Preschoolers + vacation = dysregulation — I am a curriculum coach at a preschool and tomorrow is our first day back at school after December break. To be honest, I’m nervous. The week leading into vacation was a bit chaotic. There were a lot of teachers and children out sick. There were just as many children…

I wonder what my grandmother would say about our world today…. — Tick Tick Tock Time is ticking away... it is my scheduled writing time. But my creative mind is drawing a total blank. There’s so much going on, there’s so much happening in our country right now. So much at stake over these next few days. The world my son and…

Now I know what he would have painted…. —

Why is this even a question? — I was running into the supermarket yesterday to grab some snacks for my husband who was home sick. He was waiting for me to bring him the prescription I had just picked up at the pharmacy next door. My plan was to get in and out as quickly as possible. …

Reflections on Yard Sales and Give-Aways — We never had a yard sale growing up. We definitely grew up with hand-me-downs — clothes, toys, things that were new to us but not newly bought. And they always came from people we knew never random strangers. Every year we donated a few bags of things to our temple’s…

I can’t imagine my life without my library card…. — I remember the day I told my dad I wanted to go to graduate school for library sciences. His answer was less than supportive. “I haven’t worked so hard and mortgaged our house to pay for you to go to a good college for you to spend the rest of…

Eavesdropping on other people’s lives: Part 7 — It was scorching hot day and I was lucky enough to be sitting in a restaurant in a piazza in Florence with my daughter. We were relaxing, grateful for the misting system that was creating a cool breeze and for the cold Prosecco we were sipping. We had been in…

but not because of the kids… it’s the parents…. — This past weekend was my daughter’s college graduation. Given all that is going on in the world right now, the war, another school shooting, the pandemic, it was so nice to have a forty eight hour reprieve to focus on something positive. These students all had so much to be…

or… the lies moms tell at the playground — The playground in the center of town was the common meeting place. Swings of different sizes, a padded covering under the climbing structures, multiple slides of varying heights, a clean and well-filled sandbox, benches, picnic tables, and a bathroom; it had everything they could need to keep their toddlers happy…