Slice of Life | Reflections on the Teche

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Slice of Life Day 10: Crochet Sweater

Posted in being mamére, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #beingmamére, Stella, toddler crochet sweater on March 10, 2025| 10 Comments »

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

I’ve crocheted for years, so this year I decided to try to make a garment. I’ve made baby blankets, shawls, and hats, but when I saw a pattern for a baby sweater using two hexagons, I thought this will be easy enough.

We were taking a driving trip with our family to Oklahoma right after Christmas, and I wanted a project to do on the drive and while relaxing at the house. I picked out three colors from my inherited boxes of yarn from my friend Marion who died in 2020. My daughter Maggie, the mother of Stella, said of the three colors, “Stella will wear that.”

I crocheted and crocheted until I realized that it was way too big. The first hexagon would almost fit me! I had not accounted for the gauge of the yarn. I was just following the pattern.

Rather than lose the project all together, I decided to rip out the extra rows to make it fit. Then I spent a while making the other side.

Finally it was ready to block.

Two hexagon crocheted sweater blocked on the ironing board ready for steaming.

I brought it to Stella one afternoon when we were visiting. Stella has her own unique sense of fashion. Her preference is to wear leggings in one pattern and a top in another pattern. Sometimes she wears a dress as a skirt or a costume. Her favorites are skeleton, ninja mask, and Elsa nightgown.

Stella ready to go the art show (pj top, dress as skirt, and Elsa wig)

When Stella first saw the sweater, she said, “Nobody anywhere ever has worn a short sleeved sweater.”

My daughter Maggie explained to her that I had made it specially for her. She eventually came around and posed for a picture in her new sweater. Her dad sent me this picture.

Stella fashion: Hexagon sweater over Christmas pj top and Mardi Gras pants

Currently I am looking at a pattern for a summer sundress. Do I dare?

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Slice of Life Day 9: Morning on the Bayou

Posted in being mamére, Gratitude, nature, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Bayou Teche, being mamére, canoeing on March 9, 2025| 9 Comments »

“Do you know if there are lily pads, it means the water isn’t deep?” Leo, the 6 year old expert asked his sister Stella.

“Well, I can paddle through these lily pads,” Stella replied as she put her short metal paddle into the water.

Thirty minutes earlier, Stella, age 4, was unsure about getting into a canoe, but she quickly became a brave expert.

Stella stops to smile for the camera while Leo looks out for wildlife. The man in the stern is Papère.

“Look, Stella! I’m making a tunnel with my paddle!” Leo discovered how water passing over a paddle makes a wave.

“I see two, no four birds!” exclaimed Stella.

Papère asked, “Do you see those bubbles? That means there’s something under there.”

“Maybe it’s an alligator?” Leo responded with no fear in his voice.

As we paddled, we came across a real alligator. Here’s a video of our encounter.

Alligator encounter in the bayou. Estimated size 6 ft.

Our canoeing morning was just the right end to a weekend with our grandchildren.

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Slice of Life Day 6: Spiritual Journey to Wholeness

Posted in Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged spiritual journey, wholeness on March 6, 2025| 8 Comments »

Denise Krebs is hosting first Thursday Spiritual Journey posts at Dare to Care

Each month a group of bloggers, who met through the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge, gather to write posts about our spiritual journeys. This month Denise asked us to write on the topic of wholeness.

I think I may find wholeness by looking outward
to someone else to make me complete,
to their words of affirmation.

Wholeness is a river where my path moves in and out.
I find balance one day,
then a wind knocks me over the next.

I can watch the seedling grow,
but cannot see the growth in myself.

Whole means all of me–
Here now, in the present moment
where I am welcomed, accepted, and loved.

Broken, cracked, grieving, or angry.
All of me
Whole.

Resurrection fern on an old oak tree revived by rain.

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Slice of Life Day 5: This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Sky

Posted in nature, Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged #sky, cherita on March 5, 2025| 41 Comments »

Welcome to my weekly photo prompt. A few years ago, Laura Purdie Salas held a weekly prompt called 15 Words or Less. When she decided to stop posting, I took the idea and made it my own. If this is your first time here, the idea is to write a quick, small poem draft in the comments and leave encouraging comments for other writers. I also post this prompt for my students each week on Fanschool. This week we have a break, so they may or may not join in.

I love to look up at the sky. On any given day, the sky can change my mood. On the day I took this picture, the clouds were wispy cirrus clouds that mean high air pressure and cooler temperatures. They are a happy contrast to storm clouds or the grey stratus of a winter day. Even as an adult I enjoy looking for images in the clouds. I took this photo while out on carline duty, so only now do I have the time to see the shapes. Do you do this? Can you find an image in the clouds? What do you imagine?

Did you know there are many names for colors of the sky?

Try to use one of the color words in your poem. Today I am writing a cherita. It’s a short form of three stanzas. The first line is one line, the second: two, the third: three. Similar to haiku, a cherita captures a small moment or story.

Carline Duty

Look into the Carolina blue sky.

Find the great white heron
with whispering white feathers.

