Dear friends who patiently muddle through my poetic scratchings, here is one more. (I can't promise it will be the last.)
Untitled
Lump of clay
on the Potter's wheel
slick,
slippery,
marred am I.
Gathered again
in the Potter’s hand
patient,
unrelenting,
great is He.
Dainty vase
on the Potter’s sill
lovely, loved,
all can see.
Patient,
unrelenting,
great is He.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Poem shaped scribblings of the non-poet
So, I'm definitely not a poet. This is one assignment that my Creative Writing classmates weren't fond of, but I like it. Please, read with a kind eye, these are my heart-thoughts and mustn't be judged too critically from a literary standpoint! :)
Brittni Lasater
Stair Steps
Blond-haired, blue-eyed stair steps.
My boys.
Eight instants ago,
No, years ago, You honored me
With the title Mom
And I began letting go.
These moments are
Sacred,
Precious,
Few.
I’m afraid I’ll regret
The things that I did
Or didn’t do
When it’s too late
To change them.
Can’t I hold them
Just a little longer?
Instead, like sugary, white sand,
Through my outstretched fingers
Pour.
When today is done, is it lost
Forever?
Living only in my
Flawed memory
Like diamonds flung into a void?
You who number my days,
Do You keep a holy record?
Holding each moment past
Like tiny beads, precious.
Ancient of Days,
Guard my every moment.
For one day
I’ll turn around
And they’ll
Be gone.
Monday, April 19, 2010
*This is a reposting from earlier, but I couldn't help but revisit it. You'll see why when you read the update at the bottom! I am so proud.
Ever wondered what might convince a mostly sane mother of three energetic boys to home school? Especially when two of them are ensconced in the best school in town and she’s well on her way to school-provided semi-quiet? Well, here’s my attempt at answer.
My oldest son breezed through kindergarten at our zoned public school. The next year, my two oldest were drawn in a lottery for a charter school. So we started the 2008-2009 school year with high hopes! Just after the school’s open house, my first grader’s teacher called. I suspected there was trouble. I had no idea.
My little guy was struggling. Terribly. He could barely read. She showed me his classmate’s work. They were writing legible sentences, while he strung letters together randomly. I was devastated.
She immediately began interventions, which are required by the No Child Left Behind Act before a child can begin assessments to determine if there are learning disabilities. We hired a reading tutor and started occupational therapy. In the end, he was meeting with a math coach, reading coach, reading tutor, and getting extra help from his teacher when class time allowed. Still, he wasn’t progressing.
Near the end of his first semester, his progress card filled with N’s and U’s, which is first grade language for BAD, he began to undergo assessments. To my dismay, we found out this process would take months. And already, his teachers and counselor began preparing us for him to likely repeat first grade.
In the mean time, my son hated school. He struggled through a couple hours of homework, which shouldn’t have taken us nearly that long. But he cried and raged and I wanted to also. He’d have every spelling word memorized and still flunk his test. Or at home, we’d go over the questions he’d missed on a test and he got them all right.
I prayed and agonized the whole semester. I hated the haunted look in his eyes. When his teacher said he never smiled in class, my heart broke. When the dentist pointed out our son had been grinding his teeth enough to wear them down to bits, probably due to stress, I got desperate.
My husband and I decided to pull him out and return him to the regular public school. We thought that the pace of the charter school must be too much. He was only there a week. While volunteering in his class, I looked in his eyes and realized he was hopelessly lost. He had no idea what the class was doing.
We had tried everything. I’d visited classed throughout our district, including ESE, looking for the right answer for our son. I realized, some children don’t fit the public school model.
The answer came to us quickly. Home school. While, I felt this was God’s direct answer, I was afraid to take so much responsibility for his education. What if I messed him up? But my husband reminded me that nothing else was working. Plus, we had the support of family and help of other home schooling friends.
So we pulled him out of school and started at the beginning of first grade. During the first few weeks, my little boy said, “I can’t do this Mom. I’m not smart.” I felt sick. For months he’d been sitting next to kids who knew exactly what they were doing and he didn’t. His only rational was that he was stupid. My bright, funny, athletic little boy!
We worked through a lot those first few months. And we plowed through summer, too -much to his dismay, since his little brother didn’t have to! At the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, he was read to start second grade.
Now, my 2nd grader is reading a little ahead of grade level. He’s making A’s and B’s. He loves to laugh. His adult teeth are in and looking good. Last month, he said to me, “Mom, I think I can learn anything!”
This home school road can be difficult. Not all of his learning challenges were solved by the switch. Plus, I’m not terribly organized or self-motivated. Sometimes my patience wears thin. But to see my son change from seeing himself as “not smart” to believing he can “learn anything” makes it worth it.
