Happy New Year!

It’s been awhile since I’ve written a post. At my three week post-op, they found the new lens was clouding over so I got a free laser treatment to break up the calcification on the lens. Yay to my overactive immune system, my antibodies were attacking the foreign body in my eye. The laser treatment was on December 22 – they were pretty booked up and that was the soonest I could be seen. Well the calcification on the lens made it hard for my eye to focus well which is why I haven’t spent much time on the computer or reading. Hoping I can start enjoying books again in 2022.

At the end of 2021, we were all in quarantine. My mother-in-law came over on Christmas, not feeling well, and two days later tested positive for Covid. We were so careful for almost two years and then it walked right through the front door. Needless to say no one was very pleased with Nonnie but after 5 days no one in this house showed any symptoms and Robin was able to fly back to Oregon on the first. Gretchen has started her spring semester. She just looked at her major map yesterday and told me it looks like all my requirements are completed or in progress (this semester’s courses) what does that mean? I told her if she doesn’t have anything in red it should mean you’re eligible for graduation. She may be able to graduate early. She retorted, It doesn’t say I’m eligible for graduation. It won’t you can still take classes. Robin took some extra classes because he fulfilled his requirements early but wanted to take all four years. He had a full scholarship and mom and dad covered the extra expenses. A full scholarship does not cover all fees as different degrees accrue different costs. Science classes are more expensive than humanities courses.

The other thing Gretchen looked at last night was her GPA she’s only earned Magna Cum Laude. I told her there’s nothing wrong with that (mom graduated magna cum laude), but she told me she’s going to steal Robin’s summa cum laude. The rest of the night we were regaled with how Gretchen was chasing Robin and Robin kept evading her efforts. Then Gretchen said, I’ll kidnap Burke. I laughed and told her, I think you’re a proud new parent then because I don’t see Robin giving up the summa for the return of his cat.

My muse lies quiet
Writing haiku – a reflex
Long out of practice

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#NaPoWriMo – Grammar School

My Grammar School from the 1984 Yearbook

Grammar School

On Reserve Road in West Seneca
New York sits a squat rectangle
Building behind a brick church
Where children gather to
Learn reading, writing
Arithmetic
Trinity
Christian
School

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Our (optional) prompt for the day takes a leaf from Schuyler’s book, as it were, and asks you to write a poem about a specific place —  a particular house or store or school or office. Try to incorporate concrete details, like street names, distances (“three and a half blocks from the post office”), the types of trees or flowers, the color of the shirts on the people you remember there. Little details like this can really help the reader imagine not only the place, but its mood – and can take your poem to weird and wild places.

Good morning readers and welcome to day two of NaPoWriMo. Yesterday I was lamenting at the thought of being a kindergarten failure, so today I thought I’d share with you where I spent nine years of my youth. I attended Trinity Lutheran all the way k-8th grades. A few years back, I wrote about one of my classmates. Since we were a graduating class of eight students, we got to know everyone pretty well.

As you can see in my poem, the name of the school has changed; it works for the syllable count of a nonnet, but to me it will always be Trinity Lutheran school. It seems strange to realize I lived in the same house kindergarten through 8th and all the way until I was married a total of 18 years; I just now surpassed that amount of time as we moved into our current residence 20 years ago coming up next month. This has been an interesting trip down memory lane, but once again I need to be productive today. I will see you all again tomorrow.

#HaikuChallenge ASU Senior

Working hard at 4paws

As Gretchen began her freshmen year at ASU, Rachael is finishing up her undergrad and applying to vet school. I decided to write a couple haiku about her hard work for the #haikuchallenge on Twitter.

Help edit essays
Future veterinarian
Keeping  fingers crossed

September deadline
Vet school applications sent
Now, we sit and wait

She has applied to six schools close to $900 in fees, and you don’t want to know tuition costs if she is accepted. But she is doing very well in school so I do have my fingers crossed; vet school is very competitive.

#Whoku Celebrate New School Year

Once upon a time the haikuesque poems I wrote with a Doctor Who theme were archived on wiki Fandom. The latest poetry pea podcast is about whoku, but they are not senryu about Doctor Who; they are tributes to an individual –

Gretchen captured on her first day of school

Gretchen Hosking starts
freshmen year at ASU
career path unsettled

Poetry Pea podcast

Extended Scoring Season Finally Wraps Up

Hello to all my readers! Long time with no post from me, sorry. I didn’t keep up with #NaPoWriMo this year very well either. I started my seasonal employment again back in April, and in the past two years scoring wrapped up a couple days after the Memorial Day holiday. They received more tests to score this year so I worked all the way through yesterday. Not that I’m complaining, it does mean bringing home more money with my seasonal gig, but I did lose motivation on the poetry front.

And in other big news, Gretchen graduated from high school on May 18th. She also completed the ACE program at EMCC on May 11th.

