What type of STUCK are you?
I have a history of living on hills. Most of my growing up years we lived on a big, steep hill on a big, steep mountain. I only remember getting stuck in the snow once on that hill – and it was the night after my youngest sister was born. My dad and I […]
5 Lessons from My Final Year.
Most of you know that I walked into a public school building as an employee for the last time this week – after doing so for 31 years. I walked out with tears. Lots of tears. Here are five lessons five of my students taught me in this, my final year. I’ve shortened their […]
Slow progress.
My Grandpa Johnson was a renaissance man in every sense of the word. He was a master of multiple disciplines and was not afraid to try anything that sparked his interest – he was a builder, a carpenter, an electrician, a high school teacher, a tennis coach, an air force captain, a solo vocalist, a […]
Starting Over.
I’m going to guess that all of us have had an experience in our lives where something was ruined. The tent fell down, the lego castle was crushed by our brother, the hairdresser chopped our bangs too short, the cake came out of the oven underbaked, the application got denied, the internship didn’t turn into […]
Color Changing & Comfort.
My nail lady, Marisa, loves to try to talk me into choosing color changing nail polish. Yes. I have a nail lady. I’ve been seeing her to get gel polish on my nails once every 3 weeks for the past 12 years. She is, hands down (get it?), the BEST and most perfect nail lady […]
Hoodwinked.
Several summers ago, my sweet dog, Scout, and I were visiting my brother Marty in Montana. My brother Jack and his family were also visiting, and we all decided to take a ‘beautiful hike’ one day. I am here to tell you that the hike was not beautiful …. and it was not Montana’s fault. […]
Help in the “missing”.
During the month of May in 1985, while some of you were merrily going about living your lives, I was going through some serious senior year angst. My dad teased me because before asking permission to attend every event that spring, I would dramatically say to him and my mom, “But it might be the […]
Don’t ask your kid this question.
Many, many of my conversations at the very large, very suburban, very public high school where I’m finishing my career are about grades. SO much talk about grades. This post is not about whether we should care about grades (we should) or whether we should expect our children to get ‘good’ grades (we shouldn’t). This […]
What support says.
I was lucky enough to know and love both of my grandmas, and a step-grandma, before they died. I don’t take that time, or them, for granted. I was also lucky enough to be able to choose a grandma. The one I chose was named Brownie. I met her in 1988 and for 22 years, […]
I’m not good at it. And it’s scary.
I always tell people “We grew up riding motorcycles” – which is true. Kind of. We had several motorcycles, and most of us rode them. It’s just that some of us rode them better than others. My dad built a second garage behind our house so we had an upper driveway and a lower one, […]
