Merely Day By Day

A Child's Eye The young family walks down the city street glancing inside windows. Mom in front Dad in back. Two children tucked in the middle. It isn't long until they near an ice-cream shop. The family pauses as if to decide. Going in? Staying out? Adults talk together. Children wait. Suddenly the young girl shouts, "Look at the sky." Her mom stops her conversation, glances up. The girl points, "White flowers floating." The street stands still. The adults, walking distractedly down the sidewalk, stop, noticing what they hadn't noticed before. Dogwood petals fall like snow toward the city sidewalk. A moment that might have gone unnoticed without the watchful eyes of a young child. © Cathy L. Mere, 2016 For the month of March I will be participating in the  March Slice of Life Challenge  hosted at  Two Writing Teachers .  It will be a busy month of writing, commenting, and learning with this communi...

Tonight my mom and I went down to play some BINGO with the Lion's Club.  The activity center near her residence houses the event every few weeks.  We walked in to the center, purchased a few cards, and played several games of BINGO.  I didn't win.  I'm not as lucky as my grandma used to be, but the time playing with my mom reminded me of some great times by my grandma's side.   There wasn't anything better than spending time with my grandma.  My grandma was the mother of three boys, so being the first grandchild AND a girl gave me quite a bit of privilege.  Not only did I have automatic points with my grandma, but when I was nine they built apartments behind my house.  My parents probably saw a problem with the open field being replaced by multiunit housing, but I saw opportunity. When the apartments started to be built, I picked up the rotary phone and called Grandma to let her know the place she should live was right behind my ho...

As we followed the winding road south, we crossed  the line to spring much earlier  than usual. The brown turning green. The white dogwood blooms dotting the meandering road. The redbud accenting the world  in shades of sunset pink. Signs of hope. The promise of days to come. © Cathy L. Mere, 2015 For the month of March I will be participating in the  March Slice of Life Challenge  hosted at  Two Writing Teachers .  It will be a busy month of writing, commenting, and learning with this community.   Stop by  today's link up  to join the conversation or find some great reading.

In the evening the blackbirds gather in gaggles across tree tops: whistling from white pine, calling from maple, trilling from tulip tree. The blackbirds' early spring songs contrast the silence of weeks ago, when the trees waited for their return. During the day they go unnoticed, as the sun begins to set they come out  to play bird games, soaring in pairs against the cerulean sky.   As evening wanes, the crescendo continues in chattered chorus, birds dart  from here to there, flitting from tree to tree, as if trying to keep  treetop numbers equal. As birds begin to blend with night sky, they sing their last refrain, play their last games, dance their last dance, the coda closes the day as the blackbird vanishes into their nests for the night.   © Cathy L. Mere, 2016 For the month of March I will be participating in the  March Slice of Life Challenge  ho...

It's March Madness.  Despite my current fascination with fantasy sports, I'm really not much of a March Madness fan.  Short of watching a few Buckeye basketball games, I really don't watch much college basketball. Though I've hardly watched a game, I decided to join our family's bracket challenge hosted by my nephew.  I tell the family I add a little extra challenge as to get beat by someone like me would surely be worse than losing.  They don't seem as worried as I think they should be.   It's March Madness so my husband is kicked back in his chair flipping between at least four different channels.  DirectTV has helped him by creating a composite channel that combines several games on one screen.  After all the years we've been married, I've come to expect the world to come to a stop for basketball during this month.  How did we do this before the DVR?   While the rest of the world thinks the madness in March is basketball, those...

Realizing my husband had left a few lights on in the basement, I took a deep breath and headed downstairs.   The light was coming from the far side of the basement so I had to walk through the scattered boxes and ruined remnants of our lives to turn them off.  As I stepped on the carpet with my bare feet, water squished under my toes.  The carpet had become a sponge still holding onto some of the water that had flooded our basement since Monday. Since first hearing the news, I'd tried to avoid the basement.  Most of my life, I have found pretending something isn't happening can make it a little less painful for a bit.  Knowing I'd eventually have to take myself down there and start filling a dumpster with unsalvageable pieces, I thought I'd take a wait to worry approach.  I was already heartbroken about the waterlogged hope chest that once belonged to my grandmother.  Years ago it stored letters from her first husband, my grandfather, sent to her w...

via Khaydock WikiMedia Commons Today I was talking with my friend, Julie, about an upcoming iBook project we will soon be tackling.  Julie has worked with iBooks before, but this is all new to me.  As we talked I began asking questions.  How will be do this collaboratively?  What will we need others to contribute?  Will we use a template?  Can we add to the book later?  Does everyone have to send their books to Apple before they become iBooks?  The questions were rolling out faster than Julie could even listen to them.  Finally, she looked at me and said, "Do you know this is Question Week ?" What?!?!   There's a question week .  I just love questions.  It appears question week has been organized by Warren Berger, the author of A More Beautiful Question .  I had to stop by the blog to check it out.  Sure enough, there are all kinds of links and activities suggested for question week.  Did you know you mi...