The repetition of the word “work” bothered me today when I observed my daughter at her Montessori daycare. My older son went to Waldorf school, and even if the two approaches share an appreciation for real-world duties and chores, Waldorf education comes from the perspective that childhood is for play, exploration, unfolding. Not for doing…
Archives for November 2012
There goes the neighborhood
Missing from my To-Do list today was the item “Watch elderly neighbor get carted away by police.” And yet, unlike many of the things on my To-Do list, this actually happened. And I can’t shake it. It really was just a matter of time. Mimi had seemed to be suffering from dementia since we moved…
Food for thought
I can’t stand it. After 27 days of writing poetry, I want to write about nutrition! Aside from the fact that tomatoes are out of season and that I didn’t preserve any local ones, and aside from the fact that I’d once all but banned even gluten-free pasta from our house as a processed food…
Balance is overrated
Another night out, this time tutoring. In two hours, I have paid for three days of childcare. But what really is the cost? I would rather make less easy money to make money that is more meaningful to my everyday existence. And that doesn’t require me to go out 8-10 p.m. But I also value…
On moons and mothers
Got the kids to bed exactly three hours ago and dashed off to a lovely evening of blessing two pregnant mamas in my Holistic Moms chapter and honoring a third whose child chose to come before we could bless her back in September. My camera was out of battery, but I had in mind a…
Not so serious
My husband and I have both been seeing a holistic doctor who prescribes homeopathic remedies and other things to address emotional energy patterns and blockages. There is a brand of sprays (by SafeCare Rx) for which he tested to need “Serious,” and I tested to need “Grief.” I can’t speak for him, but I do…
A change in the forecast
Closing in on December Even though you can’t see the fifteen degrees that tromped out of the woods yesterday with as many miles of winds each hour, their departure left today hunched over, knocked into a new category where shoulders that once opened to warmth and the smell of dry leaves baking turn heavy, and…
How would you slant light?
Blank canvas If you had the chance to paint the sky, how would you do it? Would your brush be brash and full of color, from orange through pink up to early-morning blue? Or would you go for the sunset, dimming down from dark to the last warmth of sinking light? Maybe you would deeply…
Out of words
You’d think that on Thanksgiving day, I’d be welling up with heartfelt warm-fuzzies or could at least feign some kind of thoughtful riff on how good I’ve got it. But I’m struggling to find something to write about. Now, I do know how good I’ve got it, really, I do. I’m so lucky to have…
Prelude to Thanksgiving
It occurs to me when facing certain social situations that I’m still nursing a soap opera hangover from age eight when I learned how to talk to people by watching “General Hospital.” It wasn’t pretty. No one on that show is nice, unless for pretend, to get something. Everyone judges. The snappier an insult you…
The short and long view
It’s now been over three months since I started reading Katrina Kenison’s The Gift of an Ordinary Day. I’d picked it up even before that, but three months ago I devoured as much as I could while away from my kids at a conference. Since I’ve been back, time has been scarce amid getting unpacked,…
Home is where too much of your head is
This, a gorgeous fall day, was my last full day visiting family. A few weeks ago, a local mom I barely know let me stay in her apartment so that I could start work in earnest on my novel. Whenever I get out of my comfort zone, I always find that I breathe differently, appreciate…
Day Two on the road
So tonight it’s Monopoly I’m missing to write, but I’ll be brief with this, inspired by our visit to the Indianpolis Children’s Museum, and as I noticed as I wrote, the cadence of some children’s book I haven’t read in a long time. Maybe Freight Train? From two to twelve Orange ball Rock wall Kids…
Travelin’ mama (day one)
“Did we make these pancakes this morning?” my son asked a bit ago, at the table of my sister in the Midwest, far from where he woke — an hour earlier than usual — this morning. It’s been a long day, filled with travel, seeing people we rarely see, and stressing over lost items, namely…
Flashback
After a few days of coughing and sniffles, and a lot more of them last night, my son declared today that he didn’t want to go to school. We couldn’t blame him. Since I’m taking him and his sister on a plane tomorrow where they will spend 3.5 fun-filled days (and possibly late nights) with…
More on leaves
Background When a November sky is kind, a maple tree is brilliant, spreading its red royally, like a regal bird preening. But when that side smile of blue sky turns cold, a resentful shade of grey, the leaves mimic an angry stop light and remind you of old blood on a dishrag that you didn’t…
Where we sit
Point of View A beautiful day doesn’t care if you spend it outside where you can smell the leaves or behind glass, driving past so many more than the ones in your yard as long as your heart is open It’s been a long day. A good one. But I’m tired. That’s all I got….
Playing in the leaves
When we found out the neighbor we were going to meet at the park had to go back home for bad behavior, the leaf pile called us. I don’t know how we managed to have so much fun without anyone getting an eye poked out or losing a Croc. But it was a day when…
Old and wrinkled
The last professional photo shoot we had was when my daughter had just been born in August 2010. Today is November 12, 2012. I bought a shoot over a year ago on as a Groupon or Living Social Deal and just finally redeemed it today. Although I’m thrilled that we got some pictures taken, and…
How we see what we see
Tonight we held a Waldorf-inspired Lantern Walk for the coop group I’ve been involved in. It was our first social event at the new house. The magic of starting the walk at dusk and ending in darkness, with a circle of friends holding light in their hands, is something I’m grateful my children have a…