You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair - the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You […]
I'll never in my life believe a dollar is wasted in the strengthening of one's personal library. We went shopping at the book fair. Tucker chose The Interrupting Chicken, a very charming story about a chicken who perpetually interrupts the narrator and thereby shifts the ending of the fairy tales we all know. Tyler chose […]
Little boys fascinate me. I mean really, truly fascinate me. They are fearless. Anything seems possible. Anything is worth trying. They are born with an implicit understanding that it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. If it's fun, let's make it dangerous. Loud is good. Big is better. And if you can turn something small […]
Little by little, I found the beat again, and after that I found the joy again. I came back to my family with gratitude, and back to my work with relief - I came back to it the way folks come back to a summer cottage after a long winter, checking first to make sure […]
Last week, I closed on the refinancing of my home. (Feel free to applaud. Finances are not my forte.) I remembered nine years prior, when Robb and I sat at a similar table, signing our lives away. We were brand new transplants to Colorado, we had made about $250 on the sale of our first […]
Tyler's preschool teacher greeted me yesterday afternoon with a gleam in her eye and an iPhone in her hand. "I just had to show this to you," she said. The children had been playing with letters to build words and sentences, and this is Tyler's finished product. "My mom is a writer."
I supported the next generation of women in the entrepreneurial world: I bought our stash of Girl Scout Cookies. I stocked up on the usual trio: Samoas, Thin Mints, and Trefoils. Turns out, only Robb liked the Trefoils. The package sits nearly untouched. Still, I'm not sorry I bought the box. I supported the lovely […]
Tucker glared indignantly at the bulging trash bag next to the back door. (He'll make an excellent indignant teenager, I foresee.) "That trash is always there, and I always have to take it out, and it's always so dirty." "And I'm so thankful for you, Tucker, because that's something Daddy used to do for me. […]
I wake up in a cold sweat, shaking in a rhythmic pulse. This used to happen all the time, several times a night, but now it's less frequent. And it's different. In my recurring dream, he has come back. He steps into the traditions of our life together, and he's just suddenly there, usually making […]
"Tyler, what do you want to be when you grow up?" "A scuba diver." "And how about you, Tuck?" "I want to be a writer." (Be still my beating heart.) "You know what, guys? I've always wanted to be a writer, and I got the job. I'm a writer now." "You are??" "I am. I […]
"Mommy, why is it so bad to tell somone to kiss my ax? Is it because axes are sharp? They could cut their lips?" "Um, yep. That's why. No talking of kissing axes."
Robb would be very pleased with Tucker's understanding of the morning pledge. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of The Ohio State of America."
In his perfect holiness, he did not do what I have done today. Today sucked. Forgive me if you do not like that term. But it did. No way around it. My boys were disobedient and whiny. I was out of patience and fortitude. We were plain sick of each other. This house (and the […]
What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life - to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment […]
Though her branches are bare, though the sun hides, still she reaches her arms to the sky. I had to take a picture of her.
I backed out of the driveway, taking them to school with a smattering of mismatched mittens and library books. "Who is going to pray for our day today?" "I will!" "No! I will!" "Guys, you both can." "Okay, but I'm going first." "No, I'm going first!" "Tyler, you can go first." "Dear God, thank you […]
He took his daughter on a driving lesson. He had been teaching her to drive over the course of many lessons and many months. Learning to drive was a pinnacle value in their family, since her two older brothers were killed in a car accident when they were 17 and 15, years before she was […]
I have a bill to pay today: the ER bill from December 22, 2010. Even though the services rendered didn't help my husband, even though it's nobody's fault, even though the patient died 12 hours later, I have a bill to pay. There are some things a death certificate doesn't forgive. * * * p.s. […]
"Mommy, I am going to fill this desk with my art supplies, and starting today, I am the only one who will open the drawers." "Nope. That's not going to happen." "Okay. Nope." Clearly his assertion had been a testing of the waters, an experiment of sorts. And he found his answer. "Mommy, why did […]
"I would like to represent you," he said. He and his wife met me for coffee; he is the business, she is the intuition. Together, they are renowned in their field as a tremendously successful literary team. And he wants to represent me. Me. I think my expression was somewhat quizzical. "So, are you saying […]
