Do you ever have days when everyone you walk by is either talking on the phone or texting? Maybe this will just be (or this is!) the way of the world, i.e. little children won’t know a public space that doesn’t feature this scene, and so it will be normal. I have not become someone [...]
I am embarking on a quest to find the right phone and the right plan for my very limited use of this device! This is also one of those situations where I have unnecessarily dumped money for YEARS, paying for cell phone plans where I hardly use the minutes, but then once in a while [...]
Alex and I are at the National Cello Institute right now. When we come to this program, as we have for the past three years, I repeatedly find myself thinking that the world is going to be okay, despite everything that is wrong with it. This program highlights everything that is right with the world.
This [...]
On Monday I had an incredible day. It started with an author presentation at my children’s school, which was part of the annual Sutherland Awards for picture books. I wrote about this some years back, during our first year in Chicago. The winner from last year for BEST OVERALL picture book was Marla Frazee, who [...]
This morning the news headlines on NPR about the end of the Olympics mostly focused on the medal count, with the US setting the record for the most medals won by a country in any Winter Olympics. The Daily Beast ran a similar news blurb. Hearing this (and hearing my nine-year-old going over and tabulating [...]
In the spirit of getting away from processed foods, making it yourself, and reducing sugar, I wanted to share a great granola recipe, given to me by my friend Stephanie B. I am now making it about once/week, and while it does have brown sugar and honey in it, you can reduce what the recipe [...]
Well, I realized quickly that subjectively judging the comments was just a silly thing to attempt. So, I did a drawing of the names of all who submitted, and I will be sending a copy of the book to Martha. And, what’s also interesting is that the comment made by Sarah very much echoes something [...]
Day 3 of the S Policy and all is well. Reminder of the S Policy: no snacks, no sweets, no seconds. I have to admit that we’ve modified it a little, e.g. carrots and grape tomatoes before dinner are okay; fruit after dinner is okay; and for the kids, we aren’t doing it 100%, which [...]
Can we do it? Live by the S Policy — no snacks, no seconds, no sweets — for a mere five days? This is the latest project here in my home. I like the adaptation of the policy that Jane E. Brody describes in “Rules Worth Following, For Everyone’s Sake”: “Perhaps I’ll try the so-called [...]
A few days ago, I heard a small chirping sound, coming from the back of our apartment. My first thought was that one of our smoke detectors needed a new battery. That’s the sound we’re getting. So we checked all of the smoke detectors and found nothing. Yet the chirping persisted. In fact, after searching [...]
