I took the boys to see “A Day In Pompeii,” a great new exhibit at the Museum of Science. Gladiator masks, great videos, an audio tour for kids, and casts of dead people suffocating to death. What could be better for seven- and eight-year-old boys, yes? As I marveled at the frescos, though, the boys looked bored. I tried to give them a sense of history and awe with, “But guys, these paintings were probably around when Jesus was on... Read more
Ezra, who is seven, was riding in the back seat of our car with a friend a few weeks back, and their discussion turned to God. He wanted to clarify things a bit, I guess, because he suggested the following: “I have a good idea. On the count of three, we’ll both shout out the name of our God. Okay?” His friend nodded, and Ezra began to count. “One….two….three!” The other boy shouted, “Je-,” but stopped short when he realized... Read more
Geesh. I just got called my first nasty name online. Emily Matchar’s new article on “The New Domesticity” is kicking off quite a firestorm. I thought that my response (which was actually a response to a response – ahh, the times we live in) on What She Said was gracious, but this issue is obviously touching a nerve. Read more
We have lived in our house for eight years, and every year as we decorate for Christmas I hang a stocking along the stair rail for each person living in the house. In those eight years, we have had twenty different names on those stockings, names belonging to seventeen Americans, three internationals, two babies, two children, one teenager, three single adults and six married couples. I only have eleven stockings, the largest number ever living here at one time, so... Read more
This Thursday, I will celebrate Thanksgiving with international students who’ve come to Massachusetts for graduate school. We’ll board a bus in Harvard Square and head to New Hampshire for two nights of pies and hiking and board games. This will be my family’s fourth year of hosting this get-away, and it has become my favorite holiday. Each year we read Lincoln’s Proclamation, an invitation for the entire nation to observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving. It’s... Read more
Zach and Ezra ran in the house, panting, waving their water guns high in the air, and announcing triumphantly, “We got him! We got him!” When I could get them to calm down enough to tell me what they were talking about, they explained that they had taken their new guns to the end of our block to lie in wait for joggers. After chasing and missing a few, they finally found one slow enough to soak with water. Wasn’t... Read more
I’ve gained exactly 19.5 pounds since we started homeschooling last year. Which is why I very nearly turned down the offer to write for this site. It wasn’t because I have nothing to say. I nearly always have something to say – just ask me. And it wasn’t because I’m too busy to write. Writing is an important discipline for me. I need to write. Instead, I almost said no because of the head shot. You see, each contributor needs... Read more
The boys had been asking us to make their bedtime later for quite some time. Apparently seven pm is on the early side. Their friends now stay up until eight or nine, or even ten. “It’s so unfair,” they pleaded. But I’ve read too many reports on the importance of sleep to just give up an hour without long deliberation. Besides, Jeff and I lose our parenting mo-jo after 7 pm. I’ve run out of patience and creativity and motherly... Read more
“Who would let their children act like that in a restaurant?!” My mother and I were discussing the behavior of four children at the table next to ours last Saturday. The kids were loud, rambunctious, and whiny. The six adults with them, though, didn’t seem to notice. They each had a glass of wine and were doing their best to talk over and around the children. My friend Jean recently wrote a great post about a restaurant outside Pittsburgh... Read more
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