“I need to find a tempting treat for a chicken,” Ula says aloud to no one in particular one afternoon this past winter while she distracts herself from writing one of her college essays. She has plans with her boyfriend for the weekend, so she really needs to get her work done. But her mind […]
Swiping Right
“If we both joined Tinder, do you think we’d match with each other?” “No.” “Hey! You answered too fast. And what do you mean by that?” I swat Bob on the butt. We’re watching a Tinder drama play out in real-time while cooking dinner. Saoirse is dressed and ready to leave on a date. I’m […]
Magic for Life
I didn’t believe in fairies. Saoirse made me do it. It seemed an instinctive notion on her part. Five-year-olds can’t not believe in fairies. And as she wandered around home, farm and garden chattering with endless questions about them, she managed to chip away at the walls I’d constructed between reality and fantasy until finally, […]
Fashion Passion
“You’re going to need to buy two of everything. Sisters don’t like to share their stuff.” That was the first piece of advice I remember after I’d given birth to Ula. I remember it because it was the first piece of advice that I thoroughly rejected. There was no way I was going to buy […]
Math Lessons
I remember starting on my parenting journey, meeting a high school freshman who, her parents assured me, was “gifted.” She was already studying calc II (and yet she couldn’t make her own breakfast). In my youth I was an AP math student, and a math tutor in college, and I presumed my own children would […]
Where’s Saoirse?
My heart’s been thumping with pride this week…Pride for being a small business owner in a community of other small business owners, and pride for my kid. I know the pandemic has been hard on small businesses. But one of the silver linings, for me, has been the network of support we’ve created for each […]
Home-Schooled Sex Ed
Did you ever wonder how homeschooled kids get sex ed? I guess, in school, it’s a specific class you take, probably a unit in health class. In our family, it’s just been an ongoing thing. Especially today, in light of some things that have transpired in my kids’ lives. Today’s post is an open letter […]
Listening
I’m wondering how to include pig castration on Ula’s homeschool quarterly report. “It’s definitely science,” Jenn reminds me over lunch. “And don’t forget dissection!” “Is that vivisection?” Bob wonders. No. That would be if it were for research purposes. I think it might be more of a surgical procedure. All of this language would […]
The Script
Hmmmm, hm hm hm hmmmmm Hmmm hmm hmmm hmm hmm hmmmmm Hmm hmmm hmmm hmmm hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Saoirse’s humming. She hums a lot, on her way to the farm, while she’s doing chores, when she comes back from the farm. Lately, it’s always La Vie En Rose. She’s in a local theater production, a comical historical […]
Vaccines & Asses
The opinion piece written by the doctor for the NY Times says there are four types of folks who are resisting the Covid vaccine: the Watchful, the Cost-Anxious, the System Distrusters, and Covid Skeptics.* None of these describes Ula. She was fine when each of us became eligible for the vaccine and she remained below […]
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