One morning after breakfast, I was standing at the counter washing dishes and Anna crawled under the kitchen table. She looked up at the underside of the table and asked, “What’s this, Mommy?” I answered her broadly, not sure if she was asking about the base of the table or pointing at a screw or
When school started in September, Tom sat down with the kids and created a schedule for them. The hope was to reclaim some of the structure that had been lost in the floundering, chaotic months of the quarantine. The schedule includes a mandatory hour of outside time each day. Being the supportive spouse I am,
The other day a pile of Amazon packages were delivered to our front porch. (Prime Day, HEY!!) When I pulled the stack of cardboard boxes into our living room, the kids surrounded me, jumping in excitement to see what was inside, even though they already know that all we ever order are things like liquid soap
As I type this there’s a cup of Italian ice and a giant glass of water on the table beside me. I don’t want anything to do with either of them. I’ll put off the Italian ice a few more minutes, say I’m waiting for it to soften. That’ll buy me some time; maybe my
In the past few months, several of my friends have sent me this article: This family’s repeated strep throat infections frustrated their doctors To save you the click, it’s about a family who kept getting strep throat over and over and over, and they couldn’t figure out why. Eventually they discover that their CAT was the
A week or so ago we moved Anna into a big girl bed. Well, technically it isn’t a certified “big girl bed.” Technically it’s just a crib with the side off. This is a huge milestone and you might have guessed that I have an entire sappy post queued up about how, after so many
On the first day of school I woke up early to go for a bike ride. Ya know, nothing like a little early-morning exercise before the 11th plague descends on your house — virtual learning. While cycling, I took a wrong turn and ended up going down a big hill. Not a huge problem, except
This weekend we let the kids plan something to finish out the summer with a bang. They chose a backyard campout with s’mores. Then they threw in a night swim for good measure. I feel like our kids are still the age at which they definitely get excited for s’mores and night swimming and a
School supply shopping for Thomas: a new hose nozzle. I called the school today and officially withdrew Thomas from kindergarten. I cried, of course. (I always cry.) I waited as long as I could. Hoping, perhaps, that on September 2 I would wake up with news that everything was back to normal. Schools would open
This past week we decided to take a long weekend-ish and spend time with my family before “school” starts back up. Once again, the bizarre time-warp of 2020 snuck up on me, and what is, on one hand, “The Longest Summer Ever,” is also “Hold Up, It’s September?” We timed our trip to fall over