Be curious about the secrets
of sky gods
who oversee the safety of children.
Margaret Simon, draft

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Slice of Life Day 4: Courir de Mardi Gras

Posted in being mamére, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Breaux Bridge, Courir de Mardi Gras, Louisiana, Teche Center for the Arts on March 4, 2025| 11 Comments »

Happy Mardi Gras, y’all! Today is Fat Tuesday, celebrated with parades and food and fun, the last day before Lent arrives, and we enter a season of penance and fasting. I decided to skip the New Orleans festivities this year and enjoy a quiet Mardi Gras; however, yesterday, my daughter invited me to go with her and her two children, Leo and Stella, to an event in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

A few years ago I attended the “Courir de Mardi Gras” with my family in Eunice, Louisiana. I had some trouble with the drunken parade and abuse of chickens. This event in Breaux Bridge changed my view somewhat. It was specifically for the children, so the adults were drinking coffee and water and handing out snacks to their children. There was a chicken involved, but we were assured that the chicken was tame and would not be injured.

Traditional Courir de Mardi Gras mask made from home crafted materials.

The costumes were fabulous and fun!

The history of the courir, which in Cajun French means run, dates back to before Louisiana became a part of the U.S., from a time when the Acadians came to Louisiana without much of anything but a promise of land. The small communities would celebrate Mardi Gras by having a chicken run. The idea was to go house to house to get all the ingredients for the gumbo. The gumbo would be shared by the community.

The Teche Center for the Arts recreated the courir specifically for children. El Capitaine, the leader, assigned the children to groups. It was a wild chase, for sure, but it was quick and usually ended with at least one child crying about being knocked in the head or not catching the chicken or, in Stella’s case, losing a shoe. We paraded house to house and shared in the tradition. This was more my style, watching the children, carrying their catches, and taking lots of photos and video.

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Slice of Life Day 3: Crawfish Time

Posted in Bayou Song, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Bayou Song, crawfish boil, Louisiana Life, poetry prompt on March 3, 2025| 13 Comments »

Have you ever eaten crawfish? They are seasonal crustaceans here in South Louisiana. We measure the goodness of spring by the crawfish season. I think we’re expecting a good season this year because of all the rain. And it looks, by the catch above, that the hard freeze in January didn’t get deep down into the mud of the crawfish ponds.

On Saturday we attended our first crawfish boil. Our friend Patti has a home in Arnaudville with two ponds that produce crawfish. She told us the catch for this boil was from her neighbor’s pond. Notice all the (healthy) vegetables cooked along with the crawfish, potatoes, corn, Brussel sprout, and garlic. We spent the afternoon drinking beer, eating mud bugs and king cake, and watching all the dogs (and young boys) play in the pond.

For my poetry book for children, Bayou Song, I wrote a poem about the geometry (eating) of crawfish. The book also includes poem and drawing prompts for kids. You can do them, too.

The Geometry of Crawfish

Grab a long line antenna
Avoid looking into round peppercorn peepers
Hold the cylinder cavity containing fat
Watch out for triangular tweezer pincers
Detach the arced accordion tail
Remove curvy meaty muscle
Dip in a puddle-circle of spicy ketchup
Eat
Margaret Simon, Bayou Song: Creative Explorations of the South Louisiana Landscape

Bayou Song Illustrations by Amelia Cantrell

Write it: Make a list of geometry words, words about shapes. Choose an animal to describe using shapes. What shape is a snake? a bird’s beak? What about a cat’s nose?

If you would like to see some of my students’ slices, go to Fanschool: GT Allstars.

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Slice of Life 2: Walking Meditation

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged 90 Ways of Community, Denise Krebs, free verse poem, Kim Johnson, meditation, mindfulness, morning walk, poem, poetry, writing on March 2, 2025| 13 Comments »

Kim Johnson, fellow slicer, has made a plan for her daily musings. I’m not one to make a plan. I like to be more open to what the universe is giving me to write about; however, I read Denise Krebs’ post yesterday. She sliced about the early morning. She reminded me of my daily walk.

I usually start out around 6:15, buckle up puppy Albert (who is now a year old and much better about the leash). On this particular morning, I went to my Insight Timer app for a walking meditation. I selected the first one in the queue. A soothing female voice guided me to be present in my body, to feel the breeze, to listen to the sounds around me, and to let my thoughts float in and out without giving them much notice.

Ah, yes. A walking meditation is the just right way to start my day. Sometimes my walk inspires a poem.

Notes from a Walk

I want to pick up a pile of oak leaves
the pile of leaves blown from the curb,
rejected into the street.

I want to hold
a gathering of leaves in my hands,
carry them home, make mulch.
Mulch that will feed the soil.

I want to pick up all the gumballs
those countless gumballs that fall
from the sweetgum tree. We could
create art together.

I could give you
supplies:
leaves and gumballs,
a cardboard tube.
You can make it yourself.
You can make a masterpiece.

We can be a masterpiece, you and me.
Margaret Simon, from 90 Ways of Community: Nurturing Safe & Inclusive Classrooms Writing One Poem at a Time (available for free download here.)

