Do It Yourself

“What are you supposed to be?” Everyone, Fall Party 2012 Emily and I walk back to school Friday night, partially costumed as our respective favorite things. That’s the theme of this year’s High School Fall Party: Our Favorite Things. All students and staff have been instructed to dress up as… essentially anything. Anything that we…

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Open Letter to an Allied Soldier

The following is a letter I wrote on the bus from Normandy to Paris during our recent Junior Class Trip to France. It was a weekend of many adventures–from camping under the stars and then the rain, to an eleven-hour whirlwind tour of Paris–but in light of the trip’s overall purpose, I’ve decided to save…

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In the Dorm

  It’s quiet when they leave. When supper was finished, the younger boys washed the dishes and mopped the floor, while the older ones packed and I baked banana cake. Then, an hour later, we piled down the stairs and out to the parking lot, where we waved goodbye, Sound of Music style, to the seniors….

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A New Year: Reading and Recommending

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. II Corinthians 3:2 (English Standard Version) It’s like a high school version of Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. “If you teach all the eleventh graders English–and both they and you do a reasonably good job, and…

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This I Believe 2012: Seasons

I’ve shared with some of you in the past that my students start each year with their own statements of belief, in the form of a “This I Believe” essay, modeled on the National Public Radio segment of the same title. With the start of school three days away, here’s a look into my teacher…

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Moving In

We didn’t always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler. Before Keeler it was Paulina, and before that I can’t remember. But what I remember most is moving a lot. Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street We finish just before lunchtime, then prepare plates…

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On the Marktplatz

Two weeks before school begins, I’m enjoying the time of rest, planning, visiting and settling into our new apartment. Because the attic across the street was such a dear place for the last two years, I thought I should share some photos of our new home, in its mostly unpacked state. So thankful for God’s…

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Getting Rides

“And how are you different now, since moving to Germany?” asked a long-time friend, three days before I returned to Kandern for my third year at Black Forest Academy. “I think I’ve learned the most about living in a community,” I replied, thinking about the richness of the last two years in the intimacy of…

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Retying the Knots

#12: Front Porches -From “Things Kristi Likes About America” 2012 Edition It’s already nearly dark when we come out to the porch. Or rather, when we sit down on the front steps, between the house and the giant fir tree in the front yard. We’ve always called it a porch, these seven stairs leading to…

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Reading Every Word

“There is much beauty here, because there is much beauty everywhere…” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet There’s a moment in the first installment of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, when Sam pauses at the edge of a field full of sunflowers, a few steps behind his hobbit companion, Frodo. “If I take…

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