the beauty of an ordinary life
I made school lunch for the last time, ever. "This is the last time I'm ever going to make lunch for you to take to school," I said to my daughter, as I folded a chicken and rice burrito and wrapped it up tight. "You're free!" she whooped. "Aren't you glad?" Seven years ago, I … Continue reading Something about that list from the working mother battlefield.
I was at a party recently to celebrate a friend’s milestone birthday. It was a wonderful, multi-generational gathering of adults and children of all ages, and being with them in person, during this COVID reprieve, was a true joy. One of the guests was a mother who had a toddler with her. The child was … Continue reading Something about impermanence.
When it's hard to imagine what my life was like a decade or so ago, I scroll back through early blog posts. In those days, getting a grip on daily chores, including family dinner preparation, was a constant challenge. One of the things I did in response to that challenge was to prepare weekly menus … Continue reading Something about the work of family dinner.
"Home," as Jimmy Carter wrote, in a piece for The Bitter Southerner, "is a complicated idea." I've been sewing in the mornings, sitting in my chair by the window, sipping coffee and stitching in the few quiet moments before other more immediate responsibilities take the stage, which usually isn't very long. Sewing, and this kind … Continue reading Something about sewing.
I'm working on something for tomorrow, and since I'm still working on it and it's 11:30, and I'm going to go to bed soon, I'm reposting from the archive. What I'm working on, for tomorrow, is about the South and living in the South and leaving the South, which I did when I headed to … Continue reading Something from five years ago that’s still relevant.
"Parenting" is having a moment. Or, more accurately, it's having another moment. A super-trendy one. While previous waves, such as those led by Dr. Spock, T. Berry Brazelton, and the controversial John Rosemond, to name just three, had a kind of official stamp on them, this wave, dubbed "gentle parenting" is different. as Jessica Winter … Continue reading Creativity and parenting.
Once upon a time, a long time ago, my sister lived with me in a small guesthouse in an old neighborhood in Omaha, which was pretty much as far away from everything, and everyone, else in our lives. So the two of us spent a lot of time together, when I wasn't traveling for work, … Continue reading On Saturday, we… clean?
What’s going to happen this week is this: I’m going to write about one central idea (and that idea, just so you’ll know what’s what up front, is parenting), and I’m going to end each post with some cooking notes that are not entirely unrelated to parenting. And I'm going to write some of these … Continue reading Two ideas.
jenny's lark 