(Just pretend it's Monday, okay?) We’re giving the girls’ playroom a makeover because it’s time. I’d become incapable of entering the room because I was afraid of what I’d find – mostly, kids lying horizontally on the trundle bed, eating crumbly food, watching inappropriate television, while dirty socks, moldy shoes, shin guards, and unidentified objects lurked beneath, and random art supplies stained the walls and carpet. In a word: disgusting, or two words: health department. I put on my … [Read more...]
Hello 2013, I’m distracted (but not about gun control)
I’ve been distracted since Mom died – by actual commitments too many to list, and then just distracted. It’s hard to explain. I sat down to write my end of the year list of things I loved in 2012, and then went and did ten loads of laundry instead. I tried again and then went and hung some pictures. Once more in front of the laptop and instead of sharing with y’all that I loved “Silver Linings Playbook” and Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending, I took the dogs for a walk and … [Read more...]
“Pitch Perfect” is pitch perfect
It’s a good bet that headline will be repeated, even though it’s kinda lame. When I say ‘lame’, am I being insensitive to anyone who has a problem with their legs? Including my mother who contracted polio at a young age and walks with a noticeable limp? I digress…again. I first saw “Pitch Perfect” at summer’s end when I dubbed it “Bridesmaids” meets “Glee”. The fact that NPR repeated this description proves that I am, occasionally, very clever. About the movie… Unlike “Bridesmaids”, … [Read more...]
Book review: Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
The term comes from Theodore Roosevelt, who wrote: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do … [Read more...]
Monday motherhood: Mother Teresa and parental wisdom
Is it possible that I remember Mother Teresa being swiftboated by a few misguided folks when it came to discussing her path to sainthood? Can you imagine? Anyhow, this morning at my daughters’ school, they recited her “Anyway” poem: People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed … [Read more...]
Wednesday’s random thoughts: Sorkin, the Olympics, and dog urine
If you knew me years ago, you’d know that on Wednesday nights you risked incurring my wrath by calling between the hours of nine and ten at night. “The West Wing” was on and it was my drug of choice. When the girls were babies, they’d occasionally have trouble sleeping. If the husband was around, it was his job to make them invisible during that time. If I was single parenting, I’d let them cry until they started rattling the sides of their cribs like unjustly accused prisoners in a jail … [Read more...]