Gretchen Pre-K graduation May 17, 2006

Gretchen Dress Rehearsal May 17, 2019

Gretchen and Agua Fria Principal, Mr. Molina May 18, 2019

ACE Certificate of Completion May 11, 2019

School years disappear
Tell me how she became a
High school graduate

Earn a diploma
Four years go by in a flash
So long to high school

I was so preoccupied with work and day to day housework, I wasn’t even trying to write haiku for the #haikuchallenge on twitter. My response to the challenge on Thursday was the first tweet I sent out in over a month! But now that work is complete for yet another year, I’m hoping I’ll get back into writing more poetry.

#NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 15

College Awaits

To be or not to be
attending freshman orientation
Where is my schedule
How will I navigate this campus
My life…
Creative writing
Is that a real major?
There’s a mom standing here
crying, as my sibling drops me off
nary a word as to how to find
the car once this is all over.
I question whether or not
I will survive this day
To be or not to be…
a freshman at ASU!

NaPoWriMo Prompt Day 15 – Our prompt for today (optional, as always), takes its inspiration from the idea of a poem as a sort of tiny play, which can be performed dramatically. In the 1800s, there was quite a fad for monologue-style poems that lend themselves extremely well to dramatic interpretations (this kind of work was basically Robert Browning’s jam). And Shakespeare’s plays are chock-a-block with them. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write your own dramatic monologue. It doesn’t have to be quite as serious as Browning or Shakespeare, of course, but try to create a sort of specific voice or character that can act as the “speaker” of your poem, and that could be acted by someone reciting the poem.

Good morning and welcome to day 15 of NaPoWriMo. I’m sorry I know I’ve been absent the past few days, I have a serious lack of motivation this year. Saturday I was even doing housework to avoid the poetry prompt. On the plus side I made a nice chicken salad for lunch and homemade chicken soup for dinner. And I got a haikuchallenge out of my procrastination.

Missing poetry
Where is my motivation
Lost in laundry heap

Spend time in kitchen
Dicing vegetables for soup
Suzy homemaker

Sunday the only thing I did was more dishes and laundry – those two chores are never done. Friday evening we finally got Gretchen to sit down and take her math placement test for orientation. You know you’ve waited til the last minute when your advisor calls to remind you it needs to be done before orientation. And last night she finally took and uploaded a photo for her ID card. We were getting constant reminders on that front too. As to whether or not I will catch up or go back to complete the missing prompts, time will tell. I am now busy scoring the essays on standardized tests in the afternoons.

#NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 4

Birthday email card

Morning Blues

Morning snooze gone
Five am alarm clock blares

Too early to rely on

Beware

Sleep deprived mom
Dad put the coffee on
Everyone stay calm
The week is almost over
And will soon turnover
Beautiful Saturday
Just one problem
Six am alarm clock blares

NaPoWriMo Prompt Day 4 – Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own sad poem, but one that, like Teicher’s, achieves sadness through simplicity. Playing with the sonnet form may help you – its very compactness can compel you to be straightforward, using plain, small words.

Good morning and welcome to day 4 of NaPoWriMo. AzMerit testing is over and we were back to a five am wake up call. Once I got Gretchen off to school at 6:30 and the dishwasher loaded and started, I went back to bed. Then Shawn got up and asked if the coffee was started. Lol! In his dreams. And yes because Gretchen takes college classes through the ACE program, we are up early on Saturday mornings too. But on the plus side, she will be graduating high school with 24 credits from the community college.

Today may be tough
All the birthday wishes rough
It’s never enough

The #haikuchallenge word today is rough and yeah I’m kinda on a rhyming kick. Gretchen went off to school hoping no one would acknowledge her birthday. Guess what, her future university put a birthday video together and sends it in an email to their students.

#PoetBlogRevival Part 2

March also happens to be Cerebral Palsy awareness month and through the #PoetBlogRevival, I met Bekah Steimel, who was interviewing poets about their work as part of her blog. My interview appeared in March so I shared my poem Escape with her readers. And this brings us to April, National Poetry Month or better known to my readers as #NaPoWriMo where I insanely write a poem a day from the prompts at napowrimo.net

In 2017 I also got a job as a remote reader, grading the essays on standardized tests and I returned to this work in 2018, making April even more insane. Near the beginning of the month my poem. Pedernal, was published on ekphrastic.net. It was written back in 2011 when Shawn and I visited Ghost Ranch in New Mexico as part of our 15th anniversary trip. For anyone discouraged by rejections I can tell you your poetry will find a home somewhere. I actually got a rejection a couple weeks ago the same day I made the submission; and the editor said they send out quick replies so you can find the proper fit for your poetry. I know it’s meant to soften the blow of the rejection, but less than a day! Oh well, the poem went back in the queue.

