-
What To Do When You Get Knocked Down
This weekend, we pulled out the dust-covered, felt-covered football stadium my son created six years ago as part of his biography project. Before he took it to the curb, I asked him to leave it on the dining room table so that I could take a photo of it. “You already did that mom.” “No… I didn’t have this camera back then.” I stalled to take the photograph, knowing that once I took the photo, there would be no more reason to keep his work around. I remembered how long and hard he worked on this project — the time we spent together at Joann’s picking out self-adhesive letters, felt,…
-
Parades are the new Halloween
I ran down the stairs in the morning to find the little boys just a little too cozy watching their morning cartoons. “Isn’t it great,” I thought, “That they’re still young enough to find the prospect of finding candy so exciting?” The horses were already waiting before we had time to grab our shoes… “Get your shoes on boys, and grab your bikes, we’re all going to a parade.” “We don’t want to go….” “They’ll be candy….,” I hoped. “What if there isn’t any?” “Well at least they’ll be elephants.” Here, I must confess, I couldn’t for the life of my understand why there was a parade. “Maybe the circus…
-
That Scattered
You will not survive this whole parenting thing unless you have a relaxed, anything goes attitude. Yet, I’m surprised at how seriously some parents take themselves. Do you really have to make every single practice, even if it involves skipping dinner, bailing on the homework, and eliminating family dinner time five nights out of the week? Then, sprinkle in a few weekends on the road at some crazy hotel for a tournament that’s going to get rained out anyway? I don’t think so. Once, I heard that the definition of mother is being a mirror. As mothers, we need to be fully present with our children so that we can…
-
Surprising Places to Find Greens for Your Salad
Growing a salad is one of the best ways to save on groceries. How many times do you buy lettuce at the store, intending to make a salad, only to find the greens soggy and wet before you get around to making the salad? Or, even if you do make that salad, you still have way too many greens than you need — and they are tossed. Waste of money! Growing your greens takes up much less space than you realize, and many of the plants here are actual “flowers” and vines than can be planted in flower pots and flower borders, or can be incorporated into flower pots. Your…
-
Your Radiance
On May 22, 2011, I woke to the sound of cartoons, softly muted, making their way up the stairs. Then, the sound of dishes clanking, spoons tinkling and the microwave. My husband and I snuggled deeper into our sheets, relishing the fact that finally, after all these years, the kids can finally take care of themselves in the morning. and we can sleep. Next, there were two beaming faces standing in our doorway, each holding a bowl of oatmeal with a spoon. “Happy Anniversary,” they said. Eighteen years. The oatmeal was one of the best bowls of food I’ve ever eaten — but of course food you don’t make yourself…
-
Walking Away with a Billion Dollars
My son’s homework from last night. Have fun with this one. Suppose you inherit one billion dollars. The bank pays you the entire amount of money in $100 bills. About how much will your payment weigh in tons. Use the information below to solve the problem. You can cover a sheet of paper with about six $100 bills. There are 500 sheets in a ream of paper. There are 10 reams in 1 carton of paper. One ream of paper weighs about 5 pounds. One ton equals 2,000 pounds. Show all your work. Write an explanation this is clear and easy to follow.
-
Sunny D As Big as An Oxygen Tank
Our current read-aloud book is the chapter book Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Two English elementary school brothers stumble onto a stack of cash, just before the pound will become obsolete, in favor of the Euro. They have sixteen days left, and at their current rate of spending, it will still take the boys 655 days to get rid of their secret stash of money. They try everything — hire a taxi to take them home from school, buying used toys from their friends at school, and they’re paying ten pound notes for extra portions of desert in the school cafeteria. There are other subplots as well — the boys…
-
Where the Broken Tulip Came From
I could hear him coming up the stairs before I saw him… his breath heavy and panting. A chase had been ensuing outside, and I figured he was coming inside for safety — as the inside of our house is out-of-bounds for the neighbors. Then, I heard him mumbling something… “this is going to get me a pack of nerds for sure.” Then, I saw him, his arm outstretched to reveal a tulip, crumbling under the weight of the squeeze, the petals barely able to keep themselves part of the original stem. “Here,” he said, as he handed me the tulip. and as I pretended not to notice that it…
-
Edible Gardens
Since I read a Container Garden Book last spring, my eyes have been looking for opportunities to grow edibles in beautiful spots, rather than regulating them to a garden plot with rows. Now, I’m seeing edible pots and edible landscapes everywhere. Here, on vacation, lettuce for the salads are grown in containers. Rosemary lines the pathway to our hotel room, and Sage, (see the humming bird) sits outside as the focal point of the patio. . This seems to be a trend. Now, when I see a flower pot full of annuals, or a swath of landscape that is barren of anything edible, I almost think it’s a waste of…
Writer
