Judy Lindquist

Tomorrow is my dad’s 90th birthday. We surprised him with a celebration last week. My brother and sister and their families flew in from the northeast, my step-brother from the west coast. There were 4 generations there, with his great-granddaughter who just turned 7 being the youngest and him, the oldest. While he was very moved and thrilled to have everyone together, dad thought it was also nonsense. He thinks birthday celebrations are for children and that once you re

Portfolio Career. I recently read the term for the first time on a blog. The term refers to doing a variety of things that enable you to grow your skills in different areas and potentially have multiple income streams. In addition to the added income, focusing on having a Portfolio Career enables a person to have the flexibility to diversify their skillset and feed their passions. Apparently, I have been working on my Portfolio Career for years and never knew it.

I have always loved writing letters. I think it started when I was a girl scout more than 60 years ago and became pen pals with a girl I had never met, but our troops wrote to each other. Yes, these were the years before digital and electronic communication, so the options were more limited, but I grew to adore writing letters and wrote them frequently. I have been thinking a lot about my letter writing lately, as I just finished the book The Correspondent by Virgi

I am an early bird. An obsessively early bird. I am getting up when my night owl friends are going to bed. Literally. By the time the sun comes up, I have been up for hours. When people discover what time I rise in the morning, most react like it is a hardship. But I feel it is a gift to myself. The hours when the world is still dark and quiet and I am alone. They are peaceful and productive hours for me. I do my morning yoga and meditation. I write. I plan.

Across the country lately, there has been a lot of focus on discomfort. Or rather, in relation to our nation’s history, how to avoid making people uncomfortable. There seems to be a focused, concerted effort to erase anything that refers to anything in our history that does not make one feel proud and superior. State legislatures have even crafted laws that essentially says that schools are not allowed to teach anything that makes a student uncomfortable. Yes,

I have always loved front porches. Growing up, of the two homes I lived in, only one had a front porch. It was not big or wrap around, but it was large enough to accommodate a couple of chairs, and pots of flowers in the spring and summer. Of the four homes my husband and I have owned during our 47 year marriage, only one had a traditional front porch. While I do not have a traditional front porch now, I do have a front patio, complete with blooming gera

That is printed on one of my most comfortable t-shirts. It is also a fact of life for me. As an elementary school teacher, a Children’s Literature adjunct professor, and a middle grades author, my life is centered and anchored in children’s books. That is not to say that I do not read adult books, because I do. All the time. But half of the almost 100 books I read last year were children’s books. Not picture books, (I read those, but do not keep track of them on m

Summer is upon us. Whether you are someone who marks summer’s arrival by Memorial Day Weekend, when the weather reaches the 80s, or when the school year wraps up, by this time we can all agree it is here. As a teacher, my summer days have an extremely different rhythm than my days from August through May. Some significant differences, and some minor ones. One of the most interesting is that I get to see the sun rise. I can witness the darkness o

Last weekend I had the privilege of being part of a panel for a session at the Florida Historical Society’s Annual Public History Forum. For those unfamiliar with the term, Public History is “the practice of applying historical methods and skills outside of traditional academic settings, engaging the public through museums, archives, historic preservation, and digital projects”. While I admit to being a history-geek, this is powerful stuff for all of us. Helping people un

Well, year #32 as an elementary school teacher is now in the books. I have spent this last week, packing up my classroom for the summer. Taking down bulletin boards, packing up supplies, throwing away outdated files. I have also been giving hugs, signing autograph books, and wiping tears (my own and others’). These are the end-of-the-school-year rituals that teachers everywhere are immersed in right now. We are in a world of mixed emotions. While there are a mil

The Six Traits of Writing, (or as they now say, The 6 + 1 Trait) is a staple for teachers and educators. These are the research-based components that go into a piece of quality writing. The six things that braid together to produce that essay, story, poem, or narrative that works. Ideas, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Organization, Conventions, Voice, and finally Presentation. Understanding these traits helps students to strengthen their writing skills and helps teachers m

According to Psychology Today, “Both doing mode and being mode are inescapable” and we are always shifting between and/or seeking balance between the two. Admittedly, I tend to be more comfortable in the doing mode. I am a goal-oriented, list-making person who starts every day with a plan and a schedule. Even weekends. The tasks may involve hobbies and pleasurable activities, but I know what I hope to accomplish every day. One recent Sunday morning our a

I always believed that Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official U.S. holiday in 1914. A holiday that was put in place to celebrate maternal bonds and the influence that those bonds have on who we become. However, according to historian Heather Cox Richardson, it actually started in the 1870s when women began to realize that one of the ways to protect their children and their families, was to be actively involved in decisions that would impact th

“You are not serious?!” Shrieked one of my students. The students were eating lunch in the classroom. They were chatting about a specific book when one of them had said that they had heard that the book had been banned. My 4 th Graders and I had just finished a literature study of the book HOOT by Carl Hiaasen. I had selected this specific book because earlier in the year we had done a deep dive into owls. We had researched the different types of owls in North America,

There are so many incredible, charitable foundations out there, each as worthy as the next. For most of us however, since our time, energy, and financial resources are limited, we must pick and choose those that are most meaningful to us. For many of us, we make those choices based on the causes most relevant and applicable to those we care about. For me, that is Breakthrough T1D, (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). Their mission is to imp

This week we had our first Face to Face Competition of this year’s Battle of the Books Team. In Battle of the Books, teams of students compete against each other to see who can answer the most questions correctly on the pre-selected books. The books that are used are the fifteen Sunshine State Books that our state Library Association selects each year. Our club is open to 3 rd through 5 th graders who want to read and talk about the books. We start meeting at the begi

Backstories are a powerful thing. As writers, creating detailed backstories for our characters allows us to give them a depth that can truly bring them to life. Their backstory helps to drive their actions and choices, which moves our plot along in authentic ways. Also called world-building, this is often the foundation on which our story is built. Having a rich and detailed backstory is also a challenge. We often want our readers to be aware of every little d

I am once again sharing one of my favorite Easter Photos from my youth. Growing up in the Northeast in the 1960s, Easter was a big deal! It was an indication that the bitter and brutal winter was over. It was a celebration of growth and renewed life. And of course, it meant new Easter clothes. My mom was an exceptionally talented seamstress, so she often made my sisters and me matching dresses. But there would also be hats to purchase, new shoes, jackets, and eve

While many parts of the country are still dealing with their winter climate, here in Florida, we are already into our growing season. We did have an exceptionally cold winter, with more days than usual below freezing, so much of our landscape took a big hit. These last weeks, gardening time has been spent pulling up dead plants, aggressively pruning others, and hopefully looking for signs of life in other plants. In many ways, gardening is very much like writing. - As

Ideas are seeds. A tiny speck or hint of something. Kids are filled with ideas. That is one of the most wonderful things about working with children. They have not yet developed those gate-keeping impulses that we adults have, so their ideas just come pouring out. But they have also not yet learned how to take a promising idea and help it grow. That is where they need the support, guidance, and coaching of a good mentor. This month I had the