I just folded a pile of laundry that felt like digging a tunnel to China from my own backyard (if I had one). Like, that load of laundry was NEVER-ENDING. You know how sometimes the laundry pile is all, Oh, it looks like a lot but really it's all sheets and towels and there's only about five things to fold? This was not that laundry pile. This was literally. Every. Single. Item. Of. Clothing. In. Our. Household. One Peanuts holiday special ended and another began and my husband got home (at last) from super late night at the office and I was STILL folding laundry. And drinking ... [READ MORE]
I Wish I Knew the Answer
December 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I try to keep politics out of Less on the Floor. Because this is a blog about family and family is universal. Except guns. I feel super super really super deeply strongly about guns. This morning, watching the news at the gym, I had a vague inclination to throw a weight through the television, because I literally cannot, for one more minute, listen to one more person lament how "tragic" and "all-too-familiar" these events are. WHY ARE WE NOT DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THIS? I mean, WHY? In my humble opinion, this is so completely NOT a debate about the 2nd Amendment. If you want to ... [READ MORE]
Cobwebs and Clarity
November 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last week I quit something. I didn't feel very good about quitting, as I'm generally pretty big on commitment. But this particular commitment was the result of being a little bit flattered, and letting that feeling convince me to say YES when I absolutely should have said NO, or at the very least Not Now. It was the result of wanting to say Yes and not wanting to admit that my children are in two different schools on two different schedules (and it's killing me), and my day job has taken on new levels of demanding-ness (and it's depressing me). Commitment or no, there are times when you ... [READ MORE]
Green Goddess Dressing and Mac and Cheese
November 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment
My first year out of college I was a Kindergarten teaching assistant at an all-girls' school in San Francisco (which also happened to be my alma mater). It was a job I landed somewhat by default, the result of being an alumna, and of having chased love and family over a budding career on the NYC magazine publishing scene. (There was no magazine publishing scene in San Francisco in the early 2000s; there was a tech scene. This lover of print had no West Coast prospects.) That said, in retrospect it was a beautiful year of self-discovery, in large part because of the amount of free time my ... [READ MORE]
The Compromise
November 3, 2015 by 2 Comments
A young (and surprisingly fresh-looking, given that it's dawn in this photo) me, feeding LittleMan his first rice cereal on the floor of my parents' house, February 2009 I had a conversation with someone last week that got me thinking about regret. Regret is such an ugly word: one that connotes shame and sadness and a desire to move backwards in the hopes of rewriting history. It is such a strange word to associate in any way with the following of love and the bearing of children...and yet, in fathoming the life not lived, the path not chosen, it lurks somewhere on the fringes. ... [READ MORE]
Outside the Box
October 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Babygirl and my third child, Bitty Baby, wear matching pig masks for no reason at all. Have you ever really listened to what a kid is for Halloween? Like, really listened? Because they are always so much more than they appear to be. "Are you a clown?" "I'm a creepy jester." Which IS creepy! Totally creepier than a clown! I will totally give you that. Excellent. "Are you Princess Leia?" "I'm Princess Leia on the Death Star." NOT Princess Leia in a bondage bikini (inappropriate!) or Princess Leia with a gun (inappropriate!) or Princess Leia in that camo getup on Endor (not ... [READ MORE]
How Not to Talk to your Children About Disaster
September 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
LittleMan went into a disaster downward spiral the other night at dinner. I honestly cannot tell you the genesis of the conversation but it probably went something along the lines of: Me: "Gosh, today was rainy and windy, but we needed it." LittleMan: "You know, rain and wind are part of hurricanes. And hurricanes happen when it's warm, like in Magic Schoolbus." Me: "It was warm last week, but it never gets warm enough for a hurricane here." LittleMan: "But what if it does?" Me: "It won't. We don't have hurricanes here." LittleMan: "What do we have?" Me: "Well, we have ... [READ MORE]
