Yesterday I drove down to get the mail. As I drove back home, I passed a little black girl who lives in our neighborhood. She waved an exuberant hello as I drove past, and I returned the wave. She made me smile. That’s when children came to mind. Children! I’ve been thinking like an adult…
I have a lot of nerve with this blog post title, as if I’m an expert or something. So, let me be clear that I had one successful moment handling my anger a few nights ago that I’m going to tell you about. As a teacher, I know that sometimes when trying to learn something,…
A few months ago, I made the 12-hour drive from northern Montana, to visit my mom in central Wyoming. On the way, I needed to make a pit stop but was in the middle of a Native-American reservation. I felt nervous to stop but finally made a desperate decision to pull into a gas station….
I walked the loop of our neighborhood last week, before going to church for the evening. Stress had been running high in my life, to the point that I was breaking out in hives, and I needed to take a mile to remember to breathe. But I passed by a house on the north end…
I paid $15.00 for a three-shelf unit for our garage. It was light enough that I could carry the box home in one hand. When I opened it and slid out the parts, there were several bags of varying kinds of pipes and screws labeled A through J. Seriously? I had to lay it all…
How did this white Montana girl end up on the equator in Uganda? Only by God’s design. But there I was, with my midwinter pale skin (which I refer to as “morgue white” when shopping for makeup), flying into the airport in Entebbe, Uganda: my first time to be in the minority. First let me…
It was the end of another full day of school, and I was doing my normal self-evaluation on the drive home. It’s like taking attendance, except my question is “Are you okay?” instead of “Are you here?” I see each student and replay and critique each conversation. Did I hurt any feelings? Say or do…
It’s 5:09 a.m., and the sun is coming up over the Rockies. I’ve been awake for an hour talking to God about a student whose progress is concerning to me, as we end the school year. Behind this name trails the name of a friend’s kid and another friend’s kid who are making bad choices…
One week to our 25th wedding anniversary, so you should know about a longstanding joke between Matt and me. I’ll make some insightful comment about a person, and Matt will disagree. I’ll argue with him, because…I argue. The disagreement escalates, until finally I bark at him, “Honey, which one of us knows people?” Then we…
I was four-people deep in line at the post office, which placed me next to greeting card racks on either side of me. My eyes went to the cards on the right, but after looking at a few, immediately I turned away. (Is there any greater sign of human depravity than in some greeting card…
Last week, Spanish class was awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, not so hot. My students made me want to weep with their success on more than one occasion. They really made some great advancements. Then came Friday and what I thought was going to be a super easy matching vocab test, but they didn’t impress me…
There is a box of Funfetti cake mix on my counter, because today is my 47th birthday, and I am going to take “homemade” cupcakes to school with me. Throw your own party –that’s what my inner seven-year-old tells me. It’s my birthday! Now let me back up to last night. A lot of times…
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