I am getting old. I am the mom in the book instead of the coming-of-age heroine. I am Mrs. Bennet clucking over five husband-less girls. I am Marilla Cuthbert, mopping the kitchen floor, weeping, after seeing Anne off to Queens while her pretty bosom friend goes on a picnic with cousins. I am the comfortable marriage and [...]
A couple weeks ago the Primary President pulled me out of my Sunbeam class to talk about Avery. It had been reported to her that Avery does not sit like a lady in class, and the boys are commenting on it. I will note first that my daughters dress even more modestly than I did [...]
The other night when I intoned my daughter’s full name in the you’re-in-big-trouble-Missie voice, my mother was there, and she said, “So that‘s why you gave her my name.” And I had to admit that there is something satisfying about emphasizing Avery Danielle when my ten-year old has committed some egregious crime of ten-year-oldness. Danielle [...]
Yesterday Avery and I had a long talk that left us in tears at the same time it made me glad to be here, glad to be her mother. My daughter has a “best friend” who will apparently think she is weak and a crybaby if she does not join her in being mean to [...]
please? (How Spot gets my attention, shaking the Aspen Mills Honey Whole Wheat at my elbow while I sit at the computer, and once I turn to acknowledge her, she tacks on the please? in a high, placating voice with a fake smile.) — Daddy’s Girl Susan informed me yesterday that she puts both of [...]
Last Sunday we waited in the foyer after church. Spot danced around me, describing the people from the next congregation, who were leaving the chapel in ones and twos for the bathroom, a drink, a tithing envelope. “That’s a man with a mustache” she chanted (quietly). “That’s a boy with a vest.” “That’s a big [...]
One of my best friends came to stay with us for a few days. She planned her trip before I was struck down in the afternoon and evenings by this first-trimester-stomach-unhappiness, and I have been hoping that I can be cheerful enough to not rain on her vacation. (I am great in the mornings, which [...]
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