blogger – sharing the stairs

What If…We Turn Words Into Actions

23 Jan 202123 Jan 2021

"Words can launch us." ~ Bob Goff It was 📸picture day of my fifth-grade year. I chose the perfect 👚top for my school photo. I also slept in those pink…

What If… We Have Some Conversations

16 Jan 202118 Jan 2021

"I believe an important part of the cure, maybe the most crucial part of it, is to talk to each other." ~Emmanuel Acho When I step into the 🏫classroom each…

What If…Love is the Only Word We Need

30 Dec 20202 Jan 2021

A whole bunch of buzzwords became part of our daily language in 2020. 😷Mask up. Quarantine. Contact tracing. ➕Positivity rates. Social ⏪⏩distancing. Contactless delivery. 🔒Lockdown. Self-isolation. Face covering. Face shields.…

What If…the New Year Brings Promise

24 Dec 202026 Dec 2020

2020 has been a lot. 😵The crazy thing about 2020 is that it started off like any other year. Full of anticipation- complete with 🌟hopes and 🌟dreams. We had plans.…

What If…Manners Mattered?

12 Dec 202012 Dec 2020

Angelina and I stopped by a shop to pick up her new prescription 👓eyeglasses after school the other day. The sign at the 🚪door listed the necessary COVID protocols. It…

What If…We’re Surprised

4 Dec 20205 Dec 2020

My husband doesn't typically read my 📝writings before publishing. He doesn't even ask about the topics. Although I sometimes want feedback while I'm working on a project, Ken prefers to…

What If…We’re Grateful Every Day

28 Nov 202028 Nov 2020

November is the month that brings the whole idea of being 😍grateful out of the shadows and into the light. Thanksgiving is a big reason for that, of course. Having…

What If…Our Positivity is Authentic

21 Nov 202021 Nov 2020

I belong to a Facebook group of educators across Missouri who share tips, tricks, 🎉celebrations, and 😵frustrations of teaching during a pandemic. There was a post the other day that…

What If…We Remember the Lessons of 2020?

14 Nov 202014 Nov 2020

We were sitting in a faculty meeting a few days ago. Faculty meetings look a lot different this year. When we had faculty meetings in previous years, the whole gang…

What If…We’re Patient

7 Nov 20207 Nov 2020

William Langland wrote the first-ever recording of the phrase, "Patience is a virtue" sometime between 1360 and 1387. A Greek proverb says, "One ⏳minute of patience, ten ⏳years of peace."…

What If…We Listen to the Kids

30 Oct 202031 Oct 2020

I have been hearing folks talk about COVID-fatigue. 😐Even though I feel like I've adapted to this new abnormal, I get it. I'm 😴exhausted from just trying to keep up…

What If…We Remember Grace

23 Oct 202024 Oct 2020

A former student messaged me the other day. 😊She wanted to say thanks to this old teacher. She didn't thank me for teaching her how to use context clues when…

What If…Practice Introspection

17 Oct 202017 Oct 2020

I was 👟running on the trail when I started to smell smoke. It's not uncommon to smell smoke from a barbecue or the smell of a woodpile 🔥burning. It wasn't…

What If…Remember Our Mindset

10 Oct 202011 Oct 2020

I woke up the other day thinking it was Friday. 🎉For folks who work those Monday through Friday weeks, you know what I'm talking about. It feels good😍 to wake…

What If…We Lift Each Other

3 Oct 20203 Oct 2020

We spend a lot of ⏰time on the sidelines at volleyball games. It's a lot of fun to watch the teamwork, the awesome 🔥kills, those 💥aces, a few shots that…

What If…We Find Calm

26 Sep 202027 Sep 2020

I've noticed that I feel 🌅calm, and that sounds a little crazy to me, given this 👻insane year. 2020 hasn't been what any of us would have expected. There is…

What I…We Don’t Try to Race Time

12 Sep 202012 Sep 2020

"Time waits for no one." -Folklore (dated as far back as 1225) Have you ever noticed that every single 🛑stoplight is red when you're in a hurry? What about those…

WhatIf…We Remember All of the Days

5 Sep 20205 Sep 2020

Ken and I forgot our 💍anniversary one year. It was the year of the Joplin tornado, and our anniversary fell during those first days after the storm. There was so…

What If…You Create a New Habit?

9 Jun 202013 Jun 2020

Things have been pretty heavy 😢lately- and they should be. There's some critical work to do in this 🌎world with race relations and living through the pandemic. The quote on…

What It…We Listen

3 Jun 20207 Jun 2020

When I wrote my 📚book (LIFEGUARD- available on Amazon), I dedicated a few sections to 💖kindness. In one chapter, I told a story about an encounter with a woman during…