Kids’ school Thanksgiving projects tickle me so much. The Boy brought home turkeys he made with each feather representing what he is thankful for. The top one’s feathers say: I an Thankful for being smart I am thankful for being helthy I am thankful that I have a house. I am thankful for the food I eat. I am thankful for my school. I am thankful to be an America. […]
Sadness has settled into me like a chest cold. We put our doggie down this morning. Buckley was 14 years, 4 months old. The vet at the emergency clinic was compassionate about it. “He’s gone,” she told us, listening to Buckley’s chest with a stethoscope after the second injection. For 14 years, I’ve been correcting people. Buckley was a “she.” But I just didn’t have the energy to do it […]
One of the ways The Big M and I amuse ourselves is by talking in code when we need to discuss things in front of the kids that we don’t want them to understand. We don’t speak a mutual foreign language, so that’s out. The Boy can spell now, so spelling things is out. He’s even got Op Talk** down, a special spelling language that my in-laws introduced me to. […]
Ugh. I am so tired, and there are dishes to do. The Big M is on another business trip and our fridge is deliberately (mostly) empty in anticipation of a trip to Dallas this weekend, so I decided to drive through for supper. All of you with kids probably are familiar with the arguments that go on between them when it comes to choosing a place. And, unlike The Big […]
The Boy gave me a calculating look and tilted his head ever so slightly. “Mom, Weight Watchers is offering a month free if you join now.” Ordinarily he’ll parrot any number of things he has seen on TV, often with a barely contained excitement that verges on exuberance. “Mom! Did you know that you can refinance right now with GiantBankingConglomerate.com and save hundreds of dollars on your mortgage payment?!” Never […]
I’ve finished Free-Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy, and I’ve been trying a few things to make my kids more independent. I feel sort of like Bill Murray’s character in What About Bob: “Baby steps to the elevator. Baby steps I’m on the elevator. Baby steps…” We’ve done Walking to the Mailbox Alone and now Hanging Out at the Church Carnival With a Fistful of Game Tickets and Without Hovering Parents. […]
I’ve been one of those hyper-paranoid mothers who cringes when letting her seven-year-old son use a public restroom unattended by a parent because there is sure to be a serial molester lurking within, just waiting for a kid to pounce on. But The Boy is nearly eight, and mommy can’t drag him into the Ladies’ Room anymore, so I let him go off on his own with warnings not to […]
I’m back in beautiful central Texas, arriving just in time for The Big M to take off on a business trip to Santa Fe. In honor of our recent air travel (and because I don’t feel like drawing anything tonight), I present to you a wonderful drawing done last week by The Girl: Isn’t that just the most wonderful airplane ever? She told me that Mama is flying it. I […]
Now that the kids are in school I’ve resolved to get my flabby body in shape along with my flabby brain. I dressed to go to the gym this morning instead of putting on my suburban mom uniform (solid-colored t-shirt with khaki or denim Capri pants). I know that if I’m not properly dressed for working out when I leave the house in the morning, the chances of actually making […]
and the purported first day of my brain training. Only, as so often happens with physical training, my laziness won out. Or more accurately, my exhaustion. See, the first day of school means getting up at 6:30 a.m. When it’s still dark out. We had fallen into a natural rhythm over the summer of rising after the sun does. So it’s going to be a bit of a transition to […]
Flabby Brain 