While grocery shopping recently, the products seemed to spring to life. It made the hum-drum task much more entertaining. For instance, I suspect that devilish Mrs. Paul and hunky Mr. Clean (no, he’s not gay) are an item. Furthermore, I believe they’re sneaking off to a love nest. How else to explain this improbably named [...]
I remember long ago, when Malcolm was a newborn, a friend saying “OMG, in 13 years, you’re going to have 3 teenage boys! I can just picture them all swarming into the kitchen, yanking open the fridge, raiding your food supply, leaving carnage in their wake.” This was not what I wanted to hear. The [...]
Top ten reasons why ten is my favorite number. 1. It’s easy to add and multiply. 2. I was born on the tenth of July. 3. My first initial is J, the tenth letter of the alphabet. Jennifer…July…ten… 4. On scales of things, ten is usually best….unless you’re ranking pain. 5. We throw big birthday [...]
Reading. Eating. Napping. Wondering. Why did Garnet Hill send me this big, expensive, full-of-catalogs-but-otherwise-empty envelope when I know they’re not shipping the pink hydrangea PJs until January? Oh, that’s right, I also ordered a headband. Which should have been sent by itself in a little tiny envelope for a lot less money, or shipped with [...]
Close family friends, the Fryers, were with us on Christmas Day. Although the addition of Jim and Sam meant another two guys in the house, with Laura and daughter Jane and Sam’s girlfriend Becca here, we females were actually a force to be reckoned with. And I could wrap up girly things like lip gloss and cute books in angel [...]
From the minute I met my friend Linda, way back in the 1980s, I knew she was a gem. There was none of that circling, “let me size you up, you unmarried potential competitor” stuff that women all too often do to each other. Linda was pure sunshine and graciousness from Day One. She’s also brilliantly [...]
Sometimes you hear the greatest tips on life from the smallest conversations. A brief chat on Sunday was just the latest example of this syndrome. There we were, milling around Fellowship Hall after church, enjoying that great annual feast known as Cookie Sunday. In addition to the usual tea and coffee table, there were tables stretching [...]
At this time of year, we all make choices. Which will it be? Paperwhites, or poinsettias? I’m a paperwhite person, myself. I buy the bulbs around Thanksgiving and pot them in random pieces of crockery that have accumulated from yard sales and such. But I know not to give one to my friend Carol, because she [...]
Following up on Emily’s recent musings on the dilemmas posed by holiday cards, I am reminded that we have not yet put together our 2009 card. There are many reasons for this, but we could begin with the difficulty of obtaining a photo that everyone likes. Things were easier when the boys were little and [...]
Our friend Patrick King recently called with a request. He received a commission to create a painting of a friend’s boyhood home in Wisconsin, circa early 1970s, and he needed a 12-year-old kid to model. Oh, and a Schwinn banana bike, if we had such a thing kicking around. We didn’t. But thanks to Ian’s connections in [...]
