November 2009

The Archives

• movies

  New Moon Spoiler

  11.20.09 | Permalink | 13 Comments

  (Spoiler warning. Caveat Emptor, etc.) Sally, age 8, uttered that phrase all parents wait for this week when she asked if she could read Twilight. “But all my friends are reading it,” she said, when I told her no. (The funny thing about that is that she knew to ask. She doesn’t ever ask if [...]

• kids

  Tender Mercies: Unspoiled Edition

  11.19.09 | Permalink | 11 Comments

  In our church lady meeting the other day, we were discussing which kids needed to be separated from former-best-friends-turned-punching-bags as we organize Sunday school classes for the new year. In other words, our problem children. I’ll be the first to admit that all children can be quite problematic under the right circumstances (three hours of [...]

• school

  all I can think about is …

  11.17.09 | Permalink | 21 Comments

  Homeschooling. When I was in high school, I read a book called Free at Last about the Sudbury Valley School. It was enchanting, and liberating, for me to know that there were places like that, and that my mother would support me in any sort of school arrangement I wanted to come up with for [...]

• fashion, Skippyjon Jones

  I guess this would only be ironic if I normally spent lots of time and money on my clothes

  11.15.09 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  I got more compliments on this outfit today than anything I’ve worn to church in years: (Mr. Bennet always had this thing about marrying a girl with really long legs. Sorry about that. But I didn’t get an independently wealthy gourmet who disdains professional sports, so I think we’re even.) pinstripe jacket: DI, $4 gray [...]

• sisters

  Push-Pull

  11.14.09 | Permalink | 6 Comments

  The domesticity in this house, the past few days, is staggering. I stirred my compost and ground wheat. I baked bread and made yogurt. We planted bulbs (allium, tulips, hyacinth, and daffodils). We carved our pumpkin, finally, and toasted the seeds. We made gingerbread girls (and pigs, ducks, chickens, cows, and lambs). I laundered the [...]

• vacations

  The Unparalleled Pleasures of Home

  11.13.09 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  We just spent ten days in central Florida, and it was glorious, but even glorious-er is coming home, where the jersey knit sheets brush my skin with softness and everything fits — from the remote in my hand to my bum on the toilet seat. We took the kids to SeaWorld and Busch Gardens and [...]

• Family

  Blood will tell

  11.01.09 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  Last night I had a call from my brother. He sounded the same as always: cheerful, a bit abrupt, but then we are a family of abruptness and tersity on the phone. Several months ago my dad copied my cell phone message, so that if you call him you’ll hear him state his name and [...]