Mike Matthews

My thoughts after 62 years on this planet on family, public education, cooking, and life.


LATEST POST

Care Packages

I received a “care package” in the mail this week. I didn’t know how much I needed it. Care packages are best received when something is not normal in your life. Examples include times when you are away from loved ones, you are going through a difficult time, you are recovering from a physical or […]

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RECENT

I’m Not a Very Good Sports Fan

November 2, 2024

I guess I’m not a very good sports fan. I was not one of the two million fans screaming and cheering on the streets of LA as the Dodger World Series victory parade drove through town yesterday. I was not part of the packed Dodger Stadium that gave a thundering welcome to the Dodgers at […]


Mentoring and Supporting Leaders

October 19, 2024

I have spent over thirty years in educational leadership roles. I enjoyed so many aspects of all of my jobs. I loved the hard work, strategic planning, supporting teachers and staff, communicating with parents and garnering their support, developing collegial relationships, and so much more. And the longer that I worked in leadership positions, the […]


Routines: The Foundation of Our Lives

October 5, 2024

One of the greatest aspects of retirement is that, for the most part, I don’t really have to do anything that I don’t want to do. I don’t have to go to work. I don’t have to write these blog posts. No one is telling me how to spend my days. I can wake up […]




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BOOKSHELF

Keys to a Successful Retirement: Staying Happy, Active, and Productive in Your Retired Years

Fritz Gilbert 2020
Read: 2024
Non-Fiction, Reading Now

After I finished my first year of retirement, I found this book. Mr. Gilbert’s book is thoughtful and introspective in his analysis and reflections. His advice would be to read this book and start thinking about all of this at least three years before you are considering retiring. I would say that anywhere from one […]

Breakfast with Buddha

Roland Merullo 2008
Read: 2023
Fiction, Reading Now, Spirtuality

OK. I love this book. It’s one of the few books I’ve read where, after I finished it, I immediately began reading it a second time. I’ve written about it in two separate blog posts, and I have many friends who have read it and loved it after I suggested it to them. It’s a […]

Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again

Johann Hari 2022
Read: 2023
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction, Reading Now

My friend Jenn loaned me this book. That means I read it as a paperback, instead of Kindle-ing it. I read less than 10% of my books in hard copy. This was a perfect one to choose to be part of that 10%. This is a book about why we are distracted, and the forces […]

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Marie Kondo 2011
Read: 2018
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction, Reading Now

I was listening to an architect who specialized in building new schools talk about what classrooms should be. One of his pet peeves was all of the nonsensical and nonpurposeful clutter that occupies many classrooms. He thought that every classroom should contain only those items which are useful for teaching and learning or inspirational for […]


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