Category: Uncategorized

There are not many ways to measure or compare different school districts in Oregon. One is test scores, but with unreliable tests and more and more families choosing to opt out, test scores are not fool proof. Another measure is graduation rate, where each district …

ebook Amazon ($4.99) is the only option for getting the ebook version of Finding Hildegard. Print version I love supporting local bookstores! Finding Hildegard is available on Ingram Spark, which means you can go to your local bookstore and ask them to order it for …

Tuesday’s special election for Newberg City Council did not go as I was hoping. This morning I met with Derek Carmon, one of the newly elected councilors, at his request. I am grateful for his time, his desire to meet face to face, his commitment …

Many misleading statements have fueled changes in the Newberg I love. (Addendum added below on Dec. 13, 2022) This is the poster that mobilized people to create the COPS PAC and overturn the Newberg School Board: A desire to make our school and community welcoming …

My pleas saved Audrey Assad, but likely just for one round, because now she faces she-who-is-Christmas, Amy Grant. But thanks to Jenn Perez for creating a Spotify playlist with all of these songs, so many new to me and so good. I genuinely love the …

An open letter to the Newberg School District Board of Directors and Superintendent Phillips, I’m writing this open letter since public comment isn’t allowed this evening. I write as a parent of three graduates of Newberg High School and as a former employee. I’m writing …

(Message given at Wayside Friends on July 17, 2022) Imagine we are sitting by the shore of a lake. I push out from the shore in a little fishing boat, and turn and face you, using the acoustics of the water to share a story …

(Message given at Wayside Friends Church on May 15, 2022) One of the joys of getting older is time.  Time to see more and more of what is out there in our beautifully diverse world. Time to read more perspectives and experience more things; the …

(Back to part 1) On Time Team, the fun part is the finds; digging in the trench, discovering something, and then pulling the expert over to talk about what the find tells us about the story, about the context. Now that we’ve had the crash …

It was 36 years ago, tonight. Vivid in my mind, I can still feel the bricks of the hearth under me as I sit, hear the laughter of people I love around me, see the streaks of black and blue on my own right ankle …