family essay
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Emily and The Tree
Little Emily loves the Japanese maple in the Maywood yard. It’s over fifty years old, planted by Emily’s great-great grandmother Retta. And it is the perfect tree for little ones to learn to climb on. The main trunk divides into two very low to the ground, so little legs can easily climb into it. The Continue reading
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Bee-bopping the Christmas Bread
It’s raisin bread day. And I’m hopping around the kitchen with Pentatonix “Carol of the Bells” on repeat, trying to nail my part. The KitchenAid mixer is thumping bread dough in time to the music. Maywood Man joins in with the tenor part. Oh how they pound, raising the sound. Who knows what the bees Continue reading
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Where’s Mom?
When we were little, my siblings and I used to do hide-and-seek with my mother. It wasn’t a game. She was really hiding. And we were seeking. It was a big house–three floors plus a basement–and as we climbed the stairs calling, “Mom! Mooooooooooooommmmmmm!” we were sure that she must have gone down to one Continue reading
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I Took My a Grandson to a Peep Show
Yes, I did. I took my 8 year old grandson to a Peep Show. I can’t think of a better way to spend Easter Monday. Two floors of the Carroll Arts Center in Westminster were devoted to creations made of marshmallow Peeps. (For those of you dear readers who live on the other side of Continue reading
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Bug
Nothing connects people quite like a stomach bug. First, there’s the line of transmission. Person to person to person. Who gave it to whom? It’s not enough to get the bug. One must know where it came from. Preferably so one knows whom to blame. My recent bug came via a vomit bath from my Continue reading
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Christmas Trauma
I don’t know whether my youngest daughter had the most traumatic childhood ever or whether she’s just the best at guilting me over it. For years, she has been giving me grief for not buying a Baby’s First Ornament for her the year she was born. Her oldest sister has a lovely Hallmark ornament from her Continue reading
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At least I’m not pregnant
Q: What does a pregnant daughter have in common with her mother who is getting a hip replacement? A: Physical limitations, lack of sleep, pathetic body image, and an overwhelming desire to go through torturous pain in order to be done with this! Monday morning, bright and early, I head to the hospital to get Continue reading
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Granddaughter eyes
I’m in a stare-down with a toddler. I lie on the sofa and she sits on my chest. She has already pulled off my glasses and she is looking at me. She’s been babbling non-stop all day but now she is silent. Looking. Deep into my eyes. She doesn’t blink. She doesn’t realize it’s a stare-down. I’m Continue reading
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The Chair
When parents down-size and elderly relatives pass away, stuff gets scattered and settles into the homes of different family members. Pretty much every room in my house contains something that originally came from someone else’s house, from the lamp and mirror in my office to the china cabinet in the dining room. Once in awhile someone in Continue reading
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Epic inertia
inertia \i-ˈnǝr-shǝ\ n. a property of matter whereby it remains at rest or continues in uniform motion unless acted upon by some outside force epic \ˈe-pik\ adj. extending beyond the usual or ordinary especially in size or scope I’m not a physicist, so I have never much pondered the uniform motion aspect of inertia. To Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 