Long ago, so long ago—sixteen years ago, in fact—I wrote this: Long ago–so long ago–when H was a bald baby with a big head, I read about Waldorf education. This was the beginning of a post called “All My Waldorf Guilt,” published a few days after I began this blog. The other day was my [...]

The first day of my writing retreat, I was miffed at myself. I’d gone out of town for a week to work, and I hadn’t written any more than I do at home. And though I was within walking distance to the beach, I hadn’t even glimpsed the ocean. I texted my accountability partner from Parakeet, [...]

Years ago, when we first decided to homeschool, I didn’t know a single homeschooler. I was desperate to find community for the kids. I wanted them to have friends; I didn’t want them to be isolated, didn’t want to make them weird. We started going to a Park Day in Berkeley when H was just [...]

Recently, I went to an opening for the artist Christine Ferrouge, who “paints psychological narratives based on her three daughters.” I came to know Christine years ago as a fellow homeschooling parent. Isn’t her work moving? She’s doing in paint what I try to do in words–capture the independence and uniqueness of the people I [...]

In 2017 I wrote an essay about longing. I submitted it to a bunch of publications, like I did with several other essays I wrote that year. No luck. I’d come to call 2017 my year of rejection, though that year I did have one acceptance—for the essay about longing. Trouble was, the editor wanted [...]

standing on the shoulders of *my* giant Hi you! It’s been quite a while. When I wrote here last, it was mid-July and the noon sun was directly overhead and my sunflowers were tall and working as landing pads for my bees. That post was my 15th anniversary post and I made a promise to [...]