Just Write {82}

April 22, 2013

I always ask for spinach and black olives and pickles and lettuce and spicy mustard. If I get the spinach, I’ll feel healthy. Doesn’t it make everythign healthy? Jared, the sub sandwich guy who lost all that weight, would be proud. On the way to the airport, alone, I sat again with Ira Glass and This American Life. The two hour trip goes by quickly with Ira in the passenger seat. So to speak. Spinach leaf stems keep popping out the side of my mouth with the bites and I suddenly am fully aware that there’s someone at the table next to mine and he feels too close. Too close for eating comfort. We are basically eating together but so separate, waiting for planes. This trip was planned starting yesterday morning, and here I am, alone in an airport but not alone because of the strangers. But still alone. This isn’t the easy […]

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we’ve got spirit, yes we do

April 19, 2013

To know a “spirited” child is to know extreme highs and lows in another person. To parent a “strong-willed” child is to continuously stand at the receiving end of these changing emotions, mostly dumbfounded. Sometimes we walk away, hands thrown up in the air, no guesses. I can’t help you, I wish I could.  She gets over it, comes over and kisses a knee or your hand, says something akin to sorry, pats you softly with a dimpled little hand.   In this photo she is thrilled for two reasons. 1.She is carrying a little purse, 2. and she just got to feel the water coming out of the gutter…     I have known her for a thousand years and every day I get to meet her again for the first time.   Happy weekend, friends.

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Just Write {81}

April 15, 2013

We entertained them in the car with stories from our lives before they came. They asked questions about the most exciting parts. Daddy, do you think the eyes in the dark by your tent were a bear or a cougar? Mommy, when you got lost in Canada, where were you supposed to be? Why did you move to Michigan and then move back one week later? We laughed and laughed, dramatizing parts of our true stories for effect, their eyes wide. Back home, we shushed them and rushed them to bed. Miles came to the kitchen for “one more” drink of water and looked at me with big blue eyes over the top of his small glass. He took a big breath after a big gulp and sighed out, Mommy? Yes, Stall-y Stallerton?  Has anything bad ever happened to you? He says this softly and I feel my heart in my throat… Yes, I […]

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Listen To Your Mother Twin Cities Ticket Giveaway!

April 15, 2013

You guys, it’s almost here! The very first Listen To Your Mother Twin Cities. (I know, one day you’re going to want to be able to say, “I was there when it all began!”) That’s good because the Listen To Your Mother Twin Cities team is giving away tickets to our show! You can enter to win a 2-pack of tickets on EACH of our blogs AND on the LTYM Twin Cities site. You have a lot of chances to win! Winners will get to go to the show on May 9th at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis on us! The LTYM directing and producing team–Tracy, Galit, Vikki and I are getting so excited to share this show with everyone who can make it. Our cast and their stories are truly phenomenal, and this is such a unique and powerful way to celebrate motherhood, just days before Mother’s Day! You can bring your […]

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