Life in a Northern Town
The Success of the First Semi-Official Day of Summer Depends on Your Perspective
It’s not official (this according to Sam) because “we never have school on Saturdays.” We: Planned a summer vacation. Cleaned the playroom. Built a giant fort in the clean playroom. Made a headband from the official American Girl Doll “have-your-mommy-make-you-a-headband” kit. Had a thunderstorm. Put out a sprinkler and our sad excuse for a wading pool (the former Little Tykes frog-shaped sandbox. I’m getting complaints). And wrapped up with a styling session: Was it an awesome day? I’d say so. […]
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The Family that Bikes Together
I’ve been all worried about my own balance, but we’ve achieved some very important OTHER feats of balance around here: Rory and Wyatt are both officially bike riders. This is big news in a family where biking counts. The VT 50 for Rob (50 miles of mountain biking). 50 in the Prouty for me and Sam, once with him on a tagalong and this year, I think, with him on his own wheels. Last year he did 35. Mountain bike […]
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What Lily Does on a Rainy Day
Crafty Lily Originally uploaded by kjda Lily has crafty instincts in more ways than one. By all rights, today should have been soccer. Normally, we play soccer in the rain around here. We do not let a little 50 degree weather or drizzle stop us! In fact, we have, and have had since Sam was this age and playing in this particular soccer (a spring fundraiser for the Dartmouth men’s and women’s soccer teams), special soccer gloves. Well, they’re not […]
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In the Garden
I love to grow food. I’m pretty indifferent about flowers. I mean, flowers are nice. I like it when there ARE flowers. But there’s a limit to how much time and effort I will invest in flowers, and I generally reach it about the moment when I get to the farm stand, note the huge selection and decide to go get a coffee. (Good thing the farm stand has coffee!) But growing food–whole meals so local we are talking steps […]
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The Traditional Birthday Tantrum
First of all, let me say that I angsted over this pinata. I don’t even like pinatas. I mean, I did, when I was little and lived in San Antonio, where some kids had pinatas hanging in their rooms from trips to Nuevo Laredo (in more peaceful times). Me, I had a large ceramic piggy bank I believed was decorated in traditional fashion. No one I knew had ever had a pinata to break, although we had heard of them. […]
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The End of the [Year] is Nigh
Whoa. Whose idea was it to pack June so chock-ful of events and then send them rocketing at me so fast? These two: Had, of course, a concert. The night before Lily’s birthday party (I have never, ever been so happy to pay exorbitant-sounding sums of money for cupcakes in my whole life; it was worth every penny). They sang their hearts out for 12 songs (which was short, by Montessori standards) and are still singing them pretty constantly, especially […]
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Luckiest Day Ever
Scientists say we all believe negative things happen more often than they do because we remember negative events more clearly and assign them more value. This is why everyone in your town believes that each one always choses the longer line at the grocery store even though that cannot be true, and is where all those heavily sighed “this always happens to me” for which teenagers are renowned come from. The cure for this comes in celebrating the small good […]
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