UPDATE! 4/19/10
He got straight A's this semester! Yippee!
Ever wondered what might convince a mostly sane mother of three energetic boys to home school? Especially when two of them are ensconced in the best school in town and she’s well on her way to school-provided semi-quiet? Well, here’s my attempt at answer.
My oldest son breezed through kindergarten at our zoned public school. The next year, my two oldest were drawn in a lottery for a charter school. So we started the 2008-2009 school year with high hopes! Just after the school’s open house, my first grader’s teacher called. I suspected there was trouble. I had no idea.
My little guy was struggling. Terribly. He could barely read. She showed me his classmate’s work. They were writing legible sentences, while he strung letters together randomly. I was devastated.
This is him during first grade with his class bear.
She immediately began interventions, which are required by the No Child Left Behind Act before a child can begin assessments to determine if there are learning disabilities. We hired a reading tutor and started occupational therapy. In the end, he was meeting with a math coach, reading coach, reading tutor, and getting extra help from his teacher when class time allowed. Still, he wasn’t progressing.
Near the end of his first semester, his progress card filled with N’s and U’s, which is first grade language for BAD, he began to undergo assessments. To my dismay, we found out this process would take months. And already, his teachers and counselor began preparing us for him to likely repeat first grade.
In the mean time, my son hated school. He struggled through a couple hours of homework, which shouldn’t have taken us nearly that long. But he cried and raged and I wanted to also. He’d have every spelling word memorized and still flunk his test. Or at home, we’d go over the questions he’d missed on a test and he got them all right.
I prayed and agonized the whole semester. I hated the haunted look in his eyes. When his teacher said he never smiled in class, my heart broke. When the dentist pointed out our son had been grinding his teeth enough to wear them down to bits, probably due to stress, I got desperate.
My husband and I decided to pull him out and return him to the regular public school. We thought that the pace of the charter school must be too much. He was only there a week. While volunteering in his class, I looked in his eyes and realized he was hopelessly lost. He had no idea what the class was doing.
We had tried everything. I’d visited classed throughout our district, including ESE, looking for the right answer for our son. I realized, some children don’t fit the public school model.
The answer came to us quickly. Home school. While, I felt this was God’s direct answer, I was afraid to take so much responsibility for his education. What if I messed him up? But my husband reminded me that nothing else was working. Plus, we had the support of family and help of other home schooling friends.
So we pulled him out of school and started at the beginning of first grade. During the first few weeks, my little boy said, “I can’t do this Mom. I’m not smart.” I felt sick. For months he’d been sitting next to kids who knew exactly what they were doing and he didn’t. His only rational was that he was stupid. My bright, funny, athletic little boy!
We worked through a lot those first few months. And we plowed through summer, too -much to his dismay, since his little brother didn’t have to! At the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, he was read to start second grade.
Now, my 2nd grader is reading a little ahead of grade level. He’s making A’s and B’s. He loves to laugh. His adult teeth are in and looking good. Last month, he said to me, “Mom, I think I can learn anything!”
This home school road can be difficult. Not all of his learning challenges were solved by the switch. Plus, I’m not terribly organized or self-motivated. Sometimes my patience wears thin. But to see my son change from seeing himself as “not smart” to believing he can “learn anything” makes it worth it.
2010 field trip to a grocery store
with our home school group.
with our home school group.
UPDATE! 4/19/10
He got straight A's this semester! Yippee!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Easy Chicken Pesto Recipe
Every so often I get stuck for what to cook for dinner. So I email my friends and ask what their kids like to eat. Invariably, someone emails back and says, "Whatever I cook" and I roll my eyes, because I have THE pickiest eaters in the universe. Seriously. But here is a recipe from my friend Amanda V. that 4 out of 5 of us liked. (The little one turned his nose up, but he really shouldn't count. He lives off of frozen waffles. Well, almost.) Plus, it's super easy.
Pesto Chicken
2-3 Chicken breasts
1 jar Classico pesto (These are small jars, but don't worry!)
(Find this with the spaghetti sauce. At our store it was on the top shelf where I -AKA Shorty couldn't reach it.)
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream (or half and half for those of us watching our calories.)
1 package of your favorite pasta (spaghetti, bowties, etc.)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or butter or margarine
1. Cook the chicken in the olive oil (or butter or whatever) until done.
2. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces.
3. Cook pasta. (I'd say we usually cook half the box.)
4. Add pesto and heavy cream to the chicken and cook until warm.
5. Add drained pasta to the pesto mixture.
6. Enjoy!
7. Don't tell your family how easy it was!
Pesto Chicken
2-3 Chicken breasts
1 jar Classico pesto (These are small jars, but don't worry!)
