Hay Creek Finery

Last night I started a poem in my head when I was trying to go to sleep...what to do?  

1) Go to sleep and hope to remember all my brilliance in the morning...or 

2) Get out of bed as quietly as possible, grab pen and notepad that just happen to be on the night stand without knocking all the other crap off, sneak into the bathroom, close the door in epic, silent slow motion, turn on the light, be blinded just a little, and then sit down on the closed toilet seat and scribble the poem down as quickly as is humanly possible...all while hoping my husband doesn't think I'm in there texting my boyfriend. (He would never think that. We're both way too lazy to keep up that kind of scheme!)

Well obviously I chose #2.  #1 would have been way too hard!
Here is the poem about one of my favorite places on earth...


Hay Creek Finery

Hay Creek Ranch is a place like no other
In fact, you'll want to write home to your mother
You'll ask to stay, to never leave
The fun and the beauty are too much to believe
There are horses and dogs
Kittens and frogs
Good coffee and smiles that never end
Campfires and s'mores and new lifelong friends
Out on the trails you can ride and ride
Your horse'll go through the water, no matter how wide
You can saddle up, sit back, see what God's given you 
When you come to Hay Creek, that's all you can do
You'll come in with your horse, and a bit of free time
And you'll always leave knowing that, "It'll be fine!"


Hay Creek Ranch is my parents' place where people can go to ride their horses in the Black Hills.  Part of my reason for loving it so much is my love for my parents.  But honestly, I'd be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't think they're awesome.  If you have horses (or if you don't) and you would like to see the Black Hills, check out their website at http://www.haycreekranch.net.  They also have a winter camp in Arizona.  You can link to that on their main page.  Or you can check them out on Facebook at Hay Creek Ranch Horse Camp.  

New Blog Title, Same Blog Content

If you know me at all, you know that I am trying to make a little push into the world of being an author.  I needed my blog name to match the name I have used so far on the few pieces that have been published.  Same blog, different name.

Please share my posts when you feel they are worth sharing.  I would love the help of my friends and family to get my name out there.  Right now I am working on poetry, children's picture books, and a young adult novel.

My published work can be seen at 3elementsreview.com in Issues 2 and 3 and at www.thevoicesproject.org in the Poetry Library on December 17, 2014.

Happy reading!

Yahoo Voices Bit the Dust...

So Yahoo Voices!, the place I had published a few articles to, has shut down.  I am currently looking for new places to publish, but I didn't want the 3 articles I had to be left out in internet purgatory.  I am posting them here so they will always have a home.  Looking at them now, I see that these articles pretty much encompass most of what I love about my life: reading, teaching, and my family.  

5 Books I Can’t Live Without

This article first appeared on Yahoo Voices! May 21, 2014

Books, to those of us who love them, are a necessity for life.  As we go through our reading lives, we may read hundreds, even thousands, of books, but there are always a few titles that reward us with more than entertainment or knowledge.  These books become part of our being.  Their images live in our minds.  Their characters are as real to us as our dearest friends.  These are the books that we return to over and over again.  These are our personal “classics.” If I could only take five books to a deserted island, these would be my choices, my classics. 

The Young Adult Classic

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

This book makes the cut because Lucy in the snow beneath the lamppost is the first literary image that is a permanent fixture in my mind’s photo album. I found her in a box at a garage sale when I was 11, and she has been with me ever since. This old, musty hard cover copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first book that I would ever read more than once because C.S. Lewis did what every author hopes to do.  He transported me to a non-existent place and made me believe again and again.  He opened up my young mind to all the powers of good and evil, and he made me see how hard the choice between the two could be.  Twenty-five years later I still find myself going back to Narnia when I want to be lost in another time and place.

The Beach Read

Sullivan’s Island by Dorothea Benton Frank

Benton Frank made me fall in love with the Low Country of South Carolina long before I ever set foot on its beaches.  Sullivan’s Island makes the cut because if I can only escape in my mind, the Low Country is where I want to be. Livvie, a Gullah woman of slave decent who cares for the dysfunctional family, is the character that still visits me when I least expect it.  Her voice has even prompted me to include her culture as a major part of a novel I’m currently planning.  Since I didn’t grow up Southern, Benton Frank’s version of it is the next best thing.

