First, yesterday, my blog got viewed by someone from Nepal. One of the reasons I love WordPress is that I can not only see how many views something has, but where (relatively) they are from. Nepal?? Seriously?? How cool is that? I show my students the chart where the views have come from this month so they can see, yes, your voice goes worldwide, so you need to be on your A game!

Yet, as I read through Veronica’s blog post titled On Living the Writerly Life.. the beginning of a philosophy, some days, it’s about getting with words down, and creating the A game later. How do you do that? With a routine! Hey, I wrote about this topic too! 🙂

I showed this post to my students yesterday, to get them excited about writing, and honestly, it got ME more excited about writing.

I got my writer’s notebook:

 

The book on the left, my daughters did not want, so I grabbed it. It’s a good size to fit into my pocket. I use the Hawkeye notebook, I use until I lose it! Damn my organization skills! 🙂 However, as I went through the blog and the day, I’ve got some gems from my sixth graders. Within 10 minutes of class starting, I get:

Hey Mr. Johnston, you know what I’m proud of? My mascara!

#youcantmakethisup

I’ve got my identity down (that doofus who writes on Tuesdays and sometimes Friday). I’ve got my ideas and beliefs (passionate about my family, education, my acreage, basketball, and maybe complaining about snow!). The only thing I’m missing, when do I write? I’ve got the “habit” so to speak as I love writing, but when?

Today, I wrote a few more gems of sixth grade (the smell of Axe in the morning), and it just felt good.

The writing time, it will come. The writing, it’s always been there.

And for this, I am thankful.

#attitudeofgratitude