R.L. Toalson's Blog, page 6
April 16, 2018
Garrulous: A Study in Vocabulary
My sons and I have a morning routine—or, rather, a “most mornings” routine: We tear off a sheet from the daily calendar and read a new vocabulary word. We read the definition and then challenge ourselves to use it for the day.
One recent day the word was “garrulous.”
Garrulous means “excessively talkative or rambling, especially on unimportant matters.”
What a great word!
I am a person who loves words—words that are, mostly, written, not necessarily words that are spoken. I love long words an...
April 9, 2018
On a Little Girl’s Purpose: a Call to Dream
When I was a little girl, I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up: an author.
I had fallen in love with books and stories as soon as I read—or someone read me—the first one. They were magical things, alive, breathtaking, full of a promise I could not wait to claim.
I started writing on blank sheets of paper that my mother kept stocked, along with sharpened pencils. My first stories featured characters by the names of Laura, Mary, Carrie, Ma, and Pa. They lived on the frontier and ha...
April 2, 2018
The Try that Succeeds: an Examination
It’s a windy day, and my sons want to fly a kite.
They all have the same one: a Star Wars Millennium Falcon that will look striking against the bold blue of the sky, if we can get it up in the air.
They take a running start and fling their kites into the air. The kites crash to the cement, a cascade of plastic clicks against immovable asphalt.
“Careful,” I say. “We don’t want to break them.”
They agree. But they are not exactly careful the second time around.
They take another running start,...
March 27, 2018
A Cute MG Story Told From the Perspective of a Dog
One of my sons loves stories with dogs. So after he read Woof, by Spencer Quinn, he left it on my bed, along with a note that said, “You have to read this, Mama.” And how could I refuse?
Woof was a sweet, engaging, sometimes humorous mystery, told from the perspective of a dog.
Yes. The perspective of a dog. It was delightful.
Here’s an example, taken from the first page of the book:
Two humans stood outside my cage, a white-haired woman and a gum-chewing kid. Gum chewing is one of the best s...
March 26, 2018
A Mother and Her Son: a Short Tale
My son and I walk to the mailbox, the full moon bulging in the sky off to the right. We live on a hill, and the moon is still low. It almost looks like we could touch it. I almost reach out and try.
He’s holding my hand. Every now and then he lets it go and runs ahead, trying to show me his defensive moves. He’s just told me he might sign up for fencing when he gets to middle school next year.
Keys jangle in my hand. When we reach the mailbox, he takes the keys from me and opens the box. Noth...
March 19, 2018
Be You: Lessons From The Greatest Showman
This weekend my husband and I took our three oldest sons to see The Greatest Showman. We’ve already seen it, but we were incredibly excited to see it again, because we really loved it (if you call crying through nearly the entire thing enjoying it; but this is not so unusual for me. I cried at one point during the Captain Underpants movie).
We wanted our boys to see this movie because not only is the music phenomenal and the story well-told, but the message of the story is one every human bei...
March 5, 2018
10 Things that Are Sepulchral: an Observation
This rainy day is somewhat sepulchral, but my spirit is still blithe.
Other things that are sepulchral:
Endless rain
Finding a hole in a favorite shoe
Losing my place in the book I’m reading
A friend disappointing me
A son with a broken heart
The smell of burned popcorn
Accidentally hurting someone’s feelings
Lack of opportunity
Violence of any kind
Forgetting who you are
(Photo by Inge Maria on Unsplash)
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February 26, 2018
Sepulchral: a Study in Favorite Words
I like fun, positive words like “blithe” and “robustious” and “uberty,” but every now and then (actually, it’s more than every now and then; I really enjoy the dark words, too), I add a negatively-associated word to my list of favorites.
Like “sepulchral.”
Isn’t that a fantastic word? [Pronunciation: Səˈpəlkrəl] You must say it out loud.
Listen to the way it rolls off your tongue. Feel its enormity. Revel in its peculiarity.
Sepulchral is a word that means “dismal” or “gloomy,” like the day t...
February 19, 2018
The Scary Nature of Being: a List, Followed By a Formula
What is scary to me:
Spiders, especially the big hairy ones
Snakes
Cancer
People who hate
The dark
Noises in the dark
Tornadoes
The ocean
Fire
Watching my sons do crazy tricks
High places
Big, ferocious dogs
My cat, when I’m walking past my bed and he’s hiding underneath
Clowns jumping out at me from the woods
Children dressed as dolls jumping out at me from the woods
Pandas with gruesome teeth jumping out at me from the woods
Pretty much anything jumping out at me—from the woods or other pla...
February 12, 2018
The Weather and My Mood: A Short Story
Early this morning I thought that we would be washed away by the deluge of rain that dumped from the sky. Ditches filled in a matter of minutes, and our windshield wipers could hardly keep up. We craned our necks to see the way forward.
And then this afternoon we drove home to clear blue skies and wispy white clouds.
This morning I left home with a cloudy kind of mood, and I emerged this afternoon with a brighter outlook on life.
The weather and my mood, married.
(Photo by Scott Webb on Unspl...
