Facebook, the internet itself, opens up the world in ways that weren’t possible even twenty years ago. The search box gapes open on the screen, begging fingers to type a combination of letters — an ex-boyfriend who faded from your life but not your memory, the mean girl whose locker door managed to slam against…
Books towered on the floor below us, Abbey and Dylan taking turns running to the bookcase for another title. For almost ninety minutes we read, the three of us smushed together on one small cushion of the couch. They squirmed and pulled pages, pointed out words they recognized and recited beloved lines from memory. At…
Set against the backdrop of a leisurely, expensive dinner, Herman Koch’s The Dinner teases and twists around, and I can see why some reviews compared it to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl — though the plots aren’t similar. Dread and darkness permeate The Dinner from the first pages, though the direction from which the darkness seeps…
Before my sweet niece was born last March, our only niece or nephew was a cuddly little pup. Honey Bear likes to snuggle in your lap, play in the snow and will dance just a bit on her hind legs for a dog treat. Ryan, the kids and I don’t have pets ourselves — much…
Thank you so much for playing along with the Name That Kindergartner contest last week! Congratulations to our winners: $300 Amazon gift card – Amy Pike $80 Amazon gift card – Renee Schuls-Jacobson $80 Amazon gift card – Julie DeVisser And the photo collage with our blog names included! How much have I changed? I…
Some of their eyes widened when we read the Grimm version of Cinderella. Teaching sixth grade students about fairy tales made them roll their eyes at first; they felt they’d outgrown the stories years before the sauntered into my classroom. But bloodied toes made some of them rethink their stance, though my class was generally…
Robert Frost spoke of “miles to go before I sleep,” and we have a few miles to go, but for the first time since Abbey was born, I’m beginning to think sleep might start gracing our lives again. Both kids have been sleeping better since Dylan’s sleeping bag trial in Abbey’s room, and we’re ready…
contest winners can be found here Just over a week ago we submitted kindergarten paperwork to have Abbey transferred to a different school in our district, one that runs the IB curriculum. Though we aren’t expecting to hear for at least a month whether there’s space in the program, my impatient brain is pacing in…
All teachers have one. It’s couched somewhere between authoritative and encouraging, and when correctly wielded it quiets a room more quickly than the flick of a light switch. The teacher voice. I remember mine, the way I pulled it on in my classroom each day and shed it during staff meetings, the way it served…
Silence settled into the back seat, and I immediately turned off the radio. Our car is never quiet on the drive home from school — Abbey has three missed hours to fill with her words, and she grasps every breath. Her quiet wasn’t peaceful, and I saw when I tried to catch her eye in…
Thank you so much for visiting the place where my dreams live. Follow along as I meld together my love of reading, writing, and the lovely miscellany that makes up my world.
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