Now that our firstborn’s Gap Year is drawing to a close, the jury is in. It was a great decision. Instead of going straight to college, Ian accepted an offer from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) last May, then deferred for a year. As many MOB readers will recall, he spent the summer lifeguarding before going off [...]
It didn’t matter that it was late. Or cold. Or that Dave wasn’t home. Or that I am completely stressed with work. Or that I had one kid with mouth of pulled teeth and another with mouth of painful metal. Or that we were all recovering from the Mommy meltdown that had been building for about [...]
Going back to my childhood home is like entering a portal to the past. In the basement is my pink-painted dresser, with baby dresses inside. In the kitchen is Danish modern ironstone crockery that my mother acquired sometime in the 1970s, perhaps a grocery store giveaway. This exact pattern is now a hot item on etsy. The [...]
On Sunday evening Noah and I got into a spat. And it was a doozie – lasting several hours. I usually leave the Battle of Wills Steel Cage Extravaganzas for Dave. He is much better at holding a grudge than I am. And to be frank, going 15 rounds with a 12 year old [...]
Good morning to you! I got that line from Matt and Meredith. They say it to each other all the time on The Today Show, and it always sounds a bit babyish to my ears. Maybe because when the boys were toddlers, we took them to Makin’ Music and they sang a song involving those [...]
As a mother of growing boys, I feel it is my responsibility to school my sons in certain lessons related to fashion. After all, if not me, then who? Their father?? God bless Dave but his idea of dressing up is wearing a collared golf shirt, a defining principle which he has somehow passed onto [...]
My old Missouri home was a border state, harboring both Union and Confederate sympathizers during the Civil War. Parts of Missouri even seceded. There was the Kingdom of Callaway with its capitol, Kingdom City – now a not-so-regal truckstop between Columbia and St. Louis. Columbia is, I realize every time I go back, a Southern-Midwestern kind [...]
This past weekend as the family traveled to Maryland for the triathlon, we were faced with a familiar “situation” in our hotel room. Two double beds + two brothers who refuse to sleep together = Divide and Conquer “Who do you want?” I asked Dave. Since he was racing, I thought it was very big [...]
I’m back in my childhood home in Columbia, Missouri, where I’ve spent a wonderful few days with my dad and 66% of my brothers, not to mention my dad’s girlfriend, plus lots of neighbors and some dear old friends. I love coming back to my childhood home and finding stuff in basement, closets, and drawers [...]
This past weekend I was a big fat quitter. And I’m feeling rather proud of myself. I was registered to race in an Autism Speaks Sprint Triathlon in Bethesda with Dave, Doug and Mo. Physically I knew I was capable, but I had been hearing those voices for the last several weeks which were asking [...]
