I’m excited to be reading from my short story, “Under Construction,” on Wednesday, January 19 at 7:00 pm ET in The Literary Cypher with seven other amazing women writers. To join on Zoom, check the event page the day of the event for the Zoom link: https://bit.ly/LiteraryCypherXV. “Under Construction” appears in Gargoyle 74 and is adapted from…
D.C. Metro
Burrowing & Surfacing
In the DC area this spring, the electric buzz of cicadas seems nearly deafening each time someone opens the door. Within a few seconds, we acclimate to the sound, but each time we go outside, we shake our heads at the cacophony created by thousands of small wings and the fat bodies that sit underneath…
Fall into Winter (again)
Although much has changed since this summer-fall recap post was originally written in December 2019, I’m backdating the post upon belated publication to reflect my reality at that time. —— When I look back on past Novembers when I did NaPoWriMo – National Poetry Writing Month – I love knowing that I found joy in…
Bright spots in spring
Before the long days of summer parenting melt my brain, I want to capture some of the good that happened this spring. I wrote in late April about what life looked like in the first two months of my separation from my husband. Daily journaling for myself has become very important, but time capsules captured…
On Saying Yes, No and I Quit
I’m wrong a lot. Sometimes my first instincts against something turn out to be limiting beliefs and my reluctant Yes – to a person, to an event, to an opportunity – was a game-changer, something I can’t imagine not having in my life. Other times, my Yes to something that seems like a natural fit…
What this spring brings
After BlogHer Health, I did lots of thinking about purpose and passion, about time and transition, about mothering and more. The month of January stretched wide, like the mouth of an animal whose jaws seem to magically open to the horizon. I began using The Best Part of My Day Healing Journal and began understanding how…
Busy spring!
The first two weeks of May have been packed. The month started with a Clean Air Awareness event I helped to organize. It was successful and I hope will lead to more awareness about clean air habits, especially people turning off their cars while parked at school. That drives me crazy! The event went well…
Join me at Listen to Your Mother DC!
I’m thrilled to share that I’ll be part of this year’s Listen to Your Mother DC cast! If you haven’t ever attended a LTYM performance, make this your year! It is, in fact, the final year of the program as it’s been done around the country with original stories in each city. It’s going to instead become a…
Gender today
The National Geographic special issue on Gender and the Gender Revolution documentary that airs this month could not have come at a better time. I was thrilled to get to see the documentary last week at a pre-release screening at Nat Geo headquarters here in DC. My post on The DC Moms goes into more detail…
What we teach our children, and ourselves
When I was halfway through my first pregnancy, I found myself startled to realize that I would be giving birth to a white male. After all the time I had spent teaching about race, gender and class privilege, I wondered how I could ensure that my son wouldn’t grow up feeling entitled. Last spring, as…
Behind the scenes with Jennifer Robins of Predominantly Paleo
It’s super exciting to watch a friend be as successful as Jennifer Robins of Predominantly Paleo blog and author of five cookbooks including the new Paleo Kids Cookbook that comes out on September 6. I met Jennifer when she came to a Holistic Moms meeting I organized with Stacy Toth of Paleo Parents as our…
Getting back on the train to social justice
When I first began battling illness in late 2003, my commitment to social justice activism waned. I’d been up against resistance in the high school where I taught as I worked on the issue of racial disparity in AP/honors classes vs. “regular” classes. We’d made some progress, but it was still challenging. Further challenging, still, was…
Return to BlogU
BlogU is a small and intimate conference that is both super practical and a lot of fun. It’s local to the greater DC area, which is big for me since traveling is such an ordeal with my food and fatigue issues. And it’s economical, with the conference – including all sessions, keynotes and parties –…
A blissful hour: Massage Envy review
When I heard that Massage Envy was looking for review bloggers from TheDCMoms.com, I relished the idea of a free massage. However, as someone with chemical sensitivities, I was worried that the place or its products might have fragrances that might trigger a reaction. Fortunately, the manager of the Potomac Yard location in Arlington assured me…
How long can November possibly last?
For a short month, November has been really long. It feels like eons ago that I started this daily blogging thing, this getting up at 5 (or at least by 5:45) on school days to exercise and write. There have been two days off from school and now three this week and then boom, the…
Interviewing a local leader – D.C.’s lil omm yoga studio owner Pleasance Silicki
My blog work today was to post an interview with a local – and national – leader in the children and family yoga scene here in Metro DC, Pleasance Silicki, owner of lil omm yoga studio. Mom of two Pleasance shared with me how she made the difficult decision to close her studio and how she…
4th grade field trip, starting at 4:44 a.m.
Today I needed to get my son to school by 6 a.m. for a field trip to Jamestown. The only reason I can take a moment right now, in my exhausted state before going up to bed probably at the same time as the kids and possibly before 7:30 p.m. is because he is showing…
My day in the world
Here is the photoblog I created today after touring the new Arlington MOM’s Organic Market store!
What I did today
Today I did write before the kids got up, but nothing personal for here. So behold a partial accounting of my day. Today, I: wrote this play review about Hansel & Gretel put together this quick weekend preview of DC-area wellness events after some research, emails, texts and a phone call added this School Garden Meetup…
Channeling the yoga class I didn’t take my kids to
This afternoon was pretty only with respect to the weather. The rest of it had lots of ugly moments, and buckets of tears from my five-year-old. No, I didn’t do yoga with my kids today, and we didn’t meditate together before bed or anything like that. But I did hold on to the imagined beauty…