The Heroic Adventure

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

I would like to take the liberty of including the series as one book.  I cannot live with out Harry and his friends in my life, plain and simple.  With each read something new is gained or realized.  I could never tire of them.  But you want me to choose one book, right?  If I must, it would have to be Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  I enjoy it the most because the whole story matures during this book.  The characters, the friendships, the element of danger, Voldemort; everything changes.  Because I know the story inside and out, this turning point book is the one I would read over and over if I could choose only one.

The Literary Classic

The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor

There is no work of literature that has left so many images in my mind that horrify me, make me rethink life in general, and humor me in such dark ways, often all within a few pages.  So many of her stories are worth reading time and again.  Lucky for me they are all in one hefty volume to delight or terrify me all my reading life.

The Undefined, Everything Genre

The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon

While I consider myself a serious fan of one other series I may have mentioned earlier, I am completely, 110%, totally obsessed with the epic series Gabaldon has created.  This series cannot be defined by genre because it has everything any reader could need.  Love, honor, sacrifice, scathing impropriety, time-travel, history lessons, wars, castles, kilts, witches, secret pasts, hidden futures…you get the idea.  The only real obsession I have ever had revolves around the lives of Jamie and Claire. I will not choose one book in this series. I can’t. I will take them all with me if this desert island exile ever comes true.  Hopefully, it can wait until June 10^th when the newest book in the series, Written in My Own Heart's Blood, arrives in my mailbox.

Life Lessons on a Seesaw

This article first appeared on Yahoo Voices! Mar. 18, 2014

I took my kids to a tiny neighborhood park today. It is off the beaten path, slightly obscure. My husband and I took our son there once when he was a toddler years ago. The play structure was too high for him. We freaked out and went home.  That quick exit may be why I never noticed something that is rarely seen on a playground these days: a seesaw.

While I helped my kids to understand the mechanics of this new device, I realized that it might be one of the best pieces of equipment that isn't typically installed on playgrounds anymore. Maybe it has gone away from schoolyards because it excludes all but two children. Though, worry of liability and safety are most likely the culprits of its forced extinction. 

I was saddened for today's kids a bit when I remembered the sheer joy this lever with two seats and handles provided for my best friend and me in our playground days. I began to see the lessons that could be learned from its simple "up and down."

The seesaw itself is a lesson in building a trusting relationship. It is the one thing on the playground you can't do alone. You and your friend must work together. You have to find the balance of your push and your weight. If you don't "push" your own weight, you don't go anywhere. If you don't pay attention to the weight of your friend you could come down too quickly, ding your heels. If you quit working altogether, and let your seat hit the ground, your friend gets an unpleasant bump as well. It only works when each finds the rhythm of the other.

This is an essential life lesson. Find the balance of give and take in every relationship. Be aware of the needs of the other person and they will be aware of your needs. Failing to do this ends in a hard bump for both sides.

Face to face conversations are slowly going extinct these days. The seesaw is one place on the playground where this could happen with little distraction. Once the rhythm is there, nothing is stopping the conversation from flowing. My best friend and I coveted the chance to be the first pair to the seesaw. It meant we had time to ourselves to talk about whatever we wanted. It is a joy our fast paced world is slowly killing.

Truly focused one-on-one chats with a friend build people up and make them feel worthwhile. In this world of having to include everyone, our kids are missing out on this gift of building close friendships.

Today, my kids found their balance with each other. My son didn't mind working a little harder so that his little sister could have the same fun he was having. It only took a couple hard bounces for them to figure out that the bumps weren't worth it. They worked together to get Mommy in on the fun. It was gratifying for them to find that they could raise me up in the air if we all sat in just the right place. We had to find the compromise between our push and our weight. We talked to each other without a care in the world for anything else. This relic of playground history reconnected us by putting us face to face and encouraging us to find our balance in each other.

Classroom Management Through Relationships

This article first appeared on Yahoo Voices! Feb. 25, 2014

“Don’t smile until Christmas.”  Teachers have all heard this advice in at least one education course. This classroom management tip is supposed to help new teachers strike fear and respect into students.  But today this mindset doesn’t seem to fly, especially at the high school level.  If you want a sure fire way to spend less time on classroom management, spend more time building real relationships with your students. 

