Tag: family
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A Very Merry Bookmas!
It’s Christmas Day! I’ve had a wonderful Advent and now Christmas season with my family and close friends. It has to be the most relaxed Christmas I’ve ever had, having retired from teaching this January 12, 2024, I came into Advent this year without reams of papers to grade, midterms to create and then grade,…
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Book Review: Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger
Everyone knows the saying, “Like mother, like daughter,” or “Like father, like son.” We all inherit certain traits and characteristics from our parents and pass on some of them to our own children. In my case, though, it is more like, “Like father, like daughter.” My father was a first-class storyteller. Sometimes they started out…
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Book Review: Sandwich by Catherine Newman
Have you ever read a book where you loved it with all your heart but you didn’t love the protagonist who is also the narrator telling her own story in first person? In this instance there is no escape from this person that you aren’t really fond of. This is the case of the novel…
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You Say Tomato, I Say Creole
When my mother deemed me old enough to cross Highway 23 South alone, she would give me a $5 bill and tell me to walk to Mrs. Benandi’s house and buy a box of Creole tomatoes. I would walk there, buy the box of tomatoes, and start my walk back home. The tomatoes on the…
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Book Review: Elinor’s Glad-To-Be-Together Family by Susan Layne with illustrations by Diana Ting Delosh
In this melting pot of a country that we call the United States, many of us live far away from family, with some of us having family in a different country as well. Susan Layne, a 4th generation Texan living far away from her children and grandchildren, captured perfectly the feeling when families are finally…
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I Am a Teacher
Today is Tuesday, November 26, 2019. For the last two weeks, I have been ready for tomorrow, Wednesday, November 27, 2019. Tomorrow is the start of a 5-day break from school for the Thanksgiving holiday. Saying that I am ready for it is a gross understatement. Like saying I like carbs. Or, I like to…
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Love Never Fails
It’s midday Sunday and I am just sitting down to write this week’s essay. It’s been a busy weekend. Friday night was the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner for one of my colleagues, a third grade teacher at my school. Months ago, after announcing her engagement, she stopped me as I was coming in to…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 