A weekend. A few short days.
Scouts.
Soccer.
Swimming.
A spelling contest.
Painting pumpkins.
Pumpkin patch.
Football game.
And of course eating.
So many stories of life. So little time. So much time. Time together.
Scouts. Remembering meetings from 25 years ago as we listened to the oath and heard about community helpers. Service projects for five year olds.
Soccer. Remembering those first Little League games as we learned the rules and the formats. Following the same process for five year olds’ soccer.
Swimming. The joy of an indoor pool in October. Laughter and high jinx by the brothers. Swimming, jumping and splashing. Shortening my life as the daredevil two year old stepped off the edge. Fearless. Fearful. Family together.
Spelling contest. Begun with grandma and grandson. Evolved to Dad and son. “Antidisestablishmentarianism” vs “like” and other rhyming words.
Painting pumpkins. Observing the pumpkins. What is the same? What is different?
- ALL Four with gems.
- ALL Four with faces. . . Eyes and mouths.
- ALL Four with painted stems.
- ALL Four with happy mouths.
- Three with blue.
- Three with purple.
- Remembering all people were wearing some paint! Painting . . . not for the faint of heart when multiple colors are used and children are encouraged to be creative.
- Decorating pumpkins . . .
A weekend with the kids!
What do we value?
How do you know?
What would you write about from your weekend?
Process: List “All About Events”. Consider details of each event. Which sounds interesting/intriguing? Choose one to draft additional details to lead to small moments.
Pumpkin painting was fun. We chose our pumpkins and began to talk about what we might use. We tried to share the paint and the glue. Sorting gems was interesting. Red. Orange. Yellow. Big. Medium. Small. Use the gems to decorate? Use the gems as eyes and body parts on the pumpkins? So many choices. As we worked we all used gems. All our pumpkins had faces with eyes and happy mouths. All had painted stems. Favorite colors were blue and purple with blue also as the most “worn” color by the people. It was fun to paint pumpkins with the kids.
If you are going to paint pumpkins, choose your work area carefully. If everyone will get their own paintbrushes, you may want to cover the table or work area to make clean up easier. Then you need to decide HOW you will decorate the pumpkins. Will you only use paint? And how many colors? If you want to use other craft items, you will need glue to attach them to the pumpkins. Paint and glue may make you think about whether you also need to cover the floor in your work area.
Plain pumpkins waiting. Waiting to be chosen for a painting marathon. A card table covered with a Halloween plastic tablecloth. A table littered with items. A pack of paint brushes. A half dozen or so paint tubes. Dixie cups waiting for paint to be dribbled in for easier access. One Dixie cup with water to rinse out paint brushes. A container of gems. A bottle of glue. Ready? Set. Go!
Three paragraphs written in 10 minutes total. Which one would you choose to continue writing? How do we model different approaches to our writing? What does your own writing notebook work look like?
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____________________________________________________________________________ Drive-time Drafting: “No, please, no!” echoed as the creature approached me. “Let me grow bigger. I’m too small for you to choose me now.”
I surveyed my surroundings. So many empty places, that formerly held friends and relatives. Whole stems broken and discarded, vines trampled, and destruction everywhere.
I couldn’t see who else was still clinging to the vine. Was I the last survivor? Was everyone else already either painted, carved or facing some other torture devised by humans?
Resource - Full 
I loved getting glimpses into your memories and notebook processes. You always inspire me to try new things. The more I notebook the more I wish I had a printer at home so I could collect good ideas like this easily to try in my notebook:)
It’s a pain to wait for a printer. Sometimes I just snap a picture, insert it in a doc, and just type away.
It is always interesting to see the process you go through in picking a topic and writing about it. I think many students forget that thinking about a topic and where they want to take it is as important to the writing process as the actual writing.
Maybe even more important and taking/making the time to play with the ideas and words so there is room to change one’s mind
Love that you added a photo, too! Thanks for sharing your fall fun!!
Fall family fun for sure! Such a busy time!
Hi Fran! What a lovely collection of memories. My kids are now in the pre-launch phase of life — all in high school (one graduated, but living at home this first year of college). Your list gives me hope that those memories we are building will always be just a notebook entry away!
Shine on,
Ruth