his knees. I'm 5'4" and throw like a girl, so acquiring this strength and these takedown tactics would require a tremendous amount of discipline and a lot of workouts! But oh, to know that I could wail on someone if they messed with me...

That sort of brings me to something that's been on my mind of late. Every time I hear reports of women in other countries being assaulted, raped, groped, and generally mistreated by men, I feel such incredible sadness and moral outrage. It disturbs me and sickens me to the core. Mistreatment of women is apparently outrageously commonplace in many countries. I lament and grieve that entire cultures breed men who learn this disrespect and violence and get away with it. I would really like to find some reading about how and why this happens and what can be done about it. It's not only a matter of empowering women, though that is surely part of the solution. There are centuries-old political, economic, social, cultural forces that factor into the equation. I wonder if there's any way I could be a miniscule part of bringing about much-needed change in places where women do not get through life without being assaulted, violated or raped. I would very much like to find out which organizations are working toward change in specific countries and find out if there is any way I can participate in empowering women and men to respect each other's bodies and lives. Human dignity, security, well-being, human rights--worth working and fighting for.

Birchgirl Learns Something New

Generally, I stay up very late at night on the Internet. Having the world at my fingertips is like a drug for me. I lie on the couch with my laptop and immerse myself in so many worlds of thought and imagery. I literally lose sleep over it. I'm not saying that's a good thing; it's just the thing I do lately. So last night I whipped up a new blog (well, technically I repurposed an abandoned blog). Heh heh. It's called Birchgirl Learns Something New. I realized that I really do learn something new and fascinating every day, and my new blog will be the place where I can quickly record that new something and start a collection of my newfound nuggets of knowledge. Fun and quick. I have two entries so far--the two things I learned in the past two days. There are also some other random posts on there from a previous blogging spree. Have fun! http://birchgirl.wordpress.com/

A Little More Grey (and Pussy Willows!)

I was just enjoying my daily check-in at SouleMama, and one thing leads to another and another in the Web and, depending on the time of day, sometimes I'm still making discoveries four hours later. In this case, I kept it to ten minutes of discovery, which I will share with you now.

Every weekend, SouleMama features carefully selected sponsors and their giveaways and discounts. She selects small businesses that share her values in terms of handcrafted goods, environmentally responsible materials and business practices, lovely products that are beautiful and useful, and business owners who are thoughtful about their lifestyles. Today she featured Aurora Shoe Company. I really like the way the owner explained the values of thinking about what we are purchasing, from whom, what materials were used, where did they come from, etc. Here is an excerpt from SouleMama's interview with Aurora Shoe Company:

~:: We're always inspired by other small business owners who, like us, have committed to a culture and a lifestyle that build our local economies and support our own ideals. It's so easy to become a blind consumer today, always buying the cheapest goods without taking the time to think about where they've come from or what their real value is. We're proud to be a part of the growing sector of America that is much more conscious of how their money is spent and where their goods come from.

There is so much creativity and industry all around us - we just have to be willing to look a little farther (or in our case, closer) than the nearest strip mall to find it!

When we buy handmade we're demonstrating a value that goes beyond price.  To buy handmade is to invest in an art form, a way of life and a cultural ideal.  It's to take part in a system that supports the individual, the artist and the entrepreneur in a society and an economic system that leans in the opposite direction. ~::

They also pointed out that the goods on the shelves in American stores often have prices that don't reflect the cheapness of their quality because of the costs of import taxes, marketing and shipping.

I have not even come close to making a complete switch to local, organic, environmentally responsible food and goods made by people who are very conscious and intentional about their work. I still frequently shop for convenience and low pricing, and usually out of necessity. But I have been subtly, gently influenced by SouleMama and Etsy and my own attraction to supporting the business owners in my own community, and will continue to move in that direction as I am able.

I clicked on a link in SouleMama's post about Aurora Shoe Company that led me to an Etsy shop called Madder Root, which sells handprinted, organic tea towels, napkins and produce bags. I found this pussy willow tea towel in oyster gray, which I thought was a perfect little follow-up to my last post about shades of grey and pussy willows! I can add oyster gray to my list of shades of gray, and it falls in the gray, not grey, category, according to my rubric for when gray should be spelled with an "a" or an "e"! I sure do love that bowl of eggs in soft shades of brown, gray and cream!

lovely pussy willow tea towel from Madder Root's Etsy shop

Shades of Gray

I love shades of grey. I love the word gray, and I love the name Gray. I love it when people name their daughters names like Mary Gray. I can't decide which spelling of gray I prefer: gray or grey. Considering my affinity, affection and fondness for gray, this is something I should have an opinion on. I do now, after thinking about it for a moment. Grey is for slate, steel, charcoal, pewter, gravel and all the hardest, darkest shades of grey. The "e" makes the word harder and more steely, I do believe. Gray is for softer shades, like dove, heather, feather, blue-gray, seaspray (that's a West Elm color), winter-sky gray, pebble, pussy willow.

By the way, is there anything prettier than pussy willow? Hardly. Hydrangeas, tulips, peonies, orchids and gerbera daisies take my breath away, but the pussy willow soothes me like nothing else. I could fill this post with 100 images of beautiful gray things and pussy willows. And put it all to a David Gray soundtrack, because I like him too and it's just so perfect that his last name is Gray.

Fortunately for you, dear blog reader {I keep that singular because I think there may be only one or two of you, maybe three on a high-traffic day}, I do not have time to post that many pictures of gray things. But I will toss out a few. I'm bedding-crazed right now, probably because I can't afford to buy any and I've decided it's time to even though there just ain't the budget for it right now. Here's a set I'm drooling over:

 This is BlissLiving Home's Ashley Citron bedding, available online. It kind of takes my breath away.

Maybe I should just stop there, for maximum impact. I forgot to mention how much I love gray with mustard yellow, or any yellow, really. Let's just call it citron from now on because citron has such a lovely, Frenchy ring to it. Why say yellow when you can say citron or dijon? But yellow's a pretty word, for English.

 I own this tablecloth, but I purchased it for a table I no longer own and my current table is too big for it. It's folded on top of my linen armoire because it deserves to see the light of day and it makes everything prettier. It's the Williams-Sonoma Marseille tablecloth in dijon (not citron). ;-)

Okay, back to bedding after that brief detour to table linens. Three "hellos" in a row, all from West Elm.

 Sadly, I have to go to bed now in my so-not-gray-and-citron/dijon bed. But at least it's cozy and white. I leave you with some pussy willow as my parting gift:

 From Le Papier Studio, a lovely online shop that is a sponsor for SouleMama, a favorite blog.

photo credit: http://www.isledegrande.com/giimages15/cook-pussy-willow-closeup4-06.jpg

photo credit: http://www.isledegrande.com/giimages15/cook-pussy-willow-closeup4-06.jpg