 

Get to know your students as people.

Students need to know that we see them as more than a missing assignment or a bad test grade.  What are they good at? What do they like to do outside of the school day?  It takes time to find these things out, but it also saves time in the end.  Students are much more willing to work for a teacher who seems to genuinely take interest in them.  I recently had a new student who desperately wanted to get kicked out of class.  I knew this and I wouldn’t give in. Then I found out that he enjoyed working on engines.  We chatted a bit about this for a few minutes and since then, he has been a model student for me.  I treated him like a real person worthy of my time, and he has reciprocated the gesture.

Show your students that you are a real person.

Students need to see that teachers are more than just talking heads spewing mathematical equations or grammar rules.  We are real people.  We have good days and bad days.  We make mistakes, and we don’t know everything.  We need our coffee in the morning and our chocolate in the afternoon.  Students are always amazed to find out that teachers like some of the same things they do.   Conversations about movies, books, sports, and TV shows may seem like a waste of time, but in the end it makes us human to them.  These connections build the respect that we need in our classrooms.

Build on the positive.

Students generally know what they don’t know.  They don’t need to be told.  Instead they need to see what they do well and how they can build to make improvements.   I start every year with a discussion about what my responsibility to them is as a teacher.  I explain that I never make corrections or suggest changes to their work in an effort to make them feel bad.  I do it to help them improve.  My goal is to help them be a better student by the time they leave my class.  Improvements of any size are successes.  Many students need to see small successes in order to be motivated to reach for bigger things.  Classroom management strategies aren’t as necessary in a room full of motivated students.

Trust your students until they give you a reason not to.

Most kids are good kids.  There are always a few who ruin it for the bunch.  You know who they are, but be careful about the time wasted in power struggles because you assume the worst. My students know that my answer to their questions about bathroom or locker use will always be “Yes,” until they give me a reason to say “No.”  They like the bit of freedom they have, and the majority don’t abuse it because they know they can lose it.

Have fun.

You have to teach your lessons, and you have to be professional.  You can’t always be super entertaining.  But you don’t have to be bored or boring.  If you are tired of listening to yourself, chances are you lost your students half an hour ago.  Lighten up.  Connect to their real life, make a joke, let them talk and explain their understandings and frustrations.  Students feed off of our enthusiasm.  Give them something to work with.

At the end of the day, we all have to remember that no teacher has ever been or ever will be loved by every student.  It’s not possible.  But, bottom line, students are more likely to engage if they feel connected to their teachers, and engaged students tend to manage themselves. 

Haiku Fun or Just Trying to Make it to May 29

As I'm winding down the year with my Junior level English class, I am running out of steam.  Amazingly enough, my four special needs students (all with some type of reading or writing disability) are begging me for free writing days.  Well, OK!  So today we did a lesson on Haiku.  Here is my example and a few of their pieces.  I did not make them stick to nature as a topic, but some chose to do that anyway.

My example:
end of the school year
no one can really focus
let's just write haiku

Student examples:

Missouri’s weather

is terribly bi-polar

forever changing

the color of black

deep dark place of no return

chilling scary place

Freezing ice and snow.

I like the snowy weather.

Building a snowman.

Lady Gaga

Be unique. It’s fun.

Quirky, a different thing.

It’s good to be weird.

After we got past the slight issue of counting syllables, I was pretty impressed.  They commented that having some rules as to the structure actually helped them be more productive.  I often feel the same way.  So, to all the writers out there….give yourself some rules if you are stuck.  You might find yourself flying across the page again.  And to all of my teacher friends, let them do some creative writing if you need a little pick-me-up, you may be surprised at what they really do have in them.

Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month, and over at www.writersdigest.com they are doing a Poem a Day Challenge.  I have participated in nearly all of the prompts, so please go check it out if you feel the need.  I really wanted to share the poem I wrote for yesterday's challenge.  The prompt was to write about an animal, and I couldn't help but thinking of the images that came to me during the Write the Dream conference I went to back in March.  If you know my dad you know what I mean about him drawing everyone and everything in.  Love you, Dad!

