A day trip to St. John, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands was one to remember. — If you read my post from two days ago, you’ll know that we are on vacation in the US Virgin Islands, staying on the island of St. Thomas. A neighboring island, St. John, is reachable by ferry from Red Hook. Yesterday, we decided to go to St. John for the…

Escaping the below-zero frigidity in the Midwest with a trip to the Caribbean. — Last fall, my husband and I had decided we needed to go somewhere warm in the dead of our Midwestern winter. We did this last year with a trip to Maui, our third trip to that island paradise but we figured we’d branch out. I looked into where it was…

I’m not new to blogging but with each new milestone, it remains exciting. — Since February 2017, I’ve been a daily blogger! I started on WordPress to join a blogging challenge called Slice of Life hosted by the creative educators at TwoWitingTeachers.org. It was a 31-day writing challenge for the month of March (2017). I completed it then and continued to write daily (or…

I am continuing on this photo challenge with the alphabet as our guide. — This week I continue to explore the A to Z Challenge on Medium. Links to a few of my past entries can be found at the end of the article. Eagles Bald Eagles are our national symbol and a conservation success story! When I was growing up, there were few bald…

Going natural has been one of my best decisions! — Three years ago in February, I made the decision to stop coloring my hair. My natural color is a very dark brown, almost black. I was coloring it every six weeks to keep from getting a gray stripe on my part. I used to be able to go every other…

Simply put, I cannot find anything I even want to read on Medium! — I am a constant self-evaluator, so it makes sense that I am evaluating this writing platform with each post I write and post. I am also a voracious reader. And, naturally, I evaluate what I read as well. I like to learn new things — about new places, new people…

What’s the Difference Between Traditional and Contemporary Haiku? — Up until now, I’ve only written traditional haiku. In truth, this is because I like the structure. There are 17 syllables in a three-line format with the first and last lines composed of five syllables and the middle line consisting of seven. It’s like a puzzle, I like finding the…

I never understood why it was taught this way and asked it not to be done. — It was the 2005–06 school year and my middle son was in kindergarten. His older brother was in 5th grade and his younger brother was 3 years old, at home with me. Immediately, I noticed some differences between how kindergarten was taught in 2000 and then in 2005. My boys…