It’s October. School is in full swing. Cool air is moving in. Soon the leaves will be changing into all of their autumnal glory...somewhere else. Not here in Texas. Here in Texas it is likely to be 90 degrees and humid through mid October, with a possibility of jacket weather on Halloween. Once mid-September arrives, I’m ready to celebrate fall even though the weather is still warm. The wall-flowers are changed out from summer beach-inspired scents to comforting Sweater Weather and Flannel, and ...
Intentional Life
2021 Holiday Gift Guide (with a Twist!)
We’ve just had our first cold front of the season. That means when I got to work it was a shivery 49 degrees but by the time I left it was 82. This is fine by me, it rejuvenates my soul. That first cold front brought with it the first inklings that the holiday season is just around the corner. This year I decided to share my first holiday gift guide, and I couldn’t be more excited. This is not your ordinary gift guide, it’s a gift guide with a twist so to speak. Several years ago, money ...
How Date Nights are Saving my Life Right Now
It’s the end of August and for me, it means two things…the end of maternity leave and the beginning of my tenth year in education. This year I’m in a new position in a new district. Long story short, I had an opportunity to jump to my dream job and I leapt! It seems like we just couldn't make it through this year without changing everything. With all of the changes in our lives, date nights have become even more important, even if they look a little different right now. The last few weeks ...
10 Podcasts You Need to Hear
I rarely listen to the radio anymore. There’s one local station I like, but mostly I listen to 1) my kid’s choice (Disney music) or 2) podcasts and audiobooks. Over the last several years I have become an absolute podcast junkie. You know what I missed most when I was teaching from home during the beginning of the pandemic? My commute. I know, I’m crazy. But what I really missed was uninterrupted time to listen to my podcasts on the way to and from school. I’m often asked for podcast ...
What’s Saving My Life Right Now
I know I wasn’t the only one who was glad to see 2020 end. It was a crazy year for us, and we were hopeful that 2021 would bring a different pace. We were building our forever home, had a baby on the way, and looking forward to planning life post-COVID. The first six months of 2021 have been just about as exciting as the last nine of 2020. I was teaching “concurrently” which meant that I had a full class of students, half in person and half virtual who I taught at the same time. Our ...
fierce, free, and full of fire: what i need
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to participate in the launch team for Jen Hatmaker’s new book, “Fierce, Free and Full of Fire.” This post is the first in a series of posts related to what I took away from reading this book. All quotes are from Jen Hatmaker, unless otherwise noted. It's been a while since I published the first post in this series. There are several reasons for this, the least being that we are in month five of quarantine and life is, well, a different kind of crazy. ...