"Do I Have To?": My Last Hurrah of Summer, Part I

Okay, I know that summer is NOT over. However, when August rolls around, I get that itch about getting back into school combined with a "Do I Have To..." attitude. So this past weekend was like the "last hurrah" for me. My husband and I made plans to go to the coast. Hunting agate and sea glass was part of the agenda. The weather was iffy.

Annie and me

But first, I visited with my blogging friend, Annie, up from California. We were to meet in her town as we were traveling home earlier in July. I, unfortunately, was in need of a "chuck-a-bucket" ( my granddaughter's word for her car sick container). Needless to say, we cancelled. Thankfully she was due to visit her son and daughter-in-law, so we were able to connect. I am not sure where the 2 hours went but they flew. Rumor is that Annie and her husband will retire here. Oh, yay!

Saturday morning my husband and I loaded up the car and within 90 minutes we were at the coast. Surprise! The weather was nothing like Portland! Sunny! Beautiful! Warm! Breezy!

At Road's End, Lincoln City, OR Walking the pooches

We walked for almost 90 minutes as the tide was out and very low. Rusty and Sophie were tuckered needless to say.

Agate Beach, Oregon

Okay so I learned something about agate and beach glass hunting. See that lovely sand? A mini sand dune (and btw, Annie thinks that sand here is softer, finer). Well, that sand acts like a blanket in the summer! Which means that all the lovely agates and/or beach glass are hiding underneath. I found a few specimens but I will need to wait until the winter storms which will scour out the sand, telling the agates, "It is your time to shine!" Humph!

We thought dinner would be at the Nye Beach Hotel Newport, unfortunately all that was there when we drove by was a vacant lot. Fire? Falling Down? Well, we had to find out as it was a place we frequented in the early days of our courtship. Apparently, the person who bought it, had to tear it down as it was structurally unfit. And it had such a great restaurant overlooking the beach. We found and had a fabulous meal over looking the ocean at Georgie's instead. Fresh halibut with pineapple salsa and fresh marion berry crisp. Yum!

We hit the beach after dinner but unfortunately the wind had picked up and our two little four legged pals suffered a bit from the blowing wind. So we returned to the Agate Beach Motel, a small place with great units and a private beach area.

We all fell into bed, asleep in minutes, except me wondering, "Do I really have to return to school?"

For more on the prompt, "Do I have to?" visit Sunday Scribblings. I will post "My Last Hurrah, Part II, in which I am brave soon.

Sunday Scribblings: Solace

From the SS prompt: "In what do you find solace? What place is solace for you? Where do you go in yourself or outside of yourself when you need comfort or consolation? Why do you seek solace? What does it mean for you?"

Solace comes from many places: from within, from being out in nature, and sometimes from dark, dark chocolate. I love to play with haiku and after many weeks of not writing, I found solace in writing to this week’s prompt.

hummingbird perches
feathers a glisten, he feeds
sweet solace nectar

moonlight tendrils reach,
caress two spooners entwined
solace a blanket

midnight walk on sand
universe glitter found, picked up
tossed into the sea
solace discovered
returns, spirit sleeps

Find some solace reading these.

Poem 11: Fearless

Mister Squirrel hangs

upside down, his suet feast

dog barks, no avail

winter's fearless thief

birds grateful for left overs

Sunday Scribblings offer the prompt "fearless". Mister Squirrel is our fearless visitor despite our Rusty dog ferocious guarding. For more visit here.

Miscellaneous

"Miscellaneous" is the prompt at Sunday Scribblings. I love the reason for the prompt "Because it is a delicious word with unlimited possibilities". Many miscellaneous photos this week and I draw my inspiration to share them from Inland Empire Girl.

It has been bitter cold in Portland this week.

So cold that I wanted to capture this little hummingbird and warm him up for awhile on Thursday. He sat on this perch for a good ten minutes and allowed me to get close. I love watching them, "chipparosas", my father would call them. So entertaining but this week, My heart went out to them.

Anna's Hummingbird,
Dusk 2008
Anna's Hummingbirds winter here in the Portland area. They are dependent on the feeders. I brought the feeders in each night this week in order that they would not freeze.

Bob's Red Mill, Portland, OR 2008

I stopped in at Bob's Red Mill store yesterday. They have a fabulous water wheel which the weather affected this week. Their vegetarian split soup warmed the soul yesterday.

Moon, Front yard, 2008

And the moon, the moon was incredible this week as I left to go to work. It took all I had not to dilly dally on my way to work. I have my camera with me most days and if the opportunity presents, I will shoot.

There are many wonderful interpretations of "miscellaneous" here.

Fellow Travelers

Chuck and I, Zion 2005

Fellow Travelers

Brazil, Costa Rica, Hawaii, East Coast, West Coast, Zion, Chicago, and the Northwest, all places traveled to with my fellow traveler and companion, my husband. Travel is one thing that defines our relationship.

