the view from our front window the view from the kitchen hallway 8:32 am

three miles around the lakes cold noses and toeses then hot fire and hot cocoas waiting for the snow love to you on this sleepy friday afternoon

It’s very hard to write eloquently about a subject that’s already been written into the ground. A death in the family tears you off of your feet and out of the everyday, unwilling, stunned into silence, glancing over your shoulder at what should have been as you begin walking the rut of the mourner. Gather at Mom’s house, wash dishes, murmur reassurances of eternal life through Jesus that land on unwilling ears. Bake the casserole, wipe off the table, wince as you overhear every unfeeling cliché being directed at the widower. And as you work you pine away for the normal, not just for yourself but for the whole family. You’d rather Sunday never happened. If only we could be grocery shopping, solving math problems at the school table, putting in the next load of laundry. At this time of year we should be at Mom’s house to decorate Christmas cookies. Instead we keep busy with glasses and hot plates and the napkin pile as Mom prepares to bury her youngest child. ...

I want to need to remember: :: a pod of dolphins hunting for their breakfast in the waters across the cove ...

Funniest conversation overheard: Abbie: “Wow, you can see the whole world from up here!” Jocelyn: “Can you see Italy???”

It was one of those parties where you talk to yourself in the bathroom mirror: you talk about how much fun you’re having and then you look yourself in the eye and say that maybe you should slow down on the wine. You speak French much of the night, and are complemented on your accent by your expat hosts. You catch your husband’s eye from across the table and with one raised eyebrow you broadcast plans for later. That kind of party. You adjust your scarf, check your teeth, and then head back into the fray.

The smell of simmering soup stock and baking bread filled our home yesterday. It did much to take the edge off. Fighting siblings and long-standing worries seem much more manageable when warm bread is on the counter.

sit in bed and sip on a cup of coffee to see if caffeine will help constrict those brain vessels sit in bed, kids on either side, and watch the free daily episode of peep sit in bed and google mary shelley’s frankenstein monster to show curious, nagging, begging kids what it looks like sit in bed and try to convince kids to bring their math blocks upstairs to play math with mama ...

If you live with a guitar player, you must be prepared for one unfortunate truth: you, your children, and your children’s children will be tripping over guitar cases as long as your guitar player draws breath and you share a roof with him or her. After the fourth time in a week that one of my poor, innocent children tripped and fell over a guitar case left in the middle of our living room floor, I threw up my hands. Then I cried, Uncle! Then I ate some Doritos. Then I Googled “hang guitar”, which brought me to this tutorial, the perusal of which ultimately resulted in me hatching an evil plan to rid my home of random guitar case leavings. ...