11.7.2021 Walking out of church tonight I smelled it. Someone in the neighborhood must have had a fire burning in their backyard. I love that smell! I associate it with good conversation, sweatshirt weather, fresh air, and the deep, reflective thoughts that seem to flow freely when poking at the dying embers at the tail end of a fire. This past year I built myself a little fire pit area in my backyard. I’m really proud of it. A lot of sweat (and a fair number of tears) went i

11.6.2021 The past two weeks have been sooooo busy. They’ve been filled with lots of good stuff and lots of great people, but I’ve been on the go far more than not. I was pretty excited to have a free night tonight with nowhere to go and nothing I needed to do other than relax and watch the ISU football game on TV. I’m not super surprised that I didn’t make it more than 10 minutes into the game before I started to nod off. By the end of the first quarter I stopped fighting my

11.5.2021 Sometimes I’m thankful for my guest bed because it means I’m having a loved one visit and stay with me. I love those times. But tonight, I’m thankful to have no one sleeping in my guest bed so that it can hold the 3 loads of clean laundry that I couldn’t muster up the energy to fold and put away. Yep. Just doing my best to keep it real around here. Gotta be thankful for the hot mess parts of my life too.

11.4.2021 It’s actually both a blessing and a curse. I have always done very well under pressure. One might say I’m a procrastinator. I’d say it’s more that my creative genius is best expressed with a wee bit of pressure. But because I do well like this, I don’t seem to find the motivation to break out of this pattern. See what I mean ... both a blessing and a curse. I’m giving a talk at a retreat in a couple of weeks. I’ve been preparing for this for several weeks now … read

11.3.2021 I >>try<< not to stop for coffee on my way to work. But, sometimes I fail. At home I decided that I didn’t want coffee this morning. I love coffee, but don’t necessarily drink it every day. I wasn’t feeling it today, so I didn’t make myself any. However, by the time I was ¾ of the way to work I had changed my mind. I needed coffee. Good thing there’s a McDonalds not far from my school. I drove through and got my standard order – a medium iced coffee, no flavor, no l

11.2.2021 Is it just me or is life seeming pretty heavy these days? Actually, I know it’s not just me. The world is kind of a weird place right now. There are probably a million and two reasons why this is so, and I’m certainly not going to break that open here on my Facebook page. What I will say here, though, is that amidst all the craziness, I’ve really been craving a good ol’ belly laugh lately. Now, I actually laugh quite a bit. I can find humor in a lot of things. It’s

11.1.2021 Today was … a day. A real doozy of a day. There shouldn’t be school the day after Halloween. There, I said it. I would gladly tack on an extra day to the end of the school year to avoid having school on the day after Halloween. The details of the school day aren’t important, but it was definitely a challenging one. I was go-go-go all day and was certainly eager for the 3:15 bell to ring this afternoon. I had a parent/teacher conference after school and then I spent

11.30.2020 Looking back at this past month, I’ve been thankful for a lot of random things – everything from Tupperware and Clorox wipes to sky blue pink sunsets and fire pits. I’d like to think that I would have been attuned to these blessings without this month-long practice, but honestly I don’t know that I would have. When I’m intentional about noticing things in my life for which I’m grateful, the more of these things I tend to see. That doesn’t mean there are more or les

11.29.2020 I did some major adulting today. I did 3 loads of laundry and put it all away. I ran the dishwasher and unloaded it. I dug out some receipts so I could make some returns this week. I loaded up all my Goodwill donations in my car and then dropped them off. And, I cooked. I cooked a lot. I love the idea of food prepping. You spend a few hours on Sunday afternoon getting meals pre-made, lunches packed, or ingredients prepped for the week. It saves you time later in th

11.28.2020 I did a thing today. Or more accurately, I finished a thing today. Organizing my closet has been on my to-do list for what seems like forever. I’m a pretty organized person and my closet has been driving me crazy for months and months. It was loosely organized by article type and color, but I was long overdue for a good sorting/purging session. I almost did it back when the Marie Kondo KonMari method was all the rage on Netflix But, I didn’t. Then I almost did it a

