I read a book about a spider once who identified her magnum opus as her little babies. I’m with Charlotte. In 2016 I built a waterfall that took weeks of digging and shaping and placing heavy slabs of rock until it was perfect. When I was done, I called it my magnum opus but it wasn’t. 

I love the smell of fresh-cut hay. And if I could eat Magleby’s chocolate cake for three meals a day and feel any level of healthy, I’d do it. Sticking my feet in water in nature grounds me, but those are not the most important details about me. I am married to the best husband in the world and we have nine incredible kids and the six cutest grandbabies in the world. They are my magnum opus. 

Six days after I gave birth to my second baby, I graduated with a degree in Elementary Education. With two little ones, a husband still in school, and a slight addiction to purpose, I bought some toddler-sized plastic chairs from the dollar store and decided to mold our days into a budding playschool. Since then, I’ve done preschool with all of my kids, including the youngest two who started in Ecuador before they were even officially adopted. That round was in my mediocre Spanish. 

I am currently teaching U.S. history and English in a charter school and loving the deep discussions of principles and how to live a good life. I’ve had a lot of fun weaving the theory behind If It Isn’t Fun, It Isn’t Learning into simulations about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Constitutional Conventions, and Transcendentalist writing trips to Vivian Pond in the mountains near our school. I learned from Oliver DeMille and George Wythe that all you really need in order to learn is a book and a mentor, but when the air gets stale in the classroom and we feel like we need to shift gears, there’s nothing like some play dough, a reenactment of a Native American war, or a writing activity on the soccer field to give us a renewed perspective.

I love to learn. I love reading and digging for truths that are universal. I love talking about applying them to the messy, confusing trials of daily life, and then trying to be just a little better because of it. For me, things have flipped a little. So much in this world teaches me about myself, society, relationships, motivation, and meaning. I love examining and annotating life. I think I’ve decided that if it isn’t learning, it isn’t fun.