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So Jealous
These three are headed to the lake. And I’m not. How could this have happened? Sports. That’s what happened. Unbelievable. The two older boys have events this weekend. This is one of those Talking Heads moments when you scratch your head and say, “How did I get here?” In all truth, I need the break. There is a huge writing deadline looming over my head, and 2, rather than 4 boys, is much easier to handle when you’re trying to do anything other than “mother.” My goal is to have that writing project done by Sunday. We’ll see… By 7 o’clock tonight, they’ll be standing on the dock, breathing in…
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I’ll Give You A Pork Chop for an Evening of Peace
This spring, the kid’s sports schedule is scary. Jammed. This is our last big splurge of time on organized sports before we hit the lake and do absolutely nothing. Camp fliers for summer programs arrive in backpacks after school. I’ve seen, and tossed out, everything from spending a full week at college pretending to be a college student, baseball training, recycled junk ark classes to science camps. I simply toss, and toss. We’ will balance these months with the nothingness of summer. For now, I’m focused on the basics. Making sure the boys get their teeth brushed, to their doctors appointments, their homework done, and following our appointed sports practice…
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Meatballs
You could carve out some time today to get to the store for the ingredients for these meatballs, make them for dinner, and still have a stash of them in your freezer. On a crazy, harried week night, you could pull out a few meatballs, drop them into some broth, add some noodles and have soup. Or, you could top them on a mini hamburger bun, add some sauce and create mini meatball sandwiches. Meatballs should be a staple freezer item. I have tried, in an effort to save some time, to buy a bag of pre-made frozen meatballs and keep them in the fridge. But their texture resembles sawdust.…
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An Alternative To The Pill
The Wall Street Journal yesterday revealed that as the pill turns 50, almost half of pregnancies in the US are unplanned. This, despite the fact that women can choose from a full range of birth-control options, including pills, patches, rings and IUDS. I might have a solution to our nation’s birth control dilemma: a cheap, inexpensive alternative, that could last a lifetime. The method came about when I hired a woman to help me spring clean the house. She brought in a team of 8 women, and for five hours, my house will filled with the laughter and conversation of a multitude of generations of women. They scrubbed my floors,…
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Fried Sage Quiets the Nerves
If I was a medieval alchemist, and you came to me with a bagful of sorrow, I’d fry you leaves of sage. You’d eat. I’d wait for the clearing to come. In that space, sage could do its work and allow your sorrow to transform into something else. Something shinny and new. This is your big chance, I’d say. “Don’t let this slip through your fingers.” Our sage plant is neglected year after year, summer after summer, yet still thrives prolifically. The boys play outside and absentmindedly tear off their soft, heather-like leaves and ask me, “Is this edible?†Yes. Sage is rich in antioxidants, with a long list of…
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Kindergarten Hair Cut
In keeping with the kindergarten tradition of cutting your own hair with scissors, his second stab at taking scissors to his hair comes just in time for his graduation picture. Best Shot Monday.
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The Vacant Spot at Graduation Ceremonies
I started to enter the times on our family calendar of the three graduations I will attend on June 9th, but I got stuck on the first one – that kindergarten one. He’ll stand at the front of the class, wearing his black cardboard mortarboard, and I’ll remember the intimate lunches we shared of poached egg sandwiches, tuna with capers and sometimes, simply the warm comfort of cream of wheat. My eyes will well with tears, but then I’ll smile when I realize this is his day. Standing as tall and proud as a dandelion puff, still perfectly spherical, untouched by a blast of wind. Out of the corner of…
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I Said No
So, they agreed to let the car go without a person on top. This is exactly why I can’t leave them along long enough to go to the basement to switch and fold a load of laundry.
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When a monster shows up in your picture book
The monster appeared out of nowhere… The “monster” is in the pages of book entitled Shrewbettina’s Birthday, part of the series of “wordless” children’s books by John S.Goodall with vintage pages that flip like a movie theater. Two pages are full size, while a half page flips up in the middle to keep the action moving, as if it’s really a flip book. Back then, it was just the two of them, and we had never heard of a little boy who was so attached to trains he hoped to grow up to be an old man who loved them. And, could there be something wrong with a little boy…
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