It’s been a while since I’ve posted, thanks in part to a week of toxic technology. My laptop was the first thing to go, crashing and burning and refusing to let me open a single file. It’s currently over at Alaska Computer Geeks, and I have my fingers crossed that the technician over there can recover everything, especially the seven months of photos that piled … Continue reading Staycation 2013
It’s not Christmas, but someone in our house is asking for a few front teeth. Both of Maggie’s have fallen out in the past two weeks, and we are embracing her stereotypical 6-year-old grin: I snapped photos of Maggie’s tooth fairy letters before they were whisked away by the little winged creature, but the fairy keeps ignoring her request to leave a picture. Hmph. At … Continue reading Toothless Again
Every year we make homemade Valentine cards, and now that the kids are getting older they are capable of craftier creations. This year we thought about their current interests, and then scrounged around Pinterest for matching Valentine’s ideas. There are plenty of creative people out there, and we are grateful that so many are willing to share!
Our son is obsessed with geography. Looking back, I think it started with a road trip between Nebraska and Missouri the summer before he entered kindergarten. He was contained in a car seat for seven straight hours, but thanks to a few road maps and a U.S. atlas he was as happy as tourist with a shiny new Canon. He spent the entire drive quizzing … Continue reading Part 2: Or Not To Bee
Spelling bees are shockingly intense events. I’ve been organizing them at my school for the past few years, and my heart simultaneously breaks for the kids who are eliminated and pounds with anticipation for those who volley through the final, tongue-twisting rounds. I serve as the pronouncer for our school bees, but I can still see the parents in the audience, nervously clenching their hands … Continue reading Part 1: To Bee
I adore Maggie’s teachers. They are a team of professionals with high expectations of not only themselves, but also the students and families in their classrooms. They have strong opinions about public education and literacy, some of them unconventional but all of them in alignment with my beliefs. Thanks to them, many inquisitive little minds absolutely love coming to school each and every day. Oh, … Continue reading Whoops!
Of all the Christmas books and stories and legends, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is my absolute favorite. It’s a joy to read aloud, with its brilliant combination of silly Suessical lyrics and a serious sentiment that is impossible to miss: Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! “Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means … Continue reading Christmas Hangover
I’ve always loved carving pumpkins, stringing spider webs, and checking out the cute ghouls who visit our doorstep on Halloween. In our younger days we attended the occasional Halloween party, most infamously as a pair of dice. I still remember walking into the party and my principal saying, “Oh, look at that… they are in para-dise.” Very funny. In the pre-kid days, our poor dogs … Continue reading Halloween Memory Lane
I finally got the kids their own “real” library cards this weekend. Up until now they’ve had pretend cards they received years ago during a preschool story time, and all the books we borrowed actually went on my account. That worked when they were toddlers and we only wanted print books, but times have changed. Both for our family and for libraries! In this digital … Continue reading Living Libraries
This weekend we headed to the Reindeer Farm near Palmer, Alaska for their Halloween Fun extravaganza. There was no way I was missing this event, since I’ve always envied the fall family festivals my Midwestern family and friends attend. They have a plethora of pumpkin patches to explore, while we are stuck digging through cardboard bins of squash at the local Fred Meyer. (As if … Continue reading Family Fun at the Farm
Profoundly Ordinary 