The buck stops here.
I didn’t make that up, just so you know. When I was a kid, I figured that phrase had to do with making money. I thought, “Woohoo! That’s right—let the buck stop right here, Baby! In fact, make it lots and lots of bucks!”
I have since learned that the phrase has an entirely different—and less pleasant—meaning. (more…)
O.K., this time there will be no rabbit trails. In my last post, I started to talk about our family’s worship experience, and I got distracted by the issue of sleep.
I love sleep.
Anyway, it is a bit ironic that I got distracted when I was talking about worship. You see, my family always gets distracted when we attempt to worship. (more…)
What does my family have against sleep, anyway?
One of the many great things about homeschooling is that there is some flexibility in your schedule. The kids don’t have to get dragged out of bed at 0-Dark-Thirty to make it to school on time, so it’s OK to stay up a little later on occasion, and simply sleep in a bit. This is a tremendous blessing for everyone in the house except the guy who does have to get out of bed at 0-Dark-Thirty to get to work on time. (more…)
She weighed 3lbs. 13ozs. Do you know how small that is? I could hold her whole body in the palm of my hand; she held my whole heart in the palm of hers. (more…)
My dog is defective.
Harsh? Yes.
True? Unfortunately, also yes.
It isn’t entirely her fault; some of it is a gene thing. Still, some of it is pure choice.
O.K., from the beginning… (more…)
It’s birthday season, and that is always a dangerous time for me. Not only is there the fire hazard, there is the potential for the Crisis to rear its ugly, balding head. You know exactly what I mean. Men look at each birthday as a yardstick, measuring where we are in life against where our friends are, where our colleagues are, or—most dangerous of all—where we thought we would be by now. (more…)
I lead a double life.
Not that kind of double life. A boring kind. I’m not a superhero, not a spy. The FBI did surveil me once, but it turned out I wasn’t really the one they were interested in; they were after some other guy with my name. That guy, wherever he is, appears to be having quite a time. (more…)
“What is a capital letter?”
“Does the United States have a king?”
“What city is Boston University in?”
The questions in this post are real. They were asked of me, in my classroom. The eleven to fourteen-year-olds who posed them are real children. Many of those children are now grown, and walk among us as adults, leaders, parents.
I teach middle school. You’re welcome. (more…)
How do you solve a problem like Maria…
I’m sorry; that had nothing to do with this post. I don’t know Maria, but I’m sure she is capable of dealing with her own issues. It’s just that I happen to be writing this from backstage at The Sound of Music, a show that my daughter and I are involved in. I never would have heard about this show, much less been in it, if not for my daughter. I owe you my thanks, Riss. If I had missed this show, I would have missed out on a key element of my quest for A Life Worthy. (more…)
Hiking is a great way to damage those you love. From time to time I forget this, and I take my family out on “Togetherness” hikes. You think I would learn. You see, I have a problem with remembering things like distance and difficulty. The beautiful thirty-minute stroll that I remember turns out to be a three day slog of despair.
The walk my kids fondly refer to as, “The Killer Death Hike” took place about five years ago, (more…)