My Kindergartener woke me up (early) this morning with presents she had made and wrapped for me. One was an empty toilet paper roll (“Look–I wrote, ‘I love you, mom’ on it!”) and the other two were folded pieces of paper wrapped inside other folded pieces of paper and carefully, thoroughly taped. Here’s one note: “Aw,” I said. “‘I love you, Mom, love, me.’ That’s nice!” She looked miffed. “How […]
Have you ever heard that “living in the moment” is an ideal we should strive to achieve? I’ve been living in the moment all day. Why? Because I have the stomach flu. This has been a day of moments I would prefer not to have lived in. Thankfully it seems to be on its way out. And I am reminded that sometimes it’s okay not strive for ideals. On a […]
Merry Christmas! The kids are sacked out in the living room surrounded by Santa’s bounty, and with a trip to Grandma’s yet to anticipate. As my Byeya used to say whenever a check came in the mail, “It’s a good day.” I’m not tired at the moment, so I’ll conclude the previous post about the Christmas Consumers. Basically I just wanted to give more kudos to those who put the […]
I got to do something very cool today. Each year my mom and my Aunt Carolyn volunteer their time, talent, and treasure to help the area MHMR program put together a Christmas party for the “consumers”—the people receiving mental health or mental retardation services. For many of the consumers, it’s the only Christmas celebration they’ll attend. I got to participate in the fruit of their labor by volunteering at the […]
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire … Jack Frost nipping at your nose … I was singing “The Christmas Song” rather loudly in my bathroom when it occurred to me that its writer, Mel Torme, is Jewish. And then I realized that so is Irving Berlin, who wrote “White Christmas,” the best-selling song of all time. (An aside on that song: when I learned to play it on piano I […]
I have not been particularly prolific with the blogging because I am working on a top-secret Christmas gift that takes most of my computer’s resources. I’ll tell you about it after the 25th. This has not stopped The Big M from being busy using his own computer’s resources, however, and tonight he discovered something alarming. I’ll back up for a second. You may have noticed that this blog is more […]
I was reaching for a can of garbanzo beans at Newflower Market on Tuesday when it dawned on me that I was not miserable. Grocery shopping falls somewhere down the chore scale into the range of scrubbing toilets and cleaning up vomit. It has to be done, but I’m not exactly joyful about it. So here I was in this mom and pop little whole-foods grocery store with my kids, […]
“I thought it was an easy read.”—Book Club member It’s interesting how the same book can seem different depending on the reader. Sometimes it’s different to the same reader at different times. Occasionally I re-read books from my past, and the unchanged text becomes a mirror reflecting what has changed in my experience. Experience colors interpretation. This month’s book club selection was Missing Mom by Joyce Carol Oates. As others […]
Flabby Brain 