haiku Wednesday

Okay. Haiku based on a current event in my neighborhood. A big water pipe broke in our elementary and school was canceled for today. Tomorrow they are sending 1 and 2nd graders on a field trip, and sending the kindergarteners to have class in the community center.
The grades that have their classes upstairs will be unaffected. Even though my son's classroom is upstairs they already had a field trip planned for tomorrow.
(I hope my daughter is okay in a new environment... crossing fingers....)


Water floods the school
Classes resume tomorrow
Today we are bored.

or

Water floods the school
Classes canceled for today
Splishy Splashy Sploosh!

or

Water floods the school
An unexpected day off
Watch movies, play Wow!

or

Water floods the school
No tears from students falling
A day off to play!

or

Water floods the school
Classes resume tomorrow
Soggy day at school...

Is it Wednesday or Thursday? Let's pretend it's Wednesday...

Here's some extra Haiku to make up for it being Thursday...
(let's hope the spaces stay where I put them!)

Though sick and tired
Life continues moving on
Take a deep breath, breathe.

I'm Zombie Mommy
Through sick and tired I serve
Yawning all day long.

---------------------

Spring is here, kind of
Flowers struggle under snow
Yellow under white

Snow falls from blue sky
Sun shines down while the snow falls
Nature is confused!

Spring blooms in glory!
My head and nose exploding
Allergies once more.

(This is what it looked like outside my door this morning.)

I could write Haiku all day... maybe next week I should challenge myself and either try to write a story using Haiku OR actually write a short story (which would challenge me!).

Poetry Wednesday

Haiku by me

My eyes are open
But I cannot see Today
I see the Future...

Make-up Writing Wednesday

The dark, the snow, Cold.
Weighing down my blooms. THE SUN!
Shines! Warms! All is well.














Here's my excuse for not writing yesterday:
Yesterday was busy. I played a Vetrinarian game with my daughter. Whew! It was hard!
I actually got a load of dishes and some other big pans washed. A miracle if you ask me!
I cancelled our Bear Cub Scout Meeting, but, gave them an assignment to get some of the family requirements done.
Which barely gave us enough time to eat and get ready for SoccerGirl's LAST Indoor Soccer Game. Whiiiich.... was AWESOME! I think the score was like 8 or 9 to Nothing! Which my son kept calling, 8 to Zit! SoccerGirl made either one goal and one assist or two assists.
We ended our game of "I Spot Carter!" (a game my son made up that if we saw SoccerGirl's teammate Carter fall down or cry we yell, "I Spot Carter!" we got a point.) Last night Carter's big brother fell down a couple of times! We gave ourselves extra points for that!
Afterwards we celebrated by going to Baskin Robbins! I couldn't finish my Junior Mints icecream... whew... too rich!
Therefore, Writing Wednesday went by the wayside. But, I'm making up for it today. K?

Writing Wednesday

My Mountains by CraftyTeresa

The Mountains I climb,

I climb each day.

I climb the detritus of life.

I climb a Mountain of pain and tiredness,

the most challenging climb every day.

The Mountains of understanding , patience and teaching

stand before me waiting.

The Mountains of being Wife, Mother and Me equally,

stand tall and climbing all three seem impossible.

At the end of the day I am exhausted, spent...

Did I get anything done? Did I climb any Mountain today?

There are so many more Mountains to climb as well.

In my sleep I fall fitfully back down all the mountains I've climbed...

and my Mountains wait for my footsteps once more.

(a special thanks to my Dad for the pic of the mountain. I think it's from a trip he took to Idaho.)

Writing Poetry Wednesday

TODAY by CraftyTeresa

My thoughts,
as dark as the sky outside
and as full as the clouds that promise a downpour soon.

Too full of information!
Even though I need to stuff more in...
Too full of dark thoughts!
Even though I need to think more...

I wish I could be as the zen monks of long ago.
Only the present existed.
Only the self existed.
Zen...

But, no.
I am a mother.
I can't afford the luxury of the present.
I can't afford the luxury of the self.
I am all to all.
The opposite of zen.

Someday I will be sad that I'm not all to all anymore.
Someday I will recieve my zen-me time.
Someday I will look back and be glad.
BUT!
Today I am a mother.

Writing Haiku Wednesday!

My month has been SO BUSY, but now I find myself with a half of a week with Ross home, kids home and fun things planned. No stress. Aaahhhh.... I'm not even peeking at April's calendar stuff. Nope. Not till April 1st. And then I might think it's a joke... :)
Enjoy my haiku.


Rushing like the wind
Schedules, Errands, Everything!
Now, breathing slowly...

by CraftyTeresa

Writing Wednesday

Last Wednesday I wrote about the daughter "seeing" everything and the mom, as an adult, not "seeing" everything. Right after I finished, I thought, 'But... What if it's the mom that sees everything and the daughter is skipping around NOT seeing everything around her?' Hmmm.
Like always this is a draft of an idea. enjoy! Please feel free to critique it!