Someone once told me that a test in a new relationship is to travel together. If you travel well, then your daily life together will hold. I believe that it to be true. My husband and I have been together 18 years. We travel well and our day-to-day life travels well. What I love is that we get up early to be on the road.

I am the planner (except the Brazil trip, it was the result of my husband winning a sales contest and was already planned). It must be the librarian in me, the researcher of information. I want to know as much as I can before I go. I love maps, books (especially the ones about the little known places of our destinations).

I tried once to be spontaneous on a trip. I have a friend who lives that way. It was the twenty-first birthday journey with my daughter. We left Las Vegas headed by car to Reno, no hotels reservations; we would make them we arrived. We decided to go through Death Valley, Ca (because we were being spontaneous) thus, we did not arrive into Reno until after 10 PM. We were lucky to find a Motel 6. Never again.

My favorite trips with my husband are when we leave immediately after my last day of school. We load up the Prius and head east. One year it was to Zion National Park. Last year it was to our friends in Idaho. It was good medicine to leave town. I shift faster into relax mode by leaving familiar surroundings. My husband loves to drive so I can either read or sleep.

I feel fortunate to have a fellow traveler in my husband. His curiosity about the world and my planning how to get there makes a good team. I look forward to traveling again this summer.

To meet other fellow travelers, visit Sunday Scribblings.

Sunday Scribbles: Hospital

"Hospital" is this week's prompt. Oooh, it hit a nerve deep within me. I had a previous life. A life which died close to twenty years ago.

invisible girl

stitches removed, fifteen all

black eye tells the tale

I am blessed and surrounded by love these days. For more on hospitals, click here.

Sunday Scribblings: Hi, My Name is...

I missed the prompt for Sunday Scribblings due to recovering from food poisoning. Found this idea at Jane Poe--Nevermore: a middle name meme

The object of the middle name game is to list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use the name you would have liked to have had!)
When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your middle name game facts.
At the end of your blog post choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

My middle name is Rush. It is a family name that has been passed down from my father's side. My grandmother and aunt have Rush in their names. My nieces all have Rush in their names.

R Reader. I love to read. I love reading aloud which lead me to being a teacher librarian.
U "U Can Do". I usually have the "U Can Do" attitude.
S Solitude. I like solidute and time to reflect.
H Hope. Most days, I am filled with hope.

I won't tag anyone but if you woukl like to play, join in. Visit Sunday Scribblings for more name posts.

Sunday Scribblings: Writing

My Writing Space

This is my space. It is located in the creativity part of the house according to feng shui principles. It is where I come to write, bead, and scrapbook.
The kachinas are from my father. He loved the southwest culture as I do. They are like angels to me. And there is one of Laini’s Ladies. I love the quote on her by James Michner: “I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.”

I have attempted a consistent writing practice this past year. Prompts from Sunday Scribblings, One Deep Breath, and sadly, the now defunct Poetry Thursday ( I can't believe it is really gone)have been inspiring. There is something magical about this community of bloggers. This is what I love about technology, it has made our world smaller.

My alarm rings at 5 A.M. I roll out of bed (some days, I hit the snooze). I let the dogs and the cat out. I grab coffee, walk to into my writing space. I like the transition of this time. I must turn on the overhead light in the morning. Just weeks ago, I could work by the natural light and the light from the computer. I love this quiet space to explore through writing. I am developing a practice of morning pages.

morning writing time
benefactors look down
fledgling writer

The other piece about writing I love is re-reading my journals and old letters. My aunt has made it a practice to send me letters I wrote her as an adult. And I have letters from friends during college years. I wish I had the letters wrote as a child and teen. I wrote pages and pages to friends and a penpal.

For more on writing, visit here.

Sunday Scribblings: Dear Diary

Dear Diary,
My obsession is journals. I love buying them. I just bought one yesterday to “record my thoughts, experiences, and feelings” as I go through the national boards for teaching. I wonder if I will consistently write.

You see, that is my problem, diary. I start with good intentions and then? Well, then, I forget or I am tired or I write about it on my blog.

I do not dare go to Powell’s City of Books. It is all over if I walk near the journal section. I mean, last June, I bought two purse-sized journals. Now I ask you how many purse-sized journals do I need in my purse at one time? Thankfully, I sent one to my niece. She writes in a journal. Maybe she will need one for her purse.

I have a journal for book ideas, a journal to list the books I have read, a gratitude journal, the purse journal, the cool words notebook, and I just upgrade my calendar to a larger size so I could put journal notes in it. I participated in a journal swap last spring. I write original haiku in that journal. Of course, it is not up to date.

