College Poetry Assignment #5

This poem had to be about two inanimate objects having an argument. I chose shoes. :)

Uninvited

You make me sick, lying smug on the floor,

Smudge marks and scuffs blemishing

Your perfect crimson exterior…

Why are YOU her favorite?

You give her blisters!

You don’t offer support!

Sure, she might wear you all day…

But look at you! Plain white sides,

No heel to speak of,

No shine or color or style.

I make her look amazing.

What do you have to offer her?

I would be a much more suitable choice.

I protect and cushion all day long.

Is it your ripe cherry color?

Your stupid pointed heel

Poised to strike the floor

Like a javelin when she dances?

You don’t impress anyone,

Except perhaps her trainer at the gym.

But later that night, she will put ME on

to go out with him,

While you lie alone in the closet

Uninvited yet again.

By Jessica Baldwin

© 2011

College Poetry Assignment #4

This week I had to do a poem that took some sort of physical shape. I decided on doing a tree...

Silence

The

silence

of

the

early

morning

just before

their footsteps

clamber down the

flight of stairs: Soon

they tear into the bright

colored packages of red and

green while exultations of unbridled

joy echo against the garland-strung walls.

Someone will turn on the music

now, and we all join in on the chorus,

reminding ourselves that without a doubt

the most important part of the day is spending

it with the people we love. Hugs and kisses freely

exchanged with the people who traveled from far away

and everyone is smiling, everyone is happy, everyone is loved.

And still, throughout the bustle of the season, my absolutely favorite

moment is the first one. That perfectly silent one

where the house hasn’t yet realized the time. The treelight

flickers warmly, reflecting off the shiny wrapped boxes below,

holding treasures yet to be discovered. All the children safely nestled,

as the poem says… and while they dream I have a chance to relish in the quiet

calm that doesn’t last for very long – but long enough for my lungs to fill with the

breath and

beauty of

Christmas

morning.

Jessica Baldwin

©2011

College Poetry Assignment #3

Demoted

I am a student of low-affect living
edged with self-deprecating irony.
I exist on the edge of nowhere.

Since 1930 I had been part of the club.
I had always attended meetings,
and I (usually) knew my place in line.

I am bigger than New York City,
yet somehow they rejected me as too small.
Who is this "they," anyway, determining my fate?

So what if I am cold-hearted, or I have a stony exterior?
So what if I follow a different path?
(Who said mine's even wrong?)

I am just as important as the other eight.
I mean, really -
Now what is My Very Energetic Mother Just Serving Us Nine of?

I'll tell you one thing: it won't be Pizzas.
Who'd want a "dwarf" pizza, anyway?
I don't feel like a dwarf.

Well, maybe compared to Jupiter or something.
Perhaps it was all that self-deprecation?
I wish I were a planet again.

By Jessica Baldwin

© 2011

College Poem Assignment #2

this one was just a free-write prompt of a poem up to 40 lines. "Mzungu" means white person in Uganda.

Sleep in Uganda

Stifling heat forced the mosquito net

Against my sweaty skin

The whirring fan stopped again.

No matter. It didn’t help, anyway,

Other than to muffle the sounds

Of the men at the mosque on the hill

Wailing into the night.

Sleep would not come,

Not yet.

My eyes closed

And their faces appeared again.

The darkest children I had ever seen

Marred by poverty and disease

And war and death and suffering,

Who smiled the brightest banana smiles

To the mzungu girl with a camera

That came to help them when they feared

No one ever would.

The faces of the rejected

Were etched into the backs of my eyelids.

The widow who purely needed a reason to hope...

The youth a promise of a future...

To simply believe

That there was more to the world

Than the stench of the slums

In which they live.

Sleep would not come,

Not yet.

I finally understood Pure and Faultless Religion:

“look after orphans and widows in their distress.”

And I realized that coming here

Was more than a photo opportunity.

It was the seed planted

That would ultimately transform my heart.

So that this mzungu girl must return

To this Godforsaken country

That inexplicably took my soul hostage

Through the smiles of orphans in Uganda.

And in making my decision to return again,

Sleep finally came.

© Jessica Baldwin

02.05.11

College poem assignment #1

Part of my goal this year to better myself and my life includes renewing my teaching license, which means I have to take 6 college credits sometime before my birthday. Good thing I realized this before classes started this semester!

One of my classes I am taking is a poetry writing class. I thought it would be fun and challenging, and since I do enjoy writing, it would give me an excuse to force myself to do it.

Our first assignment was to write a short, 5-line poem about night somewhere that I have lived. I thought of so many different ways I could go about this one, but after visiting a nightclub just the other day with some friends of mine, I decided to use the inspiration from that experience to write my poem. Here it is, called "Pure Night":

the beautiful lost return again to

smoke and sound and sweat on a sticky floor

color and cologne mingle too closely

as the girl wraps herself around a stranger

who consents to break his vows

© 2011 Jessica Baldwin

One Little Word.

So I have decided to join the masses and pick out my One Little Word for 2011.

