August 26th, 2008
Almost a year ago I wrote this little bit on trying to write when I get interrupted regularly, and I was thinking about that when the unreliable narrator asked me about multi-tasking yesterday. I was chatting with her while buttoning a child’s shirt and I don’t think she was asking if my kids were […]
Read the rest...May 26th, 2008
It’s probably clear that being part of my kids music education is a big part of my life, it gets a substantial part of my time each day and I put a lot of time into thinking about it. And most people would probably nod and agree “Yeah, music education is great for kids” and […]
May 23rd, 2008
If there was a set of books I wanted to inhabit most as a child it was Milne’s Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh books. There was a lovely completeness to the world of this boy and the companionship of his toys, with their range of personalities, a gentleness to the adventures and a general […]
May 19th, 2008
So there are toy catalogues sent to parents like me — that is, somewhat crunchy parents who embrace peace and non-violence, and spend money on our children as if that can shape their values. These catalogues have page after page of toys with fair trade stamps, toys tested for lead paint, toys that challenge assumptions […]
May 11th, 2008
The Lanyard - Billy Collins
The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.
No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could […]
May 8th, 2008
We blame Sarah. First she got me to read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Miracle and think about where all my food is coming from, and now over at Cafe Mama she is challenging everyone to Car Diet, and ack, I honestly don’t believe in diets, but, well let’s just call it Car Trip Counting? […]
April 25th, 2008
This being the motto I made my older children write temporarily on the chalkboard on their bedroom door. Because it seems like the assigning of blame has lately been an obstacle to actually solving problems. And I will write about this as delicately as I can and let the child I am writing […]
April 23rd, 2008
Practicing viola with Xander yesterday, he got frustrated with the same brush-y bow stroke he’s been working on for weeks now. I understand the frustration but need him to keep practicing anyway, and I try to speak lovingly of how when he practices he works through problems, but I catch this sort of trying to […]
April 19th, 2008
PreScript: So I know I have a habit of way-over-prefacing things without getting to the point so you have no clue what you’re reading or why until the second or third paragraph. I wish I could say that was going to change, or that I was going to come back and edit this paragraph out […]
April 10th, 2008
Not that we are keeping score, but Raven’s been out of Portland 13 days out of the last 25, and I mostly function ok except for missing him and not having figured out how to get a good night’s sleep when he’s not here. Hence lots of keeping my hands busy, watching movies after the […]
April 8th, 2008
Ugh. Know what I hate about having the sun come out after weeks of modestly keeping to itself behind the clouds? I see all the accumulations of dust and griminess that I could ignore when the light was a little dimmer, and after being compelled to wash the kitchen curtains, I’m dusting the […]
It’s that conundrum, how do you sum yourself up concisely for the random, bored web surfer? You don’t really care what I do, or where I live… at least these things don’t set me apart much from the millions of other people on the internet. That is, I “stay at home” with my four sons in Portland, Oregon, and write earnestly about the things I think, identifying as a Bahá’í, a feminist, a St. John’s alumna (though I graduated from the University of New Mexico) and recovering philosophy student, a Suzuki parent, a reader… Is any of that really who I am? How about the list of random factoids?
