Slice of Life 8 – Multilingual Blogger – Ha! #sol24

8 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

Here is my very dusty “Multilingual Blogger” badge. I haven’t used it since last March.

I wish I was multilingual; I’m still a poser. However, I’m trying, and after three years of studying Spanish on Duolingo, I feel more hopeful than ever before. Now, I’ve set myself a goal to get started this month on something I have been talking about. To meet a Spanish speaker who also wants to become more multilingual by working on their English. I would love to share conversation with them. I’ll update on the last Friday of the month, March 29.

In the meantime, today I’m remembering the Portuguese I learned in Brazil last month with this elfchen. These are the words I said the most during my week there!

Eu
não falo
português, mas eu
gosto disso. Bom dia,
Amigo

I
don’t speak
Portuguese, but I
like this. Good morning,
Friend.

Poetry Friday – Dragons

Today is Poetry Friday and Laura Purdie Salas is hosting. Thank you, Laura, and Congratulations on publication of your new sweet Oskar’s Voyage.

This sculpture will be on display this year for the year of the dragon at the Desert Hills Outlet Malls in Cabazon, California.

It was a cold and cloudy day at the mall today. This dragon statue called to me from across the way. I went over to get a good glimpse, and take its picture.

Now I’m sitting here Thursday evening listening to the rain fall on my roof, reading my Lunar New Year postcards again, enjoying each one. Thank you, all who participated.

Dragons

What has happened
to the dragon’s reputation?
When I was a child,
dragons were one dimensional,
storied only to be slain.
It was quaint.
The good guy
slayed the dragon
and saved the princess.

Now, the world
has far too many dragons
that need slaying,
so princesses
and good guys alike
have a little dragon blood
in their veins
to set the world on fire
with hope and humanity.

Slice of Life 7 – True or False #sol24

7 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

I ran across this True/False post on Poetry Foundation when I was looking for a poem about jury duty. (Go figure!) Dean Young is a surrealist poet who wrote “True/False” in 2006. His number 5 was “I like jury duty.” That’s the only reason I found this relatively old poem. Then I wrote some of my own. Like Lay’s, I just can’t seem to stop at one or a few…Now, I’m thinking of using it as my prompt for #Verselove in April. What do you think? Is it inviting enough to wonder about the veracity or falsehoods written here?

True/False
After Dean Young

  1. I am much younger inside than I appear outside.
  2. Jury duty is for the birds.
  3. Ishmael is also a son of Abraham.
  4. Guns have no constructive purpose.
  5. The enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary.
  6. I alone can fix it.1
  7. The day you eat it your eyes will be open.
  8. I don’t need a reason.
  9. The waves are singing a song of thrones.
  10. Time and again, you’ve picked me up.2
  11. MAGA is the GREATEST.MOVEMENT.EVER.
  12. Crocheting is better than knitting.
  13. The fire fixes the folds of the clouds.
  14. Spring is the most glorious season.
  15. The future will be a feckless sucker punch.
  16. That dish is not too hot.
  17. I want to play all the games.
  18. I forgot my suitcase.
  19. How do you know I’m tired?
  20. Civility is not a sign of weakness.3
  21. There is chaos in spilled milk.
  22. If it’s night, the granite glitters.
  23. Diagramming sentences is essential.
  24. Israel wants to make room for Palestine.
  25. Fiction and myth hold the truest truths.
  26. My children are my life.
  27. The tea leaves will tell the story.
  28. Fear is the most debilitating emotion.
  29. You can have too much storage space.
  30. Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.4
  31. Everything is better with a Snickers bar.
  32. Your ego is a ridiculous tyrant.
  33. Vegetarianism is the tastiest way to eat.
  34. Capitalism is killing our planet.
  35. California should secede.
  36. He’s like a snake lifted in the wilderness.
  37. I have decided to stick with love.5
  38. Hate is too great a burden to bear.5
  39. I hate writing every day.
  40. The badger is still asleep in its den.
  41. KFC makes the best chicken.
  42. In 1942, hope faltered.
  43. In 1492, Columbus should have stayed home.
  44. In 2942, Jesus may or may not return.
  45. Truth is not false.
  46. We will overcome someday.
  47. You are never too old to play softball.
  48. That tiny silver sliver in the sky is still full.
  49. The computer in my pocket rules the day.
  50. Dean Young was an ordinary poet.

1Trump
2Obama
3JFK
4FDR
5MLK, Jr.

Slice of Life 6 – Yoke or Joke? #sol24

6 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

 

When I was in São Paulo last month, we went to church one Sunday, and the pastor preached on this passage from Matthew 11, where Jesus says:

28 Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

We had an interpreter who was really good, and explained everything well without mistake, except for one. Throughout the sermon, the yoke of Jesus became the “joke of Jesus.” It was funny to hear at first. There was no way to explain the mistake to him, and in context we knew what he was saying, so we just got used to it. But in a whole sermon about taking the yoke of Jesus upon us, we heard that word joke a lot. Later at lunch, one of us asked him about the sounds of Y and J in Portuguese words; they wondered if that’s why he got it mixed up, but he didn’t make the connection at first. It wasn’t until later when he realized he had gotten the two words mixed up, he hit his forehead, laughed and said, “That’s why you were asking me about the sounds of the letters!”

