Skip to main content

Word collector

I am working on one final project for the closet and am collecting four letter words.  I have a pocket organizer which I will hang on the back of the door that has six rows with four columns.  I thought it would be cool to find six words that I can stencil across each pocket and I am having fun thinking of the words I should stamp. 
There are lots of words, like Work, Play, Live, Give.  This is good too:

And while I was searching, I found this inspiration for the dining room table:
I might be stenciling for quite a while now!  If you're inspired too, here's a site with directions:
But back to the pocket project.  I wish I could use some 5 letter words too, like Laugh.
Naomi Shiyab Nye told a story about finding a young boy's word book, a collection of words he had learned to spell, and she turned to the L page.  This is what she found:
  • Live
  • listen
  • love
  • laugh
  • linger
  • lounge
  • long
  • learn
She said we could certainly learn a lot from this short list poem.  It's a great list to live by.  I could definitely use these words, especially long.  Isn't it wonderful to long for something?  It's so different from want or need.  So I have some beautiful inspiration for my pockets!
But then I had another idea.  Last week my son got a personal narrative essay back from the teacher.  He had written about going to Massachusetts and the second sentence read, "We all unpacked our junk..."  Well, the teacher crossed out junk and wrote in supplies!  Really, supplies?  We don't call it supplies.  My son doesn't say supplies.  I like the word junk.  So I'm also thinking of writing "JUNK" on every pocket because it's so apt, (the pockets will be full of junk!) and because I just want to affirm that his word choice in the essay was right on. 
I might also include the four-letter word Pray.  It's a good reminder each  morning and will be tonight when I meet his teacher for parent conferences!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bundling

 My husband accuses me of bundling. Like everything. I won't go down the basement until I have collected a pile of everything that could possibly need to go down. So I'll bring the laundry down to the kitchen and then I'll start bundling. The old front door wreath goes on top of the laundry, The drill I used in the garden yesterday - on top. The Fourth of July banner on top of that. I can amass quite a pile. The same goes when I'm out doing errands. I have a doctor's appointment in Mt. Laurel? Hmm. I can stop at the Home Sense store, the big Dollar Tree, the Produce Junction, the Michaels, and the Container Store. All on my way home! I like bundling. Not just because it saves trips, which equates to gas, but it also saves my energy. If I separated those trips it would be hours or even days of travel. I don't have time for that. When I can I want to tie everything together and wrap it up. With a pretty bow.  Bundling was an act of desperation back when the kids w...

What Is Grief?

 What is grief? It is standing in the shower and  you are suddenly crying and then you are sobbing. And you barely thought about it in the two days since you heard  your Uncle Rich passed. You thought about your dad and your cousins and your aunt and how sad they must be and you checked in on your dad. "I'm so so sorry." And you went to work and you did what you had to do. And now you are ready for another day and you are thinking of all the things and then you are crying and you are little again and vulnerable  and your heart hurts. And you remember everyone. Medford Lakes and a swimming pool and laughing so hard  and dancing around a Christmas tree and fireworks by the lake at night. And you can see his face and all their faces smiling Aunts and uncles and cousins and brothers who aren't here. And you remember his voice, deep and laughing, and you remember his kindness and his advice. "Are you taking vitamin C, Joannie?" You see all their faces and you mis...

Changing Seasons

Today is the first day back to school after break.   We are breaking into my mother’s house to steal an Ugly Sweater at 5 in the morning because it is Ugly Sweater Day and we have driven home from a gathering through the night up and down hilly, unlit, back roads where we saw a family of deer who spoke to us to tell us we were on the wrong road and they directed us back to a traffic-filled highway and on the roof we have tied some old evergreen branches that we will try to form into a tree because we forgot to get a Christmas tree when we had to take my son to the emergency room because he was spouting blood from his finger and while we were there my other son had a bloody nose and they were going to take him into surgery… But then I woke up.   The first day of school is not until tomorrow.   Today is January 4.   It is the Changing of Seasons around here.    Changing from the season of sleeping in and wearing pajamas, drinking 5 cups of coffee, some w...