I'm sitting here at the dining room table, and there are things to do (two bags of groceries to unpack, thank you notes to write, an overdue doctor's appointment to schedule, a 20-minute yoga video, a few emails, plus Babygirl is about to be on break from Zoom and she will want a snack and she will need to know what the PLAN is for the after-school hours...) but instead of tackling these items as I had intended, I'm kind of paralyzed. For one thing, it just started raining, unexpectedly, which is throwing a wrench in the aforementioned after-school planning (see : outdoor activities ... [READ MORE]
Recipe Roundup No. 12: Monday Musing
March 20, 2017 by 1 Comment
The clouds rolled back in with a vengeance yesterday afternoon. The kids and I were caught unawares, having been at a gymnastics birthday party that worked everyone into a sweat, but we emerged from the ritual pizza-and-cake to find that our spring temperatures had dropped and our t-shirts weren't going to cut it. I have a good spot here on my living room couch on Mondays. Through the sliding door next to me, the deck looks bright and pretty despite a gray sky (and windows that need a cleaning if this rain EVER STOPS), the bridge soars above the choppy Bay waters, and through the rails of ... [READ MORE]
Love is a Battlefield
September 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Babygirl does not want your help. She does not want your help with her zipper. She does not want your help pouring the milk. She didn't ask for your opinion about whether those shoes are appropriate for school. And she sure as hell doesn't want you brushing out the nest that is her hair in the morning. She wants many things: hugs, treats, your undivided attention at all times and it doesn't count if you're not watching me with both your eyeballs. But if it's help you're peddling, you'd best move along, because she's not interested. Like right now, for example: I'm typing, and ... [READ MORE]
Lunch Lady Land
September 9, 2016 by Leave a Comment
A smattering of new lunchbox containers (yay!) featuring the Shark Chase, Pop of Color, and Rockstar Custom Name Labels from Minted. I remember exactly the first time LittleMan read me a book. We had bought a compilation of Level One stories based on Pixar movies, and this particular story was about opposites: The horse is fast. Merida is happy. The bear is mad. The wall is high. LittleMan was in Kindergarten and we sat on the couch and he read me these ten pages or so and afterwards I flipped through the book alone and wept with pride and amazement that he had cracked ... [READ MORE]
Recipe Roundup No. 9: Five Great Bean Dishes
August 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
I just did the First Official Back-to-School Grocery Run and damn, it was a shop for the ages. Backup peanut butter! A pound of deli turkey! Chicken breast tenders for quicker cooking on busy afternoons! Hand sanitizer! Pencils! Scissors! ALL the Kleenex! Ketchup ketchup ketchup! Martini olives (which are LittleMan's preferred lunchbox "fruit", heaven help me)! And another jar of martini olives! For martinis! As has been well-documented here, we are home-cooking people. On the average day we prepare breakfast for three, two lunch boxes (for the kids) and a snack/provisions ... [READ MORE]
Recipe Roundup No. 8: Back-to-School
August 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment
That's my old stove, btw. I literally cannot wrap my head around the fact that today is officially the last day of summer vacation and school starts Monday. First of all, let us review the date, which is August 12. Still squarely in summertime, in my humble opinion. But I am slowly accepting the fact that I don't make the rules when it comes to the SFUSD (oh, but if I did...) and so on Monday we will suit up at the ungodly hour of 7:20am and make the trek to Day One. Babygirl starts Kindergarten on Monday. Did you hear that? BABYGIRL STARTS KINDERGARTEN ON MONDAY. Remember when ... [READ MORE]
P is for Protester (And Prada.)
January 14, 2014 by Leave a Comment
"What did you do on your first day back?" we ask LittleMan over dinner. "Mostly we learned about ducks," he replies between bites of salmon. "Ducks? What about them?" "Ducks starts with D." Suddenly I remember. The Letter Project. Dammit. (Dammit starts with D!) The Letter Envelope is due every Wednesday morning, every week for about 20 weeks. Each week, the Letter Envelope must contain 4-5 images culled from magazines, newspapers, etc. which represent words that start with a letter of the alphabet. (Why only 20 weeks? you alphabet aficionados might be asking. Are ... [READ MORE]
