My son and husband do not appreciate my tea cup.  It is one of those mini thermos travel cups.  Mine has a switch that I can flip to open or close the drinking valve.  I occasionally forget to close it and that is inevitably when the cup gets knocked over, glugging it’s contents everywhere.  That…

My family has two phrases that frequent our banter.  One is “…and that is why we don’t have nice things” and the other is “…AND you ruined Christmas.” I am not very good at following traditions.  I like Christmas trees (real ones) but I do not like to get one, decorate it, or take it…

My dog is either magical or has a grasp of the universe far above us mere mortals. She seems to be able to adjust her mass. When she has settled on the bed, be it before I have crawled in or when I have not yet gotten up, she becomes immovable.  Blankets cannot be pulled…

The snow is beginning to melt.  The solid masses that line our road sides are diminishing in size.  The melt water flows beneath these urban iceburgs and creates dirt infused ice shelves.  The perfect atmosphere for stomping.  Stomp, crackle, stomp, crunch, stomp, sploosh, stomp, pock… that is me ice stomping while I walk.  Enjoying the…

I had an epiphany.  For many, many days, years of days, I have tried to figure out why jeans hanging half way down the back of a person’s legs was fashionable, appealing, a desirable look.  Never having been very fashionably inclined myself, and also being a generation older might have some effect on my ability…

I don’t like cleaning.  I love having clean and organized spaces, I am just not a fan of doing it.  It is not that I am lazy.  It is that I’d rather be making, inventing, concocting, building, cooking, baking, creating, or hiking in the woods not cleaning, clearing, and editing.  I am pretty good at…

Every week, rain, shine, or blistering cold, I walk 3/4 of my children to the library.  They dawdle, lollygag, whine, request to take the car but more often than not we make it out the door in a mostly timely fashion and stride briskly to our destination.  The kids keep themselves entertained as we tramp…

I decided last year that February was the month for F words.  It was during this month that my fastidiously constructed self censoring wall floundered and my language was once again flecked with expletives that formerly would have been followed by the taste of soap.  Although I haven’t fallen into my pre-children range of four-lettered…

There are warnings that parents spout that are not true or hardly meant.  They are said because you are wanting some activity, behaviour, noise, or many other things relating to your child to stop.  One of those classic parental warnings is ‘someday your face will freeze like that’.  In the moment, when told to your…

If you ever read Charlie Brown comics you can picture Snoopy on top of his dog house, perched at the peak, imitating a bird of prey.  I have that dog.  She does not have a dog house to perch nor is she a beagle, but she has her own way of surveying all.  I sometimes…