Over the summer, I got out of the habit of writing posts about what I was reading, probably because I wasn’t reading as much as I should’ve been. But the summer is winding down, and even though it’s been many, many years since I was in school as a teacher or a student, I have that “beginning of fall semester” feeling when you’re
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When I teach writing workshops and people share their drafts with the rest of the class for critique, I have a strict rule: you’re not allowed to apologize for your writing. This rule drives some people crazy. They want to make an excuse for why they wrote it or sneak a “I know this is really rough” in there. (Of
When I’m not working on this blog or writing fiction, I’m mostly either sleeping or at my full-time office job. I’ve always worked a lot. When I was sixteen, I started working at a library, 30 to 36 hours a week during the school year and full time in the summer. I worked similar hours through college, though a little
A couple of weeks ago, I shared some tips for doing a Happiness Jar, which I usually do at the end of the day. It’s an evening ritual that’s brought me so much joy, so I wanted to share. I also have a morning ritual, and the title of this post is not mere clickbait. It is factually, objectively, cheesy,
(By the way, I am not drinking champagne on a beach in France, as the photo implies. I’m on my way back to Kansas City, and I’m glamorously drinking champagne in an inexpensive hotel room in Amarillo, TX. I just thought it was a nice image!) As I said in my video about my New Year’s resolutions, 2015 was a
Here is one of my favorite stories about one of my nieces. It’s ridiculously cute. When she was little, her nursery school teacher had a lesson on fire safety. She asked the kids, “If your clothes were on fire, what would you do?” My niece said, “Well, I wouldn’t put them on.” It’s great because it’s so sensible. But when
As a non-parent, I’ve always been struck by how often parents believe that their small child’s tendencies or slight delays indicate what kind of adult they will be. I’ve seen enough difficult two-year-olds to grow into easygoing nine-year-olds, for instance, to ascribe temper tantrums to a child’s age rather than her personality. It’s clear to me that a child who