Also in April, Patricia had a breakfast themed haiku podcast and despite the insanity of the month, I made a contribution. She also include a piece from my evil twin. Then we entered May and remote reading wound down for another year along with the school year. Rachael had a birthday – TWENTY; no longer a teenager and someone shared a quote by Sylvia Plath I found rather apropos. In July Patricia’s podcast focused on women; so you know me, one Sylvia Plath quote turned into haiku. The day the podcast was posted, I made my children listen to it while we were eating dinner. Hey, your mother’s a poet and you’re going to learn to like it.

AHHH… August the start of a brand new school year. Gretchen is now a senior in high school! How did that happen? It also happened to be the month I started not feeling well. One issue being the Cerebral Palsy, doing everything with one hand is catching up to me. My left arm/shoulder decided to spasm on me. I’m used to spasms on my right side due to the CP, but the left?! Come on I need that hand to work. A trip to the ER and explaining where the pain was located, the doctor swept his arm back and forth, Do you do this motion very often? Hmmm… let me think, yeah vacuuming,sweeping, mopping; chores I do everyday! So it was off to a physical therapist to learn exercises for my left hand. Ok that was new and different; I’ve only been to PT for CP related exercises.

At the end of the month three of my poems appeared in the summer issue of Unstrung. Then September, October and November were filled with doctor appointments I could have done without. I did not keep up with weekly blog posts for the poet blog revival 😦 But tomorrow begins a brand new year filled with new possibilities. And on a positive note, I do like my poetry short. It isn’t a huge strain to type out one-handed. Today’s #haikuchallenge word is place. And tying part 2 into part 1, I bring you another poem about the cold weather.

Freezing desert temps
Someone turn the sun back on
This place is too cold

My WTForecast app told me it was 31 this morning. Fortunately we had a bone-in ham for Christmas and split peas were set to soaking last night. I am off to make the split pea soup to keep us warm on the last day of 2018. Happy New Year!

Winter Solstice

Sunset December 20.2018

Sunrise December 21, 2018 Gretchen Hosking photographer

 

Sunrise too early
Take photos of sun setting
Nice end to the day

Yes, I am still taking photos of the evening sunset. The evil twin has complained I do not take any sunrise photos. Well Gretchen took the sunrise picture when she arrived at school this morning for her last day before winter break. Meanwhile, I was still in bed and Shawn brought me coffee this morning. ❤ I took my own “sunrise” photo as it was a lovely view from bed (I told Katryn my window faces Southwest and doesn’t have a view of the sunrise), but this morning’s view was also a good opportunity to tease my sister. As my coffee mug was placed down by a righty and offered the opposite side of my ASU Mom mug.

Teasing my sister
Remember to fear the fork
There’s no end in sight

Of course this is not the first time I have mentioned forks in poetry. I do have to remind the twin how she “took a fork to the foot” every once in a while. 😉

October Disappearing Fast

 

Days dissolve quickly
First blog post in October
Busy holiday

The second week of October was fall break. Rachael had no school Monday and Tuesday; Gretchen had off the entire week. Saturday October 6th, Poppo flew down for the vacation time. Sunday we went over to Barnes & Noble – a tradition for this family of readers. Then we had dinner at Claim Jumpers. Monday we drove out to Scottsdale to visit with Caitlin. The first picture is me at P.F.Chang’s – the one in Scottsdale has an art sculpture kaleidoscope. Then Tuesday Rachael had work; we had to take Gretchen over to the orthodontist to fix her permanent retainer. We picked up some breakfast at McDonald’s and then went back out to Scottsdale in the afternoon. We picked up Caitlin and drove over to Tempe to see Rachael’s apartment. Shawn came over from work and we all ate at Oregano’s. Gretchen got the boneless Buffalo chicken. Then she treated everyone to StarBuck’s with her gift cards from the orthodontist.

Wednesday Shawn took Gretchen’s leftovers from Claim Jumpers to work for lunch. Rachael was back to school. Poppo, Gretchen and I spent the day at home until Gretchen’s eye appointment and then we went to Yogurtini. Thursday Gretchen wanted to go to the butterfly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens. The three of us spent a couple hours there; Gretchen and I even got to release new butterflies into the garden. Then we went back to ASU to get Rachael for lunch. The three of us at Dilly’s Deli in Tempe. Thursday was the day Shawn took Gretchen’s Buffalo chicken to work.

First leftovers snatched
Rachael buys more on Friday
Dad strikes second time

On Friday Gretchen asked how to heat up her chicken. Umm… what chicken? My leftovers from Oregano’s. You don’t have any leftovers; Dad took them to work. Later I tell Rachael about the incident and she goes over to Oregano’s and gets more chicken before heading home. So Gretchen got more chicken. Everyone was raving about it; I had to try a bite. They are delicious. Rachael and Gretchen shared the order Friday night and there were a few leftover. Saturday Rachael had some for lunch and left a couple for Gretchen once she got home from school. Well Dad saw them in the fridge and ate them AGAIN! I told him we’re going to tape a big – Dad, Do NOT touch! on the next order!