Author: Laurel

I have been helping my oldest daughter get her new classroom ready this week. She just graduated from college last May and is beginning her very first teaching job. Sixth grade Social Studies. In the very same building where she attended middle school once upon a time. Arranging desks, putting up bulletin board displays, hanging posters, organizing books, and labeling EVERYTHING (the label maker is her new favorite toy). A room of her own. It has been quite a project. While we were working, I started to think about all of the other rooms I have helped to prepare for

I haven’t been to this blog spot of mine for quite some time. It’s been almost a year. Why? Well, it’s not because I’ve been traveling the world. Or consumed with some great humanitarian effort. To be honest, I haven’t been writing here because this shingles business has been kicking my rear end! Apparently I am one of the lucky few who suffer from postneuropathic pain due to shingles. It affects my left lower back and wraps around my left side under my rib cage. It feels like I’m being stabbed with a hot poker while my skin is on

I went to a funeral last week. Yet. another. funeral.  Our family has now lost 14 friends and loved ones over the course of the past two years. I recognize that death is a part of life, but it has become a much too familiar part of my life these past several months. With all of this experience I could become a professional mourner. A few months ago I officially declared a moratorium on death. Clearly I have zero authority regarding this matter because it just keeps happening! At this point I’m just hoping for a bit of a break.

I guess the New Year isn’t so new anymore. Some of the shiny is worn off by now. Many good intentions have already fallen by the wayside. I have been under the weather for a good portion of January, so I feel like I lost this month somehow. I have been cheated out of one of my favorite times of the year. But somehow I don’t think that the shingles virus cares all that much about me or what I would prefer, so time marches on. Yes, I have shingles. Yes, it completely lives up to the hype. Yes, I

I saw this quote last week and I have been thinking about it ever since. Who are those five people in my life? How are they contributing to who I am? I mentioned it to my husband and he joked that he must be on average mostly female by now because he spends most of his time at home and at work with women.  That is why he occasionally needs to visit Sportsman’s Warehouse. To be honest, the one that I spend the most time with these days isn’t a person, although he might beg to differ. I spend more