What should I do diary? Any thoughts? I wish I could buy a quill like Rita Skeeter so that my journals would be up to date.
Sincerely,


Obsessed Journal Collector

What do others write in their diary? Go to Sunday Scribblings.

Sunday Scribblings: Decision for a New Year

Did you know that August first marks a new year? It does for me. You see, as a teacher, the school switch turns itself on. This is a good thing. I believe the year the switch doesn't go on is the year to retire.

August is about new ideas, and goals. My good friends have been instructed to get a shepherds’s hook and pull me aside the year I return to school without new ideas and goals for the year.

This is my thirty-fourth year of teaching. I am watching friends and colleagues retire. It is expected that I teach until sixty-five on my retirement plan in the state of Washington. That means about eleven more years. I want to stay fresh, I want to avoid "retirement envy". So I made a decision.

I am pursuing the National Board Certification for Library Media. A friend in Idaho planted a seed (probably unknowingly) followed by a conversation with another library media specialist who is on board to take it. She is taking it and another library media specialist is taking it. Our district has developed a wonderful support process for those seeking National Board Certification.

It means putting my beliefs, my teaching style and knowledge about students out there for review. It means six hours a month with my peers in a cadre to prepare for the certification. I have to produce a portfolio, sample student work, and videos of my teaching. And come spring 2008, I will take an exam.

I couldn't fall asleep the day I made the decision to do this. My mind would not turn off with excitement of a challenge. I knew it was the right decision for me. I guess the switch hasn't turned off yet nor do I need the shepherd's hook to pull me away.

What decision have you made lately? To read about more deciders, click here.

Sunday Scribblings: Phenomenon

Phenomenon

I think the phenomenon that has me most going “huh?” is technology. A post at my school library blog, “Check It Out” really started the “huh?”

Technology is changing our world in such a rapid fire way. I personally ran to the bookstore and bought Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows to read. I sequestered myself for a day and a half to get it read. Why? (Besides the fact that it is an engrossing read? ) Because I did not want the Internet and/or the television to spoil it by telling me whether Snape was good or evil and who all dies. Use to be that we did not have to worry about getting unwanted information given to us. I feel sorry for those awaiting the public library copy. I mean, how long can you go avoiding the media? And actually in the end, a person spilled the beans to me about Harry, confirming what I thought would happen.

My eighty-seven year old aunt visited two weeks ago. When she arrived, she pulled out her cell phone to let me know that her plane had landed. Both of us remarked about what would we do without cell phones. I think back to 1992 when my stepdaughters (then 12 and 10) arrived to live with their father and I. The biggest technological decision we had then was whether to get a second phone line installed so that the girls could call their mother. A “teen line” it was called. We had a family meeting over this decision and in a way felt a bit indulgent. If they were coming to live with us today, fifteen years later, we would be handing them cell phones.

Finally, this blogging thing is a technological “huh?”. I cannot believe in a year’s time how many people I have be acquainted with, read their stories, and how the world become a tad bit smaller. The fact that I can write to a prompt each week and people from around the world can read what I have written is truly amazing and exciting. Just please, if you have read some good books, tell me the title but not what happens on the inside. I still want to find out the old fashion way by reading for myself.

For more read Sunday Scribblings.

Sunday Scribblings: Hair

Just got back into town and saw the prompt for Sunday Scribblings. I colored my hair recently and thought about my mother. She went to the hair salon each week until too sick, she had someone come to her.
This is a revised poem.

Mother’s dark hair
Up in a French twist
Practical easy care
Her weekly ritual

Beauty parlour on Main Street
Big eyelids for awnings and
Alien head ladies in a row
Drying hair, gossiping, taking a break.

Mother, French twist lady
Practical easy care
No daily primping needed
For the nurse who tended others

Looked up one day
Watch a platinum short hair
Woman descend stairs
Mom? “needed a change”

I do my own hair
Wonder about her weekly ritual
Fingers plying the hair, tending her
A modest practical respite.

For more on hair, click here.

Sunday Scribblings: I Have a Secret...

Sing a morning song

make it up, ask birds to join

sun bids welcome back

I love to sing. I sing alone, creating tunes, usually without words. I sing to my grand daughters and I hum as well. I don't usually do this when others are present (except around children). I am terrible at remembering words to a song. I usually can do the first line and then hum. That's my secret.

Sunday Scribblings: Country Mouse or Town Mouse

I would say probably more country mouse than city mouse. Especially since I just finished a day of planting a vegetable garden and other plants as well as reading and napping. There is something very grounding to me when it comes to playing in the dirt. I get lost, time flies, I forget what I may have been worrying about.

We just moved to this house two years ago. It is heaven; a quarter acre and the yard is such that it is a breeze when it comes to care. Today my daughter and granddaughter were over to help with the gardening. We looked up and there was a raccoon out, in the midday. Of course, I hope he wasn't sick perhaps his sleep was disturbed. We watched a swallowtail and the birds were flitting about.

