Author: Jennie Lee Castrogiovanni

Paper Hearts

On By Jennie Lee CastrogiovanniIn Uncategorized5 Comments

 

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Our local television station has a segment at the end of the news when they let people “talk back” on air. People vent about everything from our incessant potholes to the weathermen’s dogs, which often make an appearance on the weather segment. Recently someone complained about Valentine’s Day. She was sick to death of hearing about it everywhere. She didn’t have someone special, and she hated hearing about others’ presents, cards, romances. By the end of her rant, she was screaming in frustration.

The next night there were all kinds of commentaries, many trying to support this lady, suggesting they would like to buy her flowers and encouraging her to give love to others or maybe to do something special for herself on this day devoted to love. This positive feed-back made me think about my own attitude towards Valentine’s Day. My husband is very good to me on Valentine’s Day, buying flowers and chocolates and giving me a special note. Now that I’m a grandma, I am also lucky enough to get home-made cards from my little darlings.  I reciprocate with gifts or good wishes to my family, and that’s about it.

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True confession: I’m a French teacher, and I usually don’t do much for my students on Valentine’s Day; I save the hoopla for Mardi Gras, which is just around the corner. But this year I thought maybe I would do something special with my students for Valentine’s Day, so I searched my wonderful Facebook French Teacher group for inspiration, and I discovered an interesting idea.

It was with a little trepidation Friday that I got scissors and construction paper ready and faced my first class of seventeen-year-olds. They suggested that maybe they should just get the day off because of the holiday. Nope!

“Everyone take a piece of construction paper of your favorite color,” I ordered, “and cut out a big paper heart!”

“How?” they asked.

“You don’t know how to cut out a paper heart?” I demonstrated, folding the paper in half and cutting out a half heart, unfolding it, and voilà! Still there were some pretty shaky hearts.  Apparently in the rush to have children reading by the time they are four and doing calculus by the third grade, the fine art of making paper hearts has been lost.

When everyone had made some facsimile of a heart, I told the students to write their French names in large letters, and then I gave everyone a list with 99 compliments in English and French.

“We (I was including myself in this activity) are now going to pass these Valentines around in an orderly fashion, and we are going to think of a compliment for everyone else and write it in French on their card. Do not get ahead of the class! Stick to the list! Go!”

Everyone got busy, and I hustled to write something nice on every card as it was passed to me in a somewhat orderly fashion, as I also oversaw the entire operation. I glanced at the mostly silent students, their heads bent over their cards, composing their messages: Tu es belle; tu es intelligente; tu as du talent; tu as une influence positive; tu es charmant!  There was a serenity about the room. The positive vibes were tangible.

When they were done, just before the bell rang, the students read what their classmates had written to them.  They laughed and smiled. “This was a great activity!” someone said. “This was humbling, thank you, Mrs. Castro,” said one sweet girl.

At the end of the day, I closed my classroom door and read my paper Valentines with all the pencil-scrawled messages of kindness.  I decided to assume they were all sincere.  I was glad no one was there to witness as tears streamed down my face.  It was the best Valentine’s Day ever!

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Thank you for reading, and may you have some lovely words written upon your heart!

Or better yet, may you write some lovely words upon someone else’s heart!

After the Storm

On By Jennie Lee CastrogiovanniIn Uncategorized9 Comments

We had a fierce winter storm here yesterday, but today dawned gorgeous pink, gold, and blue, so my true friend Mattie and I went for a walk up the snow-covered road. Don’t you find that one of the best times for thinking is when you are outside walking? I do.

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One of the things that I thought about as I trudged along and Mattie hurtled along was that I haven’t posted a blog entry in a long time. My original plan was to write two blog entries per month. Well, you see how that’s gone. The story of my procrastinating life! Actually, life has gotten in the way. December was a month of change and some difficulty and a whole lot of busyness; I have no excuse for January’s couch-potato frame-of-mind.

Part of the stumbling block was that maybe I thought I had to write a thoughtful, fairly lengthy essay on life each time I sat at my laptop and sifted through the words that are careening around in my brain. But what I realized, as I hiked up the road and later skied through the field, is that it’s really just a matter of doing it at all.

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So that’s it for today. The end. Actually, it’s another start. Sometimes that’s enough.

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Peace, my friends, and thank you for reading!

Still Thankful

On By Jennie Lee CastrogiovanniIn Uncategorized2 Comments

It’s a few days after Thanksgiving, and I’m still thankful for my blessings, which include three grown children, two with spouses, one with children, who are sometimes not able to be home for holidays. I wrote the following words last year at Thanksgiving, and I’m dedicating this post to the beautiful people in my life who have to be far away:

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I am grateful 
For Pike’s Peak
And for Katherine Lee Bates, 
Who wrote “America The Beautiful”
And whose statue sits
There in 
Colorado Springs, 
Gazing westward
At her mountain
Majesty, 

26 hours away by car 
From where I live
On a farm in PA.

And I am grateful for my 
Military children, 
Helicopter pilot,
Military wife—
My precious, far-away 
Daughter, 
With her tiny beautiful girls, 
Who 
Have had to say
So many good-byes
In their short lives, 

Who are the reason
I venture across the miles
Westward,
and gaze with
Katherine
At the wonder
Of Pike’s Peak.

Thank you for reading this.

Old Quilt

On By Jennie Lee CastrogiovanniIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

by Jennie Lee Castrogiovanni

November 28, 2019

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The quilt in the pictures was given to me by my mother when Great Aunt Libby died. It is a spectacular family heirloom for which I am grateful, but which is also full of mystery.  Who made it? How/When/Why did they put all the pieces together? What is the significance of the dog carrying a basket? Who was MAR? What was the Garfield Club? It’s sad to me that this quilt holds stories within its squares, triangles and odd pieces, stories that I will surely never know. Still I treasure it as a piece of art, a connection to my ancestors, and I wish that I had asked more questions when I was younger.

Hence this Blog…

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I’m a want-to-be crafter, the one looking on enviously at the craft shows, thinking that I could make that beautiful knitted scarlet poncho, the finely detailed baby sweater, the gorgeous table inlaid with bluestone from a local quarry, if I only had the ambition, time, talent, and true desire. For as soon as the thought goes through my mind that I should try to crochet mittens for my granddaughters, I remember the pillows that I embroidered for my daughter when she got married. Er, actually I mean the one crookedly stitched pillow that I finally finished and presented to her on her first anniversary. The second pillow to the pair still resides palely in its lonely box. Occasionally I think about finishing it…maybe someday. Or the baby blanket I started to knit or crochet, can’t remember which, for my cousin’s baby some 20 years ago. Alas, it turned into a bookmark, and I never gave it to her. Or the pressed flower greeting cards I was going to make, or the old horse cart that our neighbors pulled out of a falling-down shed for me to repair and repaint.  They used to hitch their horse to it in the old days and take it to town.  My husband can remember seeing it when it was beautiful.  I had visions of fixing it up and painting it the original cheerful red with yellow wheels and hitching up my Amish-bred horse to it and giving people rides and maybe even showing it off during the town’s annual 4th of July parade. Never happened and I hang my head in shame.

The only hobby I am really good at is reading, which maybe explains why I fail at all the others I endeavor. I’m too busy reading in my spare time.

The other thing I like to do sometimes is write. When my kids were little and I was a stay-at-home mom I used to write a bi-weekly column called “Meandering” for a local farm newspaper.  I gave it up when I went back to work full-time, but still sometimes in my mind there is a breezy whisper that I need to keep on writing.

So this Blog is my quilt. I thought about calling it “Still Meandering”, but as I head toward my green-pasture years, “Gallivanting” in the sense of “travelling about for pleasure” seems more fitting. This Blog will be my craft for my children and grandchildren and for anyone else who cares to read and hopefully enjoy some of the stories of my life and some of my thoughts as well.

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Thank you for reading!