“The Pope is coming to America,” my son said softly. “Are we going to see him?” “No,” I told him, “we’re not.” “Oh. We should have.” And he walked away. Later this afternoon, I found him curled up on the couch, intently watching his laptop screen. Instead of a movie, he was watching the Papal audience in Cuba. He’s a funny kid, hard to know in a lot of ways. He’s mostly silent, always thinking. He rarely shares what’s on... Read more

We live relatively close to Irving, Texas (it’s on the other side of the Dallas area) and all anyone here can talk about is Ahmed Mohamed and his clock. If you don’t know who he is, he’s an engineering genius child who built a homemade digital clock and brought it to school to show his teachers. They thought it looked like a bomb and called the police. Ahmed was arrested, and the whole world seems to be reaching out to... Read more

Within the past few months, I’ve had two uncomfortable conversations with two very different friends. Both are women whom I care deeply for and treasure in my life. Because I’m human, and human beings are sometimes dumb, I’d inadvertently hurt their feelings by what I’d said/not said or done/not done. The reason and story behind the hurt isn’t the important thing here, their reaction to it is. The first friend sat me down and said, “Listen. The other day you... Read more

Here we are at the beginning of the school year (Hooray!!!), and I’m betting that a few of you slacker moms (you are my people) are still debating things like electives and how to afford them. And my son wants to take cooking classes…but not from me because “No offense, Mom, I mean you’re like a good cook and all. I mean, you haven’t killed anyone with your food. Yet. But I just want to learn how to cook from... Read more

We need Summer Break. We need it for our mental health and to have time to just be together as a family. We need it to let brains rest after months of non-stop learning. We need it to keep me from selling the children, or at least trading one of the teenagers away for a Golden Retriever puppy. We need it, and I love it. Right up until the first day back to school – which was today. Today I... Read more

A few weeks ago, Ella asked the question I’ve been not-so-secretly dreading “Will boys still like me, or will they not want to date me because of the chair?” I looked into her serious brown eyes, and almost immediately said the first platitude that rushed to mind, “The right boy won’t care…” But I know how inadequate that answer is. I’ve spent a fair amount of time this past year thinking about the boys she will date, and the man... Read more

Last year was his first in a “traditional school” setting, and he did okay. It was a year of learning important things like time management, self-discipline, navigating through the varying expectations of different teachers, and tying a tie (which he can now do without even looking.) There were also the lessons he learned that we weren’t thrilled with like queen bees, teachers’ pets, bullying, and the fact that his school doesn’t fail people – which means there are no consequences... Read more