It’s May Day! Let’s go dance around the maypole! Who remembers those? This lady does!
It’s the first Friday of TTOT so let’s get at it!
1.2.3. Thankful that I survived National Poetry Month with posting a prompt each day and writing a poem a day to those prompts. Can we say Whew and WooHoo?!!
I am grateful to those who supported these efforts, as well. And for those who supported my publications this past month. A lot of thankfuls in one so, there’s 3!!
4. Rain! We had a real gully washer yesterday and I am glad April decided to show itself up properly! I posted on Facebook yesterday: Me: “April showers bring May flowers. Oh, April, you have this one last day to rain.” April: “Hold my beer.”
5. 6. People who social distance and wear masks! Who ever thought this would be a thing? Thankful to have masks to do so. I made ours out of socks and daughter got hers at work. Also got fabric to make some this weekend.
7. My friend’s daughter created her own book at the lovely age of 6!! Here it is: Diya Dreams
8. Ability to have groceries delivered for Mother’s Day in another town. We were trying to come up with a way to get something to mama in another town and came up with the idea to set up a food delivery. The food arrives this coming week in time for her to have a nice Mother’s Day week treat.
9. Virtual meetings! Tomorrow I get to participate in the TAF online conference. It would normally be this weekend and now we still get to have it. And I also get to attend the Raleigh NC Bloggers meeting tomorrow afternoon and learn new things.
10. The place is set at this virtual table for YOU! No masks or gloves needed, mainly your presence and thankfuls. So, throw it at us. Not the food, but the thankfuls! Get at it!
There are so many things to be thankful for. 1. The weather has been glorious and the pollen seems to have held back a bit so no achoos, too much. 2. Daughter has been making cards for kids who are hospitalized. She’s been a part of a card making club on Tuesdays, but with COVID-19 they are each doing cards from home and then sharing pictures. She has been coloring and creating some really beautiful cards. I will need to take some pictures to share, but if you are on Facebook you may see them. 3. Today, and I will do a separate post about it, I will be featured in The Short of It. Stay tuned! I submitted some never published poems and they accepted them, so I am honored. Here’s the information if you have something you would like to submit. Susi is awesome and a great supporter. 4. As a contributing author to this book:
I invite you to take a peek. Just click on the picture. Several people I know are in the book and I am excited to be a part of this!
5. On Saturday, the Poet’s Connection Meetup with be happening as part of Living Poetry. We met a couple of months ago but got sidetracked with the virus. So now we are on! It’s a part of Living Poetry and I am so grateful for their providing the space to promote poetry. This will be virtual, of course.
6. Last night about 20 poets got together for a virtual workshop, also as a Meetup through Living Poetry. Chris Abbate has been doing these workshops each year in honor of National Poetry Month. I have his book and it is awesome.
Here’s a video featuring Chris.
7. As you can tell, especially if you follow this blog, it is National Poetry Month and I have been providing a new prompt every day. Some days it is easier than others to come up with a prompt. It always makes my day when I see somebody has written and posted a poem is response to one of my prompts.
8. I have been busy, but it is a good kind of busy.
9. One thing that being holed up helps is to be able to focus on what tasks are at hand rather than procrastinating. I can’t say I have been doing any procrastinating. I rarely look at TV and there are several NetFlix shows I have yet to watch, but life is good. There are not enough hours in the day.
10 I am grateful for you and that you stop by and say hello. I need to catch up on my hellos and hope to do that very soon. I will start right here and hope you come online and share some hollers back!! Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com
Happy Easter and Welcome to Ten Things of Thankful or TTOT. Kristi keeps us going each week with reminders to always be thankful for all that we have. Without further delay, let’s get at it.
1. 2.
I am grateful for the birds who sing when we are taking walks and for National Poetry Month. Most of you may know I am doing prompts on this blog on a daily basis and a poem dedicated to the prompts, as well. Some are joining in and I am so happy to see this. It is a lot of fun to come up with ideas.
3. Have fun! I created this in 2018 for day 8, but who’s worried about details 😉 Have funnnn!! I am grateful for fun. We tease a lot around here and that means you are loved.
4. I found a pattern for masks made with socks, so I made us all masks. Now, time to break them in.
5. Dear heart bought me a new monitor so I am now up to the modern ages with two screens. I believe this will make a difference. It hooked up well with no hitches. And for a non tech person, I got the screens so they operate correctly.
6. The virtual world has come to roost. With the use of technology such as zoom rooms it is possible to see other people and work on our craft. Tonight, I am doing a virtual open mic. How awesome!!
7. 8. Order – today I organized my office space due to number 5 and also straightened up my art supplies. Now I feel freed up to create again. Daughter and I did this video where we drew bunnies. That was a lot a fun.
9. We have TP – that is something which as Next Door members we share about on the message board. We want to let each other know about paper findings. It’s a real life scavenger hunt without mosquitos.
10. YOU! Come sit at the table, color some eggs and share your news!
National Poetry Month – you know I would have to mention this firstly. This is my favorite month for events. It’s a challenge, but a good one to be able to write a poem each day. This year, I am combining what I have done in previous years. I am providing a prompt each day on my blog, plus adding other blogs for prompts. Then, at some point in the day, I post my poem for the day. Here is the link to my post for this day: National Poetry Month
Spring has sprung! It’s beautiful outside and we have been taking short walks, always paying attention to social distancing and the point here is that hardly anybody else is out, except for the dog walkers and they tend to go to the dog pen.
