Take a walk. Notice things. The scrubby park where you take the dog has been mowed. There is now a trail through the grass, thigh-high grass. Just yesterday it was April and you were walking through here looking at dead stems and discarded dog-fetching sticks. Now, on the day you’ve forgotten a fetch toy, you … Continue reading How To Survive the Last Day of School
Category: parenting
Shameless Self Promotion: Part l
Readers! About two months ago, I took a look at my inventory. The last essay I had published was in 2007, on literarymama.com. I had a poem published in Pearl magazine out of Berkeley in 2008; that magazine has since shut it doors. This is a peril of the long form: not a lot of … Continue reading Shameless Self Promotion: Part l
Your Young Reader: A List
I don't want to follow Tipper Gore's lead and start another Parental Advisory bru-ha-ha, but I've gotten into some trouble recently with my advanced reader. I've got an eleven year old who's reading beyond her grade level, and I know a lot of people in this situation: your reader is eager to read, picks up … Continue reading Your Young Reader: A List
The Gifts of Pneumonia
Okay my title was a ploy. There aren't any gifts. And I don't have it, my nine year old son does. I'll spare you the dull but trying process of getting the right diagnosis. Four doctors and a very high fever later, we are several days into the right antibiotic. But this isn't like strep … Continue reading The Gifts of Pneumonia
Graduation, Time Travel, and the Former Self
It’s cap and gown time, endings and good-byes. I don’t have a cap-and-gowner, but we are saying good-bye to elementary school. I’m old enough to have a cap-and-gowner. In traffic I watched a woman take a photo of her graduate as he held up the gown to reveal neon yellow spandex shorts. I thought "Oh … Continue reading Graduation, Time Travel, and the Former Self
The Second Half: A Reckoning
The number 45 is: Half way to ninety. Cannot be divided in two. Comprised of two hyphenated F-words. Not very sexy. At this age, the typical adult needs a reading glasses magnification of 1.75. Common mild skin issues include: brittle nails, Poikiloderma (aka "redneck"), and seborrhoeic keratoses (once known as "senile warts"). Foot pain is … Continue reading The Second Half: A Reckoning
Making Music
My daughter is in the fifth grade. That goes a long way in explaining the silence from this blog these past several months. I didn't know! Apparently, fifth grade is a bear to teach, with its own weathers. Sweet girls turn mean and boys get into fist fights. I've been told that the light at … Continue reading Making Music
Summer so far. . .
I meant to post this weeks ago, before the Fourth, which I think of as the middle of summer. But honestly, the real apex around here is county fair, which is always the third week of July... Great Falls, Montana, soccer complex: It's been a rocky season this spring. We had our first taste of … Continue reading Summer so far. . .
Beginnings: What will Happen?
What if two kids met in a room in a house in Paris.... the boy was nine, and the girl was eleven. This moment is a moment of in-between for both of them; she is on her way to live with her grandmother, and he is meeting his mother for the first time. He lives … Continue reading Beginnings: What will Happen?
Tuesdays
My kids are huge suddenly. Nora eats more, has a stomach and needs her sleep. She cracks jokes, has moods, and when she tries to cuddle it can be awkward, because she is so physically big. We barely both fit in the overstuffed chair. She doesn't fit under my downward dog the way she used … Continue reading Tuesdays