I think we’ve seen the last of them for this year: the first-day-of-school photos that spill down our social media screens. Darling children in their new clothes and unscuffed shoes, grinning for the camera and holding their signs: Amelia, second grade. Dylan, fourth. And the less-than-darling, I’m-too-old-for-this children, holding signs or not, wearing I-couldn’t-care clothes […]
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The text had two questions, the first from the daughter, who is ten: “Are you related to Robert Louis Stevenson?” And the second from the mother, who is old enough to be a mother: “(The Daughter) is reciting her most favorite tomorrow… ‘The Swing.’ I’ve been coaching her to try to recite it without the […]
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I drove the girls to school on Thursday, a late-summer, light-filled morning. It was just the third week of school, day thirteen if we’re keeping count, which might not be a good idea. The conversation en route was cheerful. Chatter about driver’s ed, gladness that it was already Thursday, and the painted parking […]
Read moreIt was a while ago now that he came in to the kitchen and stood next to me where I was stirring something on the stove.“Mom,” he said, “there are things about me that you don’t know.”“You’re right,” I said. He might have been nine or ten years old. I wondered at the time if […]
Read moreI think some parents will do all kinds of things in order to spend time with our kids. We schlep them ourselves to soccer tournaments, rather than car-pooling, maybe, for that priceless car-talk-time. We sit on the edges of their beds in the dark, listening despite our (and her) late-night fatigue, because now is the time she […]
Read moreThe day was looking good. Kids breakfasted and lunches bagged, they went off together to school. I had only one item on my calendar before the late afternoon’s rash of meets/games/matches, and yes, it appeared that a good writing day was ahead of me. An excellent writing day. I love those. Writing is, after all, […]
Read more“First sentences are doors to worlds.”—Ursula K. LeGuin Last night was Will’s first soccer game of the school year. It’s still more than a week before the first day of school, but soccer has been underway for a while now. Yesterday’s game felt familiar: the boys tore up the field and all of us parents […]
Read moreA small mountain remains: some research papers and two days worth of exams. It will take me hours to scale this mountain, but these are hours I can count, a discernible number– so different from the unknown and countless hours of grading I do over the course of the school year. I have some boxes […]
Read moreMost of the time I forget all about it. I forget about it in the way that you forget Christmas, or what you had for dinner last Wednesday. I forget about it because it is irrelevant. Most of the time. Most of the time I am up before light, anyway. I make breakfast and bed […]
Read moreFlush ice cubes down the toilet (as many as possible)Throw carrots out the window (preferably in the direction of the school)Place spoon under the mattress (the bigger, the better)Place a quarter under your pillow (heads up)Dance around a snowman candle (for as long and as wildly as possible)Wear your pajamas inside-out (no further explanation needed)Sleep […]
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