The children have gone to their other parents, and the windows are open. It is cool this Michigan night, and we are fresh off the humidity of Delaware beach week, where the air is thick and heavy with moisture, and the salt scent of the ocean hovers over our every breath. I love our annual week at the beach. And… Read more →
After the pool closed and my children were all home for the night, my daughter asked me to walk with her to the party store down the street. She wanted to buy candy and chips for our vacation drive. She wanted me to experience the walking with her, the calm procession from our house, past three other houses, and over… Read more →
He ran late because that’s his personality and he just didn’t realize that every spoonful of breakfast, every glance at the page of the open book in front of him, every movement had consequences. His socks weren’t on, his shoes weren’t nearby, his water bottle wasn’t full. His baseball cap to protect him from sun was upside down in the… Read more →
I opened the closet door in the kitchen and saw little black droppings on the floor. When I looked closer, knowing what it was, not wanting to admit it, I noticed a bag of corn chips was chewed open at the bottom. No question. A mouse had moved in. I called the exterminator who comes quarterly and panicked into the… Read more →
At breakfast this morning, one of the waitstaff wore a black and white summer dress, a black and white bandana on her short hair, and a button on her chest that read Black Lives Matter. Two African-American police officers sat at the counter beside an elderly white couple. The woman of the couple wore a T-shirt from the Salty Dog… Read more →
“You say yes to everything,” my daughter’s friend remarked late last night, as we blew up the air mattress in the basement. The question my daughter posed was whether they could rent a movie from Amazon Prime to watch at the sleepover. I was heartened to be seen as a permissive mother, given that I always feel I’m coming down… Read more →
“O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern, impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!” ~ the second stanza of America the Beautiful We stood in silent formation in the synagogue yesterday morning, a chipmunk scurrying on the patio beside us, revealed… Read more →