- Mom for a week…“A gray head is a crown of glory; it is found in the way of righteousness” (Proverbs 16:31, NASB). I …
- Like a pedicure in winter…When asked what I wanted for my birthday in August, I said “just a pedicure” and got the go ahead …
- Hope floats and other flooring deceptions…24“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built …
- Two-timing…“Torn between two lovers, Feeling like a fool, Loving the both of you Is breaking all the rules…” (Mary Macgregor, …
- Driven by feelings…“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, …
- The answer, my friend, IS blowing in the wind…“I don’t mean to sound derogatory,” one of my English students told me, “but this writer kind of sounds like …
- The sudden stop at the end…“It’s not the fall that kills you. It’s the sudden stop at the end.” No, I haven’t started skydiving or …
- Do you ever do dumb things?When I was a teenager, I thought the unpardonable sin was having premarital sex. (My parents were quite the strategic …
- Saying goodbye to a colleague…but not to a friendship… It wasn’t until my dad died that I realized he was the glue that held …
- Take my life and let it be… like a Coca Cola C.E.O. for Thee…
Truth be told, if it weren’t for my husband, I would be the world’s most targeted consumer. Infomercial? Let me … - Puncturing the power of sin…“Stick a fork in me and call me done.” That colloquialism is something I could have said when I ended …
- When memory foam remembers…It’s a rare Sunday morning. I have no obligations. I can attend church services at 8, 9:30, or 11 a.m. …
- When trouble is the teacher…“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Some trouble we …
- In the Garden of Weedin’…“If I ‘accidentally’ advertised ‘free WEEDing opportunity,’ really emphasizing weed and really de-emphasizing the -ing, would people get the right wrong …
- I saw the light…It was my first visit to this eye doctor. Therefore, he chatted to break the ice as he examined my …
- Finding the Son in the sun…“There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, …
- By the word of our testimony…Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our …
- Mom’s move to memory care…My mom became a perfect square this year: 81. I envisioned throwing a Pinterest-worthy birthday party, where we decorated in …
- No longer worrying that “it could happen to me”…
I’ve been reading the book of Job with my literature students recently, and we all agree that we wouldn’t want … - “…but what I do have I give you”One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a …
- ‘Suffering, too, is a good thing’…My junior and senior English students had read Crime and Punishment and the book of Job. My bulletin board for …
- Why Goldilocks was “just wrong”…The story of Goldilocks as told in a Little Golden Book’s The Three Bears simulates how I try to live—as …
- Nothing like that just-brushed feeling…In addition to my usual post-church grocery shopping routine, this morning I took the time to take my van through …
- Out of the mouths of teens…One of my favorite contemporary artists is Mary Englebreit, and one of my favorite pieces of art by her illustrates …
- I’m taking the challenge–a day late!I’m a day late and a dollar short, as the saying goes, but I am taking the plunge. I’m joining …
- How pride squelches our talents…“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (1 …
- When work feels like play…Today I have the privilege to attend a conference that will help me lead my school through the accreditation process. …
- When did I become an old fogie?
Seriously. I am sitting in a hotel room in the dark, tapping, tapping at my keyboard (thought I was going … - The blog-a-day world of Sara Dagen…Blogging daily for NaBloPoMo is hard. When I write, I want to write something that is significant—significantly deep or touching …
- No can do “No Whine Wednesday”…Mid-chapel service on Tuesday, our headmaster called out, “Mrs. Dagen, could we add to tomorrow’s announcements that we are not …
- I am Sara–without an “h” …In desperation (and knowing I had but a few moments to write today), I thought I would try responding to …
- This is love…More than a dirty door that could use a fresh coat of paint, I saw love in the pair of sunglasses …
- Memories my mother never mentioned…Between the ages of 6 and 19, I moved often. When I was in fourth grade, my family lived in …
- I blame blogging on my bladder…And it’s a good thing! I think best in the morning, which means I usually write best in the morning–especially …
- Lessons from My Mother: Time, Love, and WisdomA tribute to my mother, a woman of excellence As my siblings and I rifled through my mother’s belongings this …
- Close your eyes and drink deeply…Sometimes I have to force myself to do what’s good for me. Like going back to work after a four-day …
- Loving back words…When I was defrocking my mother’s home this past weekend, I came across some plaques that some of us had …
- Grace for each new day…A few days ago, when I blamed blogging on my bladder, I received this comment: lol found you on Blogher …
- Rants, rages on students, self…One of my favorite tasks at school is one almost completely unrelated to my real job. It is teaching students …
- Focus on my father…My husband made it a practice of naming his children only after he saw them face to face, and so …
- At a loss for words…When my mother was first diagnosed with dementia, she had word-finding and organizational issues; now she has people-placing and event-remembering …
- A mere nineteen years ago…
Most people call me a saint. Nineteen years ago I married a widow and his four children. At the time, … - When the day’s trouble is 6’3″…It was the start of a good day. I’d exercised and mentally prepared for the day ahead of me, which …
- No accounting for taste…“What is wrong with these people?” Granted, I asked the question somewhat joyfully, as the number of viewers of my …
- The real fabric of our lives…I know Cotton (yes, a capital C) calls itself “the fabric of our lives” and has been using that campaign …
- I woke up this morning…Yesterday, while waiting for the Yummy House to open so I could order some Chinese food for our evening meal, …
- The sisterhood of the traveling blow dryer…Thursday morning, I needed the black blow dryer, the only blow dryer that is movable at the health club. “Sure, …
- Granny squares and gratefulness…I was feeling unraveled this morning. I found my husband’s usual teasing banter a bit annoying but tried to be …
- How I knew my mother loved me…I was a latchkey kid. Daily, my sister and I biked home from school to an empty house, let ourselves …
- Breast up? I fail at Thanksgiving…All my thankfulness went out of Thanksgiving when I started cooking the turkey. The first few years of my marriage, …
- Confessions of a former Black Friday shopper…I used to get Good Friday and Black Friday confused. “Good” seemed an odd name for the Friday of Christ’s …
- Random thoughts on this day after Thanksgiving…‘Twas the day after Thanksgiving, and all through the house, not a creature is stirring. Except me and my cat. …
- Contemplating the end of NaBloPoMo…It has come down to this: the last day of NaBloPoMo. (That’s National Blog Posting Month, if you’re reading for …
- Maybe NaBloPoMo December?People returned to their computers yesterday, apparently, and offered me enough inspiration to write that I am considering taking the …
- More with less and less with more…It’s back to the workaday world. The Thanksgiving holiday is over. I have had more time and done less with …
- Crashing the Zumba party…I’m fairly certain my Zumba instructor is part mime. A dictatorial mime. She wasn’t there to entertain. She wanted action …
- I love you more…“I love you.” “I love you, too,” said my 17-year-old son, just before he opened the car door. “I know.” …
- 10 minutes or less…Since I had less (rather than more) of an idea for a blog post today, I decided to address the …
- More than time…NaBloPoMo prompt for Friday, December 6, 2013: What do you wish you had more time to do each day? Write. …
- My mother was right, of course…This morning, my 17-year-old son was up before 7, despite having filmed the varsity football semi final and arriving home …
- The more we pretend to read…
I went on Facebook, saw I had a number of notifications, clicked to glance at the list, and then clicked … - Mosquitoes in December and more excuses…It was now or never. If I didn’t get the outside Christmas lights up this weekend, I knew I wasn’t …
- Allow and accept…“C-C-C-Cottey, beautiful Cottey, it’s a school of which I’m sure you’ve heard before, If you get good grades, they send …
- Changing the world vicariously…Do you remember the Faberge Organics shampoo commercials from the 1980s? It boasted the simple premise of the doubling effect; …
- Judge less, love more…When I headed to the health club showers, I saw that my two favorites were occupied — one by a …
- Needing more pep…I need to rally some personal pep. Tomorrow our football team heads to the state tournament, the first time in …
- Anticibaking…Once a year, I reserve an entire three-day weekend — Saturday, Sunday, Monday — for my Christmas baking. This is …
- Domestic A.D.D. …As I may have mentioned, this is my weekend for Christmas baking. So why did I say to myself, “Get …
- Last one and done…This afternoon I delivered the first box of Christmas chocolates — two pounds of caramel brownies, fudge, chocolate peanut butter …
- When your love language is chocolate…The feeling I get after Christmas baking is rather like what I experience after a successful mammogram: relief and a …
- Breathe more deeply…The day started exactly 39 minutes later than usual. For the second day in a row, my alarm clock failed …
- Doing more with less…Today I am doing more with less time, less space, and, definitely, less patience. At the risk of whining, …
- More than ironic…Ironic. It is 2 a.m. and I am awake. This after blogging just yesterday (actually, just hours ago) about doing …
- Shortest day of the year… Thankfully!The shortest day deserves the shortest blog post. I began this shortest day quite irritable, feeling overwhelmed, despite being officially …
- To tree or not to tree…The answer? To tree. Or bush. My husband will accept either. He just won’t accept “not to tree,” which apparently …
- Christmas: Memory vs. photographs…You oughta be in pictures, You’re wonderful to see, You oughta be in pictures, Oh what a hit you would …
- I’ve got Zumba on a holiday…The Temptations got nothin’ on my Aqua Zumba classmates and me. It was a cloudy day even at 6 a.m., …
- The quiet of Christmas…I’m not sure if my son sees only what he wants to see or if he truly doesn’t notice the …
- Reading between the dots…I love ellipses… If you’ve been reading my blog posts for any length of time, you may have noticed I …
- Raking in the bargains…I lamented parking at the opposite end of the mall immediately after I had purchased the rake. I hoisted it …
- Top 10 Reasons for Hating Holiday Travel…It is 6:29 p.m., and I am getting on a computer — not even my own — for the first …
- When you hide from a cat…My mother-in-love’s kitchen table overlooks a little lake, where Christmas lights gently reflect from its surface. It would be a …
- Back story behind “mother-in-love”…Dear Pine Needles and Paper Trails, I was struggling through a ho-hum blog post this morning when your comment appeared, …
- A call from the past…This year I entered the land of the living and bought a phone that was smarter than me. Similar to …
Read Posts from 2014
Follow My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
All Things Work Together 
You must be logged in to post a comment.