Of latent Tiger Mom tendencies and how once I was able to stifle a lecture

If you’ve been paying attention at all, you’ve probably noticed we’re not much for helicopter parenting. For a little refresher, here’s a quick story about bags of teeth, and another about how we rate kid activities on the amount of time they require our backsides be removed from the sofa. I rather think this has […]

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Can Cyndi Lauper be my spirit animal?

I had a boss once whose most embarrassing moment happened while she was standing in the security line at the airport after she handed her ID and boarding pass to the security guard. It was worse, she said, than what happened to the woman ahead of her who’d packed a bunch of sex toys into […]

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We’re Mostly Perfect For Each Other

This week we celebrate the silver anniversary of an event that almost didn’t happen because I’m a flake, and back then I was worse. The summer I graduated from college, Mike drove me home and we started talking about our shared, bucolic vision of owning horses and rearing children who would wear gingham and have […]

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The most likely reason I haven’t answered your email

Last week I received an invitation from Ashley in Alabama. It was less of an invitation, really, than a summons. Ashley’s PR firm is starting a blog targeting women “of a certain age,” featuring content that will focus on what they’ve decided are some of our favorite F-words: family, friendship, faith, fashion, friendship, fitness, finances […]

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The Ten Emotional Phases of a CSA Subscriber

It’s that time of year when our grass has turned brown and crinkly and I’m giving serious thought to xeriscaping, or maybe installing a Brady-family era AstroTurf lawn. August is also known in the life of a CSA subscriber as “isn’t it about time we get some freaking tomatoes?” About six years ago, I read […]

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I’m not a wreck, YOU’RE a wreck

Earlier this week, I was lying in bed, at o’dark something-or-other, trying to clear my head. “You’re awake aren’t you?” Mike said. Yup. We haven’t been getting a lot of sleep around here. We went out to the living room and Jack was there, on the couch with a quilt, scrolling through his phone. He’d […]

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Everyone, just chill about Pokémon Go

If you’ve been paying attention the last three and a half weeks, you’ve probably heard a cacophony of opinions about Pokémon Go. Well actually, you’ve probably mostly heard people griping about how stupid it is that someone put a snipe hunt into a phone app and suddenly everyone’s flocking to city parks like Columbus just discovered a “New World.” […]

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The saga of the family photo

Once, when we were still a family of three, Mike and I won a photo session at a charity auction. The photographer was newly in business and would process the photos for almost nothing for her portfolio. This was good, because we’d bid on the session without thinking there’d be money to pay for the […]

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