In the dreaded End Times of summer, unscheduled dog days are a sentence to be served, not a gift to be treasured. Boredom is entrenched. Kids are at loose ends. Moms are at wit’s end. Witness this trio of shots from late summer, some years ago. Malcolm is the victim of an unprovoked attack. Minding [...]
As an update on our nosey neighbor’s nervousness over noise (see Monday’s post), Malcolm was alarmed to see this notice on our kitchen bulletin board. “Oh no, mom, she CAN call and report us!” he gasped. To his great relief, I explained that this Noise Notice is specifically to report airplane racket, as flight paths [...]
The sound of one ball boucing drives our British neighbour bonkers. An elderly widow, she is generally a nice person to share a property line with. Every year she gives us a bag of candy bars at Halloween and a box of English crackers at Christmas. However, when our boys play basketball and the ball [...]
When I was a child, certain bits of clothing screamed “old lady.” For one, black lace-up shoes with heels. Every single old lady I knew wore them. My great-grandma Mabel. Eleanor, the ancient church secretary. All the cotton-candy-haired Lucilles and Hazels, Lillians and Ethels, who used rouge and wore hats and white gloves. Old ladies [...]
Thanks to everyone who “used their words” yesterday in our first Fun Monday event. Excellent choices and great post-jumping ensued. Speaking of words, my favorite tale from the weekend is: I found this endearing 1931 book in a consignment shop back in the spring. Anything with anthro animals – preferably from the early 20th century [...]
Ok — we know this puppy was not easy. This Fun Monday assignment was to choose your favorite words or words. And the trouble is – it’s hard to choose. We bloggers love all words. But luckily, these are words and not people so we don’t have to worry about offending the words we didn’t [...]
In this house, all of our cell phones have broken. Briefly, Chris and I considered getting the BlackBerry or iPhone. But then again, we work at home. We live in a valley with no cell towers so can’t use mobiles at home anyway. We check email at our old school laptop and desktop up until [...]
Once upon a time, we met at a gorgeous public garden. Because one of our members is a professional gardener there, we had the entire place to ourselves. We entered dramatically. We got to swim here. Then we ate here. Everyone brought food and drink, cups and plates. Someone brought a tablecloth. Another brought a [...]
If you’re a parent or have spent any time with a child who is learning a new trick, you’re familiar with the phrase “Wait, that wasn’t it!” This is what my boys say when they want to show me a new skill they’re working on. When they were little, it might have been a somersault. [...]
Pregnant with twin boys, I had a recurring vision of how adorable these little guys would be holding hands. Delivered by emergency C-section 14 years ago today, Hugh was tiny but healthy. Graham was tinier and the opposite of fine. He never left the NICU. When he died at the heartbreaking age of one week, [...]