(Find this with the spaghetti sauce. At our store it was on the top shelf where I -AKA Shorty couldn't reach it.)
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream (or half and half for those of us watching our calories.)
1 package of your favorite pasta (spaghetti, bowties, etc.)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or butter or margarine
1. Cook the chicken in the olive oil (or butter or whatever) until done.
2. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces.
3. Cook pasta. (I'd say we usually cook half the box.)
4. Add pesto and heavy cream to the chicken and cook until warm.
5. Add drained pasta to the pesto mixture.
6. Enjoy!
7. Don't tell your family how easy it was!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Baby Calendar
I spent the better part of last week making a calendar for my cousin -well, it's actually my husband's cousin, but I like her and so I'll claim her for my own- who is having a little boy. (We can't seem to get away from boys. I already have three sons and two nephews.) When my boys were little, we had baby calendars that I bought at Wal-Mart or the like. I loved the calendar, because you might not (read: will NEVER) have time to fill in that baby book, but a little note on a calendar page is easy.
This led to the fantastic idea of creating baby calendar for Cousin. It would have been a truly perfect plan if only I'd thought of it four weeks before the shower and not four days. But with the help of my friend Tracy -who let me abscond with I think everything in her craft room and lent serious moral support- and the almost patience of my husband -my counter tops were covered with cardstock and embellishments for days, resulting in his having oatmeal for dinner once- I finished it! Oh, and thanks to the lady at the office supply store who gave me a near coronary when I went to have it bound. She punched one of the pages crooked and I thought it was going to result in disaster. For a few seconds, I was fighting panic. But hey, what's a good craft project without panic? Thankfully, it was actually a quick fix.
Well, anyway, I had loads of fun at the baby shower -even more than a diaper can hold when you leave a baby with his/her daddy. (And that's saying a lot!) And hopefully, our cousin has a gift she really likes.
You can't tell from this shot, but the letters BABY are covered in silver glitter
and so is the star. Plus, the "apostrophe"
is actually a diaper pin.
and so is the star. Plus, the "apostrophe"
is actually a diaper pin.
This led to the fantastic idea of creating baby calendar for Cousin. It would have been a truly perfect plan if only I'd thought of it four weeks before the shower and not four days. But with the help of my friend Tracy -who let me abscond with I think everything in her craft room and lent serious moral support- and the almost patience of my husband -my counter tops were covered with cardstock and embellishments for days, resulting in his having oatmeal for dinner once- I finished it! Oh, and thanks to the lady at the office supply store who gave me a near coronary when I went to have it bound. She punched one of the pages crooked and I thought it was going to result in disaster. For a few seconds, I was fighting panic. But hey, what's a good craft project without panic? Thankfully, it was actually a quick fix.
Well, anyway, I had loads of fun at the baby shower -even more than a diaper can hold when you leave a baby with his/her daddy. (And that's saying a lot!) And hopefully, our cousin has a gift she really likes.
A photo of one of my favorite pages.
The hearts hopefully give away that it's February, since the month is
hard to read in the photo.
The hearts hopefully give away that it's February, since the month is
hard to read in the photo.
It goes from April to April, since her baby's due that month.
And the blank spaces accommodate either 4x6 photos or 5x7.
And the blank spaces accommodate either 4x6 photos or 5x7.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Another poem from the non-poet
Okay, more poetry for my class. Maybe this one will get a better reception with my classmates. Just remember, I do not claim to be a poet!
Brittni Lasater
Shadow
As I mosey out
Twilight hovers thick.
Sight is hindered.
Still, I sense him behind me.
Turning ‘round to look
Is impolite so
I just sneak a glance.
He is closer than before.
Pulse redlining, I
Near my car.
I double my pace
Then my shadow triples his.
Quick, unlock. Unlock!
Snatch the door handle.
My racing heart halts
Because another stranger
Waits inside and smiles
At my pursuer.
That’s when I realize it’s
Not my car.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Petit Fours
More Valentine Treats! Got this idea for Petit Fours from I am Baker's blog and her tutorial. I laid my decoarations down, because I wasn't patient enough to wait for the Royal Icing to dry and I wasn't sure how to package them. -And quite frankly, I wasn't sure they would stand up at all! (The original idea calls to stand up the decorations.) Also, I used a cookie cutter to cut hearts out of fondant, where I am Baker piped all of her's with Royal Icing. And for all of you who are wondering about trying fondant... wait no longer! It's pretty easy to work with. Next time, I'll definitely being putting it on a cake.
Did I remember to say these are SUPER easy?
See the tutorial:
http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/petit-fours/
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