Connecting the Dots
On Motherlode today, one I’m really proud of–virtual schools are earning praise in the home schooler’s blogosphere, and I think for those kids, they deserve it. But what if cash-strapped administrators try pushing this cheaper alternative on kids who won’t really “school” at home? Read and comment, please! Also: Holiday book shopping! The Children’s Book Review! I love seeing this every year. Come tell me and everyone else what you’re buying for the kids on your list.
Read MoreNew Desk Ornament Originally uploaded by kjda
Read MoreAll the Words Rory Can Spell Originally uploaded by kjda
Read MoreOnce, there was snow.
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I’ve been working on The Sane Family’s Guide to Scheduling, and I had a little something left over that just didn’t fit anywhere. So, herewith, a few random things that I try to keep in mind when adding things to my schedule: 1. Never put anything on Monday, especially Monday morning. First off, Mondays are hard enough. Second, me, I forget things on Mondays. I want to be someone who looks at her calendar on Sunday and plans the […]
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“I hate you, Mommy. You are not grate. You are NOT GRATE, Mommy.”
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As much as your children may be looking forward to summer, they may also find it hard to see the end of the school year—even if they never admit it or recognize it.
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If you’re a fan of practical parenting books, especially the kind with lots of amalgamated-from-my-client-list-with-real-identity-disguised examples of people who are doing it worse than you, I highly recommend this one. The “13 Things” in question really are things that we’ll all be happier if we don’t do (make your child the center of the universe, take shortcuts to avoid discomfort) and will often make you pause and take a hard look at what you really do as a parent […]
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Turns out more stuff equals less focus, for toddlers, and for us.
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Children should do chores. That’s a controversial premise, though not everyone will admit it. A few parents will declare outright that their children are “too busy for chores” or that “their job is school.” Many more of us assign chores, or say we believe in them, but the chores just don’t get done. That’s a problem. For starters, chores are good for kids. Being a part of the routine work of running a household helps children develop an awareness of […]
Read MoreSometimes my own head is a cruddy place to be. It’s noisy, for one thing. And really very—close. Like a hall of mirrors all parroting my least appealing inner voices back at me. (Let’s just say they aren’t all waving little “Yay” flags and singing “THIS GIRL IS ON FIYYY-RRREEE.) I mean, it’s not like that all the time, but when it is, or when I really need some serious distraction, there’s no better cure for being too much all in my headthan the chance to spend a […]
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Read MoreFairy tales just aren’t PC, friends. They’re violent. Kings kill princes, fathers fling their daughters out in the snow, the wolf chows down on Grandma. They’re horribly insensitive to gener issues. Girls want to marry the prince, and even if they manage to do something clever or save themselves, marriage is their portion. Fathers promise their daughter’s hands without consulting her, beauty and charm are all important, etc. They’re heavily dependant on social class. Servants live belowstairs, masters above. Paupers […]
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Read MoreI know, I know, that I get depressed when a) I need more sleep and b) it’s going to be too long before I have writing time again. So I should be able to just go to sleep and push the little black clouds off again, right? I think most of us know depression doesn’t quite work that way. The truth is that around here, we loathe weekends, which doesn’t really bode well for our marriage or family life, but […]
Read MoreLily on her first day Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ
Read MoreDrawing outside on a beautiful fall day Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ
Read MoreThis is what I’ve done today: 5:00 Get up to let dog out 5:05 Get Wyatt. 5-7: Sort of sleep, sort of not, while everyone mills in and out of bed. Aquire impressive collection of stuffed animals. 7-7:30 With Rob, get self and kids ready to go out the door. Pack for Sam’s sleepover. 7:50: Drive to town to deliver Sam to fll day Boston trip plus sleepover. (I miss him!) 8:15: Breakfast at Lou’s. Take Lily to bathroom. Let […]
Read MoreCan I just say that I hope this is our annual spring snowstorm…although I’m a little concerned, because in other years that’s been in April. I am so not used to being a New Englander. I think April, I think grass and crocuses. Oh well. Blew it on the thirty minutes today. Had it all blocked out in the calendar–it was supposed to happen at the library while we waited for Lily at a birthday party in town (Holly was […]
Read MoreI told Lily and Sam a story tonight in which Wyatt flew out the wondow and they flew after him, because of course he’s too little to fly alone… Lily loved it. Kept talking about it all through bedtime. He fly! In story, he fly! Yes, in the story. Story. Yes, it was a story. Sam not fly. i not fly. Wyatt not fly. But she got kind of a speculative gleam in her eye at that last sentence, and […]
Read MoreI have, in a moment of, I don’t know, competitiveness, or craziness, or something, signed up for a Triathalon. OK, a mini triathalon. An 8.5 mountain bike ride, a 2 mile trail run and a .5 mile swim. I LOVE mountain biking, and these are really nice, wide trails, or where they are single track it’s more grassy tire track than real single track. It’s just that I can’t really swim, because I have this thing about water, and how […]
