There are more tragedies in the world than I can fathom. The truth is, our world is so connected, we cannot help but know devastating details of incidents that happen across vast distances. Which is w...
Another night. Another gift. Dinner was amazing – homemade hot-dog buns, homemade mayonnaise, homemade relish, homemade potato chips. Big, honkin’ Hot-dogs. Delicious. Then while Bean was ...
It was the worst night in recent history. It was the night the world reeled to learn that 20 first-graders and 6 adults at an Elementary School had been gunned down. It had been a day of tears and out...
Yesterday, Ben and I had the amazing privilege of meeting Reginald, the owner of Ravenswood Leather in Medford, OR. I had visited them the day before and seen the knights helmets, the leather gear, th...
We are not staging a revolution. But I read an article by Lisa Russell today on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation blog, Impatient Optimists, which had originally been posted on HuffingtonPost.co...
Over dinner tonight, I was informed that the boys had been watching The History Channel‘s show, American Pickers, and were introduced to a flag with a Swastika on it. Sharp intake of breath. My ...
In a radio interview with movie director Robert Zemeckis, I learned about the origin of the movie, Back to the Future. Robert and his writing buddy were talking about their fathers, and their relation...
My husband likes Heavy Metal, and periodically feels cursed to know more lyrics than he should to the songs from “South Pacific.” Luckily, he understands the importance of diversity in our...
Nearing the very edge of space, the outer reaches of our galaxy, is NASA’s Voyager 1 – coming close to the Magnetic Highway, the point at which the direction of the push of the wind from t...
We learned just a little too late in the month, that November is American Indian Heritage Month. In future years, we will be able to plan for some more comprehensive activities and cultural immersion....
Sometimes I forget how civilized my boys are actually. I forget amid the mud and noise, bruises, scraps and yelling. Then I take a little trip to the Library on my lunch break, bring home a pile of bo...
Thanks to my son’s take home Scholastic News magazine, I learned that November is National American Heritage Month. For Language and Literature night tonight, I pulled a free printable from Teac...
Yesterday I held fresh books in my hands. Fresh, meaning, not dust covered, or tried and true. Hot off the press, right there on the shelf at the book store, and now in my hand. No children running am...
We ended up talking a lot about Cause and Effect at dinner tonight, because we’ve been having a hard time getting the boys to do what they’re told. And all this time, we are doing super co...
Last night was a Pizza night, simply for lack of energy. Both Scott and I had pretty intense days at work. His was in the cold and wet in a slippery tree. He won. And it was Math Night, so we talked a...
Language and Literature night started out with poetry, and turned into playing with rhyming words and trying to make something of it – all around Gratitude – which makes me smile even more...
Yesterday afternoon, just as I was getting ready to leave work, just as my husband, the tree guy, was dropping off our boys so he could run do some estimates, I got the news. I got the news that a won...
Talk about going through the motions. Grown-ups never cease to amaze me, and not always in a good way. Last night we trick-or-treated with our kids for two hours in a Kid-friendly neighborhood where h...
I asked the boys today what their favorite part of the Fall Season is, and they started mentioning all the bright colors of the trees. Before we knew it, we were in the middle of a gigantic art projec...
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. These are the opening lines of the famous poem, The Jabberwocky, by Lewi...
There are so many gorgeous colors in the world. I am drawn to colors and the juxtaposition of colors, the interesting array of possibilities, the “World is our Canvas” mentality, and splas...
Even better than cloud busting, Ben and I imagined a dragon in the fog this morning. Do you see it?...
After the heaviness of the most recent dinnertime topic, it was a relief to get back to How Things Work again tonight. This time my husband jumped in, because I was trying to explain how a gear shifti...
These topics come up because of something Ben is learning in school. Part of me wishes they would give us some warning. But then I realize that if they left it up to group rule, our poor kids wouldn&#...
Bean, our 4-year old, went on an estimate with his dad the other day, and met a wonderful man who showed him all around his back-yard model train. He is part of the Garden Train group here in Medford....
