I bought my children new shoes for the first day of school and when they returned after winter break. Twice a year. Every year. In the budget or beyond the budget, they had new gleaming white tennis shoes as they marched into class for a new and improved quarter, semester, year. There were years Michael…
There have been moments in my life when I have missed the joy. Raising three children can be a blur of responsibility, expectation, and endless compromise. While there are lazy Sunday moments, so much of it is confusing, terrifying, and exhausting. It would be foolish to say that I packed every lunch with care…
The goal was to write a blog post once a week and I failed. No lives were taken, no money lost. Just a mental game I played with myself that didn’t work out. Oh well, there’s always next week to get it right. My daughter turns twenty-four on Saturday. She’s at that age where…
Being a mother is difficult work. Not in the sense that running a marathon or skiing a black diamond is difficult and not in the sense that finishing a project or painting window trim is work. Motherhood, the act of “moming,” is difficult work because if you are anything like me it is predominantly blind…
Less is seldom more. My son will move out of our house and into his college dorm next week. He drives me nuts. He’s been what they call a “challenge.” Loud, self-absorbed, and crazy moody. He still eats in his room, still tries to sidestep chores or responsibility, still runs at full speed and scares the crap out of me. He’s arrogant and selfish…
We have one of those flip out ironing boards in the laundry room. It’s on the wall across from the cat box and above the laundry basket area. We have two large mesh baskets and they fit neatly against the wall, under the illustration of a basketball hoop that’s hanging on the wall. Basketball hoop, laundry basket,…
The morning hike starts the same way every day. It is just past dark, but before sunrise when Jack and I set out. He is always anxious, curious and a little nutty. I am usually sore, always alert and making sure he doesn’t get into trouble. We take the first few minutes to get settled. Jack does…
I have this thing with being left behind. I guess it’s an “issue.” I want to leave first, die first, I want to be the goer, doer. I’m not aware of any abandonment issues, and if I have them, it’s too late to delve into that mess. I’m an adult, a mom, who has a…
Middle. Cream filling, insulation, pages, jelly, core, down feathers. All are in the middle, tucked between two covers or layers. The heart is essentially in the middle, between the front and back of the body. Nestled and hidden, but essential. The chocolate cookies of an Oreo are crunchy and yummy, but it’s really about the…