son

  • Cookies and Tater Tots

    Each time I step into the my hometown elementary school to teach Kindergarten music, I’m hit with the smell of cookies and tater tots.  It’s a smell that brings me right back to the time when my kids attended this school, and it evokes strong memories of those long-ago days.  I can see my Kindergarten-aged…

  • That’s What We Do

    I looked a beat too long at a young mother and her baby boy at Market Basket yesterday. She was settling him into the seat, and sweet talking in his ear. She might have been me sixteen years ago. She looked up and smiled, and I apologized, explaining that I sometimes really miss those days. We talked…

  • For my Hometown Moms

    Every so often, at a school or sports event, I will look out at the sea of kids and realize the rare privilege we have. We are connected because we occupy one speck of a dot on a map and we are raising our kids in this speck, at this time. We’ve watched this batch…

  • Twelve-going-on-thirteen

    As we get ready for Brian to start middle school, I find myself totally overwhelmed.  Twelve-going-on-thirteen is a rollercoaster.  Sometimes my son is incredibly annoyed by every member of our family (mostly me) and is steadfastly stubborn in his belief that everyone else is living a life much better and grander than his own.  At other times,…

  • Learning to Swim

    I have taken my kids to swim lessons at a local college for years and have always loved this program.  They swim for a half hour each day for two weeks, learning new skills quickly.  This has been an odd Summer since one of my kids is away at camp and this is the first swim…

  • Dear Poison Ivy,

      Dear Poison Ivy, No one could say the time we’ve spent together this week was fun, but now that the rash is receding from my face and neck, I’ve found I’ve learned a few things along the way for which I have you to thank. 1. Toxic lifeforms will give you advance warning if…

  • Blessings

    Ever since my children were in preschool, I have said a little prayer over them as I’ve dropped them off for the day.  In those early years, it was so hard to leave them in someone else’s hands.  Until they went to school, they grew in an environment that was controlled mostly by me.  School…