Then he said, “I sent a message out to the friend group that I’m inviting a new kid to eat lunch with us tomorrow. One of the friends responded, ‘Everybody be nice. Make sure he feels included. Don’t let him feel left out.’” Continue reading Invite the New Kid to Sit at Your Table
The image of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Germany (cover photo) is a place of contemplation, a place of remembrance and warning. It is close to the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin. If you understand what it represents, it can be haunting. If not, it seems almost restful. Continue reading Remembering
I’ll try something new and sit back and enjoy the view. Because in this case, this IS my circus, and these ARE my monkeys, and they are a rollicking good time! Continue reading Imitation and Flattery
It took work on my part to shed some layers of negativity and remember my somewhat bohemian wildness and happiness, my inner childishness, to allow myself to look silly in front of my kids. Continue reading They Became My Partners in Joy
My 13yo son asked me a question last night. He turned to me and asked, “What does it mean to be a hero? Do you have to save someone’s life to be a hero?” Continue reading What Does it Mean to be a Hero?
Do you listen intently to the words of songs your kids listen to – the stations, the kinds of music they like?
Continue reading They Don’t Want What We Want, by Asking Alexandra
par·a·dox noun \ˈper-ə-ˌdäks, ˈpa-rə-\ : something (such as a situation) that is made up of two opposite things and that seems impossible but is actually true or possible Ben went through a Phantom of the Opera phase a while back, after reading a kid version of the story at school, and made the mask, and acted the part, until I had to rent the movie, … Continue reading Before These Moments Slip Away
I have gotten out of the habit of writing, and my world is suffering. The walls start closing in on me when my creativity is on hiatus. When I am drawn like a moth to bad news, and the marching feet of the demise of our civilization, I sit stoop-shouldered and spineless and terrified – sucked into more and more bad news and my head … Continue reading Books will Save Us
This morning, I read Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and my whole spirit calmed down. He lived and was martyred during one of the most awful periods for the church. And yet, his words are like a balm and a reminder of what community is supposed to be like for believers. I do not think we are called to be shaking our fists and screaming our frustrations. … Continue reading Today I Choose Love and Light
Another bad thing in a world of bad things. I have not become numb, that is not what has happened. I crumble with each new attack, with each new assault – foreign or domestic. And then I disconnect, and block out the media, and become absorbed in my kids’ interests and the activities we can do together to fill our world with joy. I didn’t take … Continue reading We could Hug More!
It seems I have been struggling under a delusion that if I could just get my house organized Once and For All, everything would stay put. But it is more insipid than that – there is a strand of Once and For All twirling all through my head. If I could nail down my belief structure Once and For All, if I could prove my … Continue reading Sugar Sweet
“At this point in his life, he hadn’t started inhabiting his work, like he did later.” Continue reading Inhabit
As we rounded out the year of 2015, the boys and I sat up late-ish to watch Inside Out.
Of course, I’m raising boys after growing up in an all-girl family. It’s like Life doesn’t actually ever want us to feel capable or like we know one iota of what we’re doing. So, I can’t tell you if the interior landscape of boys during the upheaval that is Junior High is anything like that of girls, but I can tell you that I identified with every single thing that movie showed us about how an emotional world can crumble overnight.
Continue reading “Pre-Pubescent Insanity”
My husband and I were solving all the problems of the world this morning over coffee, and again, the discussion of violence in our nation was at the forefront of our thoughts. We were acknowledging that it is difficult to have a conversation about how to solve the problems without people getting heated, and divided. Even here. Even in this very small circle of … Continue reading If a Genie Could Grant us Wholeheartedness
It is easy for me to think I’m learning a lot by bouncing around from web article to web article. And, I actually do have pretty good taste in reading, I think. I’m reading some of the #longreads and the well-thought-out literary reviews. I’m doing some fine reading. But every now and then, I have to decide what areas of my brain I want … Continue reading Plotting my Areas of Growth
#blacklivesmatter Continue reading She Thought Perhaps Azalea
When Scott and I were first married, and setting up our home together, I was unpacking boxes of files to put into the office, and came across an envelope full of sentences he’d had his boys write as a consequence for behavior that got them into trouble. I sat on the floor flipping through these pages, laughing until I cried. Scott didn’t ever just have … Continue reading “I Will Not Pretend That My Hands Don’t Work”
It has snowed a whole bunch in our area. (I am so cheating with this photo. It’s from a photo site and not one I took of our current storm.) Our snow is bad, but not this bad. It’s packed, it has stayed on the ground for almost a week, in six to eight inch depths mostly. The roads are icy and dangerous. Some parts … Continue reading Winter Storm Driving
Earlier this week, we were having a dinner table conversation led by my husband about Not Judging a Book by its Cover – not judging people – understanding that everyone has a story. We may not ever know what drives a person, but we have to give space, give grace, and give a level of tolerance knowing that people are acting out their experience. Sometimes … Continue reading I Do Not Tug at their Hearts for No Reason
Dustin Hoffman is in a video that will most likely go viral. It is about the moment he realized how many amazing women he had missed out on meeting or interacting with in his life because they didn’t fit the image he had in his head of how women should look. He breaks down crying in the video as he’s talking about his part in … Continue reading Dustin Hoffman on Appreciating Women
“Not Cool, Robert Frost!” It has been all the rage on the internet, at Ted Talks, on the Late Night Circuit – all over the place. If you have not yet seen The Pep Talk, by Kid President, please, go see it now. I will wait. My kids and I have watched this so many times, we have it memorized. We have gone on to … Continue reading Monkeys Flinging Poop, Friends Visiting and other Poetic Adventures
It’s true, and I have no pictures to share, because it was all imaginary, to pass the time. We were there for over an hour. I purposely kept my phone in my purse. Never once pulled it out, because I feel so conscious of the time I’m with Bean, and the moments I steal from him if he’s with me and I’m on my phone. … Continue reading So Bean and I made Apple Pie and Lasagna at the DMV
This was the phrase floating through my head all morning as I cleaned my house. I cleaned everything. My house has not been this spotless in a long time. I cleaned with joy. I cleaned with a spring in my step. Bean helped me with the more fun parts, like the duster dealie-ma-thingie. The other day I read an article about being a good wife … Continue reading Where there are no Oxen, the Stalls are Clean
This morning, we changed up the chores. We have so many more animals this year than we did last year at this time, that we spend all morning feeding, watering, milking, and cleaning up after animals, and our garden is still barely in. Today, Scott suggested that I spend all morning (all chore time, that is – all the way up until 6:25 when it’s … Continue reading Mostly, We Laugh
This morning, in the moments before anything else happened, before anyone needed me, or the morning ritual of hugs all around began, I imagined being there yesterday, in Boston. I imagined the sounds and all I really know of anything this scary, is seeing blood on one of my kids from a bicycle accident. When they are in full swing of play and whooping with … Continue reading With Everything I am, I Thank You
