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A Two-Week Adventure in Working Parenthood
I’m signed up with a temp agency and I got my first assignment: a two-week position in a nearby school office. I am looking forward to trying out this working parent thing for just the two-week stint. If it’s absolutely horrendous I can easily remove myself from the temp agency’s employment and embrace a future…
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The Only Constant
Well, the children are back at school and I am able to eat again. My oldest picked up some sort of terrible stomach bug at his sixth grade orientation last Thursday, something we did not realize until we found ourselves cleaning vomit from the cabin carpet at 2 AM last Saturday. A few more of…
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Twelve Days of Being Lukewarm on the State Fair
We went to the Minnesota State Fair on Monday, despite the staggering heat and humidity. “Are you a Fair person?” Minnesotans often ask each other this time of year. “Are you going to the Fair this year?” I am probably not a Fair person. I like the bucket of cookies and the SkyGlider. I like…
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Always Trying and Often Failing
Lest my previous post about our allowance strategy lead anyone to think that I have my shit together, I am posting today about how I often struggle to stick with things. Earlier this year we started doing gratitude journaling at dinnertime. It was easy, it took about thirty seconds, and all I had to do…
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Give/Save/Spend
A little more than a year ago, I instituted a new allowance strategy in our household. We had a problem with the previous allowance system in that it was paid out at random times and sent directly to the kids’ bank accounts. The kids had no real idea how much money they had and thus…
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My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge.
It was the summer of 2000. I had had my driver’s license for less than a year, the first of my friend group to acquire both a license and a vehicle. I spent a lot of time that spring and summer navigating my 1987 Ford Ranger (AKA Trucky Poo) around my small town with a…
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Mode: Tonsillectomy Recovery
We’ve been in Mode: Tonsillectomy Recovery for a full week now. It has been… okay? There was a lot of pain the first 3-4 days, but he’s really perked up in the last couple days here. We are still doing the Advil/Tylenol shuffle and staying close to home. I thought staying close to home for…
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Dependent Creatures Newsletter
Oldest KidMy oldest had his first job this weekend: kitten-sitting for the neighbors. Kids get all the best jobs. He walked up to their house twice a day all weekend. He fed the precious babies, he played with the precious babies, he scooped their precious poop from the litterbox. He took the responsibility very seriously…
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No Clock, No Problem
I have one of those cool sunrise/sunset alarm clocks, which I like very much except for the bright red numbers on the display which–despite being turned down to the lowest setting–have been screaming into my eyeballs all night every night for years. About two weeks ago I figured out how to turn the time display…
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On being miscast in the family
I ended up at the cabin for one night by myself last weekend. We happened to have two cars for 48 hours (long, boring story) and my husband wanted to take the kids to the local amusement park for the day on Saturday. “That’s fine,” I said. “I’ll go up to the cabin for the…