One Of Those Days

Very busy today. Had to make the choice between going for a run or having a shower. Not enough time for both.
Good thing I don’t sweat.

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Brothers

A rare photograph of the reclusive teen son.

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Sound the Bloody Alarm Already

Big R and I have watched quite a few climate change docs lately. This one was particularly effective in getting the message across. So much so that L, after only seeing 15 minutes close to the end, is now planning on asking her teacher if she can talk to her class [...]

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Time Together

It can be tricky to find times to connect with all four of the kids every day, especially the older two, who are so busy with their own lives.
Which is why I get up a full hour before I really have to.
I set the alarm before the sun gets up so that I can wake [...]

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As Promised

Tee wearing his new glasses.

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(Still) Shockingly Self-Absorbed

Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. What were you doing on this day 20 years ago?
I was:

Turning 21. It was my birthday.
Only vaguely aware of the world outside of my own little head. Not much that happened in the news/in politics/anywhere that I wasn’t made it into my consciousness, [...]

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Sundays @ 6

The kids go to their dad’s for a week, and then they’re here for a week.
Whether they’re coming or going, the transition is hard. Tears when they leave, and tears when they return. I don’t know what they’re like when I drop them off over there, but when they get dropped off here, it’s a [...]

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Soldier On, People

We haven’t journeyed all this way because we are made of sugar candy.
~ Winston Churchill

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My New Love

Knee socks.
Weird, I know.

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Omnivalence

I’ve just started reading Mary Pipher’s new autobiographical book, Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World, and after reading the prelude, I’ve decided that she’s my mental twin.
For example:
Few people have sought serenity with more ardor or have worked harder at relaxing than I have.
My experience exactly! A week in an all-enclusive? [...]

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In My Daughter’s Eyes

We don’t watch TV around here, thanks to T, who at age 2 became a little OCD about the screen. Neither of the older two had shown much interest in it, other than Bill Nye the Science Guy and Magic School Bus, but for some reason, maybe I had gotten a little lax, maybe they [...]

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Note To Self

You know how it is when life is humming along just fine on one level, and really, everything is fine, except that underneath, it’s really not?
That’s how it is for me right now.
The kids and I have things worked out so that everything hums along pretty smoothly when they’re here. Everyone gets where they need [...]

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Child’s Eye View

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Halloween Humbug

15 Halloweens.
I am so done with this holiday. I can’t decide which is worse. Handing out candy or accompanying the trick-or-treaters. Doling candy means getting to stay inside my nice warm house, but I’m a boring old curmudgeon and I could not care less who is wearing what costume. Every 30 or so seconds another [...]

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HALLOWEEN . . . by Jay

Halloween is coming L was going to be cat in the hat but no
she is… a card from Alice in wonder land!
I can’t decide what to be so I am going as several things:
a cow boy, a vampire, a pirate, and a bunny.

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Block city. . . by Jay

L  and me made a block city, it was big and wide , the floor was was made of blocks but we didn’t make a whole wall.
We organized the blocks before making the city.

There was a tower in the center that me and L called the tower of  trust.
The city was malty colored and the [...]

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What Matters?

What matters is the center inside yourself – and how you live, and how you treat people, and what you can contribute as you pass through life on this earth, and how honestly you love, and how carefully you make choices. Those are the things that really matter.
~excerpt from Refusing to be a Man by [...]

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Breaking News

Some exciting things happened this week:
- L was invited to compete at an international diving meet. First time ever, so she’s over the moon excited. And proud as can be. It’s for the top twelve age-group divers in each country, which obviously means that L is in that category, which is a huge thing for [...]

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I’m Excellent

I was going through my old emails searching for something and I came across this little gem, titled I’m Excellent:
what kind of mother whips up a last minute tiramisu while fielding three extra kids for lunch (thanks juje) before dashing off to work on her master’s? this kind. the same kind that also loaded the [...]

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Bye bye summer….

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