Read MoreWyatt’s daily dose of melamine Originally uploaded by kjda. Read the ingredients: milk powder, check! KJ Dell’Antonia
Read MoreTeeniest rink ever. Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ Dell’Antonia
Read MoreBest Playdate Ever Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
Read MoreFishing, originally uploaded by kjda. Right now, we are fishing in the yard, because Sam’s new fishing rid is broken. It seems to have come that way. I am having flashbacks to my childhood, when every single thing of this nature I ever received was always broken, and could never be returned and replaced until the stores opened, a seeming eternity later… But Lily is happy! Note the big plastic weight on her line. We are thinking that leaving that […]
Read MoreMisty’s Big Idea Originally uploaded by kjda Crappola of a day here in pretty much every way. Misty actually suggested Chardonnay, but that would have involved a trip to the fridge in the basement, and I barely had enough energy to crack this puppy open. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
Read MoreIt’s 6:00 on what’s the Chinese friday–they don’t take Saturday off. They do have Sunday off. There’s been no word on our swabs. We hope they’ve decided not to tell us they were negative, because they think we’re going to start fussing about leaving, and we were very difficult about the hotel thing. They don’t, we suspect, want to come to back to us–although I’ve no doubt that if one of us is positive, we’re going down. But I think […]
Read MoreFinally, way later than we expected this afternoon, Rob got his results back from yesterday. H1n1 no longer courses weakly through his veins. One more negative–as in, the results from today’s test–and he can, as he so elegantly put it (with all due respect, I’m sure) “blow this kung pao stand.”
Read MoreI overheard our guide explaining that each of the 500 Buddhas represented a different emotion, and that if there was a particular state of mind you were struggling with, you were supposed to do–something or another–with that Buddha. I didn’t catch what, nor am I sure what the significance of some of the more mustachio’d Buddhas would have been, emotion-wise. But whatever it was, I should have done it with the impatient looking Buddha, and the Buddha who couldn’t enjoy […]
Read MoreSo. It’s 9:15. I’m bitterly exhausted. Tomorrow is…another day, another day, another day. Another day feeding them, talking to them, tending them, wiping them. Another day. If I go to bed now I’m likely to get some sleep. I will be more rested for them. But the day will come…sooner. And there I will be.
Read MoreAll night I’ve been thinking–who can I get to hang out with us tomorrow morning? No babysitting Thursday mornings, see, and I’m faced with three hours alone with the dynamic duo, waiting to pick up Lily. Alone, in the house, with Mr. Mario Cart and Miss I Want Scissors I Want Painting I Want Coloring. Actually, both of those activities are fine, as they are individual and require nothing from me except, you know, something about every ten minutes, or […]
Read MoreLily Swam Across the Pool! Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
Read MoreToday’s Double X post actually has to do with parenting and kids–something I usually don’t talk about there. Anyone else notice that people responded to the suggestion that the CDC might recommend circumcision for boys in a VERY different way than they responded to the recommendation of the HPV vaccine for girls? To vent about the double standard, head over to Double X.
Read MoreTake One of Me Too! Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
Read MoreBest View in Town Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
Read MoreAn Afternoon of Indulgence Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
Read MoreOur garden is done for the year, except for a few pumpkins that refused to turn orange (our plan is to spray paint them in glitter and go all Martha Stewart on their asses). The productive harvest is in the house. Tonight we ate soup made with the beans we grew (the shelling kind, not green beans) which was unfortunately not very good, though the beans themselves were delicious. Two ham hocks=too salty for one soup. (Good biscuits tho!) And […]
Read MoreWyatt accepts help Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
Read MoreJust when it was getting kind of easy and nice, it developed that it’s only easy and nice if I don’t feel like total crap.. I have yelled mercilessly at each and everyone of my children today, and that makes me feel even worse. Bleh.
Read MoreHappy New Year! Originally uploaded by kjda For us, that meant fondue with friends, a neighbor’s bonfire and bedtime! KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
Read MoreThere have been many, many times here when I’ve wished for anonymity. Such rich veins of commentary as would open up to me! Such rants I could post about various and sundry things that I CANNOT EVEN MENTION HERE EVEN A LITTLE BIT! Ok, so MPHOLLYPMHRPYLL MURPH MURPH Tempest, teapot MUMBLE MUTTER GRUPM GRIPE darn it I really can’t even get any more specific MRPHO MRPH just wrong. Also, helicopters.
Read MoreThey Take Mardi Gras Seriously Here Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
Read MoreAbout to race! Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
Read MoreIt’s getting pretty deep around here–meaning that our many belongings are gathering forces in various piles and preparing to take over the house, or at least the space we would prefer to use to walk it. I meant to deal with it this afternoon, but my lovely friend Mimi invited me over to drink Sangria and watch the kids play in the sprinkler instead, and–well, at least when we’re not some, what already IS clean stays clean! But this weekend […]
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