school

  • Guadalupe

    Guadalupe

    Our Lady of Guadalupe is on the move and I’m so glad. She crossed my path around mid-December as I waited in a college chapel for my freshman daughter to be done with finals and come on home for winter break. There was a small alcove there dedicated to her, and as I read her…

  • Provision

    Provision

    I pray, like, a lot. Maybe it’s my Catholic upbringing or my anxious nature, but basically I am literally living out that impossible sounding admonition from scripture to “pray continually.” (1Thessalonians 5:17) When I wake up, I get on my knees just for a second or two to give the day to God. I do…

  • Abundant

    Abundant

    Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35:6 I read this passage from Isaiah in one of my devotionals last night. I’d heard it proclaimed before, of course, probably we all have, but last night the good…

  • Thoughts and Prayers

    When I heard the news yesterday about yet another school shooting, something shifted in me. My first thought: oh, how horrible. My second: those poor families. My third: this is not going to change. As could be expected, today there are calls for stricter gun laws, increased mental health services, school security, and more. Just…

  • Late

    I was in second grade, and it was nearing the end of the school day when Ms. Giovanangelo asked if I would bring a paper to the office. Kids were putting on coats all around me, and it was clear the bell would ring at any minute. And though I was a high-achieving, compliant, rule-following…

  • Frozen

    I went for a run on a freezing day and I was surrounded by ghosts. Surprisingly, I can run longer when the air is cold and the sun is bright, and it was a day just like that, so I took myself down the road past my kids’ old elementary school. The school is closed…

  • Number Line

    When I was seven or so, we worked with number lines in school, and I remember loving the fluidity of those lines rising above the order and rigidity of the numbers and tick marks at the bottom. I wouldn’t have used those words then, of course. At the time, I would have just said those…

  • Cookies and Tater Tots

    Each time I step into the my hometown elementary school to teach Kindergarten music, I’m hit with the smell of cookies and tater tots.  It’s a smell that brings me right back to the time when my kids attended this school, and it evokes strong memories of those long-ago days.  I can see my Kindergarten-aged…

  • For my Hometown Moms

    Every so often, at a school or sports event, I will look out at the sea of kids and realize the rare privilege we have. We are connected because we occupy one speck of a dot on a map and we are raising our kids in this speck, at this time. We’ve watched this batch…

  • Blessings

    Ever since my children were in preschool, I have said a little prayer over them as I’ve dropped them off for the day.  In those early years, it was so hard to leave them in someone else’s hands.  Until they went to school, they grew in an environment that was controlled mostly by me.  School…