“Grandma, grandma, grandma,” says the three-year-old. “Up, up, up,” says the one-year-old. These two boys are not silent until they get a response from me, and I always respond–sometimes in the way they had hoped, sometimes with a “not now” and sometimes with a firm no–but usually with the response they had hoped for, because…
There’s a bull dog inside of me. If you tell me I can’t do something, game on. Inwardly I will cross my arms and say, “Oh yeah? You don’t think I can do this? We’ll see about that.” This tenacity and strong-willed determination serves me well. Sometimes. But lately I’ve been doing some serious praying…
Almost a dozen years since my trip to Uganda, and that young man I met is still messaging me on Facebook, asking how my husband and children are, asking how our church is doing, asking how can he pray for me today. We go back and forth. I have prayed for his daughter who has…
It’s Christmas, and that man of mine has only one person on his list: yours truly. He was expressing (with a flirty look) the urgency he feels, to carve out a shopping day so he can buy stuff for a certain someone. Don’t tell him, but I have a secret list going. It’s a…
Only the mother may pass. Behind the door of Jayme’s room (still hers in our hearts, even though she has a man and a mortgage now) lie growing mounds of Christmas treasures. Nondescript paper grocery sacks carry only a name on the outside but hand-picked stocking stuffers on the inside. On the floor in the…
Before I hit play on the DVD, I tell my students we’re going to watch the movie clip with Spanish audio and with Spanish subtitles. “There’s a problem, though,” I tell them, “because Disney hired one person to translate the audio and someone else to translate the subtitles. The words aren’t the same! They essentially…
I confess that I was at Jo-Ann Fabrics buying body parts for my Spanish class. Every year when Halloween approaches, I go on the hunt for some new visual to help teach body vocabulary. So far I have a skeleton (Mr. Bones), a pair of waxed lips, and, as of today, a giant set of…
Hey guys, I was really something the other night at a wedding shower. The bride was opening her lovely gifts, and one present was a muffin pan. “You know,” I told the bride, “I use a muffin pan to cook meatloaf, because it takes half the cooking time.” Instant fame. Apparently that was the best…
On the corner of Reserve and Whitefish Stage, I took a right and passed by a pristine, sapphire-blue Mustang. I was driving my dirty, dented Mitsubishi gallant. In the few seconds that it took to pass, I evaluated my life and found myself gloating over the other driver. “My life is better than yours, Mustang…
It didn’t used to matter to me –whether the Awana kids said the question or if I did. I figured the important part of their handbook time on Wednesdays was if they could state the truth they were learning and then recite from memory the Bible verse to support that truth. But then I considered…
Her number shows up on my cell phone regularly, and her first words are apologetic. “It’s me again. Your friend who went to the store and forgot to buy a main ingredient for dinner tonight.” She’s sorry to be bothering me, but would I happen to have any cheddar cheese for tacos? Meanwhile. On my…
It felt uncomfortable at first, my ridiculous prayer. Not sure where it came from, but it rolled off my lips and then became what I have asked God for every single morning for the last six months. I want to be the best Spanish teacher ever. If you’re a Spanish teacher reading this, um, I’m…
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