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Anyway

“You can spend your whole life buildin’

Somethin’ from nothin’

One storm can come and blow it all away….

Build it anyway.”

Away had gone the light;

Dark and barren has been the night.

Bitter cold the frost;

A stinging reminder of all that was lost.

This house was built with love;

With blessing from above.

Now still as the grave;

Empty as a cave.

Yet I remember the words spoken:

“even though this is a very dark hour, remember that even at midnight, the sunrise is only hours away.”

I treasure them like a golden token.

I look in hope towards the day,

I build it anyway.

I build it anyway.

The Dog House....

**This is my non-fiction draft that I may turn into a historical fiction sometime....this is my first memory and one of my favorites because I'm such an animal person.  I guess I'd like some suggestions on how to better develop this story's purpose (and any other suggestions!!).  This is just a rough draft sort of my write from the power point, so its short.....thank you!!

     It was a horrific sound at two years old, hearing my Mom sobbing in the kitchen.  My Dad had just returned from the Pet and Seed store where he went to get tomato plants and I didn't know what was going on.  I remember wandering in to see what was wrong and what I saw in front of me was about to change my life!  Mom was sitting at the kitchen table with a big brown box at her feet.  I ran quickly up to her, and as soon as I looked in the box, my concern was replaced with joy - it was a puppy!!!!!  Brown with white legs that had little chocolate freckles, Lucy (as she would eventually be named), was one of the most exciting sights my young eyes had ever seen!  While my mind could only comprehend the joy of the time, I've come to learn it wasn't such a fairytale for everyone involved.  While my Mom would grow to love the sweet English Springer Spaniel with golden eyes and floppy ears, it wasn't the instant winning of the heart that my Dad, sister, and I experienced.  However, after my Dad and Lucy's first couple of nights sleeping in his truck, Mom's heart began to thaw, they were allowed in the real house, rather than the 'dog house.'

Love

Love never fails,

It's this PROMISE I cling too.

It's my light in the dark,

My warmth in the rain.

It helps me hold on to hope,

In the midst of bitter pain.

Faith, hope, and love.  These three remain.

Love never fails,

Though many times I do.

Yet when I keep trying,

Love always sees me through.

Love never fails,

I hope to always be,

In my actions and my words,

An act of love for thee.

Love never fails.

Punctuation Mini-Lesson

This post is related to the mini-lesson.  The Writer's Workshop Blog Post for this past week is the post before this one ("There is Always Something to be Thankful For")!  Thank you!


vIs it better to use fiction or non-fiction to teach punctuation?  Explain.

vAre examples, like the one on the right, appropriate to use with students if they could have a negative meaning?

vWhat are some ideas to improve this mini-lesson?

Please post your responses in the comment section!  Thank you!

There is ALWAYS Something to be Thankful For

**I didn't have enough space on my camera to take pictures of my rough draft, so while this is typed, it is not meant to be my 'published' version!!  :)

"There is always something to be thankful for."

These words were spoken from a father to his son as they sat in a concentration camp watching a Nazi soldier beat an innocent prisoner, like themselves.

"What is there to be thankful for in this?" asked the child, while continuing to watch the horror.

As the father looked towards the Nazi soldiers, he replied "be thankful......

There is always something to be thankful for?

I know how to be thankful when something good happens.  When things are going well, when its easy.  I know how to be thankful for a gift, when things are fun, exciting, positive.  Thankfulness seems natural when things are going right, going well, when I can see the light.

But how can I be thankful for this?

I was thankful, overjoyed, when I got my dream job the day before school started.  I was thankful for the mess I inherited - not a single note or piece of curriculum to be found and a newly combined 6/7/8 grade class waiting to be taught.  I am still thankful for all that came with this gift!  I am thankful for the long hours, the lack of sleep.  I am thankful for the fight to save our beloved school and for the way it was saved.  I am thankful that it turned around, and for the even longer hours, less pay, new responsibilities, new frustrations, and the new vision that came with it.  I am thankful for the unity in the community, and for the miraculous amount of money that came out of nowhere, even though we could have done without it.  I am thankful that we met our enrollment benchmarks given by downtown.  I am thankful that for every reason they tried to give for shutting us down, we proved them wrong.  I am thankful for the family that we had become!  I am even thankful for the new wrinkles I developed over these incredible two years, because the kids and school made me smile every moment of every day.

