I don’t want to have to be brave to get on my bike to run errands. But I do. And it’s not as if I haven’t biked before. When we lived in Minneapolis, I’d bike to parks or to the Farmer’s Market, trailer in tow. And when I lived in Madison (Wisconsin), I owned aContinue reading “Brave on a Bike”
Category Archives: parenting
Book: The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life in the Detroit Numbers by Bridgett M. Davis
I read this beautiful memoir, The World According to Fannie Davis, a few months ago for book club and am just now having some time (barely) to write down my thoughts about it. I have had a whole mess of thoughts about it and I will try to jot down as many as I canContinue reading “Book: The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life in the Detroit Numbers by Bridgett M. Davis”
… it pours.
(The first half of this post can be found here.) I recall that as a child, electrical outages always felt a bit like an adventure or at least held the potential for adventures on par with snow days. At the very least, it held the possibility of finally answering the question: how *would* I haveContinue reading “… it pours.”
When it rains…
The text reads, “D got a tornado warning on his phone, said to get to the lowest level. Can we come down there with masks?” My older sister is the sender and is staying with her husband and three kids on the upper half of the vacation duplex we’ve been renting as a family (ofContinue reading “When it rains…”
Summer Sunday
It is hot and mid-day and Mr2yo and I are in the longest shady stretch we can find in our yard, turning, step by step it into a defacto toddler run. “Mama,” he says, “way!” And points his little arm around the adult-chest-high plastic box that holds the bike trailer and a few tools. “YouContinue reading “Summer Sunday”
Smoking
I looked out my front window today to see a small cloud of smoke wafting through and over our fence and into our front yard, which was strange. But cars often pull over near our house so at first I thought maybe it was a car overheating. When I went outside, there was no carContinue reading “Smoking”
Tiny Kitchen
Our kitchen is tiny. With a toddler, it’s almost impossible to eat out at restaurants. And so take out is something of a habit. Or, I should say, in the “time before” it was becoming a habit. But our tiny kitchen and reliance on carry out has betrayed the actual truth: we love to cookContinue reading “Tiny Kitchen”
Ten Tips for Thriving Through School Closures: Lessons from Homeschooling Parents
1. All human beings, including kids, are hard wired to learn. Every single person is made to take in their environment in whichever way or ways they can and to process their experiences. That’s all that learning is. I used to be a classroom teacher so I’ll let you into a little (actually, big) secret:Continue reading “Ten Tips for Thriving Through School Closures: Lessons from Homeschooling Parents”
Let Your Yes Mean Yes; Let Your No Mean No
Estelle recently told me of an evening within the past few weeks when her daughter, Elizabeth, received a phone call from a friend of hers in distress and needing to talk. Elizabeth went immediately to her friend, another high schooler. When her daughter returned to Estelle in a few hours she also was upset. HerContinue reading “Let Your Yes Mean Yes; Let Your No Mean No”
Days 4 and 5: Feasting and Resting
One of the biggest challenges as a stay at home parent during lent is that I still have to make sure my kids are eating and that they have food even when it’s things I’m not eating. In order to have someone who understands this is the reason why God gave some spouses telework daysContinue reading “Days 4 and 5: Feasting and Resting”
The Wild Goose Land 