The kids have spent about 75 percent of their waking hours this past week screaming. Esther is teething and snuffly, insisting on being held constantly, and Ransom is just a bear. I don’t even have to mind the varmints during work hours, mostly, because Nathaniel does, but it still frays my mind and nerves. That’s a cover-up for the truth:… Read more →
Many mornings I stand in our upstairs bathroom and watch my husband poke around the backyard with one or both children orbiting. He checks the bedraggled garden, pulling weeds and harvesting vegetables. Sometimes I can hear him talking: “These are tomatoes, Ransom. No, don’t eat. It’s not red yet.” He keeps the ragamuffins busy each morning so I can shower… Read more →
I cried at the DMV today. It was all the Maryland Communists’ fault. Last Friday, after 15 months of not switching my driver’s license to Indiana from Maryland, where I have the misfortune to hold it, I went to the apparently renowned Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. It took me three minutes to get to a pleasant lady who informed… Read more →
Last week, my mom was in town, graciously helping me handle the kids through several traveling engagements. One night, like grandmas do, she took me and the babies out for ice cream. There’s a little, extremely popular local stand about a mile from our house. So I got there and strategized how I would get Ransom, the almost 2-year-old, as… Read more →
As we have just moved house in the past few weeks, we have been cleaning, organizing, and tossing things out. I like to use Freecycle to hand off perfectly usable stuff without sending it to the trash. We’ve also posted things on Craigslist, like one of our two microwaves and our old lawn mower, which is basically usable only for… Read more →
Several days ago, in the throes of one of Ransom’s purgatorial downswings, I was bouncing Esther on my knee, just happy to have and hold her smiling round pink self. “You are such a little gift!” I told her. “Ransom is a gift, too,” Nathaniel said, “But he’s like that thing people give that makes the recipient say, ‘Thaaaanks.’ Ransom… Read more →
Today, I was set to record a podcast over the phone with a guest at 3 p.m. Ransom takes his afternoon nap from 2:30 to 4:30, so is usually quieted down by 3 and it’s a favored recording time. At 2:50, Esther is sleeping. But I hear noises from Ransom that are loud enough to make me think he’s playing… Read more →
Dear Esther, This letter is to inform you that you have repeatedly violated the UN Convention on Human Rights. It quite clearly states that extreme sleep deprivation* is a form of human torture. You must cease and desist immediately, or face the terrifying consequences of seeing blue, helmeted peacekeepers sing kumbaya on our lawn. Either that or you risk losing… Read more →
I have not been allowed to post pictures of my duvet cover in various states of undone as an inducement to finish it. It has, after all, taken nearly two years to complete. I started it sometime in between marriage and Ransom, which was also sometime in between three moves and nearly two babies, which hopefully explain my lame, lame… Read more →
Last night, Nathaniel and I were talking in bed. And, yes, that was meant to sound suspicious, but we usually talk before bed about random stuff because I get weirdly jumpy and erratic right before sleep (something to do with…being tired…). With all the people running around the country demanding things from the government and other citizens (You make more… Read more →
