Lesson 682: I Promise

Hello, Readers.

If you are anything like me,

the weeks seem long,

the seconds on the clock tick by

like I walk across my icy driveway,

s   l   o   w   l   y.

Yet, 

here it is another Friday night,

and I feel like last Friday night was yesterday.

It must be a result of the strange times 

we were living in.

We are in the depths of an Erie winter.

Not that much snow

but it has been warm-you-hands-by-the-woodstove cold.

And yes,

I do wear these gloves around the house sometimes.

Eloise can't stand to have cold hands or feet!

We ventured out for a masketball game tonight.

2 guests from the same house per player,

and no lingering around after the game.

Get in and get out.

The away games are kind of nice.

We get to watch like this from the couch.

The couch has been getting more use this year.

The kids do their schoolwork from it on at-home learning days.

I don't blame them.

School desks are uncomfortable.

This was the scene I came home to on Wednesday.

Sam, the fashion plate,

donning his Hawaiian shirt

paired with Scandinavian print pajama bottoms,

was sprawled on the couch.

How are the dogs? I texted just a few minutes prior.

Good.......

Let out a sigh because I promised not to yell at anyone that day.

I try my hardest to make things fun.

Clark School Meat Stick Sale

Buy one of every kind and have a blind taste test.

Winner gets to pick the next dinner out.

Natalie wouldn't touch the meat sticks.

She's a fruit and veggie girl.

Look at her handiwork!

She washes,

chops,

and bags it all up

every single week!

I found this oldie but goodie a couple of months ago.

I liked it so much that I decided to make

my word of 2021.

I, like many others,

used FOCUS for word of 2020.

I had to adjust the lens in March

for my 2020 Focus,

but it really kept my goals on track.

I decided to choose another word for this year,

and PROMISE, it is.

Promise fits perfectly with a new planner I decided on for this year.

It's the first time using the Commit 30 journal.

It's one part bullet journal,

one part goal tracker.

The process of using the journal walks you through choosing 12 goals,

one to accomplish each month,

and hopefully work into your life.

On Sunday I'll finish my first goal and I am pleased with my own progress!

What's really nice about the planner is that it encourages balance,

something I'm always mindful of.

It's probably the single most important lesson I'll pass on--

I no longer seek balance in my life,

I create it.

I've chosen some nutrition and fitness goals.

As with most people, those top the lists every January.

But there are many other promises I'd like to keep--

for myself and for others.

Promises in regard to finances,

and travel,

and spoken words,

and giving,

and spirituality,

and connection.

Since February is the month of love,

my goal

is to not speak the words I HATE

for the entire month.

Seems simple,

but I bet it will be difficult.

I can't even say that I hate separating the coffee filters

and finding the end of the tape that stuck back to the roll.

One of my year-long goals is to read with more diversity.--

genres and authors.

So far,

I've been nailing this goal.

I just started this one,

and it's really good!

I'm really looking for this one for my students,

so if you happen to have a copy,

I'd love it for loan.

I'll be sure to return it when we're done.
I promise.

--Eloise

Lesson 681: Hill to Climb

Good evening, Readers.

I'm sitting down to write after a long exhale.

This week has been quite a hill climb.

A little bit of Tim McGraw on Inauguration Night

and a whole lot of Bernie

energized me.

And oh yes,

the coats!

How I love to admire a nice overcoat!

Jill Biden's dress coat,

embroidered with a flower from each of the 50 States

was the show stopper.

Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman 

truly stole the show 

and the hearts of the American people

with the recitation of her poem,

The Hill We Climb.

I learned a little trick in almost three decades in the classroom.

Long chunks of text are a turn off to kids

if they are assigned.
Especially if they are poetry.

You can trick anyone into reading anything

if you insert photos,

and make people believe they are just reading captions.

I inserted some images,

mostly Google's

but a few of my own,

to make this brilliant poem 

more readable for you.

Weekend Homework--Mandatory:
Read. This.

The Hill We Climb

by Amanda Gorman

When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade

We've braved the belly of the beast
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours

before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we've weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one

And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man

And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another

We seek harm to none and harmony for all

Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division

Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid

If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promised glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare

It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated

In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter

To offer hope and laughter to ourselves

So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free

We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with

Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,

battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it

See the light.

Be the light.

And let's bust out of this darkness we've been living in.

Eloise