I only read 40 books this year. That's not even one a week. I hope to make it to at least 52 next year. The links in the list below a...

I'm getting ready to compile my list of everything I read this year, but there are several on my list that I've never blogged about....

I am joining Poetry Friday late today because we have been driving home from the beach (where, by the way, we had such a great time). In h...

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I went to a performance of parts of the Messiah. The music was so beautiful and reminded me of how ar...

I just read this beautiful post about the incarnation. An excerpt: "The divinity of God is on display at Christmas in beautiful crech...

I always enjoy reading the best-of lists that come out at the end of the year. Here's one from NPR, the best YA books of the year. I ...

Here's what Shauna says here : "The irony, of course, must not be lost on us: a season that is, at its heart, a love story, a story...

No, it's not my business that Michelle Duggar had a miscarriage. But I always feel a pang of sadness when I hear about a woman miscarry...

I'm writing lesson plans for next year, and feeling unexpectedly weepy, and then realizing that it shouldn't be unexpected. Here...

Christmas is coming. I'm not ready, but as Madeleine L'Engle reminds us, neither was the world. First Coming He did not wait till t...

Yesterday's Poem of the Day from the Academy of American Poets was Keats' "In Drear Nighted December." (You can subscribe...

I love how Rita Dove plays with cliches in this poem, and how the heart is in some ways altogether tougher than we thought, and in others ju...

I have all kinds of windows open on my computer, things I've read and thought I should blog about, so today I'm going to link you to...

Well, I very nearly succeeded with my NaBloPoMo ambitions - to post every day in November. I only missed one day. Meanwhile, my children f...

I should totally know better than to blog about being thankful for adversity. I should realize that such a post would make it inevitable ...

I found this story, "Finding Purpose After Living with Delusion," inspiring. Milton Greek has schizophrenia, and with the help o...

NPR did this interesting piece , complete with YouTube videos, on what happens when political candidates cry, from Muskie in 1972, when a ca...

It's now socially acceptable to listen to Christmas music, since it's after Thanksgiving. But I have to confess that this year I st...

There's just nothing like a long weekend, and a festive one like Thanksgiving weekend is better still. This morning I took advantage of...

I always do odes with my eighth graders during Thanksgiving week. I think odes go wonderfully with Thanksgiving, when we are so aware of th...