The photo above captures many aspects of my life for which I feel incredibly grateful: I’m married to a supportive, thoughtful, fun, loving, smart, handsome, strong, safe, boat-driving husband. I work at a school with amazing people who do great deeds such as organize and participate in the Hotchkiss Swimathon to raise money for the…
“Why”…Wednesdays
204. Why Deal with Our STUFF
The photo above has nothing to do with the post, but isn’t he cute? Also, if you see my dad (RG) or cousin (CW) today, please wish either/both of them a happy birthday. I have a rule in my classroom check-ins that students aren’t allowed to say anything negative, including complaining about stress, workload, and…
203. Why Generations
The photo above isn’t Tuukka. I found it on someone’s Pintrest page. I wanted to post a photo of the generations of my family, but couldn’t find one I liked well enough to publish for eternity. Plus, how cute are Bernese Mountain Dog puppies?! Besides, today’s piece isn’t about my family; it’s about how I…
202. Why PEAR
I like the photo above because it’s a view of dawn across the road from my house. I wish our local governments put resources towards buried electrical and phone lines, but I didn’t include the image to give a message about the benefits of subterranean utilities. Instead, I wanted to talk about daily cycles. Every…
201. Why I’m Writing a PSA
If you’re a teacher or have met a teacher, you know that we get busy from September to June, which is why I usually take care of as many other appointments as I can during the summer. I was scheduled to have my yearly Ob-Gyn exam in June of 2020, but when the world went…
200. Why WWED?
Above is my favorite photo of my maternal grandparents, Esther and Albert Kegan, who were patent and trademark lawyers in Chicago. When I thought about what I wanted to write for my 200th post, I wanted to consider a topic that’s important for its history and its future implications. While the photo was taken almost…
199. Why It’s Not “Toxic”
I found the image above on Pinterest after I read this fascinating article from The Atlantic (thanks for sharing, AD!) about cutting people we’ve deemed toxic out of our lives. I agree with a lot of what’s in the article, which made me think more about the idea of people as poison. There are substances…
198. Why “Not Yet”
I took the photo above when we were in Maine in August to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary. We have a cabin onto which we’ve started building an addition; the whole structure will become our permanent home when we retire. When we were there, as you can see, we had a foundation but no…
197. Why Moxie
In July, I had the opportunity to talk with Main Street Moxie Podcast about literary characters with moxie. We had a great discussion and took some fun publicity photos, which will air with the show on October 17. Of course, I looked in my calendar to find out when would be the Wednesday before the…
196. Why Consider Two-Letter Verbs
As far as I can figure out, there are only five two-letter verbs in English. If you want to take a moment to try to come up with them, don’t scroll down yet. If solving such word puzzles is not how you roll, scroll away. Here…