Horses and My Dad

In a dream he

walked toward me

across green pasture

from beneath the trees

They followed him out

from all around

trusting where he led

I woke and wondered

what it meant

A cowboy

trailed by horses

And then I knew

the truth I saw

My dad just

draws souls in

Yet he will always

come to me

if I am lost from him

Kids Say

Enchil-la-las
We have a great casserole recipe from Dan's mom that is called Enchiladas, though the tortillas are the only really Mexican part about the recipe.  No matter, it is delicious. Lynn, however, cannot say Enchilada and has rechristened them Enchi-la-las.

Recipe:
1 lb. hamburger browned and drained
2 cans Hormel Chili No Beans
1 package flour tortillas
1-1 ½ cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Combine Chili with browned and drained hamburger in a skillet and heat through.  Place a spoon full of meat mixture and a sprinkle of cheese in a tortilla.  Roll up tortilla and place in a microwave safe casserole dish.  Continue placing rolled tortillas next to each other in the dish until it is full.  Pour remaining meat mixture over the rolled tortillas.  Sprinkle cheese over top of entire dish.  Cover and heat in microwave for 3-4 minutes until cheese is melted and dish is heated through.

And in things a 6 year old should never say….
Joe has moved beyond most of the cute/funny word mix ups that he used to have.  However, I am pretty sure that Lynn may be featured in "Kids Say" indefinitely.  Bless her funny language goofs.

Here is a conversation we had just after she had been put to bed the other night.  She stayed in her room and we were in ours.  Thank goodness she couldn't see us so we didn't have to explain to her why we were busting up laughing at the end of the conversation.

Lynn: Mom!
Me: What Lynn?
Lynn: There's a hooker in my bed.
Me (laughing): What?
Lynn: A hooker
Me: Do you mean a hanger?
Lynn: Oh, yeah.
Me: Just put it on the floor. We'll put it away in the morning.

And hopefully we never have to talk to either of our children about hookers ever again.

Spring Break 2014

As I am sitting alone in my house in the middle of a weekday...wait what?  Yeah, this is weird and really awesome!  I watched a movie by myself this morning, a grown up movie.  Blue Jasmine is the only Academy nominated movie (for adults) that I have seen this year.  (I've seen Frozen, twice.)  I'm really glad I watched it, but it ended rather abruptly.  My book club book from last night, The Other Typist, ended strangely too.  I still don't think any of us really know what happened.

Anyway, this week has been filled with little blessings that truly have made it feel like a vacation.  Lynn got to celebrate her BFF's birthday at a bowling party on Saturday.  It was sweet to see the girls interact.  They literally squeal every time they see each other.

After the party we headed to Des Moines to stay the night en route to Dubuque.  The wonderful car ride was a blessing that was repeated Sunday morning and on Wednesday coming back.  I'm not being sarcastic here.  The kids were amazing in the car.  Finally, they can occupy themselves without driving anyone too crazy.

Mimi time in Dubuque was relaxed but fun.  We visited a bounce house on Monday morning for a couple of hours.  Later, we had dinner together at Texas Road House.  Joe's quote of the night was, "Ahhh, the sweet smell of Texas."  After dinner, Mimi took the kids home where they camped out on the living room floor to watch movies and stay up late.  Dan and I headed out to the casino.  I was up for awhile, and then I was down, and then just when I was about to quit, I won $97.  If I had an addictive personality, I would probably still be there trying to win more, but I was happy to triple my money and walk out the door.  When we got back Joe was still up.  This was our indication that we are in fact, old.  He told us we should have stayed out longer, but 9:30 is past my bedtime.  It was nice to sleep in a little on Tuesday morning.

Early Tuesday, Dan took Joe on a little drive.  They went to three states in about 10 minutes.  Dubuque is on the border of Iowa with Wisconsin and Illinois.  So, over two different bridges they went.  Joe was thrilled by the novelty of this.  Later in the day we went to the Mississippi River Museum.  There was a turtle exhibit that we all loved.  We also got to see something that doesn't happen very often.  The alligator that they have at the museum was being fed for the first time in a few months.  This was because they had given her a hibernation period where they didn't feed her and they lowered the temp in her enclosure to simulate the wild.  They fed her three or four big white rats.  The volunteer who was explaining things to us said she wouldn't eat for another few weeks, so we were lucky to see it.

