My very first slice

Oh, my very first Slice of Life writing piece---I'm so excited!

When I first heard about SOL from the Two Writing Teachers blog I fell in love with the idea.  After all, teachers writing models that we actually think it is truly important and worthy of our time.

As a middle school librarian, I want to encourage my students not only to read, but to write, as well.  I want them to feel confident about it and feel encouraged to continue and grow in their writing.  I want them to discover that writing can help us work through hard feelings and difficult times as much as it can take us on magical journeys to places currently unimagined.  Writing has given me these gifts (I've kept a journal since I was in 4th grade, and OH the teen angst those many journals have witnessed!  OH the joys!  the pains!  the heartache!) and I want so much to share that with the tweens and teens (and adults!) I work with at my campus.

At any rate, I'm joining in the fun and excited about this challenge.  If you aren't currently slicing--won't you think about joining in?  The more the merrier!

Today's Slice:

The weather in my neck of the Texas woods has been incredibly cold and soggy of late.  The kind of wet cold that chills you down to your very bones and makes even the thought of leaving the house a bit dreadful. The sky is a dull cheerless dripping gray.

School employees heard the news before we even left school yesterday that today we would have a late start.  A two hour delay.  Not a snow day, which is lovely but must be made up (generally on Good Friday or even worse--a Saturday!) but definitely means I get to stay up a bit later and that I'll have time to enjoy my coffee at home in the morning.

It also means that I'll be the one dropping the children off at their elementary school before heading in (now late because of our respective start times, which is why my husband normally takes them) to work myself.  It means I am gathering backpacks and running back in the house for forgotten blankies we simply MUST have for our naptime (my youngest is in Pre-K).  It means I am brushing hair and wiping tears and suggesting we all hurry up just a bit (wait--aren't we supposed to have more time this morning?  this does NOT feel like more time.) I'm cleaning up the spilled juice and wiping noses, and also suggesting that perhaps if we all just put our shoes in the same place every evening we might actually know where both of them are in the morning.

Success!  We finally all make it out of the house, and into the car and down the street, and through the line and get dropped off, backpacks and projects and blankies in tow, blowing kisses and saying have-a-great-day from happy children and a semi-happy mama.

Not a drop of precipitation on the road.  I am grateful for this---I used to live in North Texas where we got a lot of black ice on the roads and it is both treacherous and exhausting to drive on it.

I make it to my school in less than 15 minutes.  Thank goodness I saw the just-sitting-there-forever train before the point of no return, took the long way and made it to work.  Whew.

No breakfast duty, but no quiet morning time either. Drank my coffee at home,so no warm, homey smell in the library, a fact that was bemoaned by teachers wanting a cup AND my students who love, love, love the smell when they walk in and were completely bummed that it "didn't smell right."  Note to self:  always make the coffee!

And it rained.  Slowly at times, down to a fine mist.  Pouring down at other points in the day, but always raining.

And it was c-o-l-d.  I realize I live in Deep East Texas and while my cold is not your cold if you live in North Dakota, my cold is still MY COLD, and it was frigid.

It is nearly midnight now.  The storms and high electricity use have caused power outages in counties all around me.  I'm lucky (knock on wood) we have ours, and so I am toasty warm, snugged up in my favorite blanket sitting in my favorite chair (drinking my favorite red) at this late hour because...

Tomorrow is once again a late start.


Thank you for reading my slice,
Mrs. S