And it is LESS.

I want to learn how to make LESS more of a priority in my life.

LESS stress.

LESS worry.

LESS procrastination.

LESS overcommitment.

LESS self.

LESS weight.

LESS stuff.

LESS mess.

LESS television.

LESS excuses.

LESS running around.

LESS junk food.

LESS food.

LESS.

I think the more I strive to focus on LESS, the more I will feel fulfilled. ♥

Soooooo.... anyway.

The ole blog has been neglected as of late. And I am sure there is no one that even still reads it anymore, which is probably a good thing. I have decided to give it a little bit of a facelift and use it as a personal goalsetting journal, where I can focus on the things I want to do to take care of myself.

I look forward to getting back into this blog and making 2011 a year of awesomeness!

Mrs. Claus and Riley the Elf go caroling

One of the things we decided to do this year as part of our goal to restore meaning to Christmas was to go caroling at Cagui's assisted living community. So the kids dressed up...

Violet wore her Mrs. Claus costume that Mamalali made her last year, and Riley wore the elf costume I slapped together this afternoon. Yay for felt! I can sew felt. Just add a couple fun Christmas socks and you have yourself a regular costume!

We had our friends the Gomez family join us... Eli played guitar while the girls joined my two kids in the singing and merriment. I made their costumes too. Seriously felt makes me incredibly happy! I can't screw it up!

We walked through the halls, tying bows to everyone's doorknobs and singing our hearts out. The kids were adorable and everyone loved them, of course!
We stopped by Cagui's apartment and entertained him with a rousing rendition of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", which he enjoyed immensely. :)
Afterward we enjoyed hot cocoa at Starbucks...


and Violet and Riley conked out in the car on the way home. ;)

Hopefully we can make this an annual tradition. It was so much fun to bring joy to the residents and see their happy faces. We got lots of hugs and thank yous, some joined us in song, and everyone was left with a smile on their faces. It was a great night. ♥

My Children in November, 2009: The Violet Edition.

Violet, ever the performer, learned about the school's Lip Sync competition and she set about perfecting her performance of Avril Lavigne's song "Girlfriend" (Kids Bop Edition, so it was clean... LOL). She tried out and made it to the finals! When it came time for performance night, I helped outfit her in full ROCKSTAR clothes, complete with rad makeup.

She decided that ROCKSTARS are tough and don't smile for the camera.

They also pose like this:

Then I made her practice singing to get some "action shots" ;)


SING IT SISTAH!

Fortunately for me, I can always get my girl to smile ;)

The competition was great! Violet did a fantastic job and really worked the stage... up until the very end, I thought she would definitely have a chance at winning - and then, the last entrant performed. She sang Miley Cyrus's song "Party in the USA" and it was like we were actually watching Miley performing. Props! Choreography! And Impeccable lip-synching! This girl was in a league all her own. Violet loved watching her and getting some cool ideas for how to improve her next stage performance, and I was pretty proud of her for thinking that way. I love my girl :)

My Children in November, 2009: The Riley Edition.

My First Grader has been dying to lose a tooth! He is one of the last in his class that still have all their baby teeth, and he was getting pretty antsy... especially because for the past several weeks his bottom two teeth have started loosening. Well, a couple weeks ago he came home from school pretty excited because his loose tooth was REALLY SUPER LOOSE! I told him that if he worked at it, he could probably get it out today!

First, he had to see how far it would bend forward and back, side to side -

It was even starting to bleed, which I told him was a GOOD sign! That meant it was breaking free!
The other good sign was when he pushed it he could hear the distinctive popping sounds when it started pulling away from the gums. The more pops, the closer it was to coming out!
It popped some more, and he could almost get his tongue all the way under it! I told him it was almost no time now...
Grab it with the tissue, and PULL!
The look on his face when he realized that the tooth that was in his mouth was now in his hand was excellent. :)
And all of a sudden, my boy's smile would never ever be the same!
The neighborhood kids (all younger than Riley) came over to check out the tooth!
and Riley was super excited to have something to put under his pillow!
And the Tooth Fairy did visit him! He got TWO golden dollars! Lucky kid!

Halloween 2009!

I know, I know, I am a little late to the game, but I still wanted to share my cute kiddos from Halloween!

Violet wanted to be a "Cute Witch" - we looked around some stores for costumes, and although we found some, I wasn't about to spend $25 for a silly witch costume. I would make it myself! (all this two days before leaving for India... tell me again, WHAT WAS I THINKING??)

We found a cute hat, top, socks to turn into fingerless gloves, broom, and material to make a funky skirt/wrap. By the time it was all said and done, I LOVED the costume. And it cost me $45. SIGH. :)

The Boy was easy. He wanted to be Snake Eyes from GI Joe. $10 in the costume section at Target, and I was done.

We also decorated the front of the house with lots of creepy cobwebs and pumpkin decor!

And Violet practiced flying on her broom... first the takeoff...
balance....
and she was off!
I think she got the hang of it! :)

Going the DISTANCE!

