The rest of the family went to see a theatrical screening of The Wizard of Oz yesterday, but I spent the hours that they were away knitting a second fuzzy slipper, hand-felting the slippers, and then running a couple of quick errands.
Last evening, one of my oldest friends -- [...]
I meant to post a photo essay on today's feast, but I'm too sleepy.
In honor of the show's fortieth anniversary, and in honor of our trip to the zoo yesterday, here's one of my favorite Sesame Street bits ever:
' [...]At the last minute, I decided to go along to the zoo today with Calder, the kids, and my in-laws, which meant that the last of the last-minute grocery runs happened at 8:45pm, and that I still have two pies to bake and some stuffing to prepare. Now that the [...]
This is the week when I become convinced that the founders of NaBloPoMo must have strange relationships with Thanksgiving. Who chooses November to post every day? This one week alone must take a lot of people in the States right out of the running.
I thrill to the sight of long [...]
Just in case today gets away from me, what with the whole "what can I prepare ahead of time to impress my mother-in-law at Thanksgiving" question, here's a brief little thought I had as I read Jamie's post about the difference between mothering your first child and mothering [...]
All three kids had their last soccer games of the season today at 4:45pm. The season was meant to end on Saturday, November 7th, but there were so many rain cancellations that it kept going and going. They never did make up one last lonely week -- the fields close [...]
I'm likely to knit the mittens, the gloves, and the socks someday. I want the gloves for typing, the socks because I keep making socks for the kids but they rarely wear them, and the mittens because I'd like to try stranded knitting.
In the meantime, my desire to start something [...]
I am just back from the neighborhood book club, and I am too tired to write anything coherent. Instead, you get a quick little list of the books we are reading this year.
September: The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan October: Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and [...]I keep thinking that I am going to do a little new knitting, but I can't commit. Perhaps you can help.
Should I try knitting some DROPS mittens in the colors used for the model?
Or perhaps a pair of socks in the pattern that the Yarn Harlot just used, [...]
I started the month talking about the relentless labor of parenthood, so you could reasonably expect me to want to write about Sandra Tsing Loh's latest essay in The Atlantic Monthly, the second in a series she's writing about the collapse of her marriage and the conclusions she [...]
CJ wants to know who gets up with your wakeful kids (and I'll add, your pets -- I'm allergic, but I hear cats can be persistent). A couples-centric question, of course.
DaniGirl wonders what gifts will be popular at your house this holiday season.
It seems especially churlish to complain about my incredibly minor mother-in-law troubles on the same day that American Family posted her MIL story, but I am feeling a little peckish.
I should start by saying that I have a very good relationship with my MIL now. She's an easy guest, [...]
So, there's no consensus whatsoever on bathroom colors. At least my indecision isn't completely without basis.
I'm leaning toward something in the choclately-taupy-rich cream-burnt umber range, but I haven't quite settled on what. It's very site-specific, though. Most of the time, I prefer lemony yellows, peachy tones, or foam greens (those [...]
Gemma and Calder are walking in fear, now that three of us have succumbed to this 24-hour stomach bug. At least it's over quickly, with only a little bit of a dehydration headache and a big sleep deficit left behind.
I had started November intending to clear my bloglines feed at [...]
Wilder woke up with a fever, and I spent the middle of the day feverishly wiping surfaces with bleach. I keep thinking, I must have missed something.
I felt queasy in the car, driving to pick up the kids, but assumed it was the fumes.
It wasn't the fumes. (I feel better [...]
Home from school for the holiday, we had a late breakfast this morning. At one point, Wilder went to stand right next to the radio while NPR broadcast a story about one of the first women to serve as a drill sergeant in the army. (I spent far too [...]
Elba, Gemma, and Wilder never loved Sesame Street as I did, and I am not surprised. As far as I'm concerned, the show peaked in the mid-eighties, and has spent the last fifteen years shredding its soul in a failing [...]
So, in the see-saw of my emotions these past few days, I might have neglected to consider a few concrete variables. For one, Calder was out of town from Wednesday through Friday last week. That's not very long, barely a blip really, but perhaps it affected my mood. For another, [...]
Calder and I watched The Proposal last night after the bedtime fiasco (I wrote yesterday's post in the immediate aftermath of Angry Child's refusal to allow me into the bedroom to say goodnight), which was good from a "don't go to bed in despair" POV but sabotaged any [...]
Lately the work of housekeeping and parenting has felt exhausting and relentless. This makes no sense, because the kids are in school five days a week. But almost every night, I collapse into bed, worn out with the never-ending round of managing our finances, looking after our house (we had [...]
Because Wilder threw up at 1am, and went on to repeat the process ever 30 to 60 minutes up until noon, a book meme via Jennifer at Under the Ponderosa and Magpie Musing:
1) You are facing an epic journey. You may choose one companion, one tool and one [...]
Back in 2006, I started to draft a post about the relative happiness of motherhood, but I never finalized it, and now I don't know why. I've made a few minor edits for flow, but mostly I'm throwing it up there as it was written almost four years ago. [...]
The kids are at school from 7:10 in the morning, when they leave for the bus stop, until 2:45 in the afternoon, when they arrive home via car. All three of them pretty much walk in the door and throw themselves down with a book somewhere, dropping shoes and backpacks [...]
On the one hand, you all exhaust me. On the other hand, I imagine that we'll be a lot busier at some point in the future ourselves. Transitioning from one state to another is the hard part, I suppose.
We're less busy this year than last year. Everyone resumed pottery after [...]
So, we've found a subject that worries lots of people! I'm still worried about Wilder and school friendships but I'm reassured to know that lots of people worry about the question.
Right now, we participate in YMCA sports, which only meet once a week, for a combined practice/game where there's supposed [...]
I found out on Friday that one of the boys whom Wilder considers a "best friend" had a birthday over the weekend, and Wilder was the only one of the group not invited to the party. This particular boy's mother has consistently evaded my offers of playdates, and I just [...]
