When Mike and I announced our engagement a bajillion years ago, someone’s crusty relative gave us a pamphlet outlining the secrets to a happy marriage. This must have been material scavenged from some 1950s era backwoods church storeroom. The drawings looked like something from a Dick and Jane reader. And the pamphlet was primarily focused […]
How skiing leads to therapy and why I owe my mom an apology
Today was the first family ski trip of the season. This activity is gobs easier than it used to be. These days I say: “we’re going skiing this weekend,” and everyone says “hooray.” But as any parent knows, take an activity you used to happily schedule vacations around, spend absurd amounts of money on, and […]
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The holidays are not for procrastinators
So, it’s T-minus-two-weeks before Christmas, and not only have we not shopped, decorated, or completed the Christmas letter, I’m not even tempted to arrange the reasons why in a cute Twas the Night Before Christmas format. And for that you’re welcome. Of course, because I’m a giver, I’m going to put off all the holiday rigamarole […]
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Eight things I’ve learned hosting a foreign exchange student
Another teenager came to live with us this week. Given the stories you hear from me about the one we already have, you might think I’m self-medicating. Hold off on the intervention, we know what we’re getting into. And not second-hand either. When we told people we were going to host our first foreign exchange […]
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The kind of stuff that gives me eyelid twitch
A conversation on the way home from school: Mom, I was texting with some total stranger today. <pause> Who … I thought you weren’t supposed to text at school. It was at lunch. She thought I was someone else. She was all: “Heyyy :).” Turns out she thought I was her cousin. Some guy named […]
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Of writing, watches and guys named Steve
New Year’s Resolutions for Real People I’ve never been into making New Year’s resolutions. Those things are pretty much doomed by Valentine’s Day, and it’s hard to annually decide on something simultaneously important enough to actually address, but not so much I mind dooming it to the traditional resolution process. Last New Year’s I made […]
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A Little Rant on Santa
When our kids were still visiting Santa I tried to manage their requests. Santa: “What can I bring for you this year, buddy?” My cute kid: “Abba babba doodie,” or something. It’s hard to hear crouched behind behind Santa’s broad back – the best position from which to provide necessary coaching. Me (sotto voce): “Matchbox […]
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Not the kind of cracker one has with brie
I’ve posted in this blog about my fear of being the biggest hillbilly family on the block by virtue of my approach to yard work. If anyone takes offense to the term “hillbilly,” I actually mean to say a “hill person” or, um, “prairie challenged,” whatever. To clarify for the purposes of this post, in using […]
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There may be asteroids
At an early meeting last week, a colleague pointed at a spot on my screen where colored boxes blended into a menacing hue: one of several points on my calendar where meetings were stacked on each other. “What’s that?” he asked. “THAT is where I figure out how to be four places at once,” I […]
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How many kids can I piss off in one week?
It’s the time of year when the air is crisp and it’s possible to catch refrains of holiday carols or tantalizing smells drifting from someone’s kitchen. For many the world is filled with more holiday traditions and preparations and nostalgia and whimsy than they can shake a stick at. Unless you’re 14. Then the world […]
