At 3:00 PM, the day looks inauspicious, and the plan that I crafted myself before dawn—a plan predicated on a dry Sunday afternoon—seems less pleasant than I’d hoped it would be. I had imagined sitting on a bench while kids skated and scooted around me. I’d imagined tea and apple slices and golden hour at…
Category: Little Ones
Things That Made 2024 Better
I’ve long finished the year with a list of what made it a better year than it could have been. I’ve always hedged it so carefully, not wanting to label a year “good” or “bad,” when it was so often both, and everything in between. All I have ever been willing to say is, in…
In The Bike Lane
The first time they rode in a real bike lane—not the sidewalk or a wading pool, not an empty parking lot or a school playground—I saw my daughters’ lives flash before my eyes. But not precisely the way you think. I promise. It was this spring, the first genuinely hot May morning, when we woke…
Fake Grass & Real Friends
The odd thing about this form of communication is that you’re more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings. You’ve Got Mail (1998) I don’t remember whose idea it was to sit down in the first…
Why We Ride
First, something else I didn’t do for money: I recently published a collection of poems that I’ve written over the past five years into a small poetry book. My commemoration of a season of being mostly at home full-time with small kids, it is called Small Prints, a title taken from a blog post by…
Magic Enough
We hatched a plan, a scheme born on a late-night text thread (because 9:30 PM is late now) and a chance encounter with a thicket earlier in the week. Last week, my daughters and some friends went for a hike in a park rather far from our home, and on the way back found ourselves…
The Road Taken
I few years ago, I stumbled on a superpower. I could become invisible by uttering a simple incantation in answer to a question. “And what do you do?” someone would ask. I’d sense my vanishing drawing near. “Me?” I’d reply, looking around as if any number of people were nearby. “I’m a stay-at-home mom.” And…
The Globe and the Village
We weren’t looking for a globe, or actually anything at all, for that matter. Aimless was the point, the peregrination of our four feet, sizes one and nine, carrying us in squares around our neighborhood on Garage Sale Day. This, of course, is exactly what it sounds like, when everyone who half wants to have…
An Open Letter to My Daughter, Who Wasn’t So Sure About Moving
My dear daughter, A few weeks ago, we told you that we’re moving. You were, to put it mildly, not on board. We expected you to be thrilled. It’s not a big move, we thought. We’re not leaving the country, the state, the city. We’re not changing schools or even zip codes. We are moving…
The Way Home 