Unmoored – and embracing it.
Recently I have become fascinated with the term “unmoored.” If you’ve been around me lately, you’ve probably heard me say it more than once. The fascination is because that word can mean two completely different things – depending on your thoughts. Unmoored can mean freed, liberated, unshackled, released, and unlocked. Yea! And unmoored can […]
No. Matter. What.
Every day, while driving back into my neighborhood, I pass by a house with a basketball hoop in the driveway. And at least 9 days out of 10, there is a 12-year-old boy named Brennan underneath that hoop – doing a bunch of basketball things that I don’t know what to call and have no […]
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 […]