Isn’t it a miracle that people learn new languages with so many words, when one letter or sound change can make the words totally different? Language learning is such a marvel. Anyway, I wrote this little #50preciouswords story about a similar mix up with yolk and joke.

A New School
By Denise Krebs

Sara moved from São Paulo last year. I moved from Fresno. She’s learning English. I like her.
“I have a yoke for you,” she tells me today.
“Egg yolk?”
“No, silly. A funny story yoke.”
“Ok. Tell me your joke,” I say.
Sara gives me hope for this new school.


And now some photos of Joshua trees especially for Glenda and all of you:

These Joshua trees are growing in my yard. I feel so blessed.

 

Slice of Life 5 – Ryan’s Mountain #sol24

5 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

Come with me on a hike. It is just a 3-mile round trip hike up Ryan’s Mountain and back, in Joshua Tree National Park.

Before the hike we need to enjoy some tea or coffee. I had my everyday tea latte with soy milk. (This is what I get for trying to empty the soy milk carton today before it was ready to be finished.)
On the way up the mountain

This is the first time I’ve seen a Desert Bighorn sheep in nature.
We made it to the top of Ryan Mountain, elevation 5457. My husband and I and my brother and sister-in-law.

Mt. San Jacinto
Mt. San Gorgonio

The views at the top are lovely.

There were so many rock stairs to walk up and now down; I am thankful for my hiking sticks.

Slice of Life 4 – Color Block Toy #sol24

4 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

First of all, I’m so sorry that I missed the Zoom meetup on Sunday morning! I stayed up too late the night before, and then I slept right up until 8:30 a.m., the meetup time. I didn’t even think of it until it was over. So, please accept my apologies, Betsy and Stacey, but mostly, I’m sorry I didn’t get to see all those lovely faces to match with the names.

Here’s something I’ve been working on lately. In early February I read Trish’s post at Jump Off; Find Wings about the colorful blocks she played with as a child, I thought of something I’ve had in my game cupboard for the past two years (that I’ve never done anything with). A 6×6 set of number cubes in a nice wooden box. Quite possibly handcrafted. Even though they aren’t a perfectly matched set, I decided to turn them into a “Design with Color Cubes” set of my own.

So I got out my paints and tried to make this little number puzzle a two-for-one activity. ( I learned what colors to paint the sides from this DIY post on Scavenger Chic Trish had shared.)

In Trish’s post, she shares about the great childhood memories she has about using these color cube blocks, especially telling about one time when she was sick and they were her joy-bringing companions. She found a set to buy because she will soon be a grandparent. She looks forward to sharing them with her grandson; what a blessed boy who will get to have Trish for a grandma!

I never had my own set of these colored blocks as a child, but I do now! My set is definitely rough, but I like it. Thanks, Trish, for the inspiration.

 

Slice of Life 3 – A Junk Journal Day #sol24

3 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

It was a junk journal sort of day. We are going to visit our niece and her three daughters next week, so this morning after breakfast, I took over the whole table to make junk journals for each of them. I didn’t clean up until 9:30 p.m. That is why I had not visited any Slicers today until late tonight. The junk journals were really my whole day! My husband even brought me food.

I’m new at junk journals, for sure. I’ve been following Natasha at Treasure Books to learn what I’ve learned. She is the only one I will watch now. I’ve become spoiled watching her great videos. She is kind and practical and thrifty. She is a great “junk journal” shopper. She is both meticulous and artistic. I’m barely either, but I’m trying.

This was my work table for 12 hours today!
These are four junk journals at various stages of getting ready to gift my nieces next week.

 

Slice of Life 2 – A Golden Shovel #sol24

2 March 2024 TwoWritingTeachers.org

Today I’ve been thinking of Alexei Navalny’s funeral and the hundreds of people shot (dead or wounded) in Gaza while they were waiting to receive aid. So much pain…

So March has begun, and I
already search for ideas. Shall
I begin with a prayer? Yes. Never
will I be convinced to stop
believing in a God who is writing
the story of our lives because
a God like you knows this world, it
is full of the haunts of cruelty and is
attempting to kill you again. Like
in your Garden prayer,
you asked for release from the
suffering, but instead it became your impetus
for going through with the thing of
which the angels cringed, growth
by design of the kingdom, and
that design, your death, made a change
in history. But do you ever wish for
earth to more readily embrace the sacred, the
hope for community on earth to better
reflect your love and pain? Starting
anew, Lord, I ask for faith to live far from
the confines of self, and instead you within.


A Golden Shovel poem with the striking line, “I shall never stop writing because it is like prayer, the impetus of growth and change for the better. Starting from within,” by Fran Haley. Thank you, Fran, for the inspiration for my Slice of Life today.