Tuesday night we all camped out to watch Frozen since it was delivered in the mail that day.  I shouldn't complain about seeing it twice since I do like the movie and because it was Mimi's 3rd time seeing it.  She is a great Mimi.

On Wednesday we headed home, leaving snow for the warmer weather of Kansas City.  The drive was uneventful and perfect.  Then I got to go to book club.  And now here I am, alone.  I think I will go take a nap, in my hammock.  Bye!

Write the Dream Writer's Conference Experience

This past weekend I had one of the most fantastic experiences of my life.  I attended the first ever Write the Dream Writer’s Conference, hosted by Studio Z Publishing at Bartle Hall, here in Kansas City, MO.  It was their first conference and my first conference.  Writers from all over the area were in attendance. There were writers with little to no publishing experience, like me, writers with dozens of publication credits, and writers everywhere in between.

In my daily life, people know I like to write, but I don’t ever call myself a writer.  I’m a teacher and a mom and a wife, who likes to plunk out some creative words from time to time.  But at this conference, I was a writer who happens to do all of those other things.  I didn’t feel like I was bragging when I talked about the three pieces I've published.  I didn’t feel silly talking about my genre or lack of genre.  People weren’t poking fun or joking when they said, “That could be a book!”  They meant it, and I realized, that could be a book!

 

Cady McClain, best known for her roles on several soap operas, but who is talented is so many other ways, was the keynote speaker on Friday night.  I was in awe of her from the moment I realized in my online search that she played “Dixie” on All My Children when I was a kid.  Visions of the TV in the little apartment where my babysitter, Alice, watched my brother and me flashed in my mind.  Dixie was a young blonde character wearing bright puffy sleeves in the show we watched over lunch.  Somewhere up in Heaven Alice was smiling down on me as I listened to Cady’s inspirational words.

 

After hearing her speak, I have decided to take her advice, which you can find in full here on her blog.  My writer self is a child that I have to nurture with kind words and feelings.  I will not listen to the bully voice that tells me I am not good enough.  I will put that voice aside, protect my writer from it.  I will find a way to feed the fire of creativity everyday.  And, I will thank God and Alice that I went to this conference because of their nudge.

On Saturday, I spent the day listening to several speakers hurry through information about a myriad of topics.  In the whirlwind that it was, I learned about where to get started with self-publishing, how to market, what to write off on my taxes, where to spend my money if I have it to spend, and so many other little things that I filled 10 pages in my journal with notes.  All of the information was invaluable.

On Sunday, I skipped church and spent some time with God.  I’m not kidding here.  The workshop led by Cady was called “Dreamscaping.”  I literally had a dream while I was wide-awake.  Cady led us through a visualization of a scene.  She prompted us to think about all of the senses involved in the situations she was suggesting to us. 

After the visualization, which could have only come from a higher power, we all sat to work writing down everything we could remember.  I came out of it with several pages of scribbled notes followed by a few more pages of all the things I forgot about.  This first writing was emotional, but I was not prepared for the emotions that would flow when the group of six of us came back together to share our experience aloud.  I am not going to tell you any of their stories, nor will I tell you mine at this point.  It was all much too intense and personal.  I will say that I won’t soon forget the images and the tears these words produced for each of us.  Pictures of beach grass, red birds, horses, white bags, picket fences, golden angels, and lakes will exist in my memory files forever.

During this discussion Cady gave individual suggestions to each of as to how we could expand on the ideas the dream gave us.  She suggested things like poetry, exploration of another character involved, or writing from the point of view of someone or something else in the dream.  This process yielded yet another round of touching pieces, more discussion, and finally more suggestions for taking the work further. 

I cannot comment as to the effect this had on the other members of the group in specific terms, but I do know we all experienced something profound.  We are now linked to each other because of the words we trusted ourselves to share.  I will feel the presence of their encouragement each time I sit to write and when I feel the fear of being rejected by my inner critic.  They will be there rallying for me to keep going.

As I write this, images of the play I have been encouraged to create are flashing frantically through my head.  I am scared to write it, but not so scared that I won’t try.  And for that, I will be forever thankful.