Tweet There’s a spot as I drive north on I-35 into Duluth that feels like home. It’s the spot as I summit the hill at Spirit Mountain and pass under some railroad tracks. Duluth then appears over that hill; the harbor comes into view with its bridges, grain elevators and ships, and Lake Superior spreads…
Tweet Ms. Merrick wore jeans. This might not seem like a big deal to you, but in 1980, in a small, conservative town and tight-knit school – jeans were a very big deal. All but one of my primary school teachers were women. They all had the ‘teacher hair’ -either high on their…
Tweet I hate milk. This is not a well-guarded secret. I’ve always hated milk. I remember fighting with my parents nearly every night as they would ‘make’ me drink my milk because it was like good for me, or something crazy like parents always make-up to get us to do healthy things. I remember them…
Tweet I have many worries for my daughters – will they be good people, will they help others, will they do well in school, will they never live in my basement, will they have a good haircut that matches their face, and of course will they please never wear capri pants. You know, the typical…
Tweet I just finished off a jar of peanut butter. Granted there really wasn’t more than two tablespoons left in the jar, so eating it straight with a spoon was completely justified, but still it felt a little indulgent. But maybe the indulgent part didn’t come until after I could scrape no more with the…
Tweet My Aunt gave us an old love-seat today. You’d never guess that this 12 year old love-seat is better than receiving Taylor Swift tickets for Christmas. We are slowly attempting to make our office into a functioning space and this love-seat gives us a place to start. Eloise and Esther immediately claimed it…
Tweet It turns out that the last thing you want to say to your seven year old as they board the bus is “Don’t be shocked if you come home and your cat isn’t here anymore! Okay, have a great day sweetie!” Because that seven year old will then tell her bus-mates, her friends,…
Tweet Take this easy quiz to see if you are ready to become a parent! 1. You can be a nurse without training! You can clean-up vomit – from floors, walls, clothing, hair, bodies, furniture, your MacBook, doors, stuffed animals, pianos and crayons – without gagging once while simultaneously holding a child and wielding…
Tweet I’ve been quiet this week as I struggle with what to write. We’re busy. Busy with school and music and friends and activities and shopping and general prepping. Maybe busier than we need to be just so my mind can’t stop and think of the sad. And I’ve been looking for little…
Tweet It rained all day here on Saturday causing so much of our snow to melt away. The snow cave is gone causing my mama bear instincts to find another way to protect my fragile cubs. Which we know is all impossible. So I told them. The older two. We talked about what happened in…
Tweet Okay – I’m going to start this post asking you to raise your hand if your child loves stuffed animals? I swear every time we leave this house a stuffed animal fairy somehow takes hold of one of my children and ‘blesses’ them with some magical power to make me buy them another stuffed…
Tweet There are so many lessons we teach our kids. The lessons of kindness, patience, giving, honesty, and love ring through the house daily. I can hear myself often reminding my kids to ask for little but to give a lot. And they aren’t kids to ask for much. They never ask for things at…
Tweet I wrote a post last week about how we should all just take a little more time with the happy. How we need to think carefully about our online footprints, to be gentler with ourselves as we travel this parenting road, and yet to always try to make our kids proud. I loved your…
Tweet I took the girls out to eat on Saturday night. And by ‘the girls’ I don’t mean my breasts because no matter how insignificant they are, those ‘girls’ come with me everywhere I go and can’t stay home while I’m dining out even though sometimes it may look like I’ve left them behind. When…
Tweet I feel as though I’ve earned a new Badge of Motherhood. I’ve conquered many things in my almost 10 year mothering journey – nursing, sleeping, potty-training, nightmares, tantrums, weaning, boo-boos, screaming, tickling, giggling, play-dates, slamming the doors, drama, fashion disasters, tears, homework. But until this weekend I’ve never had to deal with other…
Tweet I watched as Barack Obama became president in 2008. I watched with my daughters who were nearly 6 and 4 years old (and they didn’t have a baby sister). They watched these other beautiful young girls in awe as they stood with their father. The President. Those girls were 7 and 10 and looked…
Tweet 1. Go early to avoid the lines at the Little Hands Farm. Nobody wants a scene when little Tommy and little Susie fight over the apple or throw a fit waiting for the little tractors. 2. Buy the honey taffy at the Ag building. Keeping feeding taffy to children all day. The more…
