In the box I brought inside the other day from the storage shed, I found some old records and stacks upon stacks of photos.  I actually threw away hundreds of prints, dozens of slides and a multitude of negatives.  I kept only a third or less of the total.  Getting rid of the negatives was no big deal – with all the changes in technology, there’s really no reason to keep a negative strip when you can easily reproduce any picture by scanning it.  Likewise, the slides were nothing special and I have no way to view them anyway.  I did…

I had several of the students over last night to watch a movie.  I am directing a production of “12 Angry Jurors” this spring.  We’ve started practices and they are supposed to have Act I memorized by this coming Wednesday.  If you aren’t familiar with the play, it is based on a 1957 movie, “12 Angry Men”, starring Henry Fonda.  I have to tell you, my cast is quite the mix of … remarkable individuals.  They are something else.  I learned so much last night – mostly things I didn’t want to know!  From day to day, I manage to keep…

I bought this goofy “Zombie Free Zone” at Big Lots a few years ago on clearance after Halloween.  I thought it would make a good decoration for my classroom.  And, in my mind, it held a hidden meaning:  “zombies” were those students who go through the school day (and life in general) in a fog (perhaps chemically induced!) accomplishing little more than taking up space.  I have had my fair share of “zombies” in class and wanted to declare my room off limits to them. Most students liked the sign, though I rarely explained it’s meaning.  A few students HATED…

Years ago I bought these planners so that I could hang them on my wall in the youth ministry office and have space to plan out an entire year in advance.  I thought it would help if I had the dates in front of me, since most times when I write dates down in a traditional calendar, events tend to sneak up on me.  I don’t flip the page until the month ends and then … Yikes! … there’s some big event early in the next month which hasn’t been planned yet! I got them in 2000 when I first started as…

The other day I took to school the tube in which I had stored all those old posters.  I had a few posters that I thought someone might have some interest in – including the Star Trek poster that went to Nerd Supreme.  The next day, the tube was sitting empty by my desk – I hadn’t gotten around to tossing it out yet – and one of my sophomores asked if he could have it.  Sure.  But why?

Many of the folks we interact with on a regular basis are from our church and since all the small groups are doing the study on The Hole in Our Gospel journal, it’s getting harder and harder to pass things on to them.  They are all more conscientious about clutter and having too much stuff around! So Melissa sneaked a Christmas plate out yesterday.  She filled it with applesauce bars and took it to a friend from church.  When the friend offered to transfer the bars to another plate, Melissa told her not to bother, she could keep the plate. Today’s…

I am fighting to get caught up after a busy weekend.  Friday night was small group.  Saturday evening we had tickets to the Disney on Ice show in Indy – a Christmas gift from my Mom.  Unfortunately, Mom wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t able to go with the six of us.  Instead, The Princess (age 4) got to offer the extra ticket to her very bestest friend, Ellie.  Ellie is an easy kid to have along – she’s easygoing and good-natured… but Saturday night she was also a bit gassy… which I know because she was sitting on my lap through…

My little brother, Russ, continues to send things my way that he has found stashed away in our childhood home.  Yesterday I picked up a large tube (which at one time – 30 years ago – held an assortment of fireworks) that he had dropped off for me and discovered a poster collection which I had long forgotten.  There had to have been over 60 posters in that tube.  It turned out to be a real window into my childhood.  Melissa laughed at the view. Apparently, I had a real affinity for kittens as a child.  My wife has no…

Melissa has been working on cleaning up the master bedroom and then doing little things to help “stage” it.  I asked her if she had thrown or given anything away during the day and she said, “Oh yes… I just threw away a whole bunch of jewelry.” “You threw away JEWELRY??” Then she showed me the “jewelry” in question.  It was an assortment of lapel pins and necklaces.  Most of the pins said something like “Best Teacher” or the like.  Some were homemade – perhaps by a kindergartener, from the looks of them.  And most of the “jewelry” was big…