Author: Laura
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Badge of Beauty
Among the many tasks in my home that should be done daily (maybe several times a day) and yet are done…Weekly? I hope? When did I last do that?…is cleaning off my dining room table. Tonight, I have a moment. Rolling up my sleeves, I wipe off the crumbs and then spray the table down.…
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Whodunnit?
This morning, like most mornings, I woke up. I looked at my phone, turned off my alarm, answered some texts from a friend about how he likes to cook cabbage and brussels sprouts, and rolled over–into something. Oh no, I thought. When you have pets, rolling over into mystery substances or objects is usually not…
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Selah’s Moment of Fame
My daughter Selah knows her classics. OK, so she knows a kid version of one classic: Beowulf.* When I worked for Ink&Paper Group, a publishing company in Portland, Oregon, Ink’s comics/graphic novels imprint published the first Kid Beowulf graphic novel. Selah was only about one year old at the time. I had a copy of the…
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Sweet and Sour, Black and White
I don’t think of myself as a black-and-white thinker. I try to avoid categorizing people according to bipolar terms like “good” and “bad.” Some things are both a blessing and a curse. There isn’t always a right and a wrong; there isn’t always a victor and a loser. However, somehow in parenting, I think I…
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Listen to Your Mother Call for Submissions
Last year, I got to participate in Sacramento’s first Listen to Your Mother live reading. At a Writers Who Wine evening out, Margaret Andrews gave me a little slip of paper saying they were seeking stories about motherhood. I thought, “I could probably bang together something about motherhood.” And I did. On Mother’s Day, 2013,…
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Rebuttal and Train Museums
In my post entitled, “You Have Your Hands Full,” I said I had had quite a day at the train museum. Let’s back up a bit. Recently, “So You Would Like to Have Three Children” has been widely shared, and the comments have poured in. Many of them are from people sharing their own experiences,…
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You Have Your Hands Full…
Yesterday, I went to the train museum with my children. This really warrants its own blog post, but in the meantime, IT happened. Exhausted (remember, another post is coming), I got to the second-floor area with the toy trains children can play with. I sat down next to another woman, and we watched the kids…
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Funnny Holiday Photos
I have not yet sent out Christmas cards. I still kind of want to. But at this point, this may have to suffice. Happy holidays! * * * * * * * * * * * * Happy holidays and many blessings upon you, whether you’re drinking your forty, or breaking your gingerbread house.…
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The Friday Before Christmas
‘Twas the Friday before Christmas And in the mom’s mind Came a shocked realization She was running out of time Free shipping was ending The stockings lay slack The kids had been with Dad But they were coming back But what would she get them These children of hers They had plenty of…
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Trees of Christmas Past, Present, and Future
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the other night I was thinking about Christmas trees. I had been trying to figure out what to do on the Christmas-tree front. Way back in college I used to get my own trees on my own, though they tended to be of the smallish variety. The living room of my current house…