Moving (closer to) Home

Hey y’all – long time no see. 🙂 

Yesterday, I attended CELL UIndy’s Early College Summit. Despite the fact that the middle child headbutted me in the morning and broke my glasses, it was a great day for a lot of reasons. I met so many amazing people and learned about RECN (Rural Early College Network) which is doing great things with rural schools around the Hoosier state, including building some important opportunities for rural/urban coalition building. 

It took place in Indianapolis, and the best part about it was that I could drive there, because…

I’ve moved back to Hoosierland!!

I’ve been radio silent for a minute while packing and unpacking boxes and flying from Texas and wrangling children and pups, while still trying to attend Zoom meetings and maintain some kind of professional existence, but the fact that I could drop the kids off at my mom’s to attend this conference is a big part of everything I’ve missed about being so far from home – kin care is priceless. 

The kids have had their hands in the dirt – planting flowers and strawberries with their Magaw. They’ve climbed in tractors and taken golf cart rides to meet and feed the neighbor’s cows. They’ve met the new litter of barn cats and marveled at the excavator, skid steer, wagons, and various other farm equipment. It’s been fun and wonderful so far to say the least.

Next up on the list is monthly visits to my dad’s rurally-located music store for exploration and lessons. Even with all the craziness and stress, I am overwhelmed by how good it feels to come (closer to) home. 

The other downside is the backlog of work I want to do and the length of my to-do list, so as I’m coming out of this fog, I wanted to let you know what’s coming up for me and Literacy In Place. 

• Next up on Reading Rural YAL will be a series on Elatsoe by Dr. Darcie Little Badger that will wrap up the series on the 2020-21 Whippoorwill Award Winners. The 2022 winners will be announced later this month, so lookout for a blog post and episode about that. 
• I’m also going to be interviewed by Dr. Rob Petrone on the RRYAL podcast in late June about my book Country Teachers in City Schools, so look for that episode to come out in mid July. 
• The Rural Teen Writing Contest portal opens July 1, and I can’t wait to see submissions from young rural writers rolling in. 

I’m sure there are other things I’ve forgotten to list here, but I wanted to give you a peek of what was on the horizon, and let you know that I’m still here, I’ve just moved. 

As always, please reach out if you want to connect or collaborate. I’d also love to hear from you if you’d like to contribute a rural book review or submission for the (Non)Rural Voices Blog. 

Here’s to gardening and golf carts! Happy summer, y’all!!