Today is my 40th birthday, and it’s been a good one. In many ways it was like any other day. I went to work (though, interestingly, many students asked if I were leaving early, if they were going to have a substitute teacher, etc.–just wishful thinking on their part); I attended Daniel’s open house; and [...]

This summer has been a whirlwind. It came and went much more quickly than I had expected. Several of the projects I had hoped to knock out were left untouched, which is a little disappointing. However, it’s the first summer in a long, long time when I haven’t felt overwhelmed. Busy, but not overwhelmed. A [...]

After 85 days of BP’s oil rig spilling crude into the Gulf of Mexico, the cap is finally on. That’s good, but it’s definitely not good enough. I’ve been thinking a lot about starting over recently—mostly about money, but also about mistakes. On one hand, we live in a society that allows people to declare [...]

According to this article in the Waco Tribune-Herald, Danny Passmore was arrested for aggravated sexual assault of a child. I always get sad when I hear about these kinds of things–mostly for the victims. I’ve worked with young people as a teacher and youth minister my entire adult life, and I see the devastating effects [...]

I was going back through some of my notes from our college search process with Devin, and here are a few things we were told that I found interesting: First, regarding athletic scholarships: 118 colleges play NCAA Division I football, and 238 play Division III. Certainly, we hear more about the NCAA teams, because so [...]

The final stop on Devin’s college tour was Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. I’d certainly heard of Princeton; I’ve always thought of it as being in the top five academic colleges in the country. I’ve been to Princeton Theological Seminary, too, but the seminary isn’t related to the university at all–both institutions are quite [...]

Stop 4 on Devin’s college tour was Lycoming College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Here’s the interesting thing about how this tour has gone: it’s just gotten better and better. Both Devin and I have liked each place we’ve been just a little better than the place before it. The other cool thing, though, is that he’d [...]

Stop number three on Devin’s college tour was at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. Our first reaction to the weather was pretty negative. It was quite cold and windy–apparently not unusual for several months there. We also ran late because we got lost–three different times–even though we asked for directions twice. All of that [...]

Stop two along Devin’s College Tour this week was Albion College in Albion, Michigan. The campus has an intimate feel to it, and the faculty were very nice. The tour guide was a whole lot better than the guy at Cornell; he seemed bored the whole time. The head football coach was definitely on the [...]

Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, was an interesting place. They told us that the Princeton Review rated the theater department (Devin’s intended major) as 16th in the country. And the facilities were amazing–nicest theater I’ve seen at any college I’ve visited. The coaches were terrific, too. They have a new head coach who seems [...]