Later, the hummingbirds buzzed in for afternoon feeding. The whir of their wings annoy my dogs. The crows chattering late this afternoon tells me that rain is eminent. And after supper, Rusty, my red doxie, assisted in gardening by digging holes for me and chewing roots.

I didn't have this when I live in SE Portland, almost dead center of the city. It was fun to live there. Fun to walk to the bakery and some good eateries. But I love the space I am in now. There is something about the serenity I find here. I look forward to coming home this time of year and spending time on the patio swing.

Country mouse, that's me. What are you? Find out what others are at Sunday Scribblings.

The Play: "Finding Aesop"

Sunday Scribblings is about the word, "simple". So here it is, a plain and simple collage about last week's play. We try to keep it simple at elementary school. Simple and fun.

Please visit Sunday Scribblings.

Sunday Scribblings: Mask

All in places
Hiding faces
Behind the masks
Created
Roles earned
Lines learned
Transport viewers to
New places

This is for the students I am directing in the school play. We perform tomorrow. I have been consumed by this event this past week. For more masks, click here.

Ocean

Early morning

Waves splash, crash upon the rocks

Seagull skims surface

Just spent the weekend at the coast. It's funny. In California, I always went to the "beach". I arrived in Oregon and found out we visit the "coast" and in New Jersey they go to the "shore". No matter, there is something restorative about time at the beach.

It is restorative even if daily walks on the beach aren't taken. My weekend was that kind of weekend, our college women's weekend. The five of us have had a beach weekend for almost twenty years. It is the "no children, no men, no dogs" weekend. We are friends, the kind that our roots are deep. Yet, we collectively don't see much of each other on a weekly or daily basis throughout the rest of the year.

The early days consisted of wine and chocolate, our main staple it seemed. Shop, eat, drink, talk, repeat. Stay up late. These days, wine and chocolate in moderation. I nod off on the couch as the four other women converse.

We have raised our children, taken on parenting roles as our parents have aged, and experienced the death of a parent. Sometimes dogs are invited. It seems we are more content to be sitting more, sleeping in more, and listening more.

Women's weekend fun

laugh, share in each other's presence

restorative time

NaPoWriMo, Day 29: Wings

Dragonfly cathedral window
Beveled wings glisten
Dragonfly
Sits, waits
Rests
Now
One
Free
Spirit
Dragonfly
Dances in dusk’s light
Transformation invitation

The prompt at Sunday Scribbling is "wings", in honor of Laini Taylor's soon-to-be-available-in- bookstores, Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer. It is a fine example of making a dream a reality.

Are you dreaming of flying yet? Visit here.

Sunday Scribblings: Rooted

Rooted

Uprooted my roots at seventeen
Transplanted to Oregon, a college girl
Roots needed fresh soil
Good growing environment

Transplanted to Oregon, a college girl
Making her way on her own
Good growing environment
Discovery abounds

Making her way on her own
Roots take hold, flourishes
Discovery abounds
Spiritual center is here

Roots take hold, flourishes
Doesn’t look back, settles
Spiritual center is here
To the surprise of some

Doesn’t look back, settles
Roots needed fresh soil
To the surprise of some
Uprooted my roots at seventeen

I came to Portland, Oregon to attend college and stayed. In the late years of my parent's life, I discovered how much they thought I would return to California. If you have ever been to Oregon, you might have noticed its spiritual presence. The unpredictablilty of the weather, the flora and fauna all help create its mystical sense.

To read about other's roots, visit Sunday Scribblings.

Sunday Scribblings: Secret Identity

Fiona the Fairy Book Mother

I teach at a school where over 40% of students get free and reduced lunch. Therefore, when a child brings a book back damaged or tells me it is lost, it can be a challenge to recover the losses. Until recently, policy was that students with a fine couldn't have another book. Fiona, the Fairy Bookmother arrived.

She has helped numerous students with their fines by finding gently used replacement books via the Internet or from other sources. Sometimes the students work off the fine by helping in the library as well.

The tales of some students sadden Fiona. A child leaves library books behind when they have been placed into foster care or left behind during awkward divorce moments. Is it the five, six, or seven-year-old responsibility to grab the library book during a time of stress? Fiona thinks not.

Sometimes, Fiona the Fairy Bookmother sees a child in need of a book for that “just because” reason. The child’s delight is a wonderful reward.

Fiona’s philosophy is that book replacement or a book giving demonstrates compassion. Fiona hopes that one day the student will remember that act and will do the same.

And it has come to pass that district will no longer withhold library books from students with a book fine. They want books in the hands of students, even if it is just one book while the fine is still outstanding. Good move on the part of the district.

Sunday Scribblings is exploring other secret identities here.