You have been at work for some time when he gets home. It’s the sort of day that has found you in the work and then necessarily away from it and then back at it again, exhilarated and discouraged by turns. This is good work; this is bad; this is god-awful in a way that […]
Read moreI was cleaning yesterday. This is not something I am given to doing often. It’s dangerous, don’t you know? With all the writing there is to be done, cleaning tempts me with its mindlessness and its (ohsobrief) sense of accomplishment. During the week when the kids are in school, I avoid it as absolutely best […]
Read moreForm A few weeks ago, I took my kids to the Alexander Calder exhibit at Duke’s Nasher Museum. This was the second of our “Mom-days,” a little summer practice I instituted last year when it became suddenly clear to me that, if I did not deliberately claim just a wee bit of my children’s time […]
Read moreI’ve loved January for a while now. It’s not that I don’t love December and all that those 31 days mean– I do. I love the Christmas tree and the decorations and the lights. And more than that, of course, I love Advent: the awareness of the waiting, the quietness of the birth, the miracle […]
Read moreThey’ve asked me to write them a poem, my boys have. In four-four time. And it will not, in fact, be so much of a poem as it will be song lyrics, lyrics written for the music they have already written during one of their music sessions in the basement. They are on their instruments […]
Read moreI’ve always loved reading aloud to my children. I began, in fact, when William was still in utero (yes, I was one of those mothers), but took it up in earnest when he was newborn and we were alone in the house together for hours at a time. Rather than watch mind-numbing television during those […]
Read moreWilliam turned thirteen (13!!!) on Saturday, and on Friday night just before bed, he just sort of turned soft and quiet, and he said to me, “I’m feeling nostalgic.” And later, “I’m not sure I want to turn thirteen.” So I had to be strong for both of us, and tell him that a number […]
Read moreWe’re on the verge– the Very Brink– of teenager-hood over here. I can hardly believe it. Will’s thirteenth birthday is next month, and I find myself looking for signs…. For the most part, Will isn’t showing many. I mean, the personality change that parents sometimes groan about hasn’t emerged. He’s still his joyful, delightful self. […]
Read moreIt was all we were about on Saturday: Emma Grace’s birthday party. The guests would arrive at one and be gone by three, and from the time we got up in the morning until the very minutes they arrived, it was all streamers and icing and gathering things for games and setting up the punch […]
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