Photo by Vladimir Srajber on Pexels.com

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Slice of Life 1: Brainrot Words

Posted in Gifted Education, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged Gen Alpha slang, teaching gifted on March 1, 2025| 16 Comments »

I am a “Baby Boomer” while my students are all in “Gen Alpha”. Admittedly they would have a totally different slang system that I don’t know and honestly, don’t care to learn. Two of my students, a 5th grade and a 6th grade girl, teamed up to make an instructional slide show. They also made a multiple choice quiz.

I think they were surprised at how well I did on the quiz, but I pointed out that while I won’t remember any of this tomorrow, I know how to study for a test: Take notes! I wrote each word and the definition on a sticky note.

While we were watching the slide show, I continually asked, “If the principal walks in right now, would he be OK with this?” I kept getting the feeling from them that they were doing something wrong, and I was oblivious to it. They assured me that there was nothing above PG rating in the slide show. But there were a few that were cringy.

Here is a list of the words. (Let me know in the comments which ones you knew.)
1. sigma
2. hyperpigmentation
3. nonchalant
4. cap
5. rizz
6. girl math
7. goat
8. delulu
9. baddie
10. low taper fade
11. mewing
12. bussin
13. Ohio
14. aura
15. skibidi toilet
16. fantum tax

How did you do? I only knew 4 of them because they are words that have been around a while. The most cringy for me was “girl math”. I think it’s time to stop this stereotyping of girls. In truth, all of them have a bite of stereotyping and sass. They don’t give me confidence in our Alpha generation that are way too tech savvy and on their phones 24/7. I guess that’s why the title of the slideshow was “Brain Rot Words.”

What did impress me was the level of time and work these girls put into creating the slideshow and how serious they were about informing me. I hope I made a decent grade on the test. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to take a test.

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Poetry Friday: February

Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged being mamére, Heidi Mordhorst, Laura Shovan, space poems on February 28, 2025| 19 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Denise Krebs at Dare to Care.

Alma Thomas, *The Eclipse,* 1970, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1978.40.3

Each day this month I have written a poem. I know that this sounds impossible. It certainly feels impossible to me. I joined a group of like-minded poets arranged by Laura Shovan to celebrate her February birthday with poetry. Writing in a community can feel impossible. How can I meet the standards? Who am I to believe I am a poet?

But I did it, every day. This makes me believe that impossible things are possible. I have hope that we can exist in a world where poetry brings solace, hope, and community. Today, Heidi Mordhorst posted a similar art piece to compare our group to a circle of stars. I went to the linked page and found The Eclipse. There are different perspectives from each person in our galaxy. Some may see a circle, some see the dots of paint, and some focus on the dark center. However you view art, poetry, or time is yours alone. You get to decide.

But as Heidi so wisely said, “Some days, our circle was a parachute, lifting or sinking, catching or launching you. Some days our circle was the deepest well or mirrorest puddle, and maybe there was a day when our circle was a black hole of obligation, until the next day when you caught sight of a certain name, a certain voice, and our space became a sequin of possibility again.”

Tomorrow I will begin another writing journey, the annual Slice of Life Challenge from Two Writing Teachers. Today it feels impossible to write a blog post every day in March. If you read my blog, you are always welcome to swipe left and delete it. But I hope you’ll stick with me, cheer me on, and remind me that impossible means “I’m possible.”

Learning to write can seem impossible to a 6 year old. As I watch my grandson develop his reading, writing, and drawing skills, I am amazed at the capacity of our brains to learn. Here is a poem I wrote this month beginning with the space we make between words.

What space are you giving to yourself? How are you doing impossible things?

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Slice of Life: March is Around the Bend

Posted in Gratitude, Photography, Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged Alzheimer's, Slice of Life Challenge, small poem on February 18, 2025| 18 Comments »

Every year at about this same time I look ahead to March and realize it’s coming. During the month of March for at least 10 years, I’ve written a daily post alongside many others for the Two Writing Teachers daily Slice of Life Challenge. I approach March with a sense of dread and excitement. Writing a daily post, looking at a blank page and filling it with something worthwhile, is daunting; however, after so many years of experience, I know that writing in a community of other writers drives me.

This month I’ve been writing with a Facebook community for Laura Shovan’s 13th annual February Challenge. I feel it’s an impossible task until I get it done and look at my collection of poems. Most of them are drifty drafts, but it pleases me to have written them.

The most common denominator I have seen among writers who commit to daily writing is the fear of writing for an audience, and the best feeling is having written for an audience. My students experience the same fear. They don’t know it yet, but I’ve signed them up for the classroom Slice of Life Challenge. Writing out loud for an audience makes us vulnerable, yes, but it also makes us strong and brave.

If you are planning to do the SOL Challenge, let me know in the comments. We can support each other.

Here’s a small brave poem I put on my Instagram yesterday. I was visiting Mississippi where my brother and my mother live. We met yesterday with a very sweet Hospice nurse, and for the first time, I left my mother feeling hopeful. There is a gift in small moments of hope. I’ll take it.