It cracks me up to no end that y'all are so concerned in the comments of this post that perhaps I haven't fully investigated whether the kids' school has an issue with weirdly-colored hair. I just want to point out---and I say this with love in my heart, truly---that when it comes to school, I am perhaps one of the most rule-abiding folks you'd ever hope to meet. Some might even say that I'm hopelessly square in this regard, and to those people I would just like to say "Put a sock in it, and go clean your room." I mean, yes, I will absolutely go to bat for my kids if there's something that...
Haven’t been hit by lightning yet! Articles
My deal with the devil
I'm doing a bit of research this weekend, pretty readers. I thought perhaps you'd like to participate. IF you had a young lady on your hands for whom getting her ears pierced was more or less the pinnacle of all things good and meaningful, and IF you had already laid down the law stating that such piercing would not be happening either A) until middle school or B) until said child could manage to comport herself in such a way that you no longer felt compelled to comment that she would lose her own head if it wasn't attached, and IF said child had a rather large---say, double-digit---birthday...
Love is in the little things
I'm a big believer in a little bit of special all the time, rather than a whole lot of special just once in a while. It's just how I am. Not that I'll turn down the occasional grandiose gesture, you understand, but I am not a Special Occasion person. I'm a Little Details person. Usually. Needless to say, every now and then I trip myself up. I get a wild hair---I decide I Must Do Something Special---and nine times out of ten it results in an unmitigated disaster. Give you a kiss every morning? Sure! Do your laundry? Okay! Make your dinner? Absolutely! Plan something extra special? Um, please...
If you believe in jinxing, I’m screwed
I recently had a discussion via email with a friend who ever-so-gently pointed out that when I don't either blog about things or communicate them to friends in another (more direct) manner, they don't know what's going on with me. I scoffed, because I've long made it a habit to only befriend people who are PSYCHIC. It cuts down on the effort I have to make, you know. Well, okay, not really. What I HAVE done, actually, is put my head down and stuffed my fingers in my ears and loudly "LA LA LA LA LA LA"ed my way through some things happening around here because there comes a times when my wee...
What I’ll always see in those 4 flakes
Today we went on a wild, day-long adventure, which included going panning for gold. As we stood clustered around a trough, each swishing around our pans, Monkey jabbered a mile a minute and Chickadee complained a couple of times that the water was too cold, but in the end, each of us had successfully isolated a few flakes of gold, which was then placed into a vial we could keep. The children were ecstatic. For about ten seconds. We then had to wait a bit before it was our turn to go on a tour of the mine, and for a moment I actually GOT SMART and went and bought the kids a snack to head off...
You can’t take me anywhere
I think I've mentioned before that at some point I became overwhelmed with this weird THING that compelled me to sign up for a committee in the name of bettering our schools. (Oh... right. I think that THING may be "a sense of parental and civic responsibility," but on the other hand, maybe it's just a mild case of Athlete's Foot, because it's sort of itchy.) On the one hand, I know it's tiresome to keep up with the "OMG! WTF is the matter with the schools here?" routine, because I've done it before, for one thing, and also, HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU HAVE? On the other hand, every time I sort of...
Monday’s genius. . .
... is Friday's moron. I'm going to have that embroidered on a sampler, and I'm going to mount it here on the wall of my office. Oh yes. Yes, I shall. Oh Mondays, I am brilliant. It's a new day! A new week! And THIS WEEK, I shall triumph. I will be on top of my game. Work will melt away under my fingertips, the children will be delightful and charming, the house will be clean, and late at night I will sidle up to my husband and whisper something a little more sexy than, "I am so tired right now I could cry, if only I had the energy." On Mondays, all things are possible. By Friday, I'm just a...
Now let’s get back to me, please
Dudes. DUDES. Your affection for my dad warms the cockles of my shriveled, blackened heart. And I'm not the only one. Why, first Otto weighed in with boundless love: Geez, your dad's more popular than our wedding.... [Ed. note: Nope, the posts about our wedding still have more comments, but not by much!] And then, of course, my father wasn't kidding about sending the post out to everyone he knows. He emailed the link far and wide, which resulted in the entry being visited by people who normally never read me, like my brother. Who then suggested that what Dad really wants is a chicken,...
In case you were wondering
It is possible to be a Stanford-educated professional-type adult, to spend half the morning pondering---once again---how it's really time to figure out how to incorporate an exercise routine into your life, because you're too sedentary, after all, plus those pesky ten pounds don't seem to be losing themselves (go figure), and to simultaneously vow, as well, to start eating better, YOU REALLY MEAN IT THIS TIME, because you're getting older and it's important, sheesh, woman, it's time to make your health a priority... ... and to then look up a sinful chocolate cake recipe online because you're...