So as some of you know, Liane and I are training to run a marathon! We are running this January in Walt Disney World, and we are about halfway done with our training!

Many of you may ask what in the HECK am I doing... and sometimes, when Liane and I are doing our long runs, I ask myself that same question! I have never been much of an athlete (well, actually, according to my dad I am a natural athlete, but I never have had the motivation to do anything sports-wise... ha!), so why not start with something small, like a 5K or 10K, or even a half-marathon? And my answer is simply this:


It had to be something completely foreign, completely unattainable. If I thought the goal was in any way reachable, then it wasn't a challenge for me. I had to take myself COMPLETELY out of my comfort zone so I could watch myself achieve something I had always thought impossible.


I am learning, through training and through some of the things I have experienced in this last month (such as going to India), that "with God, all things are possible!"


I know that there is no way I will be able to achieve this goal on my own. I also know that I will not be finishing this race anywhere near the front. I am training with Liane, which is the best choice I could have ever made. She motivates me and challenges me, she encourages me and believes in me. The two of us are consistently the last ones to cross the finish line on our Saturday runs... but we FINISH. And we will do the same in January.


We are running in honor of those fighing blood cancers and in memory of those who have lost their battles. We are raising money for this cause (see the widget on the right hand column on my blog!), and are very very thankful for anyone willing to donate to our race!


Right now, until November 25th, we are also offering a special incentive - for every $5 that is donated to our team, your name will be entered into a drawing to win a FREE PHOTO SESSION with Speckled Bird Art Photography! Can't beat that!


TELL YOUR FRIENDS! Take a second and check out our fundraising page! Pray for us!! We appreciate all your support! :)

The Baby Girls

Violet has been BEGGING me for a pet hamster for months. I told her she had to research it, tell me all about it, and then save up all the money to do it. She went to the library and checked out every hamster book there. She learned about their lifespan (3-5 years), that they don't like sharing their cage with another hamster (except in the case of dwarf ones), and that they needed their food and water changed daily. After more research, because she really thought it would be cool to have two of them, she was leaning toward a dwarf hamster (although the recommended age for caring for them is 14 and up). Then we thought about gerbils, which are smaller than hamsters (but not as small as dwarf ones) and they like to share their cage with siblings. That way both Violet and Riley could get one. She was liking that more and more! It took her 3 months to save the money to get the cage, bedding, tubes, food, and running balls, but she did it and now she is the proud mama (with Riley as the proud dad!) of two "baby girls" named Hermione and Juliet.

Here is Hermione (Riley's gerbil):

She is a light gray color and her eyes are light too - they almost look red (but not in a creepy way! LOL!)

And this is Juliet (Violet's getbil):
She is more brown than Hermione and she has black eyes.
Juliet is very curious.
And here are the two "baby girls", as Violet calls them.
We've had them for a couple months now and they really are cute. Violet puts them in their little rolling balls and lets them run around in my office while she cleans their cage. They love to burrow and run and climb and play and they have only escaped once (LOL - on *MY* watch!).

I am really proud at how responsible she is in taking care of them, too! She is definitely proving that she would make a great veterinarian. :)

Violet's Birthday Carnival - more summertime

Violet decided that she wanted a Carnival birthday party this year... and I have always wanted to do a carnival party, so I was ALL ABOUT IT! We painted signs and hung colorful flag banners...

Put up tents (Thank you Ted Wiens Tire & Auto for your canopies) and made some rad games...
And designed plenty of fun photo ops! All the signs were painted and colored by Violet and Riley.
Of course, it was a hundred and eleventy that day, so it was also a Pool Party! We called the pool our big Dunk Tank :)
This is one of the Carnies. She's in the Witness Protection Program, so we will just call her "Erin".
Everyone participating in the games...
Another Carnie, this one in charge of the Tic Tac Toe game...
Watch out for this guy. He was in charge of the Ring Toss, and let's just say we are pretty sure he wasn't playing it fair. He had shifty eyes.
This Carnie handled the Duck Shot game, one of the hardest of the day... you had to use the little Nerf gun to shoot a ducky off the sawhorse. Seems pretty easy, but nothing is as easy as it looks...
What's a carnival without Plinko? I'll tell you! It's no carnival at all!
There was even a golf game for the kiddos to play...
The kids loved "Spilled Milk", where they had to knock down plastic milk jugs...
and thanks to Oriental Trading Company and the $1 section of Target, there were plenty of prizes for all!
And look! I was there too!!
Riley showed us how to master the Skee-Ball game...
and here I am again with "Erin"
Of course we had grilled hot dogs!
and everyone took a turn taking pics in our silly photobooth.
The carnival really was a great time. All the adults who came were "put to work" at various stations, and all the kids loved going from game to game throughout the afternoon and evening. By making most of the games ourselves and shopping sales for the prizes, we really kept the budget down... and the kids happy!

Of course, now everyone's asking how I'm going to top THIS party! Hopefully I can come up with something in the next year... haha :)