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Hobbit Habit
We went to Hobby Lobby for the first time today. On the way there my youngest asked how long the drive to “Hobbit Habit” was going to take and that is what we are calling Hobby Lobby from now on.
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What it’s like to be a stay-at-home parent to an eight-year-old and a ten-year-old in the summer.
Well, it’s great. It feels like everything about those early, soul-crushing years of having children was a terrible investment which is now paying off in a big way. Here is an incomplete list of things we have done today:1. Sat together reading quietly in the living room.2. I went to the gym. The kids stayed…
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Summer Solstice
I really prefer the dark and quiet of the winter solstice, but I’m told we can’t have year-round winter so here we are. The sun is like a toddler going through some terrible sleep regression. Still up at 9 PM. Up again at 5:30 AM. The whole family suffers. The winter solstice always seems like…
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Summer Sleep
It’s the last day of school here, exactly a week until the longest day of the year, and my ability to sleep soundly has vanished. Summer sleep is the worst. Too much heat, too much sun. The kids understandably struggle to go to bed when the sun is still up. The thin quilt on our…
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I’ll smile when you’re gone.
I just got hassled by a panhandler on my way into Target. He called me beautiful and then told me I needed to smile more to make more friends, all while shaking his cup of coins at me. Do you know how many times I have been told by strange men that I need to…
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A Sense of History
Yesterday I volunteered to help clean and organize a closet at my kids’ school. This is exactly the sort of volunteer gig I like; I would much rather sort through piles of toner cartridges than have anything to do with the carnival. Shoved in a low corner was small box labeled “archives.” I was surprised…
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Documentary Review/ Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
New and different enough to fascinate me even though I’m pretty neutral on Michael J. Fox. I was in eighth grade and my family was going through our big People Magazine phase when Michael J. Fox went public with his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, so I was already familiar with his story. Twenty-five years of disease…
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Eat Your Breakfast
I went to the gym this morning intending to pound out thirty intense minutes on the stair stepper. Instead I came off the machine feeling weak and tired at the twenty minute mark. I forgot to eat breakfast. Well, I didn’t forget (I’m not the type of person who forgets to eat), but I often…
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The Red Disk
In the summer of 1994 I was ten years old and living in a small town in Eastern Washington. We had a babysitter that summer and her car had a small hole in the floor, just big enough so you could see the street moving under your feet. My sister and I always fought over…
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Documentary Review/ P!nk: All I Know So Far
I usually enjoy a good behind-the-scenes tour of a celebrity’s life, but this one just stressed me out. This documentary follows Pink and her family during the European leg of her tour. Pink has chosen to bring her husband, her two-year-old son, and eight-year-old daughter with her and they are together all the time. When…