28 days of wonder # 28

28 days of wondering and writing.  This morning I woke up thinking, today is the end, or is it?  I seem to remember a children’s book that had that on the last page.  It is the end of February, the end of my 28 day personal challenge, but tomorrow is a new month and a new challenge.  And so, filled with hope and wonder and gratitude, I put this month to rest and look toward new opportunities to wonder and write.

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28 days of wonder #27

Fridays offer a joy just for being the last day of the work week and holding the promise of the weekend.  Yesterday I received an additional nugget of joy.  I dropped my coat and bag on the front bench and proceeded to the kitchen to clean out my lunch bag (a task that I have found gets forgotten if not done immediately).  On the counter was a card, hand addressed, and bearing the return address of a friend from long ago.  Katie and I began to revive our friendship after our 30th high school reunion.  I didn’t attend that reunion but my brother did and he asked Katie for her email, telling her he would pass it on to me.  For the last 6 years, we have written both email and letters back and forth.  It has been awhile since I heard from her so this was a welcome surprise.  She, like many others, had purchased and even addressed Christmas cards but they never got sent.  But she didn’t put them away so when the moment arrived with some time to breath, she pulled one out and wrote a lovely note to me, catching up on the busy-ness of her life this last year.  What a gift!

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28 days of wonder #26

This is a month of bookend birthdays and this year we celebrated one in person and one long distance.  I wonder what kind of birthday celebrations our kids will create as they start their own families?  I am sure they will include some yummy, gluten-free cake!

I am grateful today for the time and energy to write daily.  I am looking forward to another month of slices with The March Slice challenge. 

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28 days of wonder #25

I haven’t been knitting much lately.  Getting all those scarves and hats done created a bit of a sore elbow.  But I do want to begin a prayer shawl so I am playing with some patterns.  I am in awe of the people who write knitting patterns.  How do they know what stitches, decreases and increases, will create the lovely lace work or a pattern that ebbs and flows.  Turns out that I had one stitch wrong on this one so I will start again, now that I know how to sskp.  I really don’t mind starting over with knitting.  In fact, at time it seems cathartic to un-knit and begin again.

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28 days of wonder #24

I am wondering a lot these days about how we communicate with parents.  There are some definite universals with young children, developmental stages haven’t changed.  But how parents understand those stages has most definitely changed.  So I am adding a few books to my pile, books that talk about this next generation of parents, how they were raised, and what they expect.  We also read this article recently at our admin team.  There is some comfort in knowing that there are some generational differences that I can come to understand and hopefully find ways to respond that will keep the lines of communication open.

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28 days of wonder #23

In my house, this is my word.  My husband made a set of blocks with the words Happy and Joy painted on them.  He refers to me as the Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy part of his life.  Yesterday, I logged on to Amazon to check for a book and it said my secret code for one click purchasing was Juliann’s Joy.  They picked that phrase for me!  And then I got a catalog in the mail and on the front was a photo of a book with the captions “Choose Joy.

I think there was an important message coming my way.  A slice of JOY!

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28 days of wonder #22

I have been wondering about the difference between the generations, wondering how we get to these new places of thinking and relating to one another.   When and how do we form the expectations for behavior in our relationships?  At what point did I come to believe that loving my husband did not mean letting him tell me what to do and think, how to wear my hair or what color clothing I should choose?  Last week I found out that mom loves blue, not pink or lavender (those are the colors dad likes her to wear).  A brief comment, a small moment, that has left me wondering for days.

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28 days of wonder #21

I am up early most mornings and I use that time to read.  I make a cup of coffee and pull a quilt over my lap.  I turn on the reading lamp and pick up a book from the pile on the table next to  my chair.  I was looking at that pile today and wondered what it says about me, at least me at this point in time.  I seem to be on a non-fiction journey for the last few months.  And my book choices are divided between ideas that will help me in my work with families and young children and books that speak to my struggle with spirituality and the church.  A friend asked me the other day if I missed reading novels.  I do miss the story written in novel form, but I am also finding that these works of non-fiction carry stories too.  And for today at least, those are the stories I am drawn to unravel.

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28 days of wonder #20

My 28 days of wonder is coming to an end but I am beginning to think about the March writing challenge at Two Writing Teachers.  And I am wondering what it mean to write a daily slice about play.   Play is something I think about a lot.  It is at the heart of the work I do with young children and yet it is getting harder and harder to encourage parents of young children that there is learning happening as children play.  I have been wondering about writing a series of articles that pull that learning to the surface, make it a visible, tangible piece of evidence to support a classroom environment that is playful. 

If you want to join the daily slice challenge, visit Stacey and Ruth at twowritingteachers.

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28 days of wonder #19

Last August, I stumbled on a magazine that has changed the way I eat and the way I think about eating and I am wondering why I waited so long to change my habits?  Why is it that when I know what to do, understand what is good for my health and my spirit, I don’t just do it?  And now that I have made these changes, why would I go back?

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