Blogs

The Fever

Friday was a study in bitter cold and burning hot. The morning started off with temperatures—depending what news source you picked, thermometer, dashboard, or Internet—a little or well below zero. As temperatures plunged and the wind banged against the...

Oh Right, the Thaw

I’m so not a numbers gal (ask the women I met with over a budget just last night). However, for whatever reason, the not-in-the-milestones-book marker of my reaching forty-seven-and-a-half actually made it onto my radar screen (for the record, it’s today)....

The Pile Up

Not to get all weather-y on you, but March has begun. In New England, March raises questions (more on that later). February had its moments. There were cold ones, snowy ones, icy ones and a few moments of crazyhopeful thaws. February had the little girl turn three...

On Gucamole

Living with an aspiring chef/tweenager gourmet has its perks. When he perfects something—bahn mi or refried beans, hummus, tomato sauce—we really are pretty darn golden (and delightfully full) in our household. Sometimes, his ideas don’t...

At Odds

I’ll ‘fess up straight away. Since the news of Japan’s nuclear crisis, I’ve been trying to avoid the news. I mean to say, I’m not reading every story or watching the news or streaming video. I’m seeing headlines in newspaper boxes,...

Regarding

Sunday morning, Massachusetts: it’s 23 degrees outside and there are just a few tired patches of snow left. I hear birdsong. How impossibly magical is it that a morning ago I woke to the fullest orange moon hovering in the charcoal grey sky above the ocean?...

Orchards

After each of the very public (and I don’t have to qualify this, tragic) suicides by very young people in recent years nearby (to refresh your memory of their names, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover and Phoebe Prince) that were linked in some way to bullying, my...

Longest Month

The calendar says spring. New England has its own terms for spring: just a little snow left on the ground or just a little snow fell overnight. Look! Crocus! Look! Person in t-shirt (ignoring snow)! It’s not pitch black at seven in the evening, I’ll grant...

Three Seats

Any parent who has flown with child in tow has at least one hellish story to share. My personal worst had to do with a cancelled flight, a second pass at the trip the next morning, three flights, two terminals, one parent, two children (turning three plus infant) and...

Family Dinner-ish

If memory serves (a phrase I bet I end up using more before I use it less in the coming years), potty training—save for the force-it-for-preschool-deadline with the first—was a far less emotionally fraught experience for my middle two guys. This is to say...

Day After Fool's

April Fool’s Day 2011, like the snow, came and went. Birds are singing. Sun is shining. I almost think it just might be spring. Although that seems way too bold a declaration. No one pulled any pranks on me. I was too burnt out and cranky for anyone to want to...

First Solo Day

Shall I regale you with my theory that when one’s dear spouse (and pointedly, in absentia perhaps even dearer co-parent) goes on a trip (book fair, in this case) the first day can either go deceptively smoothly—thereby lulling you into false security that...

In Progress

Maybe the reason people love gardens is that they contain all kinds of answers about life (even capital L). I’m writing a story about them at the moment and love one person’s description: “A garden is always a work in progress.” In other words,...

Three

Here’s one truth about being three (three fingers, words enunciated very clearly): it’s more complicated than being two. ** You want to be a big gu-url. You want to be a baby (before we knew such a teeny-tiny guy as Declan, baby Millie). You pinch (hit,...

Roll of the Dice?

We—by we, I mean my tween, my eight year-old and myself—are a teeny, tiny bit Yahtzee-obsessed at the moment (and Saskia, in her very own way). There’s something so simple about the game, a little bit strategy, a little bit rock-n-roll the dice, plus...

Movie Plus Dinner

Before the little gal began vomiting, the week—with two kids off the whole week, one off for a couple of days and the little one on her three mornings at school schedule—included plans. A bunch of which were dashed by her illness and attendant (wholly...

Doughy

When you are a gourmet-leaning tween with aspirations of chef in your future, two things are clear: one, you dream up complex meals you hope to create and two, cooking for people you care about is one of the biggest pleasures in your life. So it goes in my house....

Be Here Now

What seemed like simply being wiped out on Friday evening announced itself—by an hour and a half nap (so very unlike me) Saturday morning—as something a tiny bit more than exhaustion. It was low-grade, a little headachy, feverish, nothing big ticket, yet...

Blowing in the Wind

In the spirit of imperfection being, well, kind of perfect, I wanted to share these seemingly random thoughts about the way life is so very lifey: * This coming weekend is my 30th high school reunion. As one of the organizers of the event, I’m compelled to note...

Assumptions

Given that I’m one of those bluer-than-blue—indigo—state Democrats living in bluer-than-blue Northampton, Massachusetts, getting a fundraising pitch a few months back for the George W. Bush Presidential Center (not library, since we’re not sure...

Looping Round

If reunions are about letting you reconnect with people you’ve shared important experiences or times with—in this case, my (30th) high school reunion—it’s partly powerful because you make a loop around whatever thing you loop around—the...

Princess. Truck. Phase.

One of Saskia’s preschool teachers* also taught her next oldest brother. Her teacher noted, rightly, that Remy was truck obsessed during his tenure in that young preschooler classroom. Indeed, he was. A word he pronounced carefully and slowly, as if to revel in...

With(out) Camera

A tiny new development is occurring in my life: I really like to wind up places with my camera in tow. Tuesday was a case in point. I figured that if I brought my camera to the Tuesday Market I’d wind up with a few photos I just… liked. Turned out to be...

Sorry

Empathy’s such a big concept. It is the heart and soul of compassion. It’s what’ll save us. And then, there are three year-olds (or pretty much any other age, take your pick). For Saskia, impulsivity is an issue (overall, improving, but still, an...

Teenager

The morning of May 19th a dozen plus one years ago, I kind knew one baby (gender yet unspecified) was about to arrive. Nothing more than cramps, but I suspected those cramps meant business. The sun shone, one of those achingly gorgeous May mornings. The toddler in my...

Taking Notes

Here’s a moment I loved today: two first grade girls stood—each holding a door—where the front hallway leads to the staircase and all the kids (and some parents and teachers) pour down the stairs as the school day officially begins. Rather than...

Condo Dwelling

Having given birth to three babies—and kind of obviously, thus having been pregnant three gestations’ worth in order to do so—I’m an adoptive mother who does not pine for the chance to experience pregnancy. My pregnancies included more than my...

Hard Farewells

Some moments are bittersweet. There’s no way to make them fully sweet (or entirely bitter, either). Short version: a couple of weeks ago a spot for Remy opened up at the school his seventh grade brother attends. Lucien’s had a great year—and the...

Fireworks

Go to the farmers’ markets this week and you’ll see this whole growing season phenomenon is in full swing. Along with all the greens and early radishes, there are sugar snap peas! Strawberries! The earth seems busy these days. This week, I started to think...

Some Basics

Sticking close to home this weekend, I have been sleeping. I logged eight hours-ish of sleep on Friday, and a little more on Saturday. If you’ve been reading about our household’s spring, you know that sleep hasn’t been our most abundant commodity....