I love lazy Sunday mornings

I just wrote this for Three Word Wednesday. The words for this week: breeze, mellow and tickle. 


I love lazy Sunday mornings 


On a mellow Sunday morning 
the whisper of a gentle breeze 
tickles my feet 


wrapped in my stretch and doze cocoon 
there is no place I would rather be 

A picture from my sister's fridge

Artwork by Teya, age 4. 

Sunday Scribblings - March 13th 2011

The Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is big. I had a lot of ideas for this one. My offering is a slightly revised version of a poem I wrote a few years ago. 


A great big hug 


Love is ... 
A huge cuddle
Sitting on a chair, eyes closed
'Your surprise is coming' 
'Stay there' 
'Close your eyes' 
A bunch of soursobs 
Placed in a glass on the kitchen bench 
Another cuddle 
'I love you mum' 
'Sit down, close your eyes' 
'Stay there' 
A picture especially drawn 
Another cuddle 
A smile about to burst 
'Do you want more flowers?' 
'Yes please' 
'I love you Mum' 
'I love you too' 
A great big hug 
An afternoon with a nearly five year old 

Six Word Saturday - March 12, 2011

Have fun and leave feeling happy. 

These six words were offered by a group member to describe the singing group that I often attend on Thursday afternoons. What an apt description! We get together and sing for a couple of hours with a break for afternoon tea in the middle. It is heaps of fun. 


This is my first post for Six Word Saturday. Click on the badge above for more information. 

Time to let go

Written for One Single Impression. 


Time to let go 


It was an accidental break 
following much daily use 


Submerged in warm soapy water 
with hardly any pressure applied 
A sudden break 


The mug 
a part of the daily routine 
no more 


Sometimes we learn
from a break to routine 
A comfort has been outgrown 
Memories still remain 

Addition to post (6:30pm): I wrote this poem this morning. I could rewrite it now with a couple of small changes. Mug to Sugar Bowl. Submerged in warm soapy water to Knocked off the kitchen bench. Boo Hoo. 

Dollhouse dreaming

I wrote this poem for Three Word Wednesday. The words for this week: Dainty, Haunting, Tantalize. 

Dollhouse dreaming

‘You have a right to feel safe’

She didn’t feel safe 

The words of the teacher

just seemed to tantalize

Stiffly she sat

Hands in lap

Back straight

Eyes to the front

Biting the inside of her lip

Tongue smoothing over a growing sore

Eyes blinking wetness away

‘You have a right to feel safe’

She didn't hear the words that followed

Images kept haunting her

Pieces of memory

like a movie playing in her mind

Children laughing, pointing, pushing

Playground play

She flicked the channel

At home

Alone

Safety in her bedroom

and a wooden dollhouse

Chubby fingers wrapped around a dainty figure

A figure painted by her father

A dress matching her own

favourite

A figure complete

with a tiny red bow in its hair

just like hers 

‘Stop’

was her single word

as she banged the figure down

Her other hand making

the other children listen

apologise

offer to be her friend

‘You have a right to feel safe’

The teacher’s voice boomed

through her thoughts

She wanted to believe

She wanted

to be the big school girl

those adults always spoke about

Green sheep fun!

Yesterday I tried out a green sheep activity with some toddlers. It was great fun! Here's a picture of my green sheep. 

I read 'Where is the green sheep?' by Mem Fox to the group. Attention was a little lacking (they were very young!) for the reading of the story but afterwards they all seemed to enjoy sticking the green wool onto their sheep. The template I used is available here. 


This is an activity I would definitely like to do again. Which is lucky as I have a good supply of green wool as well as wool I am yet to clean and dye. 

A big thank you to my friend, Casandra, for the supply of the wool. I asked her about dying cotton wool for this activity and she asked if I would like some real wool. Yes please! She had a really great supply. Some of it was quite dirty and full of prickles. I quite enjoyed cleaning it and working out how to dye it. I used dishwashing detergent in warm water to clean it. To dye it I used food colouring in hot water with a bit of vinegar (apple cider vinegar as that was the only vinegar I had in the house!) then zapped it in the microwave for a few seconds. 

Sunday Scribblings - March 6th, 2011

I have wondered all day what to post for this week's Sunday Scribblings prompt: Raw. Then it came suddenly this afternoon when my daughter called out "Mum". 

------

'Mum', came the call from the lounge room. I sensed the urgency in her voice. 

'What is it? What is it?' I called back as I moved somewhat wearily from the bedroom where I was trying to get a few minutes rest. 

She greeted me with a new, slightly different smile and a flat hand, proudly presenting a tiny white tooth. 

'Wow! Your tooth came out'.

'Yeah'. 

Promptly she pulled her lip down to expose the red, raw gum surrounding a tiny speck of white. 

'And the new one is coming through already. It was time'. 

'Yeah'. 

Tissue dabbing and tooth placed in a cup of water and the latest wobbly tooth saga is over. It is once again possible to crunch into a raw apple. A small pleasure she has missed of late. 

Card making fun

I enjoyed making a card today for one of Alysha's friends. It has been a while since I made a card and I enjoyed being immersed in the process. I stuck to a purple and blue theme on Alysha's suggestion. The photo is not a fantastic representation. It was difficult to photograph the gold ribbon and the purple plastic. 

Brianna made one too when she got home from school. 

Two months worth of small stones

I have completed two months worth of writing a small stone (a short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment - Fiona Robyn) each day. I am feeling rather proud that I haven't missed a day yet. Some days have been a lot easier than others. A couple of days I have just sat in front of the computer wondering what on earth I should write about or how I should word it. Other days they have just come easily. Today is one of the abundant days. I wrote about the squash flower that opened for the first time today. See today's small stone here. I could just have easily written about the gorgeous moth I spotted just as I was getting in to the car. 

or the crow that seemed to be determined to be louder than the people noise just outside the shopping centre. I am sure that this way of writing is influencing how observant I am. Whether I choose to write about the small moments or not I am noticing them a lot more. There is a lot of joy in that. Polishing the small stones in order to communicate the moment I noticed is great writing practice too. I am quite sure that I will use some of my small stones later as a starting point for some longer pieces. Another idea I have had is to use them as writing prompts in the future. 


I am going to keep writing a small stone each day and am eagerly waiting for July when there will be another small stone writing challenge as there was in January. 

To read my small stones go to www.pausingforsmallstones.blogspot.com. To read more about writing small stones and the river of stones project coordinated by Fiona and Kaspa go to www.ariverofstones.blogspot.com. 


In more exciting news there is going to be a small stones book. One of my stones will be in the book. It is the one I wrote on January 24. You can read it here.