But how can I be thankful now?

Now that the light has been stolen.  When those who don't know or agree with our vision make a decision based on lies and politics.  How can I be thankful when the unjust has stolen what was right and good?  How can I be thankful when those who never even stopped by or took time to learn and see the truth, closed our school?  How can I be thankful when they changed the locks, packed up my things, my dreams, and never even gave me a chance?  How can I be thankful when they haven't even spoken to me?  How can I be thankful knowing our precious students lost their safe haven, that those who had found us and found new hope and refuge from bullies and hatred have been rejected.  How can I be thankful when our dream, our home, our family has been shattered?  How do I give thanks for the lies and deception?  How can I be thankful for the pain and sorrow, the deep longing and the feelings of loss?  How can I be thankful when something so right was stolen by something so wrong?

"What is there to be thankful for in this?" asked the child while continuing to watch the horror.

As the father looked towards the Nazi soldiers, he replied "be thankful......that you are not like them."

There is always something to be thankful for.

A Meaty Ephiphany

     Poke.  Poke.  Poke.  Nothing could have prepared me for what I was facing, one of the more traumatic moments of my life.  It was biology dissection, sophomore year of high school and I was the girl with the perfume bottle, only opening my eyes enough to see what I must to get a passing grade.  As much of an animal lover as I've always been, at the moment, the majority of my emotions were pure disgust at seeing the insides of anything formerly living thing.  I'd always been easily grossed out to the point I developed "mental allergies" to certain foods that had once either been alive or had been produced by something alive.    I will be eternally grateful that fate gave me Sarah as a lab partner, the only one at my table of four girls who was excited to dissect!  

     Poke. Poke. Poke.  As Sarah was prodding the muscle of the exposed frog leg, I didn't realize that things were about to get worse.  Suddenly, the ominous voice of my teacher pierced through the darkness of ignorance I was was enjoying through closed eyelids.  It was in that moment he spoke the words that brought about a life-changing realization.

                                           "Wow, look at the meat on that thing!!"

At that moment, I felt it was no coincidence that he had a mustache that so closely resembled Hitlers, as all of a sudden, pieces of understanding began to come together like a puzzle, a horrific realization.  It was a hysterical stream of thoughts that ran through my mind:

   "The meat on that thing????  Meat????  I'm looking at a frog leg - OH NO!!!!!  Thats a frog leg and people say that frog legs taste like chicken.  Chicken is meat.  They also say 'you gotta get some meat on those bones.'  No.  NO. NOOO!!!!  Meat is muscle????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     How it took me a decade and a half of my life to realize that, I do not know.  Maybe my mind was trying to protect what my teacher, who I thought was suppose to be my advocate, had just imposed upon me.  Growing up, there were many evenings that I was the last one sitting at the dinner table until I finished my meat.  I'd wait until my Mom went to put the dirty dishrags, which I now understood were actually more like a tool for the aftermath of a meaty crime scene clean-up, in the laundry room and in a panic, try to feed my meat to my dog, a willing and happy accomplice, before my parents came back.  Or there was the time when I was little and driving on a family trip when we saw a field of cows and my Mom said "look at all that hamburger!" I cried out "hamburger?  You mean you kill the cows?," but I guess I didn't comprehend the horrific reality of the situation.  Now it all made sense, why I'd always avoided meat like other children avoided vegatables.  It didn't seem natural to me to eat muscle!

     On the outside, I think I remained as collected looking as I could during this moment of terror, though I was about ready to burst into tears.  I knew in my heart I'd discovered something horrible, I didn't have the courage to ask anyone if it was true, or the ability to use my voice at that moment!  I walked around shell shocked all day until I made it home and promptly burst into tears like a girl who'd just been dumped by her first boyfriend.

     Sixteen years have passed since this awful moment.  That is over 5,840 days since I've been "clean" or as some people say, a vegetarian.  That terrible day took away my trust of food and I became increasingly suspicious of every food that crossed my path. Over time, I have had several other food epiphanies, enough to turn me into an accidental vegan.  I know I learned a lot in high school, but the one thing I can remember is the lesson that all foods are guilty and suspicious unless proven innocent!!