Honoring the journey—then and now
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Who threw the cheese?
Kids and Their Secrets The errant slice of American cheese that ended up on the bathroom floor has baffled all investigators for more than fifty years. Its softened edges, missing corner, and sweaty surface reside far back in my brain’s mystery album. Not a single one of us four kids admitted to tossing it beside…
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Sage-ing wisely
How did I ever do it all? How do any good teachers do so much? How do they hang in there in the long stretch from January to spring break? Giving, giving, giving– living, really— for their students to pass the holy spring tests? Only two years ago, I was busy planning weekly lessons all…
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Am I a history snob?
Once again, I’m reading a historical novel. They’re my go-to in the Libby filters when I’m searching for a new online freebie read. My setting preference is 1800’s United States. That’s probably because of the novel series I’m writing based on the diary of my Quaker ancestors during Reconstruction. Or the fact that I taught…
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My new invasive species: AI
It’s February and my seed catalog browsing has ended. I‘ve decided to create a native perennial flower bed along a neglected side of the house and even have the seed packets in hand. Now it’s time to consider where each plant will spend the summer at my house. Writing the names of the plants on…
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Call me
A poem about becoming Mastermind, I once was tagged in my introverted days. Arranging, calculating, quietly driven. Then Field Marshal, planning, executing, holding the torch, urging my battalion into victory. Often Fixer, eager to improve any situation, to declaw a beast, and watch it smile. Sometimes Seven, grabbing every random chance for growth to enjoy…
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Gorgeous flowers, with a little help from AI
I am starting to get over my Master Gardener imposter syndrome. I’m a teacher by training and vocation, so gardening has been a more recently developed hobby. But my knowledge is growing! After enjoying a bouquet of cut flowers sent by colleagues twice a month during the summer, my husband and I talked about whether…
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What’s your favorite relic?
A tooth from the Buddha, taken from his funeral pyre and reputedly still growing? The crown of thorns worn by Jesus during his crucifixion, housed in the cathedral of Notre Dame and miraculously saved from engulfing flames by a human chain of first responders? The head of John the Baptist, retrieved by a French crusader…
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Ten things I love about being sick
And staying home from work is not one of them! At the risk of sounding positively toxic, there are some upsides to being sick for two and a half weeks over the holidays. I wouldn’t have seen them the week before last when I was hacking up half a lung from the deep, rumbling cough…
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Triggers can be touchy things
As the wife of a gun expert in a previous life, I know that some triggers are set off with barely a brush, while others practically require a fat-fingered tug. In recent years, though, a trigger has become more than a mechanical device that initiates an explosive action on a firearm, as they were in…
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