Category Archives: Family

Getting my Craft On

I have a guest post up today at Natural Parents Network as part of their Blog Carnival on Family Creations.  I haven’t been doing as much craft or creative work as I’d like lately – it’s easy to blame my lack of supplies and housing chaos, but then I remember that I brought an empty scrapbook and some grand intentions and I wonder what happened.  I guess my creativity has been focused on picking paint colors for the new house. In any case, I spent some time weaving through a family history of handicraft.  Here’s a snip – go read the rest of the post at Natural Parents Network.

My father used to sew, too – on the industrial Singer sewing machine he got from HIS father, who repaired them, oiling and tuning the machinery. When my dad was ready to part with it, I claimed it as my own, and he drove it down to me – three hours – and showed me how to tighten the leather belt, how to oil it. That machine sat in my workroom, unused once I upgraded to a shiny multi-function machine. I couldn’t part with it for years, though we finally sold it in preparation for this move. Instead of the machine, I am holding onto the memory of my father and my son, heads together, giving the machine its final tune-up before passing it along to a new home.

 

(un)settled

We have arrived. Or at least, we have come to a longer stopping point. Groceries have been stocked. Beds have been made. The boxes of “early delivery” items (kids games, some books, my baking mixes) have been mostly unpacked into the tiny kitchen and large closet. I don’t really think of this as settled –Continue Reading

Miles from somewhere

I haven’t been a daily blogger since the days of infertility treatments and pregnancy, when each nuanced data point seemed memorable and each anecdote recountable. Even before that, in the days of keeping a diary (or the later, more mature, “journal”), I was not so much a keeper of frequent chronicles as a keeper ofContinue Reading

Transitions

It has been a time of transition. Of growing up and moving forward. Of new places and new experiences. Of new teachers and new friends. The transition to kindergarten has not been entirely smooth. Despite years spent in a full-day preschool, the kindergarten environment is… different. More kids, fewer teachers. More work, less play. MoreContinue Reading

Heart of the Home

Welcome to the August Carnival of Natural Parenting: Creating With Kids This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared how they make messes and masterpieces with children. Please read to the end to find a listContinue Reading

Five

I tiptoe quietly in the dark as I did when they slept in cribs – footed jammies, diapered bottoms in the air. Now they sprawl, arms out or clutching a doll, a blanket, a book. In the light, they are my big kids learning and growing, astonishing and overwhelming me with insights and observations. IContinue Reading

Philosophical Parenting: Letting Go

Welcome to the July Carnival of Natural Parenting: Parenting Philosophy This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have shared their parenting practices and how they fit in with their parenting purpose. Please read to the end toContinue Reading

a series of tiny heartbreaks

It was due to a misunderstanding, nothing more. No grand attempt to squash a child’s creative spirit or make her fit into a too-small box. No systemic plan to marginalize her. No bullying, no unkind words. And yet, I just watched a tiny piece of my daughter get crushed. And I cried. I was preparedContinue Reading

Lost in Limbo

Last week, the kids told me they learned how to limbo at school. Even backwards, they reported, proudly. I used to wonder why that game was called limbo, but I think I know now. That feeling of bending back and forth, moving unsteadily, as far as you can, knowing that at some point you mightContinue Reading

until that day

There will come a day when I can’t fix every problem. When my simple ministrations are not enough. When my hug and kiss doesn’t set the world back on course.  There will come a day when I am banished, not sought. When I am a hindrance, not a help. When I annoy more than IContinue Reading