The Luckiest No Matter What!

Josh and I have always tried to add flair to decision making.  Often, when deciding wear to go out to dinner for a date (remember when that was something we could do?!), we would put a few restaurants in a hat and pick- let fate choose.  When selecting our children's names, we did a name bracket and would submit individual lists, ranked. We made a giant poster and had matches, via discussions and persuasive arguments, until there was one boy name winner and one girl name winner of the tournament. That would be the name choice going into the hospital.  As Josh and I talked about the possibility of a June trip we could take safely during this pandemic, we realized the decision would be difficult with a lot of factors to consider. How would we ever narrow things down? How would we divvy up the research?  How would we ever decide?  Well, we started by doing what any thoughtful, sane person would do- we sang the Fifty Nifty United States song!  ...

#halfdozenhundts have gotten to be a pretty well-oiled machine when it comes to overnight road trip travel. We've done Florida to St. Augustine several times and Disney World, as well as driving to Colorado. There are a few things we always include as a part of our road trip... 1.) We leave as little next-day-driving as possible. Once the boys wake up in the morning, they are sick and tired of being in the car and rightfully so. If we still have more than 5ish hours to go after wake up and breakfast happens, it gets real dicey. The earlier we can arrive at our destination in the morning, the better. This sometimes means we have to leave in the afternoon the day before and do quite a bit of driving. That seems to go better than leaving a lot of driving for the second day.  2.) We do most of our stops at a gas station so we can refuel and do bathrooms at the same time. Getting in and out of the car takes time. Stopping and starting takes time. We try to eliminate the amount of ...

Today is Nolan and Judah's last day of first grade. Technically, Carter's last day was two weeks ago, but I'm throwing him in here also because he basically fully participated in any learning we were doing... so it's his last day of preschool too!  Normally, at the end of the year, I have ALL the feels.  For my sons, we make summer To-do lists, we spend a ton of time looking at their art portfolios, I cry reading their report cards overwhelmed with how much these tiny humans learn. I just cannot WAIT to spend every day with them, my excitement is busting. We look forward to cottage trips, BBQs, swimming, and so many outside adventures.  My sixth graders spend the last week giving feedback on the year, reflecting, usually presenting on learning to a wider audience, finishing genius hour projects, and trying sketch maps of the Western Hemisphere being so proud of the global knowledge they've acquired. The last 2-3 weeks of school, we pop a balloon at the end of ...

There is currently a petition going around asking alumni of my high school to sign about holding our district accountable and asking that it be intentional about its Black history teaching, addressing systemic racism and White privilege. I applaud whoever started that and am glad someone was taking action steps to help. I wanted to add perspective, as a teacher myself, on what else should/could be added to these action steps... **Please note there are SO many other things that need addressing in our educational system to help address Black history teaching and address systemic racism and White privilege. These are just a tiny, TINY  few** - Textbooks/boxed curriculums need intentionality to diverse texts for diverse audiences.  Districts need to push back and NOT ADOPT and NOT PURCHASE curriculums that do not fit the needs of diverse learners. Every student should see, read, and learn about people, both real and fictional, who look like them. EVERY.STUDENT. Each story ...

Because of everything going on with the unrest in our country, it seems a bit silly to be posting this as we have so much to be heavy about right now. However, I write to capture moments in time- to tell my story, my family's story. This pandemic, this quarantine is certainly something I want to remember. So I share my thoughts, here, in real time... I am a rule-follower by nature- it is inside of me at my core, in my soul. You can ask my parents for verification and they will tell you. I also work extremely well with limits and boundaries. I thrive in knowing what is expected of me. When our governor said, many weeks ago, stay home- that seemed clear. I understood those limits of see no one, go in public as little as possible, stay at least six feet away. So my family did just that- we saw no one, we stayed home, we barely went out in public except to get food. The only time I interacted with anyone was from a six feet distance. Although these weeks have been difficult a...