Such lovely tomatoes Matt plucked from his garden pots and put in the window sill to finish ripening. I donned an apron and set about dicing them and making them into bruschetta, while I listened to a panel discussion online about the theology of work. The panel took a question, written by a man who was in a consultation position… Read More
Hard Work Is Good
I snuck two more packs of 3 x 2-1/2” notecards into my cart at Shopko, the way a drunk slips a flask into his pocket. Only those people in my inner circle could even begin to count the number of Spanish flashcards I’ve made over the years, for my class and for my own personal continued education. There’s a stack… Read More
Whatever You Do, Do It Like This
My conclusion at the end of spring break: I am…different. Partly I know this because of the look on my brother’s face when he found out I was listening to Grit: The Power of Passion And Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth, on my 12-hour drive to our mom’s house. “No,” he said. “You should be listening to something fun. You’re on… Read More
Thank God It’s Not Always Friday
I won’t blame those freshmen guys for yawning all the way through my class. It was 2:00 in the afternoon, and they had started the day with a before-school basketball practice. It was a grueling first week in their new schedule, to say nothing of the fact that it was the end of the quarter and they had a mountain… Read More
Living in A Good Kind of Tired
There was not enough ibuprofen in the world to make my arm stop aching on Sunday night. Matt had left for work that morning, and I had put on my old shorts and t-shirt, for a serious work day of my own. By the time Matt got home at 3:00, I had tweaked all of my Spanish lesson plans for… Read More
Learning to Prize the Most Difficult Work
Over a drinking fountain at church, a friend asked me if I was enjoying the summer break from teaching. I had a newly formulated answer for her, after much thought these last few months. “I love teaching, but I am enjoying the rest from the complexities of the job,” I said. Truth was, I was very sad for the year… Read More
You Want Your Hard Work to Mean Something
I woke up to snow in Lander, Wyoming, which continued throughout the day until we had nearly 10 inches. It is the end of March, and this is life in the Rocky Mountains –in like a lion, out like a lion. My mom and I drove through all that snow to Ace Hardware, where we picked up a gallon of… Read More
Your Daily Work And How Much God Cares
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 not sure what this means… Read More
Celebrating Your Good Kind of Busy
You know what? It was just a plain old week around here. Regular commitments. No vacations or exciting adventures. Makes it hard for a girl to blog, if I’m waiting for something profound to share with you. But I thought of a teensy instruction for women, in Titus 2:5: Be busy at home. I did that. I cooked dinner every… Read More
You Can Be An Improver
My girl was home for the weekend, and her husband was quite generous to share her. So we climbed in the car, where I proceeded to talk her ear off. It’s our working arrangement that I talk and she listen with enthusiasm. We headed to Wal-Mart, which is 10 times more fun if your daughter is with you. At one… Read More