11.27.2020 I’ve been thinking about my Uncle Steve a lot the past couple of days. He’s my mom’s youngest brother and a seriously, seriously cool uncle. I always looked forward to his visits when I was a kid. There were a number of years when he lived in Minneapolis and would come to visit us in Wisconsin for a long weekend or a holiday. I vividly remember a Thanksgiving or two with Uncle Steve around our table. We’d go bowling together as a family on the day after Thanksgivin

11.26.2020 I love Thanksgiving. I love that our nation takes a whole day to stop, gather with loved ones, and pause to reflect on blessings. I know Thanksgiving 2020 was, in a lot of ways, a different kind of celebration for many. But the sentiment of the day remains. As I paused today to reflect on my blessings, I had many, many thoughts. I’m thankful for a lot of things – my home, my dog, my car, a job that I love, a fridge full of food, and a closet full of clothes. I’m th

11.25.2020 I went to the grocery store late this afternoon. I needed a few ingredients for a recipe I’m making, but mostly I needed to restock my fridge with fresh produce. I have been loving fresh fruits and vegetables lately, and I was literally down to my last few grapes. I ripped one of the clear plastic produce bags off of the roll with the intent of filling it up with apples. Now I know that among all of the problems and challenges posed to humankind in the year 2020, t

11.24.2020 It was a 2 day work week. Should’ve been a piece of cake, right? Not so much. This week felt more like a 12 day work week. And the last hour and half of the school day yesterday must’ve lasted at least 3 days. I love my job. I really do. But this girl is tired and really ready for a break. Within about 5 minutes of being home yesterday I had already put on my pajamas and slippers. I was asleep on the couch by 7:30 and didn’t move a muscle until about 5:00 this morn

11.23.2020 I witnessed an accident on my way home tonight. Car versus skateboard. It was one of those scenarios that seemed to play out in slow motion, although I’m sure in reality it happened in a flash. I’ll spare you the details, but basically a car failed to see a skateboarder crossing in the crosswalk as the car made a right turn. It was terrifying. The driver stopped immediately and got out of her car to see if the skateboarder was ok. By the time I drove through the in

11.22.2020 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday night is never a good time to start a project. And yet, tonight is not the first time in my life (heck, not even the first time this month) that I’ve saved my spurt of weekend motivation for late on a Sunday night. Tonight’s project – assembling patio furniture. I ordered this table and chair set about 2 ½ months ago. Getting it delivered proved to be quite the fiasco, but about 4 weeks ago I came home one night to a pallet of boxes in the mid

11.21.2020 This morning my friend Tami came over to my house. Our plan was to spend the morning working on my backyard. Tami is not only generous and helpful, she’s also quite talented and knowledgeable about plants and landscaping and all that kind of stuff (which I am not). I’ve had this ongoing backyard landscaping project going for months now, and Tami and I were going to kick it into high gear today, raking rock and laying pavers. Here’s the problem, though. I haven’t s

11.19.2020 Tonight my prayer group gathered around a backyard fire pit. We chatted and caught up, shared about our lives, and prayed together. I freaking love these women. I love that we can be totally real and vulnerable with each other, and we can also joke and laugh until our sides ache. I love that we lift each other up in prayer and sincerely care about what’s happening in each other’s lives. We try to meet every two weeks, and when we miss a week or two, I feel a defini

11.18.2020 Today was worm investigation day in my classroom. I had shown the kids a live worm under the document camera on Monday, but they had no idea that today they would all get a live worm to touch and observe. To say they were excited would be an understatement. During my planning period this morning I carefully prepared 20 little cups of moist soil and placed a little worm friend in each cup. I even covered each cup with a wet paper towel to make sure the soil stayed d

11.17.2020 My dear friend Julie works at our church, which happens to be right next to the school where I teach. On Tuesday mornings we often meet and have a cup of coffee together before either of us start our work day. It doesn’t work out every Tuesday morning, but when it does, it’s a guaranteed boost to my day. I didn’t really have time for coffee this morning, but we did squeeze in a 10 minute chat before work. We stood in the church parking lot before the sun came up a