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Garden Failures, So Far
When you set your dreams high, and you expend energy to do something great, you increase your chances for failures. You also increase your chances for success — but before the big harvest, my successes are still in question. Take for instance my sweet potato project. Over the dreary cold winter months, when I was loosing my mind, I went to the store and dutifully bought sweet potatoes for the boys to be baked, slathered with cinnamon butter and brown sugar. The boys were contented. That makes me happy. It didn’t take long for me to get an idea… “What if I planted these myself?” I have a full sun…
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Last Night I Heard His Voice
The eighth graders arrived at the middle school at 7 a.m. Tuesday to load the chartered buses for their trip to Washington DC. The trip is packed with visits to monuments and museums on jam-packed mornings that begin at five, and back to bed at 10:30. A trip of a lifetime, to have an exhausting itinerary planned so that “they will see just about everything there is to see.†There are rules. Strict ones. No cell phones. The parents, surprisingly, are having the most trouble with this rule. “What if something happens? What if he gets separated from his group?†Really? You’re worried about your teenager getting separated from his…
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When Words Won’t Do: Life-Skills I’ve Learned on You Tube
If you’re still using YouTube to watch the Panda Jump, or listen to the boy tell us Charlie bit him, you’re missing out. YouTube has become my virtual source of how-to for everything from fixing the oven to coming up with pranks to play on my kids. I spent a few years lost without my ability to pick up the phone and call Mom to ask, “How do you….” until I discovered that there is a video on everything on YouTube. My favorites list expands to cover entirely new topics everyday. Today the bottom of my freezer was loaded with ice, and melting water was dripping out the door and…
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The Rain Sparkled All Night Long
The two of us sat outside, under an arched portico, at a marble table that was meant to seat ten. Next to us, there was a table of 6 giggling girls. They had stolen the chairs from our table, before we arrived, leaving us with a single padded wicker bench, curved to match the outline of the table, which had enough berth to easily seat six. Yet, we sat close enough for our knees to touch, leaving the outside seats of the bench bare and desolate. He ordered the Sapporo we would share, and our sushi — tuna and salmon for him, tempura for me. “Please bring us extra wassabi, 
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Restorative Spring Soup
I call this a restorative meal because of the nutrients in the broth and mushrooms; but primarily because it requires so little of my time and effort — and it uses up the leftovers! The formula is simple; simply pull out the leftover meat and veggies you have already your fridge, Always start with your base of olive oil and onions, and combine them with some nutritious dehydrated mushrooms for an extra punch of flavor and nutrients. (Keep those mushrooms in your pantry for nights like these.) With the week we’ve had, soup is a great meal to help my spirit slow down, and keep it in-sync with our schedule.…
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Gives Beleaguered A Whole New Meaning
Flubber Hands are the latest invention in my family’s second journey into the world of mini-mall. Unique, and truly one of a kind, each latex glove is painstakingly filled with handcrafted flubber. (Yes, we do know the recipe by heart now.) Care is taken to ensure that each finger receives an equal distribution of flubber. Once assembly is completed, the flubber hands are washed and dried, before undergoing extensive beauty treatments. Nail polish, lipstick, and rouge. Some even appear as your favorite sports team. Today’s first day sales resulted in the sale of 51 gloves, along with some bags of peanut-free puppy chow. The production crew is currently working overtime…
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Through the Prairie
If you look closely into this prairie grass, you will see one of the most peaceful scenes, and best shot, of our weekend. This herd of deer ran in front of our car, just at twilight, at the sweet end of our three-hour journey, just as we were about to turn into our drive at the lake house last Friday. I use the word “sweet” here when referring to the end. The boys do not travel well and only seem to be getting worse with age. After listening to four different soloists sing Sargent Pepper, and chants of “He bit me,” we were at our wits end, and simply ready…
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May Mayhem
Between feeding children, laundry, homework, guitar lessons, doctors appointments, working, living and creating the next mini-mall, we are running to lacrosse, to soccer to track (PR, 16 feet 7 inches) to soccer. The common complaint is, “Why do we have to go to all of their stuff, and they never go to ours?” Yes, this is true. And I’m falling way behind in the laundry, the cleaning… “And,” they add, “when we’re bigger they’ll never come to our stuff because they’ll be gone at college.” Yes, we admit, this is also true. My house looks like a hurricane ran through. But that one kick that makes the breakaway goal, or…
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Here Comes The Sun
Rain is pouring down. This rain is the soothing kind, the constant steady patter of rain drops, splashing against the gutters, that lulls you to stay curled under the covers to listen, and think about how grateful the earth must be for this downpour. I have a sick child today, with one less child running out the door to school, the breakfast table was exceedingly peaceful, and there were no bathroom fights with boys, each one trying to be the very last one to brush his teeth. There was one less lunch to pack, and one less stack of homework papers to sign. And he’s so compliant. They’re all that…
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