“Marilla, isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” “I’ll warrant you’ll make plenty in it,” said Marilla. “I never saw your beat for making mistakes, Anne.” “Yes, and well I know it,” admitted Anne mournfully. “But have you ever noticed one encouraging thing about me, […]
Smoke, strength and separation Read More »
= ! = He < thinks > himself undetected nibbling popcorn on my pantry floor but I know he was h e r e ! . . . .
With deepest apologies to Horace, Keats, Shelley, Rossetti, and anyone else who ever created something beautiful. Also to my grandmother and my first-grade teacher, who expected better. * Season of clouds, of barren gray and dun Close bosom-friend of darkness. What is sun? A thing of faerie. Bitterest wind, and snow on snow Relentless misery
Horatian Ode to a Meadville Winter Read More »
Confession: It’s been that kind of week. It’s February in Meadville, where we have two options left open to us: to ignore the winter entirely, or to give up and wallow in it like swamp invertebrates. I looked up the weather forecast and it’s unbroken clouds for a week to come. My brain is filled
Confession: Everything was locking up for me today. First my Kindle. Then Grooveshark. Then my laptop. After ten years of marriage to a tech man, I’ve learned a few things—not to bang the offending item on the countertop, for instance… and that restarting often helps… and even to open Task Manager and fiddle around exiting
Anybody else’s kids home from school today because of the cold? Here’s what we’re doing at my house–a homemade scavenger hunt. Geared for any reading kid, probably aged 6-12… and a lot younger than that if Mommy will help. I used to do this a lot with the kids when they were smaller. Today we
Printable scavenger hunt Read More »
Brethren, it is flat COLD out there. Today I saw something I’ve never seen before in my life: the wind had rolled its own snowballs. They call em snow rollers. I hear they’re all over facebook in my town, and an Ohio article today featured some cool pictures. I feel really honored that the wind
January phenomenon Read More »
Confession: There are many days when I feel I could cheerfully dispense with the trappings of motherhood. Not motherhood itself, mind you; just the trappings that come with it. “Wear this, Mommy.” Um. Do I have to? I’ve never been a natural loving-every-blessed-minute kind of mother, beaming while cooking early breakfast. I love my kids like
An amateur word-picture, just for fun–though the experience certainly was not. ***** They turned me into a sickly sun set high above the earth I scorched everything I touched Blistered that desert Heartbeats and mustangs gone loco together And I could not tell the cowboys guns From the pounding And the pounding in my head
Hello, my pal! Welcome to Daffy Supper Land, where we eat with a shovel in one hand and a baby fork in the other. Have fun eating! –Aarick Zook Confession: When I was a teen, I spake as a teen, I understood as a teen, I thought as a teen: but when I became a
January boredom buster Read More »