Ozark Mountain Springtime

I worked on a grant this spring about vocational discernment. Vocation is often used in a religious context, but in secular higher education vocation can be understood as “meaning and purpose.” How does higher education help a student identify an academic and career pathway that adds meaning and purpose to his or her life? In […]

Time Travel

This spring it will have been a decade since I met my husband, Tony. It will also have been a decade since I started the job the led to my grant writing career. Apparently 2009 was my year. If you had told me, back in 2009, that it was my year, I would not have […]

Perpetual Self-Doubt and Groceries

Several years ago, I stumbled onto the USDA’s monthly cost of food reports and I’ve been hooked ever since. Every month (when the federal government is not partially shut down) the USDA publishes a report on grocery spending at four cost levels for various demographic groups. I’ve spent what amounts to many hours analyzing these […]

Vocabulary Resolutions

I hate self-important people. I want to soften the word hate but I can’t, because dislike isn’t strong enough and it’s also longer, which makes it doubly bad. Why use a longer word when I can use a smaller word that communicates an idea more directly? I’ve been rolling my eyes at people who use […]

Other Mothers

I like used clothing stores. I like them because they’re cheap, and I am frugal. I also like them because new clothes are terrible for the environment, which is something I began panicking about after reading Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline a few years ago. Like so many things, […]

Zen for Head

Years ago, a person I knew told me that his goal was to be interesting. To him, where he lived was inextricably linked to that idea. He told me that where I was living at the time, Montana, was interesting. I suspect, because this was the way in which he used it, that interesting was […]