Coming home to the empty bedroom is the hardest part. She took all the things she loved, and cleaned up the rest. Filled bags with old Vans and ballet flats to donate. Now her room looks like a fake teenage bedroom in a suburban housing tract model home. The week before she left, she brought [...]

I’ve been rereading my mother’s journals for an essay that I’m working on, and rediscovering nuggets like these: H at three, when I asked him to put away one set of toys before taking out another: “I’m not into that.” Lulu at five, working out the nuances of words: “Is plump a nicer way to [...]

“Which is all well and glorious, these homeschooling days of wonder. But there are other days wracked with a whole different sort of wonder, particularly if you are a parent. Why can’t he write a paragraph by himself if schoolkids his age can? Should I push her to read instead of listening to audiobooks for [...]

Recently I had a birthday. Also recently I read This is 38, a post I loved from Lindsey Mead on being, well, thirty-eight.  And then I read This is 57, from Cynthia Newberry Martin. Here’s one for the decade in between. This is 49. 49 is watching my oldest graduate from college. 49 is not [...]

I’m kicking off this post with a quote from a pope. I’ll bet that wasn’t what you expected when you showed up here today, and I hope you’ll bear with me. I’m going somewhere with this, and it has nothing to do with religion. Last Sunday at Mass, this line came up in the homily. [...]

Since we’ve been talking about college application essays, I might also add that Lulu wrote two application essays on Lemony Snicket. Apparently this was a bad idea, as she got wait-listed at both schools. Then again, one might assume that a school which wait-lists applicants who write essays on Lemony Snicket has a severe lack [...]