In the 1980’s my mom had a big white t-shirt that had written on it, in bold black letters, all caps, “DON’T WORRY BE HAPPY.” She wore it as a swimming cover up and I remember being embarrassed by the shirt for some weird pre-teenage/teenage reason. I secretly loved the song but had judged the… Continue reading Here’s a little blog I wrote
On February 7, 2013, I met an amazing author. Ralph Fletcher, writer of children’s books and guru about getting kids (especially boys) to write was teaching a session at a reading conference I was attending. I went to see him speak and learn from him because I so admired the memoir he wrote, Marshfield Dreams,… Continue reading The good old days
This week is parent teacher conferences at Daughter’s school, which means she only has class Monday through Wednesday. By some ridiculous stroke of luck and series of wonderful coincidences, we managed these things: an earlier conference on Thursday morning, Husband has Thursday-Sunday off to spend with us, our favorite pet sitter was available, Husband’s sister… Continue reading Childlike giddiness
Husband has been a great source if inspiration lately. I’m not sure if I’m paying better attention than usual or if he’s just been more awesome than his regular self, but either way, I’ll take it. Last night we were enjoying tea out on our back deck after dinner. It was what he calls a… Continue reading What I don’t notice
There’s this amazing book for young people written by Jerry Spinelli entitled Loser. It’s about this kid named Donald Zinkoff who is too happy most of his life to realize that he is considered a loser by those around him. Well, it’s sort of about that. It’s about a lot of amazing and wonderful things.… Continue reading Loser
Sometimes I think in blog posts the way I thought in status updates when I first joined social media in 2007. In my quiet times, usually when I’m walking around the grocery store or in the shower, I prewrite my next post in my mind. I have a conversation with myself about the quality, ask… Continue reading My grass isn’t greener
It’s raining. Pouring. Sheets and buckets and torrents of rain. Daughter is cleaning her room, which means she is in her room sitting in a chair and looking at the laundry on her floor until she hears someone in the hall, at chick point she jumps up and feigns cleaning. The dogs and cat are… Continue reading My old man is snoring
Long ago when Daughter was, I believe, around two years old I “had to” take a trip with her all alone. I say had to because I was sort of terrified to do the trip without Husband. Still, I wanted to see my family out east and he couldn’t get time off, so I decided… Continue reading With Daughter and alone
I used to listen to music constantly in my life. Not only did it have the importance to me that it does to most American adolescents, but it was a way for me to connect with my family. My father died when I was very young and I often felt like I didn’t know him.… Continue reading Music and its place in my heart
I’ve wasted a lot of energy lately beating myself up over the things I don’t do well. Because of my personal predilections I have managed to perseverate on many of my less desirable qualities in order to try and reason out why things aren’t going the way I want them to. This is not only… Continue reading Tell me somethin’ good
Elephants in the Room 