Grocery Delivery – I decided to give this a try. Since I also get a senior discount for trying it out and it’s time to avoid stores. It arrives tomorrow. I have heard good things, so we will see how it goes. I am feeling guilty for asking someone else to go out, but, at the same time, it provides a job. It’s a real Catch-22.
Allergy meds – I am grateful for allergy meds for this especially polliny time.
6. Virtual Meetings – I had my first virtual poetry critique meeting this week. It was pretty darn awesome! I like that one of the folks was from Australia. It’s cool to be able to reach across the world. And I was able to get wonderful help with a poem I am wanting to submit for publication. It’s to go in my book, as well.
7. Dive into Poetry – This is an online poetry group which meets on Facebook. We just finished up March, but Jena decided to keep it open for April. I am behind, so I am grateful for this as well as the fact that I get to interact with other poets in there. Much of what I write in this group does not get published on my blog, saving for publications, since they don’t like pre-published works.
You can learn more about the classes offered by Jena HERE
8. Virtual Blogging Meetup. The Raleigh NC Bloggers has meetings online, thanks to one of the members putting this together. We meet tomorrow. It’s way cool! We have a large turnout for the live meetings and I hope we grow online.
9. Cary Writing Group – We have met once a month in Cary, but with the current situation this is not happening, but we did do a check-in, so I feel better with knowing how everybody is doing. You grow close in these groups and I like to know how my people are doing.
10. And this is for you! Come to the table and virtually dine with us.
It’s that time again for TTOT, a time to reflect on the many things to be thankful for and to celebrate moments in our lives.
The world as we have known it has changed. There’s a pandemic happening and we citizens have been through many changes in a short period of time. Mother used to say things happen a reason, so naturally I am wondering about the reason. Some things are clear and I will have to accept the unknown isn’t meant for me to know, at least at this point. The expression: “You don’t even want to know,” may be appropriate at this moment in time.
I created the header picture a long time ago when trying to put together an article about stress management. Well, could we use some of that? I am thinking it is a “yes.”
I have a lamb who makes me think of peace, it’s actually a dog toy, but I like it and it’s on my book shelf, snuggles up next to my Wonder Bunny. The pillow is one my daughter made at a church camp many years ago, and it is also on my book shelf. I can see them from where I do most of my writing. The bubble bath is self-explanatory for relaxing. The candle goes right along with that. The Sleep lotion has lovely scents and relaxing properties and the quartz sits on my nightstand to stabilize the energy forces. All leading to relaxation and better sleep, which is something I must work at hard. And I would say my first thankful will be that my sleep has been better lately, so yay for that! I wake up kind of early, but I go to bed early so it’s a win. Sometimes I will wake up in the night, but my going back to sleep is better.
Second would be this lovely memory. There are my mother’s siblings. They all came out to Illinois where we lived to see my mother as she was getting close to her time to cross over. It was actually March 25 in the year it happened. Just this week, her last sibling, Uncle Joe, joined her and the rest for a Heavenly reunion. Aunt Dorothy and her husband came from California to spend time with mom and the brother all got in the car and drove from Louisville Kentucky. It was quite the gathering. And as much as they all liked to cut up and tell corny jokes, they all were most somber when they came to see mom. They all loved each other so much, a very close knit family. I am grateful they all came out and that there is no more suffering for any of them.
The Hall siblings:
Randall, Johnny, Dorothy (Gunnett), Joe, Warren, Ralph
Thelma Hall Tomey – Mother
Third is the fun I have been having with my daughter as we have been doing the Sketchbook challenge. In a little while, I will be joining her for the next session. It’s nice to have her here and we are having such fun.
Here are some of the pictures I made from the event. She doesn’t want her shared, just yet.
This was food art created by drawing with ink the basic picture and then watercoloring the subject matter. We were asked to draw what we had for breakfast and this is what I did. Charlie O’Shields – Having Fun While Sketching Food! was the video.
This was a class on a combination of freestyling, relaxing and creating collage.
Mary Beth Shaw – Doodle Sketch was the title and she guided us on having fun.
This is my Quirky Bird watercolor from Tamara Laporte – Embracing YOU, Quirks And All! It was a blast!
Fourth I am thankful that I have art supplies to be able to do these things.
Fifth I did a presentation about Poetry on Wednesday night for the Triangle Association of Freelancers and it went well.
Sixth Scored Toilet Paper today at Target! And a canister of disinfectant wipes. We were not desperate but it would be coming real soon.
Seventh Zoom Rooms and figuring out how to use them. I had a lesson on them and am working on getting more proficient as the virtual world is becoming more of a reality. Nice thing is that with these I was able to meet with people online.
Eighth First Responders who put it out there to help others be healthy and safe.
Ninth People who wear scrubs. I brought out my old acrostic for their dedication. You can read it here:Scrubs
Tenth is the place setting for YOU! What’s you thankful today?
As a teacher, I will always remain a student. In the classroom of life, l wish to work with and educate others. Whether you’re a teacher, student, or just your average person, here are a few of my "TEACHERble" moments.
Hi! my name is Sebastian (You can call me Seb!) ...welcome to my Blog. I'm a photographer from Worcester, Worcestershire, England. Thanks for dropping by! I hope you enjoy my work.
Daughter with Easter Eggs 2018
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