Today my mom is 79 years old! She lives in San Antonio, Texas and is currently celebrating her birthday with my dad, sister and nieces and nephew. She has enjoyed a great day watching her grandson’s tennis tournament, going out to dinner, opening presents and eating cake! We haven’t been able to talk yet due to her celebratory activities, so Slice of Life friends, here is what I would say to her…

Dear Pretty Jo,

All day I have been thinking about you! Memories have ebbed and flowed from my mind. More than snapshots of family events though, I have been thinking about our relationship. It certainly has changed since my turbulent teenage years and the list of characteristics that I despised in my youth are the very traits that I admire most in you and try to emulate myself. Thank you for your prayers, generosity, support and being my biggest fan. I wish I could have celebrated with you today but I look forward to seeing you during spring break.

Love,

Daughter #1

SOLC #7 – Today is the first day in this challenge that I am challenged to find something to write about. For the past six days, inspiration rolled around my heart and my head until I could get to my computer in the evening. I didn’t need to brainstorm, use a graphic organizer or make any notes. But today is a completely different. After using a few pre-writing strategies, I am still left pondering.

There was a time in my life I journaled daily. My world was burdensome then and I wrote to find peace and clear my mind. After some major life changes, my life is now somewhere over the rainbow amazing. Now I write when I am inspired.

Perhaps that is why I struggle today. If I weren’t in the SOLC, I would not choose to write today.

With any habit that you are trying to establish, the discipline of doing it even when you don’t feel like it is something to overcome. So for this reason, I will submit a post about writers block.

Hopeful for more imagination tomorrow…

SOLC #6

Keeping track of data for my first week

Why didn’t it record my stages of sleep?

Steps and badges for reaching my goals

What other features does this watch hold?

Notifications for emails and texts

Does this data make other folks fret?

Rarely ever do I drink enough water

Why does my husband say he created a monster?

I still haven’t recorded the food that I eat

If I do, will my experience be more complete?

I charge my watch daily while taking a shower.

How can I take 250 steps every hour?

My Fit Bit Versa is a gift to explore

Can I figure out how to make it do more?

SOLC #5

When I walked in the house after a long day of work, I immediately inhaled the warm scent of food. Something was just fried on the stove top. As I made my way into the kitchen, I saw my amazing husband putting the finishing touches on a Fat Tuesday meal! I tend not to eat very well on the days that I conduct all day trainings, thus I was starving but the allure of this dinner was more than hunger. Mardi Gras is not a tradition that we celebrate and southern cooking is not in our repertoire of go to family recipes. He neatly plated and served me a dish of cornmeal crusted catfish, grits, red beans and rice and tomato wedges. Then to top it off, he made bananas foster for dessert!

Todd’s culinary creation tonight inspired the following list poem based on the poetry mentor text – I’m Talking Big! by Colin McNaughton.

I'm talking delicious!
I'm talking scrumptious!
I'm talking distinctive, delightful,
delectable.
Full-flavored and good-tasting.
Appetizing, satisfying, gratifying.
I'm talking palatable, flavorful,
enjoyable.
I'm talking impressive!
I'm talking delicious!  

 

Birthday celebrations –

Intimate ones preferred

Rather than big parties.

Thoughtful gifts

Have special meaning.

Delighted to extend festivities

And…

Yes,

Still loving them!

SOLC #2 –

It wasn’t the…

mellow vibrating bzzzzzz, bzzzzzz, bzzzzzz of my FitBit alarm going off.

It wasn’t the…

scritch, scritch, scritch and meowwwww of Raspberry at the bedroom door.

It was the…

comforting, warm, strong yet gentle hand wrapped around my jawline

and the…

sweet, in my ear whisper of “You are so precious and valuable to me.”

that finally woke me from restful slumber to being fully awake feeling completely loved and ready to start my day.

SOLC #1 – These emotions describe my slice of life today. In actuality, they describe my feelings since I submitted the Participant Information form on February 15th. It would be accurate to state that the intensity of these emotions has only grown as I have been trying to figure out how to set up my WordPress website, what I would might write about, how and where to post daily entries, etc… Obviously, I am a new Slicer and blogger. For over thirty years, I have hand written in journals recording events and pouring out my heart in private . Even now as I look back on the two writing groups that I have recently participated in, being face to face and reading my writing aloud ironically seems more comforting than to share my writing with complete strangers online. While I am trepidatious and excited, this I know to be true – writing has never failed me! Writing has helped me process and organize my thoughts. It has comforted and inspired me and brought out creativity that I didn’t know I had. The act of sharing writing and providing feedback to other people’s writing in a community setting has always proven to be a powerful experience. So… here’s to trying another writing style out and joining the Slice Of Life Writing group!