Take the Day Off, America!
According to a US Travel Association Study released in August, Americans left 768 million (Yes, million!) vacation days on the table last year. They found that 55% of Americans did not […]
Seeing Through the Memories of Your Heart
Our book club recently read the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Less by Andrew Sean Greer. It was a strange and beautiful story. Toward the end, the main character is reflecting on giving up […]
I’ll see it when I believe it.
Beliefs are an amazing thing. Though intangible, they have a weight and power all their own. They can propel us to great heights or they can keep us chained to […]
Empathy Gap – Don’t Fall In
As soon as I shut the door, I knew. I heard the click of the lock and my stomach sank to my feet. I collapsed forward. My forehead hit the […]
A Girl’s Best Friend
I remember when we picked him up. After months of looking, we found him at a breeder in Omak. My husband has a knack for tracking down the best pups. […]
Making Memories Under the Big Sky
The summer before 5th grade, my father took me on a week-long backpacking trip in Glacier National Park. We planned the trip over the spring on our every-other-weekend visits. My […]
Have You Thanked a Teacher Lately?
I have a confession to make. I have a box in my garage that I take out every time I am wondering about whether I am making a difference in […]
I Got This, Mama!
In a couple of weeks, my daughter will begin her senior year. Stamped in my mind and on my heart is a picture of her decked out in pink from […]
Two Sides of the Same Girl
When I was a little kid, I felt strangely like two different people. In retrospect, I imagine that other children of divorce felt the same way. But it was the […]
Stronger Than I Thought
It was a spring, Saturday morning in Georgia. My father must have been away on business because, had he been home, I would never have realized my own true power. […]
Finding the Purpose of (My) Life
I’m starting with the really big questions this week, which always seems to coincide with the end of a vacation in which I get a little breathing room to think […]
The Magic of Motherhood – Part One
Being a mom is a humbling experience. I have learned more from my daughter in the last 18 years than I learned in any classroom. And I have spent 28 […]
Just Beneath the Surface
I have been reminiscing a lot lately. I am not sure if it is the passing of my father, my daughter’s impending senior year or just the end of the […]
Change is hard but not changing is harder…
Sometimes things just happen, good and bad, that you just can’t predict. Despite my propensity for planning and my natural tendency toward being a hunter, I have learned that sometimes […]
Evidence of a Well Spent Youth
This morning I awoke before my alarm. I rolled onto my right shoulder and felt that familiar ache from the base of my clavicle to my shoulder joint. I knew […]
Never Pass Up A Birthday Party
I was invited to a birthday party yesterday. I never pass up a birthday party. I would not have missed this one for the world. The grandmother of the little […]
Grandpa’s House
When I was a little girl, one of my favorite things was spending the night at my grandparents’ house. They lived in a small house on Queen Anne Hill. Though […]
My Heart
My daughter is a junior this year. She is our only child. The good Lord blessed us with only one child but, in so doing, He blessed us every single […]
The Truth Will Set You Free
I was two months into my first year in a new school when I found myself hunched over a lunch table in the staff room praying for an earthquake. Not […]
Making Things Right
When I was a new teacher, I applied for a job in a small town in northwest Washington. I remember driving into town wearing my most professional skirt suit, firmly […]
A Life That Fits
In the fall of 1988, I started my teacher training at Seattle University. Armed with a newly printed Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Alaska, I enthusiastically […]
Do It For A Friend
As I was driving home from work tonight, Corey Hart’s Never Surrender came on. You probably will only know this song if you were embroiled in teenage angst or young […]
Don’t Cry Over a Chipped Tooth
My daughter missed her dentist appointment this week. In general, she is a very responsible teenager. I only bring it up because every time I hear the word dentist, I […]
First Love
My first was Charlie. You always have a soft spot in your heart for your first. He was a blonde who had the subtlest hints of caramel. I loved running […]
Get Some Perspective
I had a very rocky start to my Tuesday morning. Keep in mind, I am a morning person. I jump out of bed no matter how early it is and […]
There’s Something About Sticking with It
I am going to preface this post with “No children were harmed in the making of the story” (well not permanently anyway). If you were a child of the 1970s […]
Looking at Life Through the Keyhole
Over the course of this week, as we prepare to celebrate my dad’s life, we have all been poring over pictures. And I remember so much of what I forgot. […]
Lean In
I was sitting on a plastic couch in a hospital waiting room sobbing in that heart wrenching way you do when you are racked with grief. I had just finished […]
It’s the Little Things
I think at the end of a life, it is the little things you remember most. The seemingly inconsequential moments become indelibly written on our minds and hearts. Oh sure, […]
Old Year’s Reflection
I have never been one for New Year’s Resolutions. I think it might be my very well-hidden but absolutely well-developed rebellious side. Oh, I keep it in check for the […]
Like Looking in the Mirror
A couple of years ago, all of my sisters descended upon the eldest’s home in the sweltering heat of mid-July in Arizona. We came to sort through boxes of pictures […]
Picture Books
Before the digital age of photography, we printed our pictures and mounted them in albums. We had wedding albums, graduation albums, christening albums and vacation albums. We made scrapbooks chronicling […]
Seeing the River for the Rocks
I think people fall into one of two categories naturally. Oh sure, people can change. People can even change back and forth. But we all have a fall back type […]
Growing A Family
Last night I went to my favorite Christmas party. I have been attending this party for 26 years, though it has been going on for much longer than that. In […]
Redefining the Win
I am a very competitive person. Now, I know what you are thinking. You’ve heard that before usually from someone who is really nice and says it with a slightly […]
Living in the Shadow of the Mountain
I have lived in the shadow of the Cascades for most of my life. Slogging through traffic on a clear day, I am struck by the deep blues of the […]
So Much to Learn, So Little Time
I love school. I love it so much in fact I have spent 42 years of my life in school and another 6 supporting schools so far. Basically, I was […]
A Gift
On the walls in my office hang three signed limited edition Judi Rideout prints, one signed limited edition Jon Van Zyle print and an original watercolor by an artist who […]
Standing in the Middle of a Bridge
Last weekend, I found myself once again standing in the middle of a bridge at dawn. My youngest sister was in town for the Thanksgiving holiday and I took her […]
It Really is the Thought That Counts
When I was a little girl, my father gave me a copy of Marguerite Henry’s All About Horses. He worked for a publishing company and loved books so it wasn’t […]
Gratitude: It’s not just for Thanksgiving
Twenty-nine years ago, I was a student teacher in my home town. As you can imagine, I was so enthusiastic. I vibrated with idealism. I waltzed into my first Biology […]
Love in Black and White
I think this is my very favorite picture and that is saying a lot given the sheer volume of my collection. I didn’t take this picture but when I look […]
Live Your Passion
I think in just about every situation we can learn something. It has been my experience that it’s usually something we need to learn right when it is time to […]
The Eye of the Beholder
When I was a kid, my dad gave me Masterpiece for my birthday. It was a board game in the mid 1970’s much like Monopoly except that players bought and […]
Lighten Up!
I’ve always wished that I could be one of those women who goes through life with nothing more than their cell phone in their back pocket ensconced in one of […]
A Different Light
Last Sunday morning at 0530, I found myself next to an empty field on the outskirts of Concrete, Washington. No, I was not deposited there after an alien abduction. Also […]
Picture Meaningful
I like really old stuff. I have so much antique glassware my husband recently told me he thought we might have to fortify the foundation of our house. Hyperbole not […]
Confessions of a Closet Artist
Confession time. I was a science major. There, I said it. It’s out. What a relief! Does that mean I am not also an artist? Well frankly, I sure thought […]
