A friend sent me this piece by Ann Patchett that is inspiring but daunting. Can I commit to a daily writing practice for 32 days, starting tomorrow. And if I do, will it stick? What if I can’t sleep at 2 a.m. and so getting up early to write means I’m going to be a…
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Yummy food for the holidays
We had a lovely holiday today. After a very busy Thanksgiving hosting four adults and two teenagers, I enjoyed not having to do a whole bunch today while at my in-laws’. But I did make the pumpkin pies, and they turned out delicious! Check out this (newly updated) recipe for Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Pumpkin Pie on…
The million-dollar question
During our week home sick together, my son did a lot of whining and a lot of snuggling. But he also came up with plenty of interesting things to say, including this question he asked of me while I was peeing: “When are you going to get a penis?” My response about that he would,…
A week home sick
I’m still climbing out from the mounds of things that piled up this past week when my son missed all three days of preschool. Monday I thought was just a precaution, that going would tire him out. The cough wasn’t that bad. But apparently it was too much to take him to the Vitamin Shoppe…
I’m a jealous friend
This post originally appeared on DC Metro Moms on December 18, 2009 I am a jealous friend Hey there, Misery. I’ve got some company you haven’t met yet. They’re called my friends. May I introduce you to each other so that you feel so lonely? And so I don’t? Lately I’ve been really making use…
Cell Phone Intrusion
So I called my friend to check on her after she’d emailed earlier in the week that she thought her baby would come soon. “I didn’t have a chance to write you back. How are you doing?” She’s hundreds of miles and several states away now. “I have a baby.” Having given birth just hours…
Waldorf School Advent Garden
I just wrote this post at my column on the Washington Times Communities. The main idea is that I found this simple ceremony of children lighting candles and walking through a spiral of fresh evergreens to be profoundly moving. It’s late, and I don’t know why the photo of the apple candle wasn’t loading to…
Articles and artifacts
The contrast could not have been more stark. Scene One:I was standing in line at the post office sending an incredibly overdue care package to a friend who had a baby in the spring and an overdue package with a homemade pregnancy & postpartum journal to a friend who is due in just a month….
Scarborough fair on my deck – and in my turkey
I didn’t get a real garden going this summer, since we were in the middle of a move. That’s a bummer. But, I do still — in November — have fresh rosemary, sage and thyme growing in pots on my porch. I loved that I went from plant to pot in a few steps. They…
Putting myself out there
I’m probably not going to get a whole lot of fans from the mainstream mommy blogging community for this, but I’m enjoying writing about things I care about. I recently wrote a not-so-positive review of a new PBS show, and I’ve been writing about health-related stuff in a new column at the Washington Times Communities…
Yummy Thanksgiving!
I’m thankful for a delicious turkey from Polyface Farms (and a husband and in-laws members who cooked it), fabulous pastured eggs from our local farmer, and nobody pushing my son to eat foods that aren’t good for him. I’m also thankful for health, a home large enough to stuff a bunch of people into, the…
Gluten-free, dairy-free pumpkin pie!
I finally took a photo of a gluten-free, dairy-free pumpkin pie this year! Two different times! The crust was largely hazelnut and rice flour with all the spices of pumpkin pie. I used coconut oil and put a little vanilla in with the cold water, using this crust recipe (with mostly nut flour/meal). I baked…
Review of new PBS show on “healthy” living
Watch out parents: there’s a new show in town trying to convince your kids that it knows something about healthy eating. Before I share my concerns about PBS’s new show, “Fizzy’s Lunch Lab,” I’d like to describe the kind of show about healthy eating I would actually consider allowing my son to watch. There would…
My legacy
This pumpkin is cheerier than I am these days. Now I understand how my mom must have felt with chatterbox me as a preschooler. My son will not stop talking. Or singing. Or shrieking. Or making vroom noises. Or just plain saying, “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Are you listening to me? Mommy! Mommy! Listen to me,…
Yes, we do hug trees
When my son was just a baby three years ago, I wore him all over the Green Festival and bought him and a friend copies of the children’s book My Mom Hugs Trees by Robyn Ringgold. I think I might have even met the author and had her sign our copy (the book is upstairs,…
Toddlers on Teen Parenting
Here’s a dispatch from the aftercare program at my son’s Waldorf school as told by my 3.5-year-old son from his carseat. Today Emma was being a teenager.She was having a baby with no daddy. (hee hee)She was just having a baby by herself. She didn’t have a husband. Isn’t that kind of drama why I…
Toy’s the Season
So what do you do when a near-elderly neighbor gives your kid a Toys R Us catalog (along with a few other Sunday inserts) as though it’s a gift? After my husband accepted this offer, I ought to have put the stuff in the recycling bin immediately. But they went onto the floor of the…
Planes, trains and governors, oh my!
This post originally appeared on DC Metro Moms on November 17, 2009 Planes, trains and governors! Who am I? “He was so good!” praised the woman sitting behind my son during our flight from Reagan National to Detroit Metro as we stood waiting to exit the plane. Usually I’m a descriptive praise sort of gal,…
Looking for bright sides
Today I could tell I wasn’t going to get the uninterrupted writing time I needed to work on some freelance work. We had to do some family errands, and I decided to put on my “om” necklace that carries a place for a little cotton disc on which you drop a little bit of an…
Heavier than air
After attending a screening of the new film Fresh and seeing Joel Salatin and Sally Fallon speak as part of an amazing panel discussion to a standing-room only crowd at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, I never want to eat anonymous meat again. Fresh gives just enough insight into factory farming to help the…