The kids have this writing curriculum at their school in which every year begins with "small moments". As a writer I get this: the moment begets the scene, which begets the idea, which begets the plot and so on. (I love this about their school.) If the blog died a quiet death in 2017 it wasn't for lack of small moments. It was because those moments weren't mine. The year belonged to other people. Other people's battles. Other people's pain. Other people's triumphs. The false starts and the great, big, smiling, deep, breaths. I was a bystander, and a support system. I ... [READ MORE]
Recipe Roundup No. 11: A Week of Something Good
January 10, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Stock for days. So it's the New Year and a handful of my friends have been doing Whole 30. While I've heard many people describe it as "life-changing" it's just a bridge too far for me. For one thing, you know I love my veggie staples and I can't wrap my head around anything that forbids beans. It just doesn't compute. But Ugh, fine, we've just come off the latest round of holiday hedonism (which seemed to come just right on the heels of summer's hedonism...and late summer's hedonism...and early fall's hedonism) so I suppose it makes sense to rein it all in for a bit. Back in ... [READ MORE]
Hello, Again
January 6, 2017 by 1 Comment
Further evidence of my incredible photography skills. The sun was shining straight into the Tahoe house and the kids were watching Home Alone 2, and I was finally (finally) revisiting the blog. I was going to write about how being a parent of small children sometimes just doesn't offer many chances for reflection. And just when I was typing that, my children decided they were bored and wrestled one another off the couch, so I stopped reflecting in order to keep the peace and set up a craft station. If that's not life in a nutshell half the time, I don't know what is. Part of the problem ... [READ MORE]
Happy Moms Who Hate Clutter
March 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Every December (and yes, I know it's March...bear with me), I get a strange yearning to remodel my apartment completely. This is obviously very convenient timing for everyone, but especially for my husband, whose company policy dictates a furlough between Christmas and New Year, meaning that the days leading up to Christmas Eve are a mad dash to get things in line at work. Also to reupholster furniture, replace all the kitchen cupboard knobs, and build stuff at home. Have I mentioned that I love him? This year (meaning last year, I guess), I spontaneously decided that we needed to ... [READ MORE]
Aftermath
December 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I realized this year that the only day that makes me as happy as the day we decorate for Christmas -- and I LOVE that day: love buying the tree, love the everything-old-is-new-again wonder of pulling 3.5 decades' worth of ornaments out of the storage bin, love the way my kids dance around my husband who just wants to get the lights on before we start hanging things please and for heavens sake you guys, love the way the Manhattans taste just a little bit toastier in the glow of the lights, love it all -- is the day we take it all down and reclaim our living space. Much more than New Years ... [READ MORE]
Joy
December 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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]
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]