Existence II by CraftyTeresa

As I walked to the school to pick up my daughter I breathed in the fresh Spring air. I relished every lungfull and exhaled slowly. I looked up at the beautiful Robin's Egg blue sky, it was a wonderful Spring day. Just a few shy clouds around the edges of the sky trying to make pictures. I could hear the birds singing a jubilant song. The birds seemed even happier than I was about Spring's arrival. I looked down to see shoots of Spring flowers coming up from the ground. And Hey! I just saw my first Robin of Spring! I looked around at the houses I passed, the old bird's nest in the trees, the dogs in their yards. So many details! So many vibrant colors! Suddenly, I found myself at the school.
"Okay! Time to go home!", I said.
"I want to go to the PARK!", she countered.
"Well...", I hemmed and hawed a bit.
"I want to go to the Park today! Um, Please?", Ah, she remembered the magic word!
"Oh, alright...", I had brought a book with me, so it might be nice to go to the park.
As we walked to the park I kept looking at all the wonders of nature waking up from a deep sleep. The leaves, the grass, the bark on the trees. The yards of the neighbors.
'I wonder if we could make our flower garden look like that this year?', I wondered to myself.
The sun was warm on our heads and shoulders, Spring felt good!
The smell of warming dirt and rain washed air was invigorating!
I tried to point out the wonders of nature to my daughter.
"Look at how pretty that little purple flower is!", I said.
"Yeah, yeah, I know! Hurry! Walk faster! We need to get to the Park!", she said and then ran ahead of me.
My thoughts started running as we approached our little neighborhood park, 'Can't she see all the beauty of the world around her? There's so much to see and hear and feel and smell! Is her youth making her run as fast as she can making the world a blur of color? Is it only because I'm older that I've slowed down that I've been able to actually see the world?'
My daughter started playing on the play equipment with screams of delight and multiple yells of "Look at me!"
I sat down on the park bench and took one last look at the wonderful sights and smells and sounds of the world around me and then opened my book to read.
The world disappeared...

Writing Poetry Wednesday

Today's Writing Wednesday is going to be some poetry.
Poetry is really my forte, not writing stories. In college I took a Poetry class. The poetry class was right after I got done working in the Study Skills Center.
I dare you to say this 5 times fast: Hello! CSI Study Skills Center. How may I help you?
Anyway, they had paper and typewriters (yes, I said Typewriters! I'm old.) so I could type out a few poems every morning before Poetry class.
This was also a class that older people coming back to college or just taking a few courses for the fun of it would always join, so it was an interesting class. Then during the class the teacher would ask how long we've been working on our current poems....
Some would say "Two weeks!" Others would say, "I've been working on this poem for a whole year!"
I would never answer... but, in my head I would think, 'I typed out these 3 poems in the 5-10 minutes before class started.' Ahhh, I loved that class. EASY A! (and really, how do grade to poetry anyway... A's for Everyone!) Perhaps, if I get myself back to college I will take a writing class to help me get all these stories out of my head nicely... I already got poety down pat. :)

I Hear Hope

Head full to bursting
New Ideas, New Thoughts,
New Reasons for old problems
dropped in my brain. Plop!
Hope blooms from the pile of information
Now, we will hear each other...
Now, we will hear...


Hmmm, it was going to be a haiku, but, this is what needed to come out.
I love poetry.
This is all about my discovery and learning about Central Auditory Processing Disorder, and Sensory Integration Dysfunction and how it is changing the way I see myself and my family and how we are using the knowledge we have so far to help us help each other HEAR each other.
I like what this knowledge has done for us so far. We are definitely a little more understanding and compassionate with the kids. And I have hope that the more we learn and the more we are aware, and the more we change how we communicate and the more understanding we have and patience we have for each other the better things can get.

Because, "Knowledge is Half the Battle!"

Writing Wednesday - More of an: Idea for a Story talk Wednesday

I WANT to write a story about something that happens to me. But, I'm not sure how to go about it. Here's what happens:
As I walk to the school to fetch various kindergarteners, one belonging to me, I have visions of Worst Case Scenarios (Dark Visions is going to be the title of the story) and then I think about what I would do, how would I react in each scenario.

I see myself falling on the ice and breaking my leg and having to pull myself along to a nearby house.
I see a mushroom cloud in the distance and imagine myself instantly not exsisting and ending up as a black sillouette on the brick wall of the school.
I see an earthquake happening as I walk to the school and see myself getting to the school and huddling with my kids and waiting to see if my husband will make it to the school...
On the way home I can see kids impaling themselves on sticks that they are running with...
I see that stupid pit bull that gets out of his yard, attack us and rip up my arm because I'm trying to protect the children (would I be able to ever crochet again?).
I see a kid I'm supposed to being taking care of Jump off of playground equipment and break his leg,
I see a kid NOT listen to me and run out into the street and get run over by a car who didn't see him because they were talking on their cell phone.

Then I get home and sink in my chair and sigh a big sigh of relief... I made it home... nothing bad happened! Whew!
and then...
What if one of those things ACTUALLY happened and because I have been running it through my mind and thinking about what I would do if that happened... I was the hero because I was able instantly jump into action and save the day!

Anyway. That's MY idea. And I will keep thinking about HOW to write that into a story.
Thanks for listening.

Writing Wednesday is more like Writer's Wednesday

I don't have time to write a story today. I have one in mind... I have several in mind... but, no time. And I don't want to get into any habit of missing my Monday, Wednesday, Friday crafting habit.

So, instead of writing a story I'm going to mention a few of my favorite books. I can't mention them all, but, I can write about the ones that have really stuck with me through the years and new favorites too.

1. Sherri S. Tepper the 9 books that all start with King's Blood Four.
I read King's Blood Four after I borrowed it from my mom's bookcase. And then I kept it. And then I read it over and over again. A world based on chess ...cool.
Then, year's later the night before my wedding I was in a used book store in Logan, Utah. That is where I found book number three: Wizard's Eleven! I was FLOORED! There are more?
That night I bought that book and began my search for number 2: Necromancer's Nine.
I found the first trilogy and then found out there were two more trilogies that went with the first one.
So far I've found 8 out of 9, PLUS a 3 books in one book that includes the one book I'm missing.
Last night I even thought about writing Sherri S. Tepper a fan letter about the King's Blood Four series. They never mention these books when they tell about the books she's written.
I think she also wrote a book about a River... oops, I can't remember but I'll have to find it... I've been thinking about it lately. I like that one too. I think I got a two books in one book and I still need to find it! Southshore and Northshore from 1987. Found the names not the book. :(
She writes about wonderfully grotesque and fantastical characters, she uses such beautiful and highly descriptive language that I can see exactly what she is writing about, and talk about great plot and world making!
They are all out of print and hard to find... but, WORTH IT!
She also has a Marianne trilogy that I'm trying to find too. I think I have the middle one...:(

I've figured out that I love books about people from Earth coming to a new planet and then seeing what their society develops into after hundreds or thousands of years after they've even forgotten they are originally from Earth. The King's Blood Four series does that.

2. Also, Marion Zimmer Bradley's world of Darkover series does that and I grew up loving those books. MZB also did an anthology series, Swords & Sorceress. I almost have all 21? of those books. Alas, Marion Zimmer Bradley died a while back.

I went downstairs to my triple stacked bookcase and found these books. They are all dog-eared, much read and much loved. I remember them. I grabbed them and want to read them again!

3. Nor Crystal Tears by Alan Dean Foster
4. The Colors of Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley
5. Crystal Singer by Anne McCafferey (also Killashandra Ree I think is the next one)
6. The Postman by David Brin
7. One for the Morning Glory by John Barnes (a great fairy tale)
8. Snow Crash by Neal Stephens (cyber punk!)
and then there's
9. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (also A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith)
SO FUNNY! (I want to read all of Terry Pratchett's books... a life time goal. :)
10. All the Harry Potters!
11. All the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
(well, anything by Lemony Snicket! Have you read The Latke that wouldn't stop screaming?)
12. Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay

There's more but, I'd say that's enough for now. That's the basics.
Each one of these books brings memories and feelings to my mind and heart.
I remember far away places and favorite people that I have visited and revisited.
Who needs to travel?!
I love books.

Writing Wednesday!

Just so you know, everything I write on Writing Wednesday, is right out of my head with only a couple of read throughs and adjustments. Thus they are all pretty much rough drafts of things that have been floating around in my head for a while. Read them as such. I don't mind any critics piping in. (make sure you don't miss the pic at the bottom!)


Cats in the Park

It was cold as I walked to school to pick up Mara from kindergarten. It's only a block and a half, but it's a nice little walk. I love to walk past our little neighborhood park where the sky really opens up and I can see the mountains.
And then, a month ago those statues were put into MY park. I know the city means well by putting "art in the park", but did they have to put those creepy giant cat statues there? They sit just so, each one looking in a different direction. Each one a different color. Each one taller than my 6 year old.
I know I'm just paranoid, but, every time I walk past the park I swear I see a flicker of an ear, or a movement of a brass eye. The lady across the street told me that she likes to think that they are protectors of the neighborhood. I want to believe that. I want to believe they are on "our" side. I'm a cat person, and I know that cats are basically good creatures. But, I also know that, unlike dogs, you have to earn their love and respect and protection.
As much as I love art and love cats, they're still creepy.
On the other hand, it's been a while since I've seen graffiti in the park.
Older kids have begun to avoid the park...
So, no matter what happens, no matter what I see out of the corner of my eye, as I pass my little park I always end up thinking of the Egyptian cat goddess Bast and I bob my head towards the creepy Cats in the Park and thank them for protecting my neighborhood.