Middlesex Greenway: A Little Thunder Road, a Little Ave Maria

 Yesterday, while our younger son attended a preseason soccer camp at St. Joe's High School, I walked the Middlesex Greenway, a two-year-old new ribbon of paved walkway that runs 3.5 miles from Metuchen to Woodbridge. This is one of the prettiest vistas I found along the trail.

In Princeton: Grace-filled Moments at Vocal Music Camp

I apologize in advance if this entire post sounds like an advertisement. I am not on commission from the Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey!  Our 14-year-old son, who discovered he's a bass not a tenor,  just spent two weeks at Westminster's Vocal Institute, sleeping in the dorms of this school and spending his days singing with 101 other high school students, who traveled as far as Florida to attend. If you have a child with a penchant for singing,  and money in your family budget (there are also scholarships available) consider this camp.  It was truly transformative for our son. Dr. Amanda Quist started the Vocal Institute four years ago with 50 students. Given the state of our economy, it's quite a testament to her and the other professionals that it was doubled in size already.

Somerset, NJ: Bless the Lord in a Strip Shopping Mall

One of my wonderful parish priests gigged me about my morning tweet, which was this:

"Parking lots and strip malls bless the Lord? LOL! " he tweeted back. 

School Reformers Can't Destroy the Longing to Learn

The board of our tiny public school district  in New Jersey has hired as superintendent a man who prides himself, as his resume puts it, in "data-driven decision making." His brief (he's 35) CV reads like that of a striving business man, not an educator.

What is missing from his resume, and from the school "reform" movement in public schools, is the understanding that the best educators teach children not just facts, but how those facts have value and how that value finds a place in our children's souls. And so, it was moving for me to discover yesterday, while I was stewing about how New Jersey politicians are deforming public education, our sons were returning from a field trip to the United Nations full of, well, joy. It seems no how badly politicians try to mess up the process of education, the drive to teach and the drive to learn are immutable.

Tenured Today!

After three years and a day of teaching public school in New Jersey, I am tenured. To celebrate, my colleagues made a tenure tunnel for me and the two colleagues who had also  earned tenure. Tonight, Greg took me out for a seafood dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, The Barge in Perth Amboy. 

Six Mile Run and the Seasons of Marriage

As anyone who has been married for a while knows, marriage has seasons: the early years, the years with babies and toddlers, and so on. Right now, my husband and I have two teenaged boys and no travel soccer on our family calendar any more. This means our weekends are wide open.

Heading Back to School, and Back to the Farm

My first year teaching special education was rough. I tended to take my students' struggles home with me and it was hard to let them go. Every Friday, to help me transition and to take away my sadness, I would stop by a wonderful farm in Morristown, New Jersey and buy farm-made cider doughnuts and cider for my family. It was my way of reminding myself that despite all the hardships humans experience, the world is full of Beauty. Today, on a visit to the farm, I experienced another sign that Beauty dwells among us.

Looking for a One and Only? Try Hot Dog Johnny's!

My husband and I and our younger son found ourselves in rural Warren County, NJ yesterday, at the birthday party of a little girl named Joy. After the party, we headed west for several miles on Route 46 to a place called Hot Dog Johnny's. Family-owned and operated since 1944, Hot Dog Johnny's sits along the Pequest River, far from strip shopping malls and chain restaurants and interstates and corporate-created nostalgia.

Hot Dog Johnny's is the real deal, in Buttzville, yes Buttzville, New Jersey, which makes for great t-shirts for middle schoolers. (Which is exactly why our son was